Update on the Zapatista movement

On January 1, 1994, the day of NAFTA´s initiation, a previously unknown leftist guerilla army emerged from the forests to occupy San Cristobal de Las Casas and other towns in Chiapas. The Ejercito Zapatista de Liberacion Nacional ( EZLN, Zapatista National Liberation Army ) linked antiglobalization rhetoric with Mexican revolutionary slogans, declaring that they aimed to overturn the oligarchy´s centuries-old hold on land, resources and power and to improve the wretched living standards of Mexico´s indigenous people.
The Mexican army evicted the Zapatistas within days, and the rebels retreated to the fringes of the Lacandon Jungle to wage a propaganda war, mainly fought via the internet. The Zapatistas balclava-clad, pip-puffing Subcomandante Marcos ( a former university professor named Rafeal Guillen) rapidly became a cult figure. High-profile conventions against neoliberalism were held, international supporters flocked to Zapatista headquarters at La Realidad, 80km southeast of Comitan, and Zapatista-aligned peasants took over hundreds of farms and ranches in Chiapas.
In 1996 Zapatista and Mexican government negotiators agreed to a set of accords on indigenous rights and autonomy. However, the governing Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) never ratified these agreements, and the tension and killings escalated in Chiapas through 1997 and 1998. A PRI-linked paramilitary group massacred 45 people in the village of Acteal north of San Cristobal in 1997. By 1999 an estimated 21.000 villagers had fled their homes after the Mexican army, aided and abetted by paramilitaries, launched a campaign of intimidation. Under president Vicente Fox, two attempts to make the necessary constitutional changes failed, and the Zapatistas refused to participate in further talks, concentrating instead on consolidating their revolution and their autonomy in the villages of highland and eastern Chiapas, where they had the most support.
In 2003 the Zapatista leadership established five regional ´Juntas´de Buen Gobierno` ( Committees of Good Government ) in villages where they set up schools and clinics. But these frequently rotating committees, set up to democratize governance and teach leadership skills, have been hampered by a lack of accountability and continuity, and critized as excessively bureaucratic.
By 2005 Zapatista political influence was slight outside their own enclaves, and many former aupporters were disillusioned with the EZLN´s intransigence. Against this backdrop, Marcos announced a broad new Zapatista political struggle that included all Mexico´s exploited and marginalized people, not just the indigenous. He rejected all cooperation or dialog with mainstream political parties, launching instead La Otra Campaña (The Other Campaign), a movement to run parallel to, but distinct from, Mexico´s 2006 presidential election campaign. On January 1, 2006, Marcos, now styling himself Subdelegado Zero, set off by motorcycle from the jungle to do a six-month Zapatista tour of all Mexican states. The aim was to forge a new leftist political front by making contact with other groups around the country, to develop a new methodology of ´liberation from below` and a new civilian, peaceful, anticapitalist approach to politics. However, many observers saw scant momentrum resulting from the campaing, and detractors viewed it as a publicity stunt to jumpstart Marcos´ fading celebrity status. At the close of 2009, the cancellation of the EZLN´s annual New Year´s celebration sparked rampant speculation about the likelihood of a military offensive. But as 2010 unfolded, the EZLN remained dormant. Some interpreted this silence as a weakening of their forces, while others still predicted fireworks to come.
The Zapatistas have denounced the expansion of ecotourism in Chiapas. They see the improvement and construction of roads in the Montes Azules reserve as being at odds with the government stated goal of preserving the rainforest. They view the expansion of government tourism infrastructure as a nonmilitary means to make inroads into autonomous EZLN communities. Further background is available in The Zapatista Reader, an anthology of writers from Octavio Paz and Gabriel Garcia Marquez to Marcos himself, http://www.nationbooks.org/book/99/The%20Zapatista%20Reader and at http://sipaz.org/fini_eng.htm and http://www.chiapas.indymedia.org/
Voor inzicht in het ontstaan van deze beweging check
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BH5SlPmfooU&feature=related
Spaans ondertiteld, de Engels ondertiteling volgt in 2011