On the first day of the New Year, indigenous supporters of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) of Chiapas staged a symbolic and peaceful “retaking” of the city of San Cristobal de la Casas. This huge nighttime march drew between 15,000 and 20,000 supporters, gathered to mark the ninth anniversary of the rebel group’s surprise overtaking of San Cristobal and several other towns on January 1, 1994. The gathering marked the official end of a year and half of silence maintained by the Zapatistas, to protest inadequate Indian rights legislation passed by the Mexican Congress in 2001.
This year’s event was especially noteworthy because of its demonstration of unity. Smaller, previous celebrations have been held in individual villages, whereas this year Zapatista sympathizers traveled from throughout the Chiapas region to San Cristobal, some from as far as 185 miles away, to mark the anniversary in unified fashion.
The celebration included a march, as well as several speeches by EZLN leaders. Many supporters, wearing ski masks and carrying torches and machetes, listened as speakers condemned the government of President Vicente Fox Quesada, the country’s main political parties, and “neoliberal-inspired globalization policies”, while offering support and solidarity to the campesinos (farmers) of Mexico and other oppressed peoples around the world. Some protesters carried banners reading: “Fox = Zedillo”, a direct reference to their extreme dissatisfaction with the past actions of the Mexican government, and the inability of President Fox to make any positive changes.
Former President Ernesto Zedillo took office only weeks before the Zapatista uprising of 1994. Throughout his presidency he had an egregious record of mistreatment and denial of rights to the indigenous people of Chiapas. When Fox took office in December of 2000, he made the Zapatistas his first priority, closing some of the military bases in Chiapas and backing an Indian rights bill championed by the Zapatistas themselves. However, despite the efforts of rebels and hundreds of their supporters who trekked to Mexico City in March of 2001 to support the bill, Congress passed a weakened and undermined version that was collectively rejected by the Zapatistas. This anniversary celebration marked the official end of the year and a half of silence undertaken by the Zapatistas in response to the bill.
Since the 1994 Zapatista rebellion, in which hundreds of people died in the fighting between Zapatista and government troops, the conflict over indigenous rights has become mired in stalled negotiations, tense military situations, deep-seated divisions of communities in the Chiapas region, and high levels of violence against indigenous peoples in the region. The rebels themselves have maintained a peaceful struggle since the rebellion of 1994.
This year’s celebration continued with the Zapatistas’ protest of the current trend of globalization. In 1994, their rebellion was timed to occur on the same day the North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect. This year, the symbolic retaking of San Cristobal coincided with the day that new elements of NAFTA were introduced in Mexico. Starting on the first of this year, tariffs on almost 80 United States agricultural goods were slashed from 49 percent to zero. This change greatly harms Mexican farmers, who will have a most difficult time competing with untariffed American goods.
For more information on the situation in Chiapas and how you can act go to:http://www.sipaz.org/en.html .
