Jump to content

Zapatista Army of National Liberation: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
Meint48 (talk | contribs)
16 edits
m minor spelling change of book title
Tags: Visual edit Mobile edit Mobile web edit
m →2000s: more useful link
Line 104: Line 104:
On May 3–4, 2006, a series of demonstrations protested the forcible removal of irregular flower vendors from a lot in [[Texcoco de Mora|Texcoco]] for the construction of a [[Walmart]] branch. The protests turned violent when state police and the [[Federal Police (Mexico)|Federal Preventive Police]] bused in some 5,000 agents to [[San Salvador Atenco]] and the surrounding communities. A local organization called the [[Community Front in Defense of Land|People's Front in Defense of the Land]], which adheres to the Sixth Declaration, called in support from other regional and national adherent organizations. "[[Subcomandante Marcos|Delegate Zero]]" and his "[[The Other Campaign|Other Campaign]]" were at the time in nearby Mexico City, having just organized May Day events there, and quickly arrived at the scene. The following days were marked by violence, with some 216 arrests, over 30 rape and sexual abuse accusations against the police, five [[deportation]]s, and one casualty, a 14-year-old boy named Javier Cortes shot by a policeman. A 20-year-old UNAM economics student, Alexis Benhumea, died on the morning of June 7, 2006, after being in a coma caused by a blow to the head from a [[Tear gas|tear-gas]] grenade launched by police.<ref>{{cite web|last=Alcántara|first=Liliana|title=Dan el último adiós a Alexis Benhumea|url=http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/nacion/139268.html|work=El Universal|access-date=March 3, 2011}}</ref> Most of the resistance organizing was done by the EZLN and Sixth Declaration adherents, and Delegate Zero stated that the "Other Campaign" tour would be temporarily halted until all prisoners were released.
On May 3–4, 2006, a series of demonstrations protested the forcible removal of irregular flower vendors from a lot in [[Texcoco de Mora|Texcoco]] for the construction of a [[Walmart]] branch. The protests turned violent when state police and the [[Federal Police (Mexico)|Federal Preventive Police]] bused in some 5,000 agents to [[San Salvador Atenco]] and the surrounding communities. A local organization called the [[Community Front in Defense of Land|People's Front in Defense of the Land]], which adheres to the Sixth Declaration, called in support from other regional and national adherent organizations. "[[Subcomandante Marcos|Delegate Zero]]" and his "[[The Other Campaign|Other Campaign]]" were at the time in nearby Mexico City, having just organized May Day events there, and quickly arrived at the scene. The following days were marked by violence, with some 216 arrests, over 30 rape and sexual abuse accusations against the police, five [[deportation]]s, and one casualty, a 14-year-old boy named Javier Cortes shot by a policeman. A 20-year-old UNAM economics student, Alexis Benhumea, died on the morning of June 7, 2006, after being in a coma caused by a blow to the head from a [[Tear gas|tear-gas]] grenade launched by police.<ref>{{cite web|last=Alcántara|first=Liliana|title=Dan el último adiós a Alexis Benhumea|url=http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/nacion/139268.html|work=El Universal|access-date=March 3, 2011}}</ref> Most of the resistance organizing was done by the EZLN and Sixth Declaration adherents, and Delegate Zero stated that the "Other Campaign" tour would be temporarily halted until all prisoners were released.


In late 2006 and early 2007, the Zapatistas (through [[Subcomandante Marcos]]), along with other [[indigenous peoples of the Americas]], announced the Intercontinental Indigenous Encounter. They invited indigenous people from throughout the Americas and the rest of the world to gather on October 11–14, 2007, near [[Guaymas]], [[Sonora]]. The declaration for the conference designated this date because of "515 years since the [[Christopher Columbus|invasion]] of ancient Indigenous territories and the onslaught of the war of conquest, spoils and capitalist exploitation". Comandante David said in an interview, "The object of this meeting is to meet one another and to come to know one another's pains and sufferings. It is to share our experiences, because each tribe is different."<ref>Norrell, Brenda. "[http://www.narconews.com/Issue45/article2637.html Zapatistas Select Yaqui to Host Intercontinental Summit in Mexico]". ''Narco News'' (May 7, 2007).</ref>
In late 2006 and early 2007, the Zapatistas (through [[Subcomandante Marcos]]), along with other [[indigenous peoples of the Americas]], announced the Intercontinental Indigenous Encounter. They invited indigenous people from throughout the Americas and the rest of the world to gather on October 11–14, 2007, near [[Guaymas]], [[Sonora]]. The declaration for the conference designated this date because of "515 years since the [[European colonization of the Americas|invasion]] of ancient Indigenous territories and the onslaught of the war of conquest, spoils and capitalist exploitation". Comandante David said in an interview, "The object of this meeting is to meet one another and to come to know one another's pains and sufferings. It is to share our experiences, because each tribe is different."<ref>Norrell, Brenda. "[http://www.narconews.com/Issue45/article2637.html Zapatistas Select Yaqui to Host Intercontinental Summit in Mexico]". ''Narco News'' (May 7, 2007).</ref>


The Third Encuentro of the Zapatistas People with the People of the World was held from December 28, 2007, through January 1, 2008.<ref>{{cite web|title=ZeztaInternazional|website=ZeztaInternazional|url=http://zeztainternazional.ezln.org.mx/|language=an|access-date=2020-08-02}}</ref>
The Third Encuentro of the Zapatistas People with the People of the World was held from December 28, 2007, through January 1, 2008.<ref>{{cite web|title=ZeztaInternazional|website=ZeztaInternazional|url=http://zeztainternazional.ezln.org.mx/|language=an|access-date=2020-08-02}}</ref>

Revision as of 01:05, 31 October 2022

Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN)
Also known asZapatistas
Leaders
FoundationNovember 17, 1983 (1983-11-17)
Dates of operation1994–present
CountryMexico
Active regionsChiapas
Ideology
Political positionFar-left
StatusActive
SizeAbout 7,000 active participants and militia; tens of thousands of civilian supporters (bases de apoyo)
Allies Popular Revolutionary Army (denied by EZLN)
Opponents
Battles and wars
Websiteenlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx
Part of a series on
Indigenous rights
Indalo symbol
Rights
Governmental organizations
United Nations initiatives
International Treaties
NGOs and political groups
Issues
Countries
Category

The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (Template:Lang-es, EZLN), often referred to as the Zapatistas (Mexican Spanish pronunciation: [sapaˈtistas]), is a far-left political and militant group that controls a substantial amount of territory in Chiapas, the southernmost state of Mexico.[3][4][5][6]

Since 1994, the group has been nominally at war with the Mexican state (although it may be described at this point as a frozen conflict).[7] The EZLN used a strategy of civil resistance. The Zapatistas' main body is made up of mostly rural indigenous people, but it includes some supporters in urban areas and internationally. The EZLN's main spokesperson is Subcomandante Insurgente Galeano, previously known as Subcomandante Marcos (a.k.a. Compañero Galeano and Delegate Zero in relation to "the Other Campaign"). Unlike other Zapatista spokespeople, Marcos is not an indigenous Maya.[8]

The group takes its name from Emiliano Zapata, the agrarian revolutionary and commander of the Liberation Army of the South during the Mexican Revolution, and sees itself as his ideological heir. Nearly all EZLN villages contain murals with images of Zapata, Ernesto "Che" Guevara, and Subcomandante Marcos.[9][unreliable source?]

EZLN's ideology has been characterized as libertarian socialist, anarchist,[10][11] and Marxist,[12] although the Zapatistas have rejected[13] and defied[14] political classification. The EZLN aligns itself with the wider alter-globalization, anti-neoliberal social movement, seeking indigenous control over local resources, especially land. Since their 1994 uprising was countered by the Mexican Armed Forces, the EZLN has abstained from military offensives and adopted a new strategy that attempts to garner Mexican and international support.

Organization

The Zapatistas describe themselves as a decentralized organization. The pseudonymous Subcomandante Marcos is widely considered its leader despite his claims that the group has no single leader. Political decisions are deliberated and decided in community assemblies. Military and organizational matters are decided by the Zapatista area elders who compose the General Command (Revolutionary Indigenous Clandestine Committee – General Command, or CCRI-CG).[15]

History

Background

The Chiapas region has been the scene of a succession of uprisings, including the "Caste War" or "Chamula Rebellion" (1867–1870) and the "Pajarito War" (1911).[16]

The EZLN emerged during the government of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which at the time had ruled Mexico for more than sixty years, in a dominant-party system. The situation led many young people to consider the legal channels of political participation closed and to bet on the formation of clandestine armed organizations to seek the overthrow of a regime that from their point of view was authoritarian, and thus improve the living conditions of the population. One of these organizations,[17] was known as the National Liberation Forces (FLN). The FLN were founded on August 6, 1969, by César Germán Yáñez Muñoz, in Monterrey, Nuevo León. According to Mario Arturo Acosta Chaparro, in his report Subversive movements in Mexico, "they had established their areas of operations in the states of Veracruz, Puebla, Tabasco, Nuevo León and Chiapas."

In February 1974, a confrontation took place in San Miguel Nepantla [Wikidata], State of Mexico, between a unit of the Mexican Army, under the command of Mario Arturo Acosta Chaparro, and members of the FLN, some of whom lost their lives during combat, reported having been tortured.[18]

As a consequence of this confrontation, the FLN lost its operational capacity. In the early 1980s, some of its militants decided to found a new organization. Thus, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) was founded on November 17, 1983, by non-indigenous members of the FLN from Mexico's urban north and by indigenous inhabitants of the remote Las Cañadas/Selva Lacandona regions in eastern Chiapas, by members of former rebel movements. Over the years, the group slowly grew, building on social relations among the indigenous base and making use of an organizational infrastructure created by peasant organizations and the Catholic Church (see Liberation theology).[19] In the 1970s, through the efforts of the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, most indigenous communities in the Lacandon forest were already politically active and had practice in dealing with governmental agencies and local officials.[20] In the 1980s, they joined with the Rural Collective Interest Association--"Unión de Uniones," (ARIC-UU).[20] However, disputes over strategy in the Chiapas would lead to the EZLN taking on over half of the ARIC-UU's membership in the early 1990s.[20]

1990s

See also: Zapatista uprising
Subcomandante Marcos surrounded by several commanders of the CCRI.

The Zapatista Army went public on January 1, 1994, releasing their declaration on the day the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) came into effect. On that day, they issued their First Declaration and Revolutionary Laws from the Lacandon Jungle. The declaration amounted to a declaration of war on the Mexican government, which they considered illegitimate. The EZLN stressed that it opted for armed struggle due to the lack of results that had been achieved through peaceful means of protest (such as sit-ins and marches).[21]

Sign indicating the entrance of Zapatista rebel territory. "You are in Zapatista territory in rebellion. Here the people command and the government obeys."

Their initial goal was to instigate a revolution against the rise of neoliberalism[22] throughout Mexico, but since no such revolution occurred, they used their uprising as a platform to call attention to their movement to protest the signing of the NAFTA, which the EZLN believed would increase inequality in Chiapas.[23] Prior to the signing of NAFTA, however, dissent amongst indigenous peasants was already on the rise in 1992 with the amendment of Article 27 of the Constitution. The amendment called for the end of land reform and the regularizing of all landholdings, which ended land redistribution in Mexico.[24] The end of land distribution heralded the end of many communities that had been growing of the past decade, as they had been waiting for further distribution that was on an agrarian backlog according to the government.[24]

The Zapatistas hosted the Intercontinental Encounter for Humanity and Against Neoliberalism to help initiate a united platform for other anti-neoliberal groups.[22] The EZLN also called for greater democratization of the Mexican government, which had been controlled by the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (Institutional Revolutionary Party, also known as PRI) for 65 years, and for land reform mandated by the 1917 Constitution of Mexico, which had been repealed in 1991.[25] The Zapatistas had mentioned “independence” among their initial demands;however, it received little systematic treatment from the EZLN until the extensive contact between the Zapatistas and other indigenous organizations during the San Andrés negotiations and use of natural resources normally extracted from Chiapas. It also advocated for protection from violence and political inclusion of Chiapas' indigenous communities.[26]

On January 1, 1994, an estimated 3,000 armed Zapatista insurgents seized six towns and cities in the Chiapas highlands. The Zapatistas soon retreated to the forest to avoid a federal military offensive.[27]

"The EZLN listed a series of other demands that were a compendium of long-standing grievances of the indigenous communities of Chiapas, but also found echo in broad sectors of Mexican society outside of Chiapas: work, land, housing, food, healthcare, education, independence, liberty, democracy, justice, and peace."[26]

Following a ceasefire on January 12, peace talks commenced later in the month between Catholic bishop Samuel Ruiz for the Zapatistas and former mayor of Mexico City, Manuel Camacho Solis, for the state.[28]

Military offensive

Subcomandante Marcos of EZLN during the Earth Color March.
See also: 1995 Zapatista Crisis

Arrest-warrants were made for Marcos, Javier Elorriaga Berdegue, Silvia Fernández Hernández, Jorge Santiago, Fernando Yanez, German Vicente and other Zapatistas. At that point, in the Lacandon Jungle, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation was under military siege by the Mexican Army. Javier Elorriaga was captured on February 9, 1995, by forces from a military garrison at Gabina Velázquez in the town of Las Margaritas, and was later taken to the Cerro Hueco prison in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas.[29] On February 11, 1995, the PGR informed the country that the government had implemented an operation in the State of México, where they had captured 14 people presumed to be involved with the Zapatistas, of which eight had already being turned over to the judicial authorities, they had also seized an important arsenal.[30] The PGR threatened the San Cristóbal de Las Casas' Catholic Bishop, Samuel Ruiz García, with arrest. Claiming that they helped conceal the Zapatistas' guerrilla uprising, although their activities had been reported years before in Proceso, a Mexican leftist magazine. It is likely however that the Mexican Government knew about the uprising but failed to act.[31][32][33] This adversely impacted Holy See–Mexico relations.[34]

Subcomandante Marcos in Salamanca, March 2006

In response to the siege of the EZLN, Esteban Moctezuma, the interior minister, submitted his resignation to President Zedillo, which Zedillo refused to accept. Influenced by Moctezuma's protest, President Zedillo abandoned the military offensive in favor of a diplomatic approach. The Mexican army eased its operation in Chiapas, allowing Marcos to escape the military perimeter in the Lacandon Jungle.[35] Responding to the change of conditions, friends of the EZLN along with Subcomandante Marcos prepared a report for under-Secretary of the Interior Luis Maldonado Venegas; the Secretary of the Interior Esteban Moctezuma and then President Zedillo.[36] The document stressed Marcos' natural pacifist inclination and an unwillingness to get caught in a bloody war. The document also said that the marginalized groups and the radical left that existed in Mexico supported the Zapatista movement. It also stressed that Marcos maintained an open negotiating track.

2000s

In April 2000, Vicente Fox, the presidential candidate for the opposition National Action Party (PAN), sent a new proposal for dialogue to Subcomandante Marcos, without obtaining a response. In May, a group of civilians attacked two indigenous people from the autonomous municipality of Polhó, Chiapas. Members of the Federal Police were sent to guarantee the security of the area. The Zapatista coordinators and several non-governmental organizations described it as "a clear provocation to the EZLN."[37]

Vicente Fox was elected president in 2001 (the first non-PRI president of Mexico in over 70 years) and, as one of his first actions, urged the EZLN to enter into dialogue with the federal government. However, the EZLN insisted that it would not return to peace negotiations with the government until seven military positions were closed. Fox subsequently made the decision to withdraw the army from the conflict zone, so all the military located in Chiapas began to leave the area. Following this gesture, Subcomandante Marcos agreed to initiate dialogue with the Vicente Fox government, but shortly thereafter demanded conditions for peace; especially, that the federal government disarm the PRI paramilitary groups in the area.[38] The Zapatistas marched on Mexico City to pressure the Mexican Congress and formed the Zapatista Information Center, through which information would be exchanged about the trip of the guerrilla delegation to Mexico City, and mobilizations would be articulated to demand compliance with the conditions of the EZLN for dialogue. Although Fox had stated earlier that he could end the conflict "in fifteen minutes",[39] the EZLN rejected the agreement and created 32 new "autonomous municipalities" in Chiapas. They would then unilaterally implement their demands without government support, although they had some funding from international organizations.

Subcomandante Marcos in 1996

On June 28, 2005, the Zapatistas presented the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle[40] declaring their principles and vision for Mexico and the world. This declaration reiterated the support for the indigenous peoples, who make up roughly one-third of the population of Chiapas, and extended the cause to include "all the exploited and dispossessed of Mexico". It also expressed the movement's sympathy to the international alter-globalization movement and supported leftists governments in Cuba, Bolivia, Ecuador, and elsewhere, with whom they felt there was common cause.

Comandanta Ramona

On May 3–4, 2006, a series of demonstrations protested the forcible removal of irregular flower vendors from a lot in Texcoco for the construction of a Walmart branch. The protests turned violent when state police and the Federal Preventive Police bused in some 5,000 agents to San Salvador Atenco and the surrounding communities. A local organization called the People's Front in Defense of the Land, which adheres to the Sixth Declaration, called in support from other regional and national adherent organizations. "Delegate Zero" and his "Other Campaign" were at the time in nearby Mexico City, having just organized May Day events there, and quickly arrived at the scene. The following days were marked by violence, with some 216 arrests, over 30 rape and sexual abuse accusations against the police, five deportations, and one casualty, a 14-year-old boy named Javier Cortes shot by a policeman. A 20-year-old UNAM economics student, Alexis Benhumea, died on the morning of June 7, 2006, after being in a coma caused by a blow to the head from a tear-gas grenade launched by police.[41] Most of the resistance organizing was done by the EZLN and Sixth Declaration adherents, and Delegate Zero stated that the "Other Campaign" tour would be temporarily halted until all prisoners were released.

In late 2006 and early 2007, the Zapatistas (through Subcomandante Marcos), along with other indigenous peoples of the Americas, announced the Intercontinental Indigenous Encounter. They invited indigenous people from throughout the Americas and the rest of the world to gather on October 11–14, 2007, near Guaymas, Sonora. The declaration for the conference designated this date because of "515 years since the invasion of ancient Indigenous territories and the onslaught of the war of conquest, spoils and capitalist exploitation". Comandante David said in an interview, "The object of this meeting is to meet one another and to come to know one another's pains and sufferings. It is to share our experiences, because each tribe is different."[42]

The Third Encuentro of the Zapatistas People with the People of the World was held from December 28, 2007, through January 1, 2008.[43]

In mid-January 2009, Marcos made a speech on behalf of the Zapatistas in which he supported the resistance of the Palestinians as "the Israeli government's heavily trained and armed military continues its march of death and destruction". He described the actions of the Israeli government as a "classic military war of conquest". He said, "The Palestinian people will also resist and survive and continue struggling and will continue to have sympathy from below for their cause."[44]

2010s

On December 21, 2012, tens of thousands of EZLN supporters marched silently through five cities in the state of Chiapas: Ocosingo, Las Margaritas, Palenque, Altamirano and San Cristóbal. Hours after the march, a communiqué from the CCRI-CG was released in the form of a poem, signed by the Subcomandante Marcos.[45] This mobilization, which included the participation of around 40 thousand Zapatistas, was the largest since the 1994 uprising. Of this number, "La Jornada" estimated that half would have marched through the streets of San Cristóbal de las Casas, 7,000 in Las Margaritas and 8,000 in Palenque; for its part El País calculated that San Cristóbal would have seen the concentration of some 10 thousand participants.[46][47]

Beyond the number of people, the silence with which they marched and the lack of an opening or closing speech were the elements that marked this action. The poet and journalist Hermann Bellinghausen, specialist in coverage of the movement, ended his chronicle in this way:[48]

Able to "appear" suddenly, the rebellious indigenous "disappeared" as neatly and silently as they had arrived in this city at dawn that, two decades after the EZLN's traumatic uprising here on the new year of 1994, received them with care and curiosity, without any expression of rejection. Under the arches of the mayor's office, which today suspended its activities, dozens of Ocosinguenses gathered to photograph with cell phones and cameras the spectacular concentration of hooded people who filled the park like a game of Tetris, advancing between the planters with an order that seemed choreographed, to get the platform installed quickly from early on, raise their fist and say, quietly, "here we are, once again".[46]

The Zapatistas invited the world to a three-day fiesta to celebrate ten years of Zapatista autonomy in August 2013 in the five caracoles of Chiapas. They expected 1,500 international activists to attend the event, titled the Little School of Liberty.[49][50]

In June 2015, the EZLN reported that there was aggression against indigenous people in El Rosario, Chiapas; The report, signed by Subcomandante Moisés, indicated that the attack occurred that same month and year. In addition, there was a complaint by the Las Abejas Civil Society Organization that stated that an indigenous Tzotzil person was assassinated on June 23 on 2015.[51]

In 2016, at the National Indigenous Congress, the EZLN agreed to select a candidate to represent them in the 2018 Mexican general election. This decision broke the Zapatista's two-decade tradition of rejecting Mexican electoral politics. In May 2017, María de Jesús Patricio Martínez, a woman of Mexican and Nahua heritage, was selected to stand,[52][53] but she was unable to gather the 866,000 signatures required to appear on the ballot.[54]

At the end of August 2019, Subcomandante Insurgente Galeano announced the expansion of EZLN into 11 more districts.[55] In response, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador stated that this expansion was welcome, provided it was done without violence.[56]

2020s

The EZLN has made opposition to mega-infrastructure projects in the region a major priority.[57][58] In 2020, it announced the Journey for Life and in 2021, Zapatistas visited various activist groups in Europe.[59][60]

Ideology

Federal Highway 307, Chiapas. The top sign reads, in Spanish, "You are in Zapatista rebel territory. Here the people command and the government obeys." Bottom sign: "North Zone. Council of Good Government. Trafficking in weapons, planting of drugs, drug use, alcoholic beverages, and illegal selling of wood are strictly prohibited. No to the destruction of nature."
A member of the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, playing a guitarrón in Chiapas, Mexico

The ideology of the Zapatista movement, Neozapatismo, synthesizes Mayan tradition with elements of libertarian socialism, anarchism,[10][11] and Marxism.[12] The historical influence of Mexican anarchists and various Latin American socialists is apparent in Neozapatismo. The positions of Subcomandante Marcos add a Marxist[61] element to the movement. A Zapatista slogan is in harmony with the concept of mutual aid: "For everyone, everything. For us, nothing" (Para todos todo, para nosotros nada).

The EZLN opposes economic globalization, arguing that it severely and negatively affects the peasant life of its indigenous support base and oppresses people worldwide. The signing of NAFTA also resulted in the removal of Article 27, Section VII, from the Mexican Constitution, which had guaranteed land reparations to indigenous groups throughout Mexico through collective land tenure.[62]

Another key element of the Zapatistas' ideology is their aspiration to do politics in a new, participatory way, from the "bottom up" instead of "top down". The Zapatistas consider the contemporary political system of Mexico inherently flawed due to what they consider its purely representative nature and its disconnection from the people and their needs. In contrast, the EZLN aims to reinforce the idea of participatory democracy or radical democracy by limiting public servants' terms to only two weeks, not using visible organization leaders, and constantly referring to the people they are governing for major decisions, strategies, and conceptual visions. Marcos has reiterated, "my real commander is the people". In accordance with this principle, the Zapatistas are not a political party: they do not seek office throughout the state, because that would perpetuate the political system by attempting to gain power within its ranks.[citation needed]

Postcolonialism

Zapatista point towards Palenque (2010).

Postcolonialism scholars have argued that the Zapatistas' response to the introduction of NAFTA in 1994 may have reflected a shift in perception taking place in societies that have experienced colonialism.[63]

The Zapatistas have used organizations like the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) to raise awareness for their rebellion and indigenous rights, and what they claim is the Mexican government's lack of respect for the country's impoverished and marginalized populations.[64] Appealing to the ECOSOC and other non-governmental bodies may have allowed the Zapatistas to establish a sense of autonomy by redefining their identities both as indigenous people and as citizens of Mexico.[65]

Communications

Sign of the entering Zapatista autonomous territory:
North Zone. Board of Good Governance.
Strictly prohibited:
The trafficking of arms, planting and consumption of drugs, intoxicating drinks, illegal sale of wood, and the destruction of nature.
Zapata lives, the fight continues...
You are in rebellious Zapatista territory.
Here the people rule - the government obeys.

The EZLN has placed a high priority on forging communication with the rest of Mexico and the world.[66] Marcos and the Zapatistas would issue hundreds of missives, hold encuentros (mass meetings), give numerous interviews, meet high-profile public and literary figures including Oliver Stone, Naomi Klein, Gael García Bernal, Danielle Mitterrand, Régis Debray, John Berger, Eduardo Galeano, Gabriel García Márquez, José Saramago and Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, participate in symposia and colloquia, deliver speeches, host visits by thousands of national and international activists, and participate in two marches that toured much of the country.[67] Media organizations from North and South America, as well as from many European and several Asian nations, have granted press coverage to the movement and its spokesperson. The EZLN's writings have been translated into at least 14 different languages and Marcos, according to journalist Jorge Alonso, had by 2016 been the subject of ′over 10,000 citations...in the academic world′.[68]

Horizontal autonomy and indigenous leadership

See also: Rebel Zapatista Autonomous Municipalities
Zapatista Chiapas

Zapatista communities build and maintain their own health, education, and sustainable agro-ecological systems, promote equitable gender relations via Women's Revolutionary Law, and build international solidarity through humble outreach and non-imposing political communication, in addition to their focus on building "a world where many worlds fit". The Zapatista struggle re-gained international attention in May 2014 with the death of teacher and education promoter "Teacher Galeano" (a self chosen name honoring anti-capitalist author Eduardo Galeano),[69] who was murdered in an attack on a Zapatista school and health clinic led by local paramilitaries.[70] In the weeks that followed, thousands of Zapatistas and national and international sympathizers mobilized and gathered to honor Galeano. This event also saw the unofficial spokesperson of the Zapatistas, Subcomandante Marcos, announce that he would be stepping down.[71]

Legacy

Rage Against the Machine performs with the Zapatista flag in the background

The American rock band Rage Against the Machine released two songs in support of the EZLN, "People of the Sun" (1996) and "Zapata's Blood" (1997).[72]

Notable members

See also

References

Footnotes

  1. ^ Prichard, Alex; Kinna, Ruth; Pinta, Saku; Berry, David Berry (2017). Libertarian Socialism: Politics in Black and Red. PM Press. p. 18. ISBN 978-1-62963-402-9. ... in the period since the fall of the Berlin Wall, two events stand out as examples of libertarian socialist experimentation: the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas, Mexico in 1994 ...
  2. ^ Day, Richard J. F. (2005). Gramsci is Dead: Anarchist Currents in the Newest Social Movements. Pluto Press. p. 195. ISBN 978-0-7453-2112-7.
  3. ^ Tucker, Duncan (January 1, 2014). "Are Mexico's Zapatista rebels still relevant". Al Jazeera. Retrieved September 8, 2020.
  4. ^ Knoll, Andalusia (January 30, 2019). "Mexico's Zapatistas Have Been Rebelling for 25 Years". Teen Vogue. Retrieved September 8, 2020.
  5. ^ Villegas, Paulina (August 26, 2017). "In a Mexico 'Tired of Violence,' Zapatista Rebels Venture Into Politics". The New York Times. Retrieved September 8, 2020.
  6. ^ Vidal, John (February 17, 2018). "Mexico's Zapatista rebels, 24 years on and defiant in mountain strongholds". The Guardian. Retrieved September 8, 2020.
  7. ^ "A brief history of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation". ROAR Magazine. Retrieved November 13, 2016.
  8. ^ "Gahman, Levi: Zapatistas Begin a New Cycle of Building Indigenous Autonomy". Archived from the original on May 19, 2018. Retrieved November 3, 2014.
  9. ^ Baspineiro, Alex Contreras. "The Mysterious Silence of the Mexican Zapatistas." Narco News (May 7, 2004).
  10. ^ a b "Morgan Rodgers Gibson (2009) 'The Role of Anarchism in Contemporary Anti-Systemic Social Movements', Website of Abahlali Mjondolo, December, 2009". Abahlali.org. Retrieved October 29, 2013.
  11. ^ a b "Morgan Rodgers Gibson (2010) 'Anarchism, the State and the Praxis of Contemporary Antisystemic Social Movements, December, 2010". Abahlali.org. Retrieved October 29, 2013.
  12. ^ a b "The Zapatista Effect: Information Communication Technology Activism and Marginalized Communities Archived August 16, 2011, at the Wayback Machine"
  13. ^ "The EZLN is NOT Anarchist – A Zapatista Response "Greenanarchy.info". Archived from the original on August 13, 2009. Retrieved October 21, 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)"
  14. ^ "A Commune in Chiapas? Mexico and the Zapatista Rebellion"
  15. ^ Mazarr, Michael J. (2002). Information Technology and World Politics. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 44. ISBN 978-0-230-10922-3.
  16. ^ Oberlin Molina, Matias Nahuel; Chiaradia, Esteban (January 2017). "De la guerra de castas al Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN)". Revista Interdisciplinaria de Estudios Sociales (in Spanish). 12.
  17. ^ See, also, the Party of the Poor (PDLP) and the Liga Comunista 23 de Septiembre.
  18. ^ "'Subcomandante Elisa' denounces torture". El País. February 12, 1995.
  19. ^ Gloria Muñoz Ramírez (2003). 20 and 10 the fire and the word.
  20. ^ a b c Albert, Mathias; et al. (2001). Identities, Borders, Orders: Rethinking International Relations Theory. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press. p. 256. ISBN 0816636087.
  21. ^ ""Chispas - Peace Process, War Process - 1994". International Service for Peace website. Archived from the original on November 17, 2015.
  22. ^ a b Olesen, Thomas (2006). Latin American Social Movements. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. p. 187.
  23. ^ Bouillon, César P.; Legovini, Arianna; Lustig, Nora (November 1, 1999). "Rising Inequality in Mexico: Returns to Household Characteristics and the 'Chiapas Effect'". SSRN 182178.
  24. ^ a b Stephen, Lynn (2002). Zapata Lives!: Histories and Cultural Politics in Southern Mexico. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. pp. 136–137. ISBN 0520222377.
  25. ^ O'Neil et al. 2006, p. 377.
  26. ^ a b Manaut, Raúúl Beníítez; Selee, Andrew; Arnson, Cynthia J. (February 1, 2006). "Frozen Negotiations: The Peace Process in Chiapas" (PDF). Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos. 22 (1): 131–152. doi:10.1525/msem.2006.22.1.131. ISSN 0742-9797. S2CID 56296262. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 16, 2020.
  27. ^ Arnson, Cynthia (July 12, 1999). Comparative Peace Processes in Latin America. Stanford University Press. ISBN 9780804735896 – via Google Books.
  28. ^ Ruether, Rosemary Radford (July 12, 2005). Integrating Ecofeminism, Globalization, and World Religions. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9780742535305 – via Google Books.
  29. ^ ""La Jornada: mayo 4 de 1996»". unam.mx. Retrieved March 13, 2018.
  30. ^ "U.S. military aids Mexico's attacks on Zapatista movement". afn.org.
  31. ^ "La Sedena sabía de la existencia de la guerrilla chiapaneca desde 1985 (Segunda y última parte) - Proceso Portal de Noticias". March 20, 2006. Archived from the original on November 3, 2013.
  32. ^ ""Ganaderos e indígenas hablan de grupos guerrilleros"". Archived from the original on January 28, 2018. Retrieved December 16, 2015.
  33. ^ «Salinas recibió informes sobre Chiapas, desde julio del 93»
  34. ^ Jornada, La. "A 15 años de relaciones entre México y el Vaticano – La Jornada". jornada.unam.mx. Retrieved March 13, 2018.
  35. ^ México, El Universal, Compañia Periodística Nacional. "El Universal – Opinion – Renuncia en Gobernación". eluniversalmas.com.mx. Archived from the original on August 2, 2017. Retrieved March 13, 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  36. ^ "Tampico la conexión zapatista". Archived from the original on November 3, 2013.
  37. ^ "Chronology of the EZLN Conflict". www.latinamericanstudies.org. Retrieved August 11, 2018.
  38. ^ Ruiz, Pérez; Lorena, Maya (April 9, 2006). "El EZLN y el retorno a su propuesta radical". Cultura y Representaciones Sociales. 1 (1): 33–65 – via SciELO.
  39. ^ O'Neil et al. 2006, p. 378.
  40. ^ Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle on Wikisource
  41. ^ Alcántara, Liliana. "Dan el último adiós a Alexis Benhumea". El Universal. Retrieved March 3, 2011.
  42. ^ Norrell, Brenda. "Zapatistas Select Yaqui to Host Intercontinental Summit in Mexico". Narco News (May 7, 2007).
  43. ^ "ZeztaInternazional". ZeztaInternazional (in Aragonese). Retrieved August 2, 2020.
  44. ^ "Zapatista Commander: Gaza Will Survive" Archived January 17, 2009, at the Wayback Machine Palestine Chronicle
  45. ^ "Communiqué of the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee – Command General of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation". Enlace Zapatista. December 21, 2012.
  46. ^ a b Bellinghausen, Hermann (December 22, 2012). "Mobilized more than 40 thousand zapatistas in 5 municipalities of Chiapas". No. 10194. Ocosingo, Chiapas, Mexico: La Jornada. p. 2. Retrieved January 7, 2019.
  47. ^ "Zapatistas are crowding Chiapas". El País. December 22, 2012. Retrieved January 7, 2019.
  48. ^ Villamil, Jenaro (January 1, 2019). "EZLN, balance at 25 years". Mexico City: Magazine Revista. Archived from the original on January 7, 2019. Retrieved January 7, 2019.
  49. ^ Oikonomakis, Leonidas. "Zapatistas celebrate 10 years of autonomy with 'escuelita'". ROAR Magazine.
  50. ^ "Votan IV. Día Menos 7". August 5, 2013.
  51. ^ Hernández, Elio (June 27, 2015). "The EZLN reports aggression against indigenous Zapatista support bases in Ocosingo". San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas: La Jornada.
  52. ^ Tucker, Duncan (June 12, 2017). "'Mexico needs healing': the first indigenous woman to run for president". The Guardian. Retrieved January 2, 2022.
  53. ^ Fitzwater, Dylan Eldredge. "Zapatistas and Indigenous Congress Seek to Revolutionize Mexico's 2018 Election". Truthout. Retrieved March 13, 2018.
  54. ^ "How an indigenous woman left her mark on a tumultuous presidential campaign in Mexico". www.opendemocracy.net. Retrieved April 8, 2021.
  55. ^ Oikonomakis, Leonidas (August 19, 2019). "Zapatistas announce major expansion of autonomous territories". ROAR Mag.
  56. ^ "Zapatista rebels extend control over areas in south Mexico". WTOP. May 19, 2019. Archived from the original on August 20, 2019. Retrieved September 26, 2019.
  57. ^ EZLN reitera rechazo a megaproyectos de AMLO El Segundero, January 1, 2020
  58. ^ "El CNI esboza su estrategia contra el Tren Maya" [The CNI lays out it strategy against the Maya Train]. Proceso (in Spanish). January 4, 2020.
  59. ^ "Zapatista delegations will visit various continents, from Europe to Africa". Avispa Midia. October 8, 2020. Retrieved March 10, 2022.
  60. ^ Kolokotronis, Nikos (November 10, 2021). "The Zapatistas journey through Europe is well underway!". DiEM25. Retrieved March 10, 2022.
  61. ^ "The Zapatista's Return: A Masked Marxist on the Stump"
  62. ^ "Alvaro Reyes: Zapatismo: Other Geographies Circa the "End of the World" – Workshop for Intercommunal Study". Retrieved February 7, 2022.
  63. ^ Beardsell, Peter (2000). Europe and Latin America: Returning the Gaze. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press.
  64. ^ Jung, Courtney (2003). "The Politics of Indigenous Identity, Neoliberalism, Cultural Rights, and the Mexican Zapatistas". Social Research. 70 (2): 433–462. doi:10.1353/sor.2003.0025. JSTOR 40971622.
  65. ^ Hiddleston, Jane (2009). Understanding Movements in Modern Thought: Understanding Postcolonialism. Durham, UK: Acumen.
  66. ^ Benjamin Ferron, La communication internationale du zapatisme (1994–2006), Rennes, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, Res Publica, 2015
  67. ^ Nick Henck, Subcomandante Marcos: Global Rebel Icon(Montreal: 2019), pp. 26–39
  68. ^ Nick Henck, Subcomandante Marcos: Global Rebel Icon(Montreal: 2019), pp. 85 & 146, nn. 146 &147
  69. ^ Oikonomakis, Leonidas (May 27, 2014). "Farewell Marcos, long live Subcomandante Galeano!". Schools for Chiapas. Retrieved July 29, 2022.
  70. ^ "Death of a Zapatista: Neoliberalism's assault on Indigenous autonomy". rabble.ca. June 10, 2014.
  71. ^ "Mexico's Zapatista rebel leader Subcomandante Marcos steps down". BBC. May 26, 2014. Retrieved November 15, 2015.
  72. ^ Cornelius, Steven; Natvig, Mary (2016). Music: A Social Experience. Routledge. p. 115. ISBN 978-1-315-40429-5.

Bibliography

Further reading

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional.
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Zapatista_Army_of_National_Liberation&oldid=1119158005"