Subcomandante Marcos

Subcomandante Marcos
Subcomandante Marcos, smoking a pipe atop a horse in Chiapas, Mexico in 1996.
Other names	Subcomandante Insurgente Galeano, Delegado Cero (Delegate Zero)
Occupation	Spokesperson, writer
Organization	Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Title	Subcommander
Term	1994–2014
Website	http://www.ezln.org.mx/

Subcomandante Marcos was the nom de guerre used by Rafael Sebastián Guillén Vicente (born (1957-06-19)June 19, 1957) who was the leader and primary spokesman of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) during the Chiapas conflict. Marcos has used several other pseudonyms; he referred to himself as Delegate Zero during the 2006 Mexican Presidential Campaign, and in May 2014 announced that Subcommandante Marcos "no longer exists," adopting the name Subcomandante Galeano instead.

Born in Tampico, Tamaulipas, Marcos earned a degree in sociology and a master's degree in philosophy from National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), and taught at the Autonomous Metropolitan University (UAM) for several years during the early 1980s. During these years, he became increasingly involved with a guerrilla group known as the National Liberation Forces (FLN), before leaving the university and moving to Chiapas in 1984.

The EZLN was founded in the Lacandon Jungle in 1983, initially functioning as a self-defense unit that was dedicated to protecting Chiapas' Mayan people from evictions and encroachment on their land. While not Mayan himself, Marcos emerged as the groups leader, and when the EZLN - often referred to as Zapatistas - began their rebellion in January 1, 1994, Marcos served as the Zapatistas' spokesman.

Known for his trademark ski mask and pipe, and for his charismatic personality, Marcos led the EZLN during the 1994 revolt and the subsequent peace negotiations, during a counter-offensive by the Mexican Army in 1995, and throughout the decades that followed. In 2001, he led a group of Zapatista leaders into Mexico City to meet with President Vicente Fox, attracting widespread public and media attention. In 2006, Marcos made another public tour of Mexico, which was known as The Other Campaign. In May 2014, Marcos announced that the persona of Subcomandante Marcos had been "a hologram," and no longer existed. Many media outlets interpreted the message as an announcement that Marcos had retired as the Zapatistas' leader and spokesman.