BACKGROUND: In 1524-27 Spaniards conquer the Mayan people—who had lived since the start of history in and around what is now called Chiapas, Mexico. By the late 1500s the Mayan population is cut in half through disease and repression. Centuries of virtual slavery at the hands of local elites, international "traders," and dictators are challenged in the 1910-1920 Mexican Revolution, with Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa among the war heroes. But in 1928 the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) begins its 71-year hold on power through force and fraud.

From 1940-1970, as cattle ranchers press for land from a booming indigenous population, over 100,000 indigenous people are forced to migrate into the Lacandon Jungle of Chiapas. Over 50,000 more Indians are forced into large cities or the Lacandon Jungle for resisting local power structures, in the decade following the 1968 massacre of hundreds of protesting students in Mexico City. In 1982, the new governor of Chiapas dramatically increases the militarization to control land struggles—overrunning 54 communities and evicting, imprisoning, and killing hundreds.

MARCOS: We are a product of five hundred years of struggle: first, led by insurgents against slavery during the War of Independence with Spain; then to avoid being absorbed by North American imperialism; then to proclaim our constitution and expel the French empire from our soil; later when the people rebelled against Porfirio Diaz’s dictatorship, which denied us the just application of the reform laws, and leaders like Villa and ZapataI emerged, poor men just like us who have been denied the most elemental preparation so they can use us as cannon fodder and pillage the wealth of our country. They don’t care that we have nothing, absolutely nothing, not even a roof over our heads, no land, no work, no health care, no food or education, not the right to freely and democratically elect our political representatives, nor independence from foreigners. There is no peace or justice for ourselves and our children. But today we say: ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

BACKGROUND: In 1983 Marcos and other activists arrive in Chiapas to create a guerrilla force. The Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) is born on November 17 with three indigenous and three mestizos. Three years later, the EZLN enters its first indigenous community at the invitation of local leaders, and the EZLN learn as much about democratic communal decision making as they teach about armed self-defense. Three years after that, the EZLN has grown to over 1,300 armed members. The political arena is no alternative--in 1988 the populist opposition presidential candidate Cuauhtemoc Cárdenas is ahead when vote-counting computers suddenly "crash" and the PRI candidate, Carlos Salinas, is declared the winner. In 1992 Salinas "reforms" Article 27 of the Mexican Constitution, ending all hopes for land reform and facilitating privatization of ejidos (land held collectively by the indigenous—hard won by revolutionaries such as Zapata and Villa). The next year, Zapatista communities approve a military offensive by the EZLN and appoint the group of "commandantes" and "subcommandantes" to lead the struggle.

MARCOS: This revolution will not end in a new class, faction of a class, or group in power. It will end in a free and democratic space for political struggle born above the fetid cadaver of the state-party system and the tradition of fixed presidential successions. … In this new political relationship, different political proposals (socialism, capitalism, social democracy, liberalism, Christian democracy, and so on) will have to convince a majority of the nation that their proposal is the best for the country. The groups in power will be watched by the people in such a way that they will be obligated to give a regular accounting of themselves, and the people will be able to decide whether they remain in power or not. The plebiscite is a regulated form of confrontation among the nation, political parties, and power, and it merits a place in the highest law of the country.

BACKGROUND: NAFTA is implemented on January 1, and that day 3,000 armed EZLN members occupy six large towns and hundreds of ranches. By the next day the Mexican army responds, bombing indigenous communities and killing at least 145 indigenous people. Mexicans nationwide demonstrate for an end to military repression, and a cease-fire is declared on January 12.

MARCOS: At dawn on the fifteenth we were going to drink our urine. … We decided to take a sip, all at the same time, to see what would happen. I don’t know who began the "concert," but almost immediately we all began to vomit what we had ingested, and also what we hadn’t. We were left even more dehydrated, prostrate on the ground, like dunces, stinking of urine. … Hours before sun up, a sudden rain washed over us, alleviating our thirst … we reached the outskirts of a small village. Camilo went to ask for something to eat. He returned with a little fried pork, hard and cold. … In a few minutes the cramps began. The diarrhea was memorable. We were strewn at the foot of a small wooded hill. A federal troops patrol passed us by a mere 500 meters away. They didn’t find us because God is grand. The smell of shit and urine could be smelled kilometers away.

MARCOS: Capitán Insurgente Laura is a Tzotzil woman. Fierce in battle and fiercely committed to learning and teaching, Laura becomes the captain of a unit composed only of men, all novices. … No one carries as much or walks as far as she does. She carries in her hands a carbine that she has taken from a policeman, he who only saw someone to humiliate or rape as he gazed upon her, an indigenous woman. After surrendering, the policeman ran away in his shorts, the same one who until that day believed that women were only useful when pregnant or in the kitchen . . .

BACKGROUND: The Mexican peso loses more than half its value. The U.S. and the International Monetary Fund bail out rich speculators with $50 billion, but that does not reverse plummeting employment and living standards for workers. Chase Manhattan Bank issues a report calling for the Mexican government to "eliminate the Zapatistas"—which by now consist of dozens of communities and over 50,000 civilians. On February 9, the army massively invades Zapatista areas of influence, eventually bringing over 60,000 troops to Chiapas, displacing 20,000 campesinos and disrupting Indigenous life. In August the Zapatistas hold the first international consulta. Over 1,000,000 people vote, calling on the EZLN to transform into a new independent political force.

’96 "AGREEMENT" ...

’97 ACTEAL MASSACRE ...

Behind us, you are us.
Behind our masks is the face of all excluded women,
Of all the forgotten individuals,
Of all the persecuted homosexuals,
Of all the despised youth,
Of all the beaten migrants,
Of all those imprisoned for their words and thoughts,
Of all the humiliated workers,
Of all those dead from neglect,
Of all the simple and ordinary men and women,

’98 DISMANTLING ...

’99 THE PEOPLE SPEAK ...

’00-’01 A SLY FOX ...