From .............. National Catholic Reporter

April 22, 1994

page 4

REPORT CLAIMS LEADER IN CHIAPAS IS A JESUIT

Mexican Jesuits denied a newspaper report that a top leader of the Zapatista rebels in the southern state of Chiapas is a member of their order. The financial daily Summa reported last week that Subcommandante Marcos, the field commander of the Zapatista National Liberation Army who wears a black ski mask to conceal his identity, is really a Mexican Jesuit.

The paper said Marcos is Fr. Geronimo Hernandez Lopez, 36, previously stationed in Altamirano, one of several townships occupied by Zapatista forces since the New Years' Day uprising. The paper said Hernandez had presumably disappeared into the Chiapas jungle in 1992 after working four years with Guatemalan refugees there.

Jesuit officials said Hernandez left Chaipas in August 1992 and has been working with Guatemalan refugees in official government camps in the nearby state of Campeche.

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