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Zapatista Army of National Liberation
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| Zapatista Army of National Liberation | |
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| Participant in armed Insurgency against the Mexican Government for its implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which they believe increases the effects of neo-liberalism and capitalism, thus oppressing the Working class, and for the denying of autonomy to the Indigenous peoples of Mexico in the state of Chiapas. | |
 The flag of the EZLN. |
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| Active | 1994[1]-Present |
| Ideology | Libertarian socialism Anarcho-communism Autonomism |
| Leaders | Subcomandante Elisa Subcomandante Marcos Comandante Ramona |
| Area of operations |
Chiapas, Mexico |
| Strength | about 3,000 active participants and militia and tens of thousands civilian supporters (bases de apoyo) |
| Opponents | Mexican Government |
The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (Ejrcito Zapatista de Liberacin Nacional, EZLN) is a revolutionary group based in Chiapas, the southernmost state of Mexico. Chiapas is one of the richest states in Mexico but suffers from massive inequality and poverty. Since 1994, they have been in a declared war "against the Mexican state," though this war has been primarily nonviolent and defensive against military, paramilitary, and corporate incursions on their territory. Their social base is mostly rural indigenous people but they have some supporters in urban areas as well as an international web of support. Their main spokesperson is Subcomandante Marcos (currently a.k.a. Delegate Zero in relation to the "Other Campaign"). Unlike other Zapatista spokespeople, Marcos is not an indigenous Mayan.
The group takes its name from Emiliano Zapata, the agrarian reformer[2] and commander of the Liberation Army of the South during the Mexican Revolution, and sees itself as his ideological heir. In reference to inspirational figures, in nearly all EZLN villages exist murals accompanying images of Zapata, Che Guevara, and Subcomandante Marcos.[3]
Their ideology combines libertarian socialism, libertarian municipalism, and indigenous Mayan political thought. They align themselves with the wider counter-globalization, anti-neoliberal social movement and seek indigenous control over their local resources, especially land. The New York Times called the Zapatista movement the first "post-modern" revolution: an armed revolutionary group that has abstained from using their weapons since their 1994 uprising was countered by the superior military might of the Mexican army. The Zapatistas quickly adopted a new strategy by trying to garner the support of Mexican and international socialist anarchist societies. They try to achieve this by using the Internet to disseminate their statements and to enlist the support of NGOs and solidarity groups. Awareness of the Zapatista Movement has also been raised due to support from bands such as Rage Against the Machine, Garotos Podres, Leftver Crack, Brujeria, Anti-Flag, Dead Prez, Immortal Technique, Manu Chao and Active Member.
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We don–t want to impose our solutions by force, we want to create a democratic space. We don–t see armed struggle in the classic sense of previous guerrilla wars, that is as the only way and the only all-powerful truth around which everything is organized. In a war, the decisive thing is not the military confrontation but the politics at stake in the confrontation. We didn–t go to war to kill or be killed. We went to war in order to be heard.
The Zapatistas went public on January 1, 1994, the day when the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) came into effect. On that day, they issued their First Declaration from the Lacandon Jungle and their Revolutionary Laws. The declaration amounted to a declaration of war on the Mexican government, which they considered so out of touch with the will of the people as to make it completely illegitimate.
Their initial goal was to instigate a revolution in all of Mexico, but as this did not happen, they used their uprising as a platform to call the world's attention to their movement to protest the signing of NAFTA, which the EZLN believed would increase the gap between rich and poor people in Chiapas. The EZLN also called for greater democratization of the Mexican government which had been controlled by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) for 65 years and for land reform mandated by the 1917 Constitution of Mexico but largely ignored by the PRI.[5] The EZLN did not demand independence from Mexico, but rather autonomy, and (among other things) that the natural resources that are extracted from Chiapas benefit more directly the people of Chiapas.
On the morning of January 1 1994, an estimated 3,000 armed Zapatista insurgents seized towns and cities in Chiapas, including Ocosingo, Las Margaritas, Huixtan, Oxchuc, Rancho Nuevo, Altamirano, and Chanal. They freed the prisoners in the jail of San Cristbal de las Casas, and set fire to several police buildings and military barracks in the area. The guerrillas enjoyed brief success, but the next day Mexican army forces counter-attacked and fierce fighting broke out in and around the market of Ocosingo. The Zapatista forces took heavy casualties, and retreated from the city into the surrounding jungle.
Armed clashes in Chiapas ended on January 12, 1994, with a ceasefire brokered by the Catholic diocese in San Cristbal de las Casas under Bishop Samuel Ruiz, a well known liberation theologian. Some of the land taken over by the Zapatistas in 1994 was retained, but the territory they held militarily for a little more than a year was overrun by the Mexican army in a surprise ceasefire breach in February 1995. The Zapatista villages were mostly abandoned following the offensive, and the rebels fled into the mountains after breaking out of the Mexican army perimeter.
The extraordinarily complex and rich history of political discussion and organizing in Chiapas from the 1970s to the 1990s produced something genuinely original, a new leftist language and vision. This includes negotiation about what it means to be Indian within a larger Mexican nation. It includes discussion about new forms of democracy and an inventiveness regarding civil society - exemplified by the convention in the jungle; by the Zapatistas– national consulta, in which they asked people around the nation to comment and vote; by Marcos–s communiqus; and by the accords on Indian autonomy hammered out with government negotiators in 1996. The new leftist vision also includes a communication and public debate deeply rooted in popular cultural idioms - indeed, in the language of rock and roll and its progeny.
Although army camps were set up along all major thoroughfares, the army failed to capture the guerrilla movement's commanders. Instead, the Mexican government pursued a policy of negotiation, while the Zapatistas developed a mobilization and media campaign through numerous newspaper comunicados and over time a Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle with no further military actions on their part. After the First Declaration from the Lacandon Jungle, subsequent declarations have focused on non-violent solutions, both through political channels and through the assumption of many of the functions of government in the Chiapas state of southeastern Mexico. Other groups within Chiapas, such as the pacifist Las Abejas, support many of the goals of the Zapatista Revolution without condoning the use of violence to achieve those goals. A strong international internet presence prompted numerous left-wing international groups to support the Zapatista movement.
The Intercontinental Encounter for Humanity and against Neoliberalism held in Chiapas in 1996 resulted in various pro-Zapatista support groups emerging outside Mexico, particularly in the US, Argentina, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France and Britain.[7]
With the new government of President Vicente Fox (the first non-PRI president of Mexico in over 80 years) in 2001, the Zapatistas marched on Mexico City to present their case to the Mexican Congress. Although Fox had stated earlier that he could end the conflict "in fifteen minutes,"[8] the EZLN rejected watered-down agreements and created 32 "autonomous municipalities" in Chiapas, thus partially implementing their demands without government support but with some funding from international organizations.
On June 28, 2005, the Zapatistas presented the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle,[9] declaring their principles and vision for Mexico and the world. This declaration reiterates the support for the indigenous peoples, who compose roughly one third of the population of the state of Chiapas, and extends the cause to include "all the exploited and dispossessed of Mexico". It also expresses the movement's sympathy to the international alter-globalization movement, and offers to provide material aid to those in Cuba, Bolivia, Ecuador and elsewhere, with whom they make common cause. The declaration ends with an exhortation for all who have more respect for humanity than for money to join with the Zapatistas in the struggle for social justice both in Mexico and abroad. The declaration called for an alternative national campaign (the "Other Campaign") as an alternative to the presidential campaign. In preparation for this alternative campaign, the Zapatistas invited to their territory over 600 national leftist organizations, indigenous groups and non-governmental organizations in order to listen to their claims for human rights in a series of biweekly meetings that culminated in a plenary meeting in September 16, the day Mexico celebrates its independence from Spain. In this meeting, Subcomandante Marcos requested official adherence of the organizations to the Sixth Declaration, and detailed a six-month tour of the Zapatistas through all 31 Mexican states that took place concurrently with the electoral campaign starting January 2006.
The ideology of the Zapatista movement, Zapatismo, combines traditional Mayan practices with elements of anarchism and libertarian socialism [10]. There is a long history of anarchism in Mexico, of which Zapatismo is a descendant. 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 neo-liberal globalization, arguing that it severely and negatively affects the peasant way of life of its indigenous support base and oppressed people worldwide. An example of neo-liberal policy that the EZLN opposes is the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Apart from opening the Mexican market to cheap mass-produced US agricultural products, NAFTA spells an end to Mexican crop subsidies without a corresponding end to US ones, and drastically reduced the income and living standards of many southern Mexican farmers who cannot compete with the subsidized, artificially fertilized, mechanically harvested and genetically modified imports from the United States. The signing of NAFTA also resulted in the removal of Article 27 Section VII in the Mexican Constitution which previously had guaranteed land reparations to indigenous groups throughout Mexico.
Another key element of the Zapatista 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 obvious disconnection from the people and their needs. Instead, the EZLN claims 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. As 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. Instead, they wish to reconceptualize the entire system.
In an unusual move for any revolutionary organization, documents released by the EZLN[11] (in Spanish) before the initial uprising in 1994 explicitly defined a right of the people to resist any unjust actions of the EZLN. They also defined a right of the people to
demand that the revolutionary armed forces not intervene in matters of civil order or the disposition of capital relating to agriculture, commerce, finances, and industry, as these are the exclusive domain of the civil authorities, elected freely and democratically.
It added that the people should "acquire and possess arms to defend their persons, families and property, according to the laws of disposition of capital of farms, commerce, finance and industry, against the armed attacks committed by the revolutionary forces or those of the government."
From the First Declaration from the Lacandon Jungle, the Zapatistas presented to the people of Mexico, the government, and the world their Revolutionary Laws on January 8, 1994. One of the laws was the Women's Revolutionary Law, which stated:
Since December 1994, the Zapatistas had been gradually forming several autonomous municipalities, more or less independent of the Mexican government. See the List of Zapatista Autonomous Municipalities.
From the beginning, the EZLN has made communication with the rest of Mexico and the world a high priority. The EZLN has used technology, including cellular phones and the Internet, to generate international solidarity with sympathetic people and organizations. Rap-rock band Rage Against the Machine is well known for its support of the EZLN, using the red star symbol as a backdrop to their live shows and have also often informed concert crowds of the ongoing situation. As a result, on trips abroad the president of Mexico is routinely confronted by small activist groups about "the Chiapas situation". The Zapatistas are featured prominently in Rage Against the Machine's songs, in particular "People of the Sun", "Wind Below", "Zapata's Blood" and "War Within a Breath".
Prior to 2001, Marcos' writings were frequently published in some Mexican and a few international newspapers. Then Marcos fell silent, and his relationship with the media declined. When he resumed writing in 2002, he assumed a more aggressive tone, and his attacks on former allies angered some of the EZLN's supporters. Except for these letters and occasional critical "communicados" concerning the political climate, the EZLN was largely silent until August 2004, and COCOPA head Luis H. lvarez stated in mid-2004 that Marcos had not been seen in Chiapas for some time. The EZLN received little press coverage during this time, although it continued to develop the local governments it had created earlier.
In August, Marcos sent eight brief communiques to the Mexican press, published from August 20–28. The set was entitled "Reading a video" (possibly mocking political video scandals that occurred earlier that year). The set began and ended as a kind of written description of an imaginary low-budget Zapatista video, with the rest being Marcos' comments on political events of the year and the EZLN current stance and development.
In 2005, Marcos made headlines again by comparing the then presidential candidate Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador to Carlos Salinas de Gortari (as part of a broad criticism of the three main political parties in Mexico - the PAN, PRI, and PRD), and at the same time contradicting himself (because Obrador was from the PRD, his former supporter), and publicly declaring the EZLN in "Red Alert". Shortly thereafter, communiques announced that the EZLN had undergone a restructuring that enabled them to withstand the loss of their public leadership (Marcos and the CCRI). After consulting with their support base, the Zapatistas' issued the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle.
Since the first uprising, the newspaper La Jornada has continuously covered the Zapatistas. Most communicados and many of Marcos' letters are delivered to and only published by La Jornada, and the online edition of the newspaper has a section dedicated to the Other Campaign.
The independent media organization Indymedia also covers and prints Zapatista developments and communications.
On June 28, 2005 the EZLN released an installment of what it called the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle. According to the communique, the EZLN has reflected on its history and decided that it must make changes in order to continue its struggle. Accordingly, the EZLN has decided to unite with the "workers, farmers, students, teachers, and employees... the workers of the city and the countryside." They propose to do so through a non-electoral front to talk and collectively write a new constitution to establish a new political culture.
On January 1, 2006 the EZLN began a massive tour - "The Other Campaign" - encompassing all 31 Mexican states in the build up to the year's presidential election, which the EZLN made clear they would not participate in directly.
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 bussed 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 (FPDT), 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 the morning of June 7, 2006, after being in a coma caused by a blow to the head from a police-launched tear-gas grenade. Most of the resistance organizing was done by the EZLN and Sixth Declaration adherents, and Delegate Zero has stated that the "Other Campaign" tour will be temporarily halted until all prisoners are 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 all over the Americas and the rest of the world, to gather on October 11-14, 2007 near Guaymas, Sonora. In the declaration for the Indigenous Intercontinental Conference, it 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."[12]
The Third Encuentro of the Zapatistas People with the People of the World was held from December 28, 2007 - January 1, 2008[13]
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."[14]
The following is a list of known current or former members of the EZLN.
The Zapatista idea is the use of tactical media to draw public attention to a political cause. Used as a form of political activism, the Zapatista idea is the notion that –the important thing is the spectacle that you make out of an event in the media, as opposed to the event itself".[15] The concept derives from the Zapatistas' ability through new media to communicate and generate universal solidarity in Mexico and worldwide.
The –communications revolution has generally shifted the –balance of power– from the media to the audience–.[16] This has allowed the Zapatista idea to flourish, opening up new channels and providing a powerful forum for political participation by citizens (see edemocracy) on a scale like never before. –Digital, networked media allow for faster, diverse, two-way communications between users who have both more control and more choice–[17] as they become simultaneously users, producers and agents of social change.
For example, on the night of June 25, 2008, activists used the Internet to organise –A flash mob for Burma–, a spontaneous gathering of people using high-impact videos and posters at Waterloo Station, London, in order to urge commuters to remember victims of the Burma cyclone and decades of human rights abuses–.[18] –Emphasising the spectacle, the mediation of the event, as much as the event itself–,[19] flash mob members used the technologies to stage a demonstration that would have impact and raise media awareness.
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