Zapatistas

I

Introduction

Zapatistas or Zapatista National Liberation Army, rebel group, made up primarily of Native Americans from southern Mexico who launched a brief military revolt against the Mexican government in 1994. Also known by its Spanish acronym, EZLN, the group is named for Emiliano Zapata, an early 20th-century Mexican revolutionary leader and agrarian reformer.

During the revolt, the Zapatistas occupied several towns in the southern state of Chiapas. Mexican troops quickly recaptured most of the rebel-held territory, however, and a cease-fire was called soon afterward. More than 145 people died in the initial confrontation. The rebellion and subsequent peace negotiations eventually prompted the Mexican government to agree to institute several political reforms demanded by the rebels.

II

Origins of the Zapatista Rebellion

The rebellion began on January 1, 1994, to coincide with the date on which Mexico officially joined the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The agreement is a trade pact between Canada, Mexico, and the United States whose purpose is to foster free trade and eliminate tariffs among the three nations; NAFTA was widely criticized in Mexico because many people believed that it adversely affected the nation’s poor.

The Zapatistas, led by a mysterious figure known as Subcomandante Marcos, said they launched the rebellion to protest the poverty faced by Native Americans and others who farmed small plots in the region. The rebels also criticized the economic policies of the governing Institutional Revolutionary Party (known by its Spanish acronym, PRI), which they claimed benefited large corporations and wealthy Mexicans while driving millions of others deeper into poverty. The Zapatistas demanded that land ownership be more equitably distributed, especially among members of the indigenous communities; that the Mexican government work to ensure a more just distribution of wealth in the country; and that Native Americans be granted equal access to the political system at the state and national levels.

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The Mexican government responded to the rebellion by sending federal troops into the four cities captured by the Zapatistas, including the state’s major tourist destination, San Cristóbal de las Casas. Within days the Zapatistas withdrew into the surrounding jungles. The Mexican government then sent mediators to Chiapas to attempt to negotiate peace. These included the former head of the government of Mexico City, Manuel Camacho Solís, and the Roman Catholic bishop of San Cristóbal de las Casas, Samuel Ruiz. The initial negotiations resulted in a cease-fire and led to further talks aimed at finding a lasting and peaceful solution to the conflict.

Peace negotiations continued until October 1994, when the EZLN withdrew from the talks, complaining that the government was conducting a military buildup in Chiapas and was uninterested in negotiation. In December the rebels made some limited military gains, taking control of several Chiapas towns before federal troops forced them to retreat again. Later that month the government agreed to establish a national mediation commission to address the issues raised by the rebels.

In January 1995 government negotiators temporarily resumed talks with the Zapatistas. When no date for follow-up talks was scheduled, President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León threatened to solve the crisis by other means. In February, Zedillo ordered troops into Chiapas to arrest the leaders of the EZLN. After federal troops retook 11 towns that had been controlled by the EZLN, Zedillo called a halt to military operations.

On January 1, 1996, on the two-year anniversary of the initial armed uprising, the EZLN announced the formation of a new civilian political organization to be called the Zapatista National Liberation Front (known by the Spanish acronym FZLN). Leaders of the FZLN said that the new organization would not be an official political party, but promised that it would be nonviolent and would seek to foster democracy through constitutional reforms.

III

Peace Accords

In February representatives of the EZLN and the Mexican government signed the first of six peace accords that aimed to address the concerns highlighted by the Chiapas rebellion. The accord proposed constitutional amendments that would give indigenous Mexicans adequate representation in the national legislature, as well as exempt them from a national law that a candidate had to be a member of a political party to run in elections. This law had been used to limit political participation in Chiapas.

The Zapatistas again broke off peace talks with the government in September 1996, claiming that the Zedillo administration had failed to carry out promised reforms. The rebels also claimed that federal troops were violating the cease-fire by harassing and threatening Zapatista fighters and their Native American supporters.

Tensions in Chiapas grew when gunmen armed with assault rifles, machetes, and other weapons swept into the village of Acteal, slaughtering 45 people and wounding at least 20 others in late December 1997. Subcomandante Marcos accused the state and federal governments of involvement in the massacre; others accused Zedillo of ignoring growing violence in the area.

Government officials reportedly had received warnings of increased paramilitary activity in the region. Zedillo ordered Mexican attorney general Jorge Madrazo Cuéllar to investigate the killings. Mexican authorities arrested dozens of people in connection with the killings, including Jacinto Arias Cruz, the head of the municipality in which Acteal is located. Many, including Arias, were members of the PRI.

In early January 1998 the president dismissed Secretary of the Interior Emilio Chuayffet Chemor, who was in charge of negotiations with the EZLN. In March Zedillo proposed a modified version of the 1996 accord, angering native and Zapatista leaders, who claimed that the president’s new proposal weakened the earlier agreement. Zedillo’s government came under attack from the international community for expelling dozens of foreign observers, tourists, human rights advocates, and clergy in Chiapas. The government claimed that the foreigners were breaking Mexican law by interfering in domestic political issues.

In June 1998 Bishop Samuel Ruíz García resigned as mediator between the government and the Zapatistas. Peace talks had been stalled since 1996, although a cease-fire remained in effect. Ruíz accused the government of abandoning the peace process and launching a campaign of intimidation against his diocese, where about 40 churches had been destroyed by pro-government factions. In addition, a number of priests were arrested on charges that were later dropped in court. The government denied putting any pressure on Bishop Ruíz or the diocese.

Also in 1998 several incidents of violence took place over control of local government in villages where Zapatistas had set up rival town councils. These councils, which were largely symbolic, operated alongside government-backed councils with little friction between the two groups. Several days after Ruíz’s resignation, a combined force of 1,000 police and army troops stormed the town of El Bosque, arresting Zapatista officials and returning the government-backed mayor to office. Over the following days the government moved into two nearby communities searching for Zapatista supporters whom they accused of attacking government supporters.

IV

Political Changes Affecting the Zapatistas

In 2000 Mexico elected a new president, Vicente Fox. Fox was the first president in modern Mexican history to represent a party other than the PRI. He moved quickly to withdraw troops and close military garrisons in Zapatista-held areas in Chiapas. These actions provided some political space for the Zapatistas who subsequently organized a 3,200-km (2,000-mi) march from the jungles of Chiapas to Mexico City. The Zapatistas used the march, which ended in the central plaza of Mexico City, the Zocalo, to call for constitutional and legal reforms regarding the rights of Mexico’s 10 million indigenous peoples. Subsequently, the government approved legislation it touted as satisfying the EZLN’s demands, but the Zapatistas denounced it as inadequate.

During the government withdrawal from the Zapastista-controlled areas, the EZLN began to seal off its remote highland strongholds from all outsiders, including journalists, human rights workers, and other observers. At the same time the Zapatistas operated roadblocks throughout the region, stopping traffic and charging highway taxes to vehicle drivers. The Zapatistas claimed that members of the PRI formed vigilante groups and engaged in political intimidation and violence against pro-Zapatista villages. On the other hand, non-Zapatista villages denounced harassment and intimidation by the EZLN.

August 2003 marked a significant milestone in the EZLN’s strategy in the Chiapas highlands. It withdrew its military forces (believed to number 200 to 400), discontinued roadblocks, and turned over governance to civil authorities of the EZLN.

The new civil structure combined some 30 Mexican municipalities into five new autonomous indigenous areas. These five areas, ruled by Good Governance Councils, were called caracoles. They cover about one-third of Chiapas and include municipalities that are not sympathetic to the Zapatistas, a possible flashpoint for future conflicts in the region.

The group’s longtime spokesman, Subcomandante Marcos, appeared in public for the first time in four years in August 2005. Marcos denounced Mexico’s leading political parties—particularly the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and its leader, Andrés Manuel López Obrador—for failing to support Native American rights and said the Zapatistas would work with other leftist groups to influence future elections.

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