MEXICO CITY – Mexico is marking the 100th anniversary of the assassination of Emiliano Zapata, one of the main heroes of the 1910-1917 Mexican Revolution.
Zapata was gunned down on April 10, 1919, by soldiers allied with the government, which was upset by his unyielding defense of peasants.
President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador particularly identifies with Zapata. Both are from southern Mexico, and the country's politics have long been dominated by the north and center.
Lopez Obrador has designated 2019 as the year of Zapata, and the government has issued subway tickets, postage stamps and lottery tickets with images of the mustachioed, broad-hatted revolutionary.
Lopez Obrador said at a Wednesday ceremony that Zapata never sold out though he was offered land and wealth. The president add that "we should follow his example."
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox