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The Origins of the Chiapas Uprising
(Editor's note: As the debate on British Columbia's referendum on treaty negotiations develops, it is becoming clear that the intention of the B.C. government is to attempt to extinguish indigenous land claims in preparation for a massive privatization of "Crown" land. Because the B.C. First Nations have never ceded ownership of the vast majority of land in the province, legal title to both government and privately owned land is in dispute. This, in turn, creates a roadblock to the B.C. government's efforts to hand over those lands to the multinational lumber monopolies. The situation in Chiapas, Mexico has many parallels to this situation. The clash there between indigenous rights and the neo-liberal policies of the Mexican government led to the first major people's revolt against neo-liberal globalization in 1994.)
On January 1, 1994, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) burst onto the world stage when it occupied several cities in Chiapas, including San Cristobal de las Casas, Las Margaritas, Altamirano, and Ocosingo. Its offensive was timed to coincide with the coming into effect of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which it saw as an attack on the rights of the indigenous peoples of Mexico, the United States and Canada.
The struggle of the indigenous people of Chiapas is not a new one. It dates back to 1823, when Chiapas was separated from Guatemala and joined to Mexico by the Spanish ruling class in the area, despite the common language and history shared by the Tzeltal and Chole people of Chiapas and Guatemala. Families were torn apart and thousands of indigenous people were thrown off their traditional land which they had farmed uninterrupted for centuries.
For the next century and a half, more and more of the remaining traditional farming land in Chiapas were taken over through a series of encroachments authorized by the Spanish rulers, who did not recognize the inherent rights of the indigenous peoples to their lands. When Mexico achieved its independence, some protections for communal land were built into the constitution, although subsequent Mexican governments chose to overlook them whenever convenient.
The communist, workers and student movements which gained strength throughout Mexico in the 1960s also had an impact on the indigenous peoples of Chiapas. In several communities they began to organize against corrupt local officials and to affirm their right to work and live off the land. This organizing work was sharply curtailed after the October1968 massacres of student protesters by the army at the Three Cultures Plaza in Mexico City. There were arrests and detentions of thousands of Mexican activists, including those in Chiapas, in the following months.
In 1972, the Mexican government issued a decree giving over 1,500,000 acres of fertile lands in Chiapas to an association of wealthy ranching families. Over 2,000 Tzeltal and Chole families were displaced from 26 communities. This led to widespread social problems and the rise of a new generation of indigenous leaders who tried to deal with the problems head-on. In 1974, the first Indigenous Congress of San Cristobal de las Casas was held, and for the first time, the indigenous people of the region began to gather together and discuss the blocks to affirming their rights. Over the next decade, the indigenous population of Chiapas grew with the arrival of around 100,000 refugees fleeing the state-organized massacres and displacements of indigenous peoples in Guatemala. The nascent indigenous movement in the state was gaining strength both in numbers and organization.
While throughout the 1980s successive Mexican governments pursued neo-liberal economic policies of privatization and slashed social spending (as dictated by loan agreements with the International Monetary Fund), in Chiapas, the Indigenous Congress was moving families onto unused land owned by large ranching families and letting them farm it.
Responding to the complaints from these wealthy ranching families, in 1992 President Carlos Salinas de Gortari enacted changes to Article 27 of the Mexican constitution, weakening the land reform provisions that were first introduced following the revolutionary struggles of the early 20th century led by Emiliano Zapata. These changes basically enshrined the right of large landowners to keep title to land they were not working, and specifically made illegal the communal farming of the indigenous people of Chiapas on land that was not specifically designated for that purpose.
NAFTA is far more than a trade agreement; it is really a treaty enshrining the rights of investors. Among other things, it gives investors the right to sue governments for any actions (or failure to take action) which impact negatively on their profits. In the case of Mexico, this means that absentee landowners can sue the government of Mexico if it refuses to expel indigenous peasants from lands which rightfully belong to the indigenous peoples. The introduction of NAFTA, therefore, represented a new chapter in the ongoing colonial conquest of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, and the people of Chiapas rose up against it.
Despite numerous Special Commissions, the situation in Chiapas has not yet been resolved, as the Mexican government refuses to recognize the claims of the people, while the Tzeltal and Chole people have consistently refused any agreement or settlement that either negates or does not recognize their inherent right to the land.