Survey Asks Mexicans About Uprising

Thousands of Mexicans gathered in churches, markets and parks Sunday to take part in a survey that organizers hope will help transform an Indian uprising in southern Mexico into a national opposition movement.

Organizers said the poll would inaugurate a new grassroots style of organizing in Mexico. Subcommandante Marcos, leader of the Zapatista rebel group that called for the survey, said it would help his group “put an important part of its destiny … in the hands of the civil society.”

“Mexico urgently needs a change,” Lucio Aguilar Rodas, 53, said after marking a ballot in San Cristobal, in the heart of the southern state of Chiapas where the rebellion has centered.

“This is the way, through the participation of all Mexicans, to fight for a more just democracy.”

The ballots posed questions including: Should the rebels become an independent political force? Should they join forces with other groups? Do people support the rebels’ basic demands? Should women have an equal role?

But more important than answers was the symbolism of the appeal for public participation. Organizers set up 10,398 tables throughout Mexico and were hoping for a turnout of 600,000 people, said Octavio Rodriguez Araujo, an organizer with the non-partisan Civic Alliance, which staged the poll.

Nearly 60,000 people in 28 countries have already responded to the survey, which also was issued over the Internet.

The following fields overflowed: DATELINE = SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, MEXICO