An independent indigenous candidate to mobilize the dispossessed
2017 Febrero México
This year began in Mexico with growing waves of discontent among much of the population with the “gasolinazo”: a huge hike in fuel, electricity...

It’s going to be a long struggle
2016 Febrero México
Mexico’s economic, political and social situation has gone from bad to worse. This year opened with aNew York Times editorial criticizing the...

What do you learn at the Zapatista School?
2014 Abril México
In the middle of last year the Zapatistas invited people to participate in what they called “the Zapatista School.” The quota planned for August—1,500...

Zapatistas Organize the First Global Festival of Dignified Rage
2009 Enero México
Last September, the Zapatistas announced that they were making preparations to hold the First Global Festival of Dignified Rage. Given the intention...

All Powers Against Zapatista Autonomy
2008 Agosto México
Mexico’s oppressing powers want to stop Zapatista autonomy from surviving and propagating. The illegitimate presidential power of the National Action...

The “Other Campaign” Is Forging a Path for New Ideas
2006 Mayo México
The political moment in Mexico could not be more troubling. Security forces repress striking workers, leaving several dead and wounded. The avoidable...

What are the Zapatistas Seeking With Their “Other Campaign”?
2006 Enero México
In January 2006, Mexico’s presidential candidates officially kicked off their campaigns, after spending millions of dollars on their primaries and unofficial...

“The Other Campaign” of “Those at the Bottom”
2005 Noviembre México
In late June 2005, the Zapatistas issued the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Forest, in which they laid out where their movement has come, how they...

The Zapatistas’ New Face: Towards a Social Left
2005 Agosto México
The Mexican anti-neoliberalism movements that focused their efforts on trying to prevent privatization of the electricity and oil industries between...

The Colors of Chiapas
2004 Noviembre México
I had closely followed the Zapatistas’ statements, proposals and projects ever since they burst onto the world’s political stage in 1994. Now I was...

The President and the EZLN Issue Their Reports
2004 Octubre México
owards the end of the summer, two reports showed Mexicans two different ways to address the country’s basic problems and two radically different projects...

Caracoles: Happy Birthday to You!
2004 Septiembre México
On January 1, 2004, people in Chiapas as well as other parts of the world celebrated the tenth anniversary of the Zapatista uprising and the twentieth...

Good-Government Committees: A New Stage for the Zapatistas
2003 Noviembre México
Just when everyone thought the Zapatista movement had run out of steam, the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) reemerged in July to announce...

Zapatista Chiaroscuro: The Risk of Sectarianism
2003 Abril México
The United States has forced a unilateral, illegal, unjust, genocidal invasion on the world, and countless innocent victims will pay the cost. In response,...

The Zapatistas Break their Silence
2003 Enero México
Ever since the Mexican legislative branch passed an Indigenous Law that failed to honor the San Andrés accords, the Zapatista high command and its spokesperson...

A State Denying Its Roots: Ten Million Indigenous People
2002 Octubre México
When President Fox took office, his government appeared to be interested in resolving the conflict in Chiapas. Within months, it sent Congress a bill...

How Wide Will the War on Terrorism Cast its Net?
2001 Octubre México
While the world massively repudiated the barbaric terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, a desire for revenge followed shock and pain among the...

The Puebla-Panama Plan and the Indigenous Law: Cut from the Same Cloth
2001 Agosto México
Mexico is bumbling forward without a clear course. As internal divisions and wounds deepen, President Vicente Fox appears less concerned about reality...

Peace in Chiapas: The Curse of Sisyphus?
2001 Junio México
Sisyphus was condemned to push a huge boulder to the top of a hill. When, after enormous effort, he was finally on the verge of completing his task,...

The Indigenous Law: A Mocking Step Backwards
2001 Mayo México
At the end of April, the Mexican Senate and House of Representatives passed a law on indigenous rights and culture. Around the world, people sympathizing...

Two Sketches of the Zapatista March
2001 Abril México
The Zapatistas reached Milpa Alta in the hills surrounding Mexico City on March 8, under a full moon. They came from Anenecuilco, the land where Emiliano...

Fox and the Zapatistas: Clearing the Path to Peace
2001 Enero México
Between his victory in Mexico’s July 2000 elections and his inauguration on December 1, President-elect Vicente Fox was wont to define his incoming administration...

Alliances, Students And Chiapas: All Talks Aborted
1999 Octubre México
During the summer of 1999, Mexicans bore witness to the similar fates of three proposed talks that never came about, as the country's pressing need for...

Government’s Armor, People’s Awakening
1999 Agosto México
Several important and interconnected processes took place in Mexico in June and July. First, the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) continued...

Zapatista Consultation of Universal Value
1999 Abril México
March 21, 1999 will be inscribed in Mexican history as the date the Zapatistas consulted Mexican society. It is worth setting the immediate context of...

The Pope, Poverty and Chiapas
1999 Enero México
The main motive of Pope John Paul II's trip to Mexico in January 1999 was to present the conclusions of the Synod of the Americas, held in Rome at the...

Masks, Silences and Winds from Below
1998 Agosto México
"It is necessary to demand of the public man, especially the politician, that he possess public virtues, all of which can be summed up in one: loyalty...

After Our Silence
1998 Agosto México
Brothers and Sisters: We are clear that our rightful and undeniable place in the great Mexican Nation is only one part of the struggle for democracy,...

A War Between Indigenous Memory and Government Amnesia
1998 Abril México
Ever since the uprising of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) on January 1, 1994, Mexican society has turned its eyes to "deep Mexico." The...

Blood in Chiapas, Economic Recovery And the Asian Crisis
1998 Febrero México
The indigenous massacre by the Red Mask group in the Acteal municipality of Chenalho, Chiapas on December 22, 1997, leaving 45 Tzotziles dead and 25...

Church-State: Reviewing the History
1998 Enero México
It is no coincidence that the most authoritarian Vatican representative in Mexico's history, Girolamo Prigione, collaborated so closely with one of Mexico's...

What's Behind the EPR Guerrillas?
1996 Octubre México
Mexico's social crisis is quickly catching up with its economic and political ones. The rock bottom issues the country is facing today require rigorous...

It's a Frontal War
1996 Agosto México
A new guerrilla group calling itself the Revolutionary Popular Army (EPR) appeared in Guerrero at the beginning of July. Its stereotypical populist...

The Zapatatistas' Voice Is Still Being Heard
1996 Abril México
"Today, with the heart of Emiliano Zapata and having heard the voices of all our brothers, we call on the people of Mexico to join in a new stage of...

Alarming Signs of a Dirty War
1995 Octubre México
Incidents that took place throughout August in Mexico suggest, even in a preliminary analysis, the questionable way authorities operate to contain political...

At the Edge of War?
1994 Agosto México
As the end of the century that gave birth to Mexico's revolution approaches, the country is being shaken by a political conflict that threatens to become...

The Goverment Turns on the Church of the Poor
1994 Junio México
On April 8, the Mexico City daily newspaper Summa declared with much fanfare that Subcomandante Marcos, of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation...

Chiapas and the Crisis of Mexican "Democracy"
1994 Mayo México
On the night of July 6, 1988, then candidate Carlos Salinas de Gortari, concerned about the unanticpated electoral catastrophe his party was facing...

Insurrection in Chiapas... Revolution in Mexico?
1994 Abril México
On New Year's Day 1994, a virtually forgotten state in Mexico rose up in arms, led by a guerrilla force that at first seemed to be spearheading an irrational...