Mexico's Treatment Of The Zapatista Revolutionaries

4 Pages 1018 Words

Mexico’s Treatment of the Zapatista Revolutionaries

The EZLN(Zapatista National Liberation Army) members get their name from the
revolutionary hero Emiliano Zapata who fought in the Mexican Revolution {1910-1921},73
years ago.The remebrance of Emiliano Zapata has faded into the history books . The people who
heired to the betrayers of Zapata are headed by the Institutional Revolutionary Party and
President Ernesto Zedillo. Now, the heirs to Zapata have come back to claim what is rightfully
theirs, which are the rights of having their own land, fair voting rights, and the right to equal
representation within political affairs.
The EZLN is established among the indigenous people who live in and around the jungle
in Lacondona, east of the high plains of Chiapas. Chiapas is a very poor area. 41% of the
population has no running water. 34.9% don’t have electricity. 63% of the people live in one
room houses for large families. 19% of the labour force doesn’t have income and 67% of the
labour force live on only minimum wage. Article 27 promises Land Reform in the constitution,
yet nothing has changed here. Northern Mexico has developed factories and has become more
industrialized, while in the south, it has been left a wilderness. The EZLN fears that NAFTA
(North America Free Trade Agreement will keep Chiapas more isolated and inderdeveloped. The
Zapatista area has around 32 rebel groups who refuse to acknowledge the Mexican or local
government. They send representatives to the council that is in charge of organizing the
rebellion, the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Commitee. This is organized through a
delegate based democracy. Its made up of delegates of from each town. Its responsible for the
politics and organization of the EZLN and its highest power.
“So we decided that there is no way other than to organize and rise up like this in armed
struggle. So we began to organize ourselbes like that, secre...