The Zapatists are a movement in Chiapas, a province of southern Mexico. The name ‘Zapatists’ is derived from Emiliano Zapata, a farmer who led the Mexican farmer’s revolution for ground redistribution in 1910. The whole movement is surrounded by mystery and resistance. It’s leader, subcommandante Marcos, was a graduate in communication and sociology, a marxist intellectual, who had to flee into the Mexican woods because the police were after him. He came into contact with the poor Mexican farmers, and started to understand their miserable situation. In Mexico, the indigenous people (the native, pre-Columbian ‘Indians’: the Maya’s) are still oppressed. They work on land they don’t own themselves, and their culture is suppressed. Subcommandante Marcos started to organize a people’s army: the Ejercito Zapatista de Liberacion National (EZLN), then consisting 3000 members.
On the 1st of January 1994 (the day when NAFTA was officially started), the group took armed control of a number of municipalities in Chiapas. Their demand was clear: the grounds had to become property of the farmers, decent housing, education, public services, food and work for the indigenous people, and legislative recognition of the local social and political institutions and culture.

The Mexican army tried to destroy the EZLN, but the army grew and won more sympathy among the Mexican farmers. From the beginning, the EZLN was completely controlled by the farmers: Marcos called himself subcommandante, as only a mouthpiece of the village councils of local farmers. One of the reasons why all EZLN-members wear ski-masks, is because of a symbolic statement. It means that the movement is actually fighting for every oppressed group in the world: behind the mask, there could be a woman, a black man, a homosexual, a Native American,...

The EZLN grew that strong, that the Mexican government finally had to listen to them. In February 2001, the claims of the EZLN were translated in the Cocopa Law. To enforce the legislative translation, the EZLN decided to make a tour through Mexico, with Mexico City as final destination. The tour was supported by worldwide sympathy.

For more information on the zapatists: http://www.csazapistas.homestead.com/home.html or http://www.zapatistas.org (Spanish site)

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