Zapatista

Lonely Planet Mexico

by John Noble, Kate Armstrong, Greg Benchwick, Nate Cavalieri, Gregor Clark, John Hecht, Beth Kohn, Emily Matchar, Freda Moon and Ellee Thalheimer  · 2 Jan 1992

hacienda land to the peasants, with the cry ‘¡Tierra y libertad!’ (Land and freedom!). Madero sent federal troops to disband Zapata’s forces, and the Zapatista movement was born. When Madero’s government was brought down in 1913, it was by one of his own top generals, Victoriano Huerta, who defected

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latter pair, despite a famous meeting in Mexico City in 1915, never formed a serious alliance, and it was Carranza who emerged the victor. The Zapatistas continued to demand reforms in the state of Morelos, south of Mexico City, but Carranza had Zapata assassinated in 1919. The following year Carranza himself

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disputed presidential election, and reforms Mexico’s state-dominated economy into one of private enterprise and free trade. 1994 Nafta takes effect. The left-wing Zapatista uprising in Chiapas state begins. Luis Donaldo Colosio, Salinas’ chosen successor as PRI presidential candidate, is assassinated. Days after Salinas leaves office, Mexico’s currency

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sees reasonable economic progress but fails to enact reforms to really spark growth, rein in the violent drug gangs, or reach an accord with the Zapatistas. Society becomes more open and a little less corrupt. 2006 The PAN’s Felipe Calderón narrowly defeats Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the left-of

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is imbued with communal customs, beliefs and rituals bound up with nature. In the 1990s, the Zapatista rebels in Chiapas spearheaded a campaign for indigenous rights. The San Andrés Accords of 1996, agreed between Zapatista and government negotiators, promised a degree of autonomy to Mexico’s indigenous peoples, but were never made

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a dozen mummies in the crypt. Thought to be the bodies of 17th-century benefactors of the order, they were uncovered during the revolution by Zapatistas looking for buried treasure. MUSEO DE ARTE CARRILLO GIL One of the city’s first contemporary art spaces, this museum (Map; 5550-6260; Av Revolución

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radical of Mexico’s revolutionaries, fighting for the return of hacienda land to the peasants with the cry ‘¡Tierra y libertad!’ (Land and freedom!). The Zapatista movement was at odds with both the conservative supporters of the old regime and their liberal opponents. In November 1911, Zapata disseminated his Plan de

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, maintained an almost feudal control over Chiapas. Periodic uprisings bore witness to bad government, but the world took little notice until January 1, 1994, when Zapatista rebels suddenly and briefly occupied San Cristóbal de Las Casas and nearby towns by military force. The rebel movement, with a firm and committed support

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base among disenchanted indigenous settlers in eastern Chiapas, quickly retreated to remote jungle bases to campaign for democratic change and indigenous rights. The Zapatistas have failed to win any significant concessions at the national level (see the boxed text,), although increased government funding steered toward Chiapas did result in

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may put yourself in physical danger by taking photos without permission. If in any doubt, ask first. Occasional flare-ups occur between Zapatista communities and the army or anti-Zapatista paramilitaries. If you plan to travel off the main roads in the Chiapas highlands, the Ocosingo area or far eastern Chiapas, take

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subsistence farming and have no running water or electricity, and it was frustration over lack of political power and their historical mistreatment that fueled the Zapatista rebellion, putting a spotlight on the region’s distinct inequities. Chiapas contains swathes of wild green landscape that have nourished its inhabitants for centuries. From

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exploration, it’s a place where ancient customs coexist with modern luxuries. The city is a hot spot for sympathizers (and some opponents) of the Zapatista rebels, and a central location for organizations working with Chiapas’ indigenous people. In addition to a solid tourist infrastructure and a dynamic population of artsy

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in the morning, sampling the city’s wild nightlife Click Here. * * * San Cristóbal was catapulted into the international limelight on January 1, 1994, when the Zapatista rebels selected it as one of four places from which to launch their revolution, seizing and sacking government offices in the town before being driven

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that they’re mutually exclusive), this large indoor courtyard restaurant and café is a comfortable place to while away the hours. It’s run by Zapatista supporters, who hold frequent cultural events and conferences on local issues. A simple yet delicious menú compa (M$35) rotates daily, with hearty offerings such

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; Crescencio Rosas 9; 8am-11pm; ) Maya’e Restaurante ( 678-91-46; Av 20 de Noviembre 12C) The patio has a permanent photo exhibition on the Zapatista movement. TierrAdentro ( 674-67-66; Real de Guadalupe 24; 8am-11pm; ) For something different, melt into a hot chocolate at the chocolatería Kakao Natura ( 116

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you can watch jewelers work with amber. Nemi Zapata ( 678-74-87; Real de Guadalupe 57A) A fair-trade store that sells products made by Zapatista communities: weavings, embroidery, coffee and honey, EZLN cards, posters and books. Getting There & Away A fast toll autopista (M$38 for cars) zips here from

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second-class citizens, indigenous groups mostly live on the least productive land in the state, with the least amount of government services or infrastructure. The Zapatista revolution was primarily an uprising against this historical injustice; their rallying cry of ¡Ya basta! (Enough!) was a full-throated response to centuries of economic

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discrimination. Today, long-standing indigenous ways of life are being challenged both by evangelical Christianity – opposed to many traditional animist-Catholic practices – and by the Zapatista movement, which rejects traditional leadership hierarchies and is raising the rights and profile of women. Many highland indigenous people have emigrated to the Lacandón Jungle

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also in part a political rejection of the long-standing supremacy of the Catholic mestizo majority. In San Juan Chamula, evangelism is associated with the Zapatista movement. Most of the evangelical exiles now inhabit the shantytowns around San Cristóbal. Chamulan men wear loose homespun tunics of white wool (sometimes, in cool

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taxi from the Pan-American Hwy, about 150m southeast of the OCC bus station in San Cristóbal, and ask for ‘Las Grutas’ (M$20). * * * THE ZAPATISTAS On January 1, 1994, the day of Nafta’s initiation, a previously unknown leftist guerrilla army emerged from the forests to occupy San Cristóbal de

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Las Casas and other towns in Chiapas. The Ejército Zapatista de Liberación 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

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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 Lacandón Jungle to wage a propaganda war, mainly fought via the internet. The

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Zapatistas’ balaclava-clad, pipe-puffing Subcomandante Marcos (a former university professor named Rafael Guillén) rapidly became a cult figure. High-profile conventions against neoliberalism were held,

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international supporters flocked to Zapatista headquarters at La Realidad, 80km southeast of Comitán, 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

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, 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

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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

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up to democratize governance and teach leadership skills, have been hampered by a lack of accountability and continuity, and criticized as excessively bureaucratic. By 2005 Zapatista political influence was slight outside their own enclaves, and many former supporters were disillusioned with the EZLN’s intransigence. Against this backdrop, Marcos announced a

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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

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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 Mexico’s states. The aim was to forge a new leftist political front by making contact with other groups around the country

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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

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of government tourism infrastructure as a nonmilitary means to make inroads into autonomous EZLN communities. Check in on the Zapatistas at www.ezln.org.mx (in Spanish). Further background is available in The Zapatista Reader, an anthology of writers from Octavio Paz and Gabriel García Márquez to Marcos himself, and at SiPaz

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de Ocosingo, between Ocosingo and the Reserva de la Biosfera Montes Azules to the east, form one of the strongest bastions of support for the Zapatistas, and Ocosingo saw the bloodiest fighting during the 1994 uprising, with about 50 rebels killed here by the Mexican army. Orientation & Information Ocosingo spreads east

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Drug trafficking and illegal immigration are facts of life in this border region, and the Carretera Fronteriza more or less encircles the main area of Zapatista rebel activity and support, so expect numerous military checkpoints along the road and from this area to Palenque and Comitán. You shouldn’t have anything

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frame the issue as an environmentally sensitive indigenous group defending their property against invasive settlers. Other communities within the reserve, who provide some of the Zapatista rebels’ strongest support, view it as an obfuscated land grab and pretext for eviction under the guise of environmental protection

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. Zapatista supporters also argue that the settlers are using the forests in sustainable ways, and claim that the government seeks to exploit the forests for bio-

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San Cristóbal has small-plane flights to San Quintín from Comitán Click here and Ocosingo. LAND All overland crossings pass through multiple Mexican army or Zapatista village checkpoints, so keep your passport and tourist permit handy. From Comitán, Transportes Las Margaritas (6a Calle Sur Ote 51) services Las Margaritas (M$15

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and 2pm, or when crammed full. Once you’ve flown to or been driven to San Quintín, Emiliano Zapata’s neighboring village (which is anti-Zapatista and has a large army garrison), look for a track opposite a military complex beside San Quintín’s airstrip. This track leads to the middle

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hotel paying homage to Mexican women in history. Guests can choose from sumptuous rooms named for heroines such as human rights lawyer Digna Ochoa or Zapatista Commander Ramona. Antiques, lush plants and all kinds of interesting art create a soothing, creative feel. The 10 rooms on two floors surround a tropical

Pax Technica: How the Internet of Things May Set Us Free or Lock Us Up

by Philip N. Howard  · 27 Apr 2015  · 322pp  · 84,752 words

Wars Only Bots Will Fight The Political Empire of Connected Things 2. Internet Interregnum Discovering the UglyGorilla Devices of Hope The Demographics of Diffusion The Zapatistas Reboot History From Gold to Bits States Don’t Own It, Though They Fight Hard to Control It A New Kind of New Order But

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around the world. I’ve interviewed tech-savvy activists, privacy gurus, and government censors. My first investigations took me to Chiapas to meet with the Zapatistas and learn about their internet strategies in 1994. More recently, I traveled to Russia to meet with Putin’s nationalist youth organizers to learn about

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widely available over digital networks. Within only a few years, idealistic new social movements like the Zapatistas were using the internet to advertise their struggle and build international audiences. Twenty-five years after the Zapatista Rebellion, many popular uprisings for democracy and homespun activist campaigns were marshaling social media for political change

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. Political elites were using digital media too, and the first bots went to war for their political masters. The Zapatistas had organized offline, found the internet, and used it effectively for propaganda. Movements like the Arab Spring were being born digitally.1 They were organized

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reshaped by the next two billion users. What will the internet look like after young people in Tehran, Nairobi, and Guangzhou reshape its content? The Zapatistas Reboot History In the hushed morning after New Year’s Eve celebrations in 1994, hundreds of masked rebels moved through the empty streets of San

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new political order. Even though they hailed from the Lacandon Jungle at the southern tip of Mexico, their well-organized digital-outreach campaign put the Zapatistas into international headlines. If the collapse of the Soviet Union marked the end of the history-making battle between capitalism and state socialism, the

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helped restart history by kicking off the battle over device networks. In 1995 I traveled to Chiapas, Mexico, to meet with the Zapatista insurgents. I wanted to learn about their motivations and their struggle, and to understand why they were having such an unusual impact on international politics.

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By the time I landed in San Cristóbal, the Zapatista Liberation Army was beginning to retreat into the jungle. Their knowledge of the forest gave them an advantage over the Mexican army. San Cristóbal was

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tense but quiet, and it was easy to find people who were sympathetic with the Zapatista cause. I visited one supporter, an ecologist, at his research lab outside the city. The Mexican military had just looted his offices and destroyed his

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the data to be “in the computer.” He thought the ecologist was hiding something, so he ordered his men to destroy all the equipment. The Zapatistas had visited him only two weeks before. They knew the value of data, and they knew how to repurpose satellite coordinates on forest cover for

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what they were looking for. They had brought their own diskettes for copying the data. During that trip I found that the grievances of the Zapatistas were like those of many landless poor in Latin America. They were tired of waiting for land rights, and angry about industrial logging in the

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rainforest. So the Zapatistas used the internet to campaign internationally. Most of their members did not have a dial-up modem. Subcomandante Marcos, the spokesperson and nominal leader, did

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speeches were smuggled out of the jungle, transcribed, and distributed by email. His eloquent, excoriating commentary activated people from around the world, and bound the Zapatistas up in a global conversation about neo liberal reform, social justice, and poverty. The Chiapas95 listservs alerted journalists around the world and kept activists engaged

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the insurgents themselves. The internet was used to coordinate food caravans, and to pass good stories and images to journalists. Zapatista leaders called for “pan, tierra, y liberdad,” and the Zapatistas were the first social movement to go digitally viral. This global attention made it impossible for the Mexican government to put

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stories flowed out of Chiapas. Most important, the compelling narratives of injustice and poverty circumvented the media blockade set up by the Mexican government. The Zapatistas didn’t fully succeed as a social movement, though they now have a Facebook page. They did, however, inspire a host of other social movements

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World Social Forum, and Jubilee 2000 are only a few of the global movements that learned from the example of the Zapatistas’ digital media impact. The online propaganda success of the Zapatistas helped to establish a new set of norms for how political actors communicate and organize. Fifteen years after talking to

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the Zapatistas, I traveled to Tunisia to work as an election observer. A popular uprising there had deposed the longtime dictator, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali. For

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been called the “fourth wave” of popular uprising for democracy.26 Both events are difficult to understand without considering the importance of digital media. The Zapatistas started using the internet after organizing themselves, because they found an international audience there. In contrast, the Arab Spring was born digitally. Both movements attracted

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subsidies—essentially bribes—to keep their restive populations contented and dissidents marginalized. Yet the disenfranchised used the internet to catch political elites off guard. The Zapatistas did not achieve their immediate welfare and land-reform objectives, but they were successful in commanding international attention and did much to dissolve the authority

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of the Arab Spring were successful in toppling multiple dictators, and upsetting the political status quo across an entire geopolitical region. The stories of the Zapatistas and the Arab Spring are not about nationalist fervor inspiring political revolution. They are not about religious fundamentalism. These movements were not particularly Marxist, Maoist

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early 1990s, I argue that device networks have given history a new beginning.27 Two moments of upheaval in international affairs mark the transition. The Zapatistas used the internet to project their plight and demands well beyond the communities of Mexico’s Lacandon Jungle. We’ve just lived through the second

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, and social media now drive political change. A sense of frustration caused a cascade of popular uprisings during the Arab Spring. The organizers behind the Zapatista and Arab Spring movements, twenty years apart and using very different internets, brought about change at home and upended global politics. This may not seem

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Arab Spring bloomed, and Osama bin Laden was caught and killed. And now we have begun linking objects in an internet of things. Between the Zapatista Rebellion and the Arab Spring significant features of political life changed, and a new world order, structured by device networks, emerged. Yet this transition didn

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that they help unmanned probes track their leaders. Lebanon’s Hamas has its own hard lines, which it defends in times of chaos. Even the Zapatistas knew that the first step in their insurgency was to disconnect the information infrastructure leading out of Chiapas. Now, Hezbollah owns its own cyberinfrastructure in

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to increased consumer choice in electronics. Internet Succession: Computers, Mobiles, Things From one of the most politically peripheral corners of Mexico’s Lacandon Jungle, the Zapatistas taught the world how information technology could be used to advance a social cause. More recently, democracy advocates set popular uprisings in motion across an

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entire region of North Africa and the Middle East. The internet involved in each of these social movements was different—the Zapatistas successfully linked their content across webpages and computers. During the Arab Spring, activists relied on mobile phones that spread their content through text messages and

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censorship, 157; programs and systems for, 87, 133–34, 253 Center for Democracy and Technology, 163 Chad, 94 Chávez, Hugo, 92 Chiapas, uprising in. See Zapatistas (Zapatista Liberation Army) Chiapas 95 listservs, 49 Chile, Facebook use in, 122 China: attacking outside networks, 190; attempting open government, 195; bloggers in, 122, 185, 196

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, Guobin, 186 Yeltsin, Boris, 37 youth, attraction of, to digital media, 239–40 YouTube, 8–9, 45; in Turkey, 116; white supremacist videos on, 217 Zapatistas (Zapatista Liberation Army), 38, 47–53, 135, 229 zero-day exploits, 236 Zhang, Haiyan, 177a Zimbabwe, 92; anarchy in, 94; infrastructure deals with China, 114; receiving

The Rough Guide to Mexico

by Rough Guides  · 15 Jan 2022

major national holidays, and, of course, this is the place to hold demonstrations. Over 100,000 people massed here in March 2001 to support the Zapatistas after their march from Chiapas in support of Indigenous people’s rights; in July 2006 the square proved too small to contain the millions of

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changed little between the time of the Conquest and the beginning of the twentieth century. Given its history as an important stronghold of the original Zapatista movement, it was on Tepoztlán that anthropologist Oscar Lewis based his classic study Life in a Mexican Village, in which he traced the effects of

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may sometimes seem, villagers often live at the barest subsistence level, with their lands and livelihoods in precarious balance. These troubles helped fuel the 1994 Zapatista rebellion (see page 500), and although that conflict has long subsided, many of the core issues concerning land use remain unresolved. Now illegal immigration is

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, so it is best to travel during the day – particularly if you are driving – and to use toll roads wherever possible. The legacy of the Zapatista rebellion On January 1, 1994, the day that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) came into effect, several thousand lightly armed rebels calling themselves

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early twentieth-century revolutionary Emiliano Zapata) occupied San Cristóbal de las Casas, the former state capital and Chiapas’ major tourist destination. The Zapatistas declared themselves staunchly anti-globalization, as well as opposed to local efforts by paramilitary groups to force Indigenous people off the land. When the Mexican

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Oaxaca in 2006 making Chiapas seem relatively peaceful. More than twenty years on, the word “Chiapas” is still synonymous with violent revolution, but while the Zapatistas remain nominally “at war” with the Mexican government, the struggle is now largely ideological. The organization still runs its own municipalities, “caracoles”, on land seized

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landowners, and is largely left alone by the government. Tourists have always visited Chiapas with few problems other than delays due to army (and occasional Zapatista) checkpoints. The government is hostile to foreign Zapatista sympathizers, however, as their presence is considered an illegal influence on Mexican politics – so showing obvious

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Zapatista support in Chiapas can potentially lead to deportation. The Chiapas coast Running parallel to the coast about 20km inland, Hwy-200 provides a fast route

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San Cristóbal was designed as a Spanish stronghold against what was an often-hostile Indigenous population – the attack here by Zapatista rebels in January 1994 (see page 500, for more on the Zapatistas) was only the latest in a long series of uprisings. The colonial era It took the Spaniards, led by

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transport operators refuse to observe the time change in summer, preferring la hora vieja – the old time, or, as some savvy marketers have dubbed it, “Zapatista time”. Thankfully most of the city’s historic buildings escaped major damage during the September 2017 earthquake (see page 500) that rocked Chiapas. Plaza 31

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6766. Set around a large courtyard with leather chairs, this meeting place and cultural centre has everything from coffee to waffles, pizzas to quesadillas. The Zapatista sympathies are evident from the quotes from various revolutionaries on the walls and place mats. M$$$$ Trattoria Italiana Dr Navarro 10; http://trattoriaitaliana.com.mx

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expect, it’s not the cheapest place and there is a cover charge. Café Bar Revolución 20 de Noviembre and Flavio Paniagua; 967 678 6664. Zapatista chic is the style at this bar on the pedestrian street. Beers and decent bar food pervade. Happy hour is a generous noon till 7pm

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two hours from Lake Tziscao. If you drive the Frontier Highway, it’s best to do it during daylight hours – there are army checkpoints and Zapatista outposts to contend with, and a chance of robberies. Benemérito, at least three hours from the Lagos de Montebello, is the closest town on the

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of Las Margaritas, 16km northwest, then pick up a truck to San Quintín, about 3–4hr away. This route passes through La Realidad, a celebrated Zapatista stronghold, and may lead to extra hassle at military checkpoints in the area – check with the Comitán tourist office before trying this. By boat A

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kills at least ten thousand people. 1990 Octavio Paz becomes the first Mexican to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. 1992 NAFTA comes into force; Zapatista uprising in Chiapas; Mexican peso crisis (aka the “Tequila crisis”) caused by the sudden devaluation of the currency. 1995 The Colima-Jalisco earthquake kills at

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Chiapas uprising (1994–97) On New Year’s Day 1994, NAFTA took effect and at the same time an armed guerrilla movement known as the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) took control of San Cristóbal de las Casas and four other municipalities in the state of Chiapas. The guerrillas were

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bombing of civilians and the torture and murder of prisoners, particularly in the town of Ocosingo. In the subsequent negotiations the main spokesman for the Zapatistas was Subcomandante Marcos. The balaclava-clad, pipe-smoking guerrilla became a cult hero, his speeches and communiqués full of literary allusions and passionate rhetoric (he

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legislatures, but to this day they have not been fully implemented. For a while relations between the Zapatistas and the government hit a new low, while the remorseless increase of the military presence on the Zapatistas’ perimeter appeared to give the paramilitary groups even greater freedom to operate. This culminated in the

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philosopher (see page 641). John Ross Rebellion from the Roots. A fascinating early account of the build-up to and first months of the 1994 Zapatista rebellion, and still the definitive book on the subject. Ross’s reporting style provides a detailed and informative background, showing the uprising was no surprise

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to the Mexican army. His Zapatistas: Making Another World Possible: Chronicles of Resistance 2000–2006 updated the ongoing saga. Wildlife and environment Les Beletsky Travellers’ Wildlife Guides Southern Mexico. An excellent

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. Enramadas palapa-covered restaurants. EPR Ejército Popular Revolucionario, the Popular Revolutionary Army. Guerrilla group, not allied to the Zapatistas; their first appearance was in Guerrero in 1996. EZLN Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation. Feria fair (market). Finca ranch or plantation. FONART government agency to promote crafts. Fonda

Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire

by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri  · 1 Jan 2004  · 475pp  · 149,310 words

in 1994.102 Like the Intifada, then, the anti-Apartheid struggles straddled two different organizational forms, marking in our genealogy a point of transition. The Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), which first appeared in Chiapas in the 1990s, offers an even clearer example of this transformation: the

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Zapatistas are the hinge between the old guerrilla model and the new model of biopolitical network structures. The Zapatistas also demonstrate wonderfully how the economic transition of post-Fordism can function equally in urban and rural

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territories, linking local experiences with global struggles.103 The Zapatistas, which were born and primarily remain a peasant and indigenous movement, use the Internet and communications technologies not only as a means of distributing their

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, as a structural element inside their organization, especially as it extends beyond southern Mexico to the national and global levels. Communication is central to the Zapatistas’ notion of revolution, and they continually emphasize the need to create horizontal network organizations rather than vertical centralized structures.104 One should point out, of

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course, that this decentered organizational model stands at odds with the traditional military nomenclature of the EZLN. The Zapatistas, after all, call themselves an army and are organized in an array of military titles and ranks. When one looks more closely, however, one can

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see that although the Zapatistas adopt a traditional version of the Latin American guerrilla model, including its tendencies toward centralized military hierarchy, they continually in practice undercut those hierarchies and

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decenter authority with the elegant inversions and irony typical of their rhetoric. (In fact, they make irony itself into a political strategy.105) The paradoxical Zapatista motto “command obeying,” for example, is aimed at inverting the traditional relationships of hierarchy within the organization. Leadership positions are rotated, and there seems to

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be a vacuum of authority at the center. Marcos, the primary spokesperson and quasi-mythical icon of the Zapatistas, has the rank of subcomandante to emphasize his relative subordination. Furthermore, their goal has never been to defeat the state and claim sovereign authority but

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rather to change the world without taking power.106 The Zapatistas, in other words, adopt all the elements of the traditional structure and transform them, demonstrating in the clearest possible terms the nature and direction of

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means to differentiate clearly, for instance, among the groups that the current counterinsurgency theorists mistakenly group together. The counterinsurgency theorists of netwar link together the Zapatistas, the Intifada, the globalization protest movements, the Colombian drug cartels, and al-Qaeda. These diverse organizations are grouped together because they appear to be similarly

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, but in fact they are highly centralized, with traditional vertical chains of command. Their organizational structures are not democratic at all. The Intifada and the Zapatistas, in contrast, as we have seen, do in some respects tend toward distributed network structures with no center of command and maximum autonomy of all

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among resistance movements but not the only or most important one. Such formal differences between, say, the globalization movements and terrorist networks or between the Zapatistas and drug rings, only capture a small fraction of what is really different between them. We have to look not only at the form but

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, however, came when they first looked outside Europe to Mexico. It seemed to them that Subcomandante Marcos and the Zapatista rebellion had grasped the novelty of the new global situation. As the Zapatistas said, they had to walk forward questioning, “caminar preguntando,” in search of new political strategies for the movements. The

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White Overalls thus joined the support groups for the Mexican revolt and Zapata’s white horse became their symbol too. The Zapatistas are famous for their global Internet communication, but the White Overalls were not zombies of the net. They wanted to act physically on the international

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call “diplomacy from below.” Therefore they made several trips to Chiapas. The White Overalls served as part of the European escort service protecting the historic Zapatista march from the Lacandon jungle to Mexico City. They found themselves in the same struggle with the indigenous Mexican population because they were all exploited

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and privatization programs dictated by the IMF, such as the 1979 protests in Jamaica78; and some had targeted regional free trade agreements, such as the Zapatista rebellion, which was born in 1994 in protest of the NAFTA agreement and its negative effects, particularly on the indigenous population in Chiapas. Seattle was

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an instrument to pursue political goals. This subordination of the military to the political is indeed one of the principles of the Zapatistas in Chiapas. In many ways the Zapatistas have adopted the tradition of Latin American guerrilla armies with an ironic twist. They do call themselves an army and have commandantes

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, but they invert the traditional structure. Whereas the traditional Cuban model poses the military leader dressed in fatigues as the supreme political power, the Zapatistas insist that all military activity must remain subordinate, at the service of the political decisions of the community.124 The subordination of violence to politics

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critiques of the reformist, petit-bourgeois nature of the ANC, The ANC and the Liberation Struggle (London: Pluto, 1997). 103 Lynn Stephen explains how the Zapatistas mix local Tzeltal mythology with national icons such as Zapata in Zapata Lives! Histories and Cultural Politics in Southern Mexico (Berkeley: University of California Press

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, 2002), 158-75. 104 On the network nature of the Zapatista organization structure, see Roger Burbach, Globalization and Postmodern Politics (London: Pluto, 2001), 116-28; Fiona Jeffries, “Zapatismo and the Intergalactic Age,” in Roger Burbach, Globalization

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and Postmodern Politics, 129-44; and Harry Cleaver, “The Zapatistas and the Electronic Fabric of Struggle,” in John Holloway and Eloína Paláez, eds., Zapatista! (London: Pluto, 1998), 81-103. 105 The style of Subcomandante Marcos’s writings—at once playful and militant—is

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the best example of how the Zapatistas make irony into a political strategy. See Subcomandante Marcos, Our Word Is Our Weapon (New York: Seven Stories, 2001). 106 See John Halloway, Change the

Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest

by Zeynep Tufekci  · 14 May 2017  · 444pp  · 130,646 words

1997, through contacts made online, I arranged to attend an “Encuentro”—an encounter, a physical meeting of activists from around the globe—called by the Zapatistas, an indigenous rebel group in the southern Mexican highlands. They had begun their rebellion on the very day the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA

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as a social scientist, a technologist, and a participant. I lived through, observed, or studied the impacts of digital technologies on movements ranging from the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas in 1994 to the anti–World Trade Organization (WTO) protests that rocked Seattle and surprised the world in 1999 and the tumultuous

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past and antecedents, and many dynamics that predate them, but the start of this book’s analysis with the Zapatista solidarity networks is not just an accident of my personal history. The Zapatista solidarity networks marked the beginning of a new phase, the emergence of networked movements as the internet and digital

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keeps coming up: “How do you think this will end?” I say that I do not know. In the mountains of Chiapas, I learned a Zapatista saying: “Preguntando caminamos.” It means “we walk while asking questions.” It is in that spirit that I present this book. INTRODUCTION ON FEBRUARY 2, 2011

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’s affordances—what a given technology facilitates or makes possible—have changed greatly during the past two decades.3 When I showed up at a Zapatista-organized “Encuentro” in the 1990s, for example, many people greeted me with surprise that I was not “Mr. Zeynep.” Our main communication tool was e

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focus on participation and horizontalism—functioning without formal hierarchies or leaders and using a digitally supported, ad hoc approach to organizing infrastructure and tasks. The Zapatista Encuentro lasted a week, during which friendships formed around the self-organized functioning of the camp where it took place. Plurality, diversity, and tolerance were

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celebrated and were nicely expressed in the Zapatista slogan “Many yeses, one no.” There was a general reluctance to engage in traditional, institutional politics, which were believed to be ineffective and, worse, irredeemably

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Egypt, and for the rest of the world, things would never be the same again. 2 Censorship and Attention CURIOUS ABOUT THE CLAIM THAT THE ZAPATISTAS, an uprising of indigenous peasants in southern Mexico, were using the internet in new and impressive ways, I traveled in 1997 to the mountainous regions

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, including protests. For example, in the Gezi Park protests in 2013, I ran into a friend from Ireland whom I had first met in the Zapatista solidarity networks of the 1990s, when we had both traveled to events in countries other than our own. We had kept in touch over the

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for, belonging in protest is not an aberration; it is an integral part of the reasons that people protest and rebel. Once while visiting insurgent Zapatista villages in the Chiapas mountains during the 1990s, I attended a service in a village that had been occupied by indigenous people after the

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Zapatista rebellion. On Sundays, they met in their churches—huts with mud floors and wooden benches. The lay priest, a Mayan villager, opened the Bible and

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diversity are explicitly sought and celebrated, and understanding “the other” through an empathic moment of rebellion is a core value. Almost two decades ago, the Zapatistas, indigenous rebels in Chiapas, Mexico, whose global visibility, outreach, and organizing efforts arguably mark the beginning of the current wave of post-internet networked protests

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on the Metro at 10pm, a peasant without land, a gang member in the slums, an unemployed worker, an unhappy student and, of course, a Zapatista in the mountains. Marcos is all the exploited, marginalized, oppressed minorities resisting and saying “Enough.” He is every minority who is now beginning to speak

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. Everything that makes power and the good consciences of those in power uncomfortable—this is Marcos.27 In the spirit of Marcos’s statement, the Zapatistas organized an “Encuentro” against “neoliberalism” and for “humanity” and invited activists from all over the world. I heard about it on the internet, which had

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just come to Turkey. I saw the Zapatistas’ call and, intrigued, traveled to such an “Encuentro,” where, as I mentioned earlier, I heard another Zapatista slogan that I would recognize over the next decade in many other movements: “Many yeses, one no

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phrase , as you know from the preface, I had heard almost two decades earlier in the mountains of Chiapas from the indigenous peasants of the Zapatista rebellion: “Preguntando caminamos” or “Asking, we walk”—we make our path, questioning it as we go along. I first thought that she had consciously evoked

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the phrase, but then I realized that she might have been too young to have known any details about the Zapatistas. I was about to bring it up, but then I changed my mind. It was important to learn from the past, no doubt. But maybe

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, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2010-12-20/political-power-social-media. Chapter 2. Censorship and Attention 1. I concluded that it was not the Zapatistas themselves but the solidarity networks in more developed countries, especially in North America, that were using the newly emergent digital tools to organize in support

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of the Zapatistas. The North American network consisted of many groups that had organized to stop NAFTA and had failed, and the Zapatistas had launched their own uprising the very day NAFTA had gone into effect. A group

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that had just lost had thus found a cause and sprung into action. The Zapatistas were significant because they were a movement in the internet era, not because they themselves were heavy (or even light!) internet users. 2. As I

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‘Killed Almost 900 Protesters in 2011 in Cairo,’” Guardian, March 14, 2013. 27. Subcommandante Marcos from comunicado del 28 de mayo de 1994 of the Zapatistas: “El Viejo Antonio: ‘En la montaña nace la fuerza, pero no se ve hasta que llega abajo,’” http://palabra.ezln.org.mx/comunicados/1994/1994

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self-expression in, 88–90, 111 summary of goals in, 101–2 of Tahrir Square protests, 83, 84, 85–86, 93, 99, 102, 105 of Zapatista protests, 85, 94, 109–10 “cute cat theory” of activism, 20 “Cyberspace Independence Declaration” (Barlow), 130, 131 DDOS (denial of service attacks), 273–74 Dean

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, 220 Loomio, 276 Luther, Martin, “95 Theses,” 262 Macedonia, false news generated in, 265–66 Magic Recs, 129 March on Washington, 62, 66–70 Marcos (Zapatista protest leader), 109–10 mass media: attention awarded by, 30–31, 35, 124, 204–5, 208, 210–15 capacity signaling affected by, 194, 198, 204

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medical care, organizational coordination of, 50, 52, 53–60, 68 memes, political criticism via, 45, 111–12 Mexico: mobile revolution and internet access in, 29 Zapatista protests and culture in, 28, 85, 94, 109–10, 277, 283n1 mic checks, culture of protest and use of, 95–100 Microsoft, censorship by, 153

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–75 YouTube: attention garnered via, 270 content governance and restrictions on, 146, 147–48 demonizing, 242 platform expansion, 134 speed of news aggregation via, 29 Zapatista protests and culture, 28, 85, 94, 109–10, 277, 283n1 Zuckerberg, Mark, 140, 142

A Paradise Built in Hell: Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster

by Rebecca Solnit  · 31 Aug 2010

is that one contemporary revolutionary has remarked, “The means are the end.” A Carnival of Revolution That aforementioned revolutionary was Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos of the Zapatistas. Perhaps the greatest melding of carnival, disaster, and revolution came with Mexico’s next round of masked heroes, indigenous revolutionaries from the southeastern mountains and

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jungles of Mexico, the Zapatistas. It is hard to say what the disaster was. It was the 501 years of colonialism, extermination, and discrimination against the indigenous people of the

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1994. Simply surviving with much of their culture intact was already a struggle and a form of resistance for the indigenous peoples who became the Zapatistas. The uprising was not the first uprising in these communities, and yet it was unlike anything the world had ever seen before. A little more

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than eight years after the earthquake, the Zapatistas made their presence known with a traditional armed insurrection in which they seized six towns in Chiapas, including the old capital city, San Cristóbal de

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fire and the word,” the fire being armed revolution, the word being the spread of ideas and conversations—nonviolent social change. They were the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, the Zapatista National Army of Liberation, taking their name from the revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata (1879-1919). From the beginning the

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Zapatistas wore masks, mostly ski masks, though some appear in bandannas. They served the same purpose they always have for outlaws and rebels—and revelers—the

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protection of identity, but as the years wore on they became a costume of anonymity, making the Zapatistas everyone and no one, like Zorro and Super Barrio. All the comandantes, male and female, and nearly all the rest of the

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Zapatistas were indigenous, but one taller, paler figure stuck out, Subcomandante Marcos, whose manifestos, missives, and parables grew into a marvelous new literature combining political analysis,

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poetic language, anecdote, and humor. He often spoke for the Zapatistas and drew from their lore and worldview, but he contributed his own humor and verve. His “real” identity became an obsession of journalists after the

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woman on the metro at 10:00 p.m., a celebrant on the zócalo, a campesino without land, an unemployed worker . . . and of course a Zapatista in the mountains of southeastern Mexico.” This gave rise to the carnivalesque slogan “Todos somos Marcos” (“We are all Marcos”), just as Super Barrio claims

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to be no one and everyone. Though deeply rooted in indigenous tradition, the Zapatista revolution was a brand-new realization of what revolution could be. The revolutionaries spoke to a global civil society coming into being, sending out dispatches

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Internet that quickly spread and were translated. Laura Carlsen, who moved to Mexico after the 1985 earthquake to work with the unionizing seamstresses, says, “The Zapatista movement proved the power of language to weave global webs of resistance at the same time that it rejected the language of power. Unlike previous

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revolutionary movements, they did not announce plans to take power and install a new state. . . . The Zapatistas have deepened their commitment to building alternatives from the grassroots rather than controlling, competing for, or often even confronting the formal power of the state

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. Building autonomy is central to this process. Before the Zapatista uprising, the Mexican indigenous movement had already formulated a concept of autonomy that focused on recuperating traditional forms of self-government in the community.” If

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the Zapatistas arose from many long disasters, the society they created in their autonomous regions of Chiapas and that they propose in their globally circulated slogans and

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role in their societies. Such a society will never arrive as a jubilee, a perfect state, but it has come closer in recent years. The Zapatistas had their revolutionary carnival, and the world fell in love with them, but then came the long, hard job of making a revolution of everyday

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for it.” 179 “Marcos is gay”: Subcomandante Marcos, in The Speed of Dreams: Selected Writings 2001-2007 (San Francisco: City Lights Books, 2007). 179 “The Zapatista movement proved the power”: Laura Carlsen, “An Uprising Against the Inevitable: An Americas Policy Program Special Report,” http://americas.irc-online.org/am/3217/. 180

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Wilkerson, Robert King Winfrey, Oprah Winstanley, Gerard Women of the Storm Woolf, Virginia Wordsworth, William Wright, Colonel Ann Yemen, Young, Cathy Zambrano, Maria Georgiana Lopez Zapatistas Zimmerman, Dave

Fear Is Just a Word: A Missing Daughter, a Violent Cartel, and a Mother's Quest for Vengeance

by Azam Ahmed  · 26 Sep 2023  · 483pp  · 129,263 words

city of Nuevo Laredo, in Tamaulipas. The same year NAFTA came into effect, there was an armed uprising in the south of Mexico by the Zapatistas, a group of poor—and poorly armed—indigenous villagers fed up with the indignity of corruption and the indifference of politicians. Though the movement was

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the extraordinary violence to come as Mexico transitioned toward democracy. Smith, The Dope, 366–367. GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT an armed uprising The Zapatistas numbered some three thousand in all. They stormed town halls and government buildings in the southern state of Chiapas, igniting an insurrection that was far

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a group of Mexican Special Forces soldiers trained in counterinsurgency to hunt the insurgents down in the jungles of Chiapas. The soldiers killed thirty-four Zapatistas, in what the guerrilla leaders claimed was extrajudicial murder. The troops accused of the summary killings hailed from the same Mexican Special Forces that would

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eventually join the Gulf Cartel as part of their armed wing, the Zetas. Pablo González Casanova, Los Zapatistas del Siglo XXI (Siglo del Hombre Editores, CLACSO, 2009), 239; Hermann Bellinghausen, “Zapatistas, una transformación de 25 años,” Revista de la Universidad de México, April 2019, https://www.revistadelauniversidad.mx/​articles/​86c78d97

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-8a18-4088-bdde-0f20069ec0ef/​zapatistas-una-transformacion-de-25-anos; Proceso, “Identifica el EZLN a militares que asesinaron a zapatistas en el 94,” February 14, 2004, https://www.proceso.com.mx/​nacional/​2004/​2/14/​identifica-el-ezln

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-militares-que-asesinaron-zapatistas-en-el-94-56495.html. The Zapatistas, led by a charismatic commander, Sub Comandante Marcos, captured hearts and minds all the way to Europe, but not much else. Alberto Nájar, “Las

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3 vidas del subcomandante Marcos, el personaje más emblemático del movimiento zapatista, que cumple en México 25 años,” BBC News, December 31, 2018, https://www.bbc.com/​mundo/​noticias-america-latina-46657842. GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN

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alcalde en Tamaulipas,” August 30, 2010, https://www.bbc.com/​mundo/​america_latina/​2010/​08/​100830_0426_mexico_asesinato_alcalde_hidalgo_tamaulipas_jg. Bellinghausen, Hermann, “Zapatistas, una transformación de 25 años,” Revista de la Universidad de México, April 2019, https://www.revistadelauniversidad.mx/​articles/​86c78d97-8a18-4088-bdde-0f20069ec0ef

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/​zapatistas-una-transformacion-de-25-anos. Berger, Miriam, “Justice for Victims of Violent Crime in Mexico Is Rare. Can Deaths of Nine Mormons Change That?” Washington

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Gerardo, “Matamoros de ayer y hoy,” Frontera de Tamaulipas, December 2012, https://www.periodicofronteradetamaulipas.com/​2012/​12/​un-reencuentro-historico.html. González Casanova, Pablo, Los Zapatistas del Siglo XXI, Siglo del Hombre Editores, CLACSO, 2009, http://biblioteca.clacso.edu.ar/​clacso/​coediciones/​20150112060638/​12.pdf. Grayson, George W., and Samuel Logan

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, https://elpais.com/​diario/​1996/​01/​16/​internacional/​821746813_850215.html. Nájar, Alberto, “Las 3 vidas del subcomandante Marcos, el personaje más emblemático del movimiento zapatista, que cumple en México 25 años,” BBC News, December 31, 2018, https://www.bbc.com/​mundo/​noticias-america-latina-46657842. ———, “López Obrador gana en México

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.mx/​nacional/​2010/​2/24/​balacera-entre-zetas-el-cartel-del-golfo-cerca-de-matamoros-10824.html. ———, “Identifica el EZLN a militares que asesinaron a zapatistas en el 94,” February 14, 2004, https://www.proceso.com.mx/​nacional/​2004/​2/14/​identifica-el-ezln-militares-que-asesinaron

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-zapatistas-en-el-94-56495.html. ———, “Mata ejercito a ocho sicarios en Tamaulipas,” March 11, 2011, https://www.proceso.com.mx/​nacional/​2011/​3/11/​mata-

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, 167 remains of, 163 Volstead Act, 23, 28, 29, 30 W wiretaps, 235 Y Yazmín (Fany’s sister), 79–80, 178–179, 181, 308 Z Zapatistas, 45–46, 279–280 Zetas. See also individual members after takeover, 58–60, 61 assault on San Fernando by, xxvii–xxxi, xxxiv–xxxv, 52 attempted

Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism

by Peter Marshall  · 2 Jan 1992  · 1,327pp  · 360,897 words

amongst politicians for power and privilege, its call for ‘Land and Liberty’ echoed across the Latin American continent. It has been taken up by the Zapatistas who rebelled in 1994 in Chiapas province and established a democratic form of self-government. Cuba Like Argentina and Uruguay, the anarchists in Cuba exerted

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not only frustration with corrupt politicians but with the principle of government itself. Walking and Questioning It is however the theory and tactics of the Zapatista movement in southern Mexico which have most caught the attention of anarchists. Named after the revolutionary Emiliano Zapata and partly inspired by the anarchist Ricardo

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Flores Magón, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation rose up in 1994 in the poor Chiapas province and demanded the right of the indigenous people in southern Mexico to

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, they practise what they call caminar preguntando (’to walk while questioning’). Although they do not call themselves anarchists, they are democratic in many ways. The Zapatista movement has no fixed leadership, no executive body and no headquarters. Their charismatic spokesman known as Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos –probably the missing professor of philosophy

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of becoming a boss.69 Nevertheless, his self-promotion and courtship of the media seem close to creating a personality cult. The example of the Zapatistas has inspired anti-globalization activists. At the International Encounter for Humanity and against Neoliberalism held in Chiapas in 1996, the participants issued the anarchistic declaration

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from the approach of the ‘Supreme Chief Castro or President Chávez. Ya Basta! groups supporting the Zapatistas have emerged around the world and been involved in setting up the People’s Global Action. The Zapatista struggle for self-determination and resistance against economic dictatorship has been an inspiration throughout the world. Dancing

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no need to despair or feel powerless, for as the ‘velvet revolutions’ in the former Soviet bloc, the self-managing citizens of Argentina and the Zapatista peasants of Chiapas in Mexico have shown, if enough people do not accept those in power they cannot stay there for long. In the meantime

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(3 July 2000) 69 In Bill Weinberg, Homage to Chiapas (Verso, 2002), p. 198. See also Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos, Ya Basta! Ten Years of the Zapatista Uprising, ed. Ziga Vodovnik (Edinburgh: AK Press, 2004) 70 In Subcomandante Marcos, Our Word Is Our Weapon, ed. Juan Ponce de León (New York: Seven

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, Subcomandante, Our Word Is Our Weapon, ed. Juan Ponce de Léon (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2002) Marcos, Subcomandante, Ya Basta! Ten Years of the Zapatista Uprising, ed. Ziga Vodovnik (Edinburgh: AK Press, 2004) Marshall, Peter, Around Africa: From the Pillars of Hercules to the Strait of Gibraltar (London & New York

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. 348, 449 Meslier, Jean 115–17, 122, 431 Messonier, Enrique 514 Meunier, Théodule 438 Mexico: anarchist movement 509–14, 701–2; Revolution 507; see also Zapatistas Michel, Louise 435, 491 Michels, Robert 307 Middle Ages: Christianity 74, 85, 86–95; communities and communes 324; mystical anarchists 85, 95, 382; peasants’ revolts

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Butler x Ylppies 502, 544 Yu-Rim 528 Zabalaya Anarchist Communist Federation 701 Zaccaria, Cesare 452 Zalacosta, Francisco 509–10 Zapata, Emiliano 511–13, 702 Zapatistas 514, 701–2, 704 Zaragoza Congress (1922) 456 Zaragoza Congress (1936) 459, 467 Zen Buddhism 61–5 Zengakuren 526 Zenkoku Jiren 525–6 Zeno of

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Zola, Ernile 491 Zoroaster 86 Die Zukunft 481 Zürich: Congress (1893) 410; Dada movement 440–1 Zwingli, Huldreich 93 22 March Movement 548 WOBBLIES AND ZAPATISTAS Conversations on Anarchism, Marxism and Radical History Paperback | 5″ × 8″ | 300 pages | $20.00 | ISBN: 978-1-60486-041-2 “There’s no doubt that

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human freedom, and coming not a moment too soon.” —DAVID GRAEBER, author of Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology and Direct Action: An Ethnography Wobblies and Zapatistas offers the reader an encounter between two generations and two traditions. Andrej Grubacic is an anarchist from the Balkans. Staughton Lynd is a lifelong pacifist

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and affinity groups of the new Movement. The authors accompany us on a journey through modern revolutions, direct actions, anti-globalist counter summits, Freedom Schools, Zapatista cooperatives, Haymarket and Petrograd, Hanoi and Belgrade, ‘intentional’ communities, wildcat strikes, early Protestant communities, Native American democratic practices, the Workers’ Solidarity Club of Youngstown, occupied

Lonely Planet Cancun, Cozumel & the Yucatan (Travel Guide)

by Lonely Planet, John Hecht and Sandra Bao  · 31 Jul 2013

Artfully prepared tostadas (fried tortillas) with fresh fish and seafood in a cantina -like setting. (Click here) » Tierradentro, San Cristóbal de las Casas Run by Zapatista supporters, this cafe keeps it real with affordable and delicious set meals. (Click here) Dare to Try » Pickled pigs feet, snout and ears in Mérida

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. Click here Regions at a Glance Chiapas Colonial Grace San Cristóbal’s cobbled streets and colonial architecture are charming enough, but add a dash of Zapatista history and colorful indigenous people, and you’ve hit something special. Visit the church in nearby San Juan Chamula – it’s almost magical. Exquisite Temples

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fine city of San Cristóbal de las Casas is at the heart of this region and was once the central bastion for the rebel group Zapatistas, now much less influential than in the 1990s. Chiapas contains swathes of wild green landscape that have nourished its inhabitants for centuries. And nature lovers

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uprisings bore witness to bad government, but the world took little notice until January 1, 1994, when Zapatista rebels suddenly and briefly occupied San Cristóbal de las Casas and nearby towns by military force. (‘Zapatista’ comes from the Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata, whose followers (during the Mexican Revolution in 1910) were known

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as Zapatistas.) The rebel movement, with a firm and committed support base among disenchanted indigenous settlers, used remote jungle

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bases to campaign for democratic change and indigenous rights. The Zapatistas have failed to win any significant concessions at the national level, although increased government funding resulted in improvements in the state’s infrastructure, the development

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water or electricity, and it was frustration over lack of political power and their historical mistreatment that fueled the Zapatista rebellion, putting a spotlight on the region’s distinct inequities. Today the Zapatista movement isn’t nearly as strong as it once was, but its original tenets of rejecting traditional leadership hierarchies

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-10:30pm; ) A popular gathering center for political progressives, laptop-toting locals and international travelers, this large, indoor courtyard restaurant and cafe is run by Zapatista supporters who hold cultural events and conferences on local issues. A delicious menú del día (set lunch; M$65 to M$100) rotates daily, but

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entrance, or to Palenque city. TRAVELING SAFELY IN CHIAPAS In general, Chiapas is a safe place to travel. Many people associate the state with the Zapatistas, but this revolutionary organization has become less influential in the last decade and their main significant uprising occurred in 1994. In any case, tourists are

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not targeted by the Zapatistas. Drug trafficking and illicit immigration are concerns along the border regions with Guatemala, and military checkpoints are frequent on the Carretera Fronteriza along the Guatemalan

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, however, created tensions with other indigenous communities who were forced off their lands and whose own claims were put aside. It also helped create the Zapatista movement, since they saw the Lacandón Jungle as land that belonged to various indigenous communities – and not just the Lacandones. The Lacandones argued that they

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into effect and, lured by jobs in maquiladoras (for-export factories) and tourist towns like Cancún, peasants begin an exodus from the countryside. 1994 The Zapatista uprising starts in Chiapas when rebels take over San Cristóbal de las Casas. They later retreat, but continue to fight to overturn the oligarchy’s

The Coke Machine: The Dirty Truth Behind the World's Favorite Soft Drink

by Michael Blanding  · 14 Jun 2010  · 385pp  · 133,839 words

1 66 THE COKE MACHINE of the hooded revolutionaries in their midst. Finally, their leader identified himself as Subcomandante Marcos. His comrades, he said, were Zapatistas, after the revolutionary peasant leader Emiliano Zapata, and here to de­ mand land and rights for the indigenous people. It was no accident that the

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as a continuation of the policies that had allowed privatization and sale of their land to ranching, mining, and nat­ ural gas interests. While the Zapatistas stemmed from the Marxist revolutionaries once common in Latin America, they didn’t espouse the traditional communist ideology with a top-down command structure. Instead

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Mexico’s notoriously corrupt political structure. After clashes with the army in which several hundred people—mostly Zapatistas—were killed, the group renounced violence. Soon the tourists came back, and in greater numbers, as the Zapatistas became a cause célèbre among lefty activists. Peace was short­ lived, however, as the army raided

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several Zapatista bases, and paramilitary groups staged massacres in several villages known to sympathize with the rebels. When Coca

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-Cola Kid Vicente Fox won the presidential election in 2000, he tried to negotiate with the Zapatistas, compromising on a new law to protect indigenous rights and demilitarize Chiapas. After the law had been weakened, however, Marcos rejected it as a joke

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and the Zapatis­ tas went back to the jungles, where they’ve remained ever since. Strangely enough, while the Zapatistas have fought exploitation by other foreign multinationals—most recently drug companies they accuse of driving them off their land in search of new medicinal plants

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have a way to get rid of Coke,” he once joked. “We will drink every last bottle.” “¡TOMA LO BUENO!” 167 The revolutionary spirit the Zapatistas kicked off, however, has spurred others to take opposition against the Coca-Cola Company, especially in San Cristóbal, where Coke’s presence on Huitepec, the

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sacred mountain of the Maya, is too egregious for some to ignore. Since 2006, Zapatista rebels have manned a “peace camp” on Huitepec to guard its forest against cutting by logging interests. The real opposition to Coke, however, has come

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-hundredths of a cent . . . “Nothing”: Jordan, 134–135. Page 165 wearing black ski masks: Mihalis Mentinis, Zapatistas: The Chiapas Revolt and What It Means for Radical Politics (London: Pluto, 2006). Page 166 Subcomandante Marcos . . . several Zapatista bases: Mentinis, 20; Worth H. Weller, Conflict in Chiapas: Understanding the Modern Mayan World (North Manchester

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. London: Kogan Page, 2003. Haig, Matt. Brand Royalty: How the World’s Top 100 Brands Thrive & Survive. London: Kogan Page, 2004. Hayden, Tom, ed. The Zapatista Reader. New York: Nation Books, 2001. Hays, Constance L. The Real Thing: Truth and Power at the Coca-Cola Company. New York: Random House, 2004

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-Cola. Mankato, MN: Smart Apple Media, 2000. McQueen, Humphrey. The Essence of Capitalism: The Origins of Our Future. Montreal: Black Rose Books, 2003. Mentinis, Mihalis. Zapatistas: The Chiapas Revolt and What It Means for Radical Politics. Lon­ don: Pluto, 2006 Michaels, David. Doubt Is Their Product: How Industry’s Assault on

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Coca-Cola, 145–47, 158–59, 167–68 health problems in, 158, 159–60 political control of soft drink concessions, 157–58 soda tax, 161 Zapatista rebels, 165–66 See also Coca-Cola FEMSA Meyer, Albert, 87 Michaels, David, 86 Milan, Ariosto, 175, 182–83 Mindus, Dan, 100, 110 Monserrate, Hiram

Central America

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The Democracy Project: A History, a Crisis, a Movement

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Profit Over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order

by Noam Chomsky  · 6 Sep 2011

A Brief History of Neoliberalism

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The Enigma of Capital: And the Crises of Capitalism

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by Alexander R. Galloway  · 1 Apr 2004  · 287pp  · 86,919 words

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