OVENTIC, Mexico: Thousands of people gathered in a southern Mexico rebel bastion yesterday to mark the 20th anniversary of the Zapatista movement’s New Year’s Day uprising.
“It is time to strengthen and globalise the resistance and rebellion,” Comandante Hortensia told the crowd at a midnight ceremony in Oventic, a stronghold of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) where people celebrated with song and dance.
Led by the masked subcomandante Marcos, the EZLN emerged in the mountains of Chiapas state on January 1, 1994, sparking a 12-day conflict with the federal government that left dozens of people dead.
A peace pact was signed in 1996 but the Zapatistas’ demand of autonomy for their indigenous communities was never met.
The EZLN has since retreated into their mountain communities where they formed their own autonomous systems covering more than 30 towns, while Marcos has shunned the media.
Chiapas, meanwhile, remains Mexico’s poorest state, with poverty affecting three-quarters of the population.
Commander Hortensia said the EZLN is striving to improve health care, education and government in their communities, which lacked these basic services 20 years ago.
“Our struggle has a just cause and our weapons are resistance, rebellion, truth, justice and reason, which is on our side,” the rebel leader said after the crowd sang the national anthem.
“But Zapatistas must work and organise ourselves more. It’s not just about resistance anymore, but organising the resistence at all levels.” Taking its name from 1910 revolution hero Emiliano Zapata, the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) appeared the same day that the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) came into force.
Many in Mexico at the time desperately feared free trade with the United States would crush traditional lifestyles and
farming.
AFP
