Understanding Zapatista Longevity :: Mexico Economics Politics Zapatista Essays

Understanding Zapatista longevityWhen Mexican President Vincente Fox rode into office on a waving of popular gage in 2000, he inherited the Zapatista rebellion in Chiapas. In 1994, the largely indigenous Zapatista movement began a military driving to protest economic and political disenfranchisement. Vincente Fox claimed that he could solve the Zapatista become in 15 minutes. Like his predecessor, he has failed to solve the problem. How did the Zapatistas achieve such longevity in the confines of the perfect dictatorship?When Mexico entered the international economy, it open itself to global scrutiny. Mexicos trading partners have kept an eye on Mexicos human rights record. Mexico simply could not crush the Zapatista rebellion with an squeeze fist Mexicans and the international community will not accept a genocidal fight in Chiapas (Collier 167). Furthermore, global connections empowered Mexican human rights organizations to exercise more leverage on the Mexican governin g body activity to moderate their repression. The Zapatistas were peculiarly adept at using the internet to voice their demands and to protest the excesses of the Mexican authorities.The Mexican government also faced legal restraints which prevented an all-out war on the Zapatistas. After the uprising 1994 and the government counter-attack in 1995, the federal relation back passed a law for dialogue in 1995. This foreclosed the option of a coloured show of force by the Mexican army in areas downstairs Zapatista control. The jungles of Chiapas also made a complete military victory improbable. The government changed its tactics to end the rebellion, resorting to low intensity war. Paramilitaries with differing levels of tacit and explicit bet on terrorized Zapatistas and their sympathizers. The killings in Acteal in 1997 that claimed the lives of 45 innocent people remains a particularly gruesome example of paramilitary massacres. Most importantly, the Mexican government lots the war of ideas. Though the Mexican government maintained a virtual monopoly of the press, Marcos and the Zapatistsas managed to diffuse their ideas and goals across the country. Though many did not support their violent tactics, the Zapatistas brought attention to the plight of those at the losing end of Mexicos economic globalization, particularly the indigenous groups who were losing both their livehood and their hopes for self-determination (155). Marcos articulate and incisive earn put the government on the moral defense (168). Despite the governments efforts, support for the Zapatistas increased. The government believed it had scored a victory when it revealed in 1994 that Sub-commandante Marcos was in fact a non-indiginours former philosophy student.