The EZLN's first public appearence was in San Cristobal de las Casas in 1992 during a large celebration for 500 years of popular struggle by the indigenous against oppression. The Zapatistas marched out of the crowd in military formation armed with traditional bows and arrows and knocked down the statue of conquistador Diego de Mazariegos that was located in the central plaza.
In 1994 the EZLN captured four cities/towns in the Los Altos region of Chiapas along with several hundred ranches. The cities are San Cristobal de las Casas(named after Bartolome de las Casas), Las Margaritas, Altamirano, and Ocosingo. All of this happened within the first few hours of the New Year. The military conflict lasted only a short time (12 days) before a cease fire was signed on January 12, 1994. The conflict put a spotlight on the miserable condition of the indigenous in Chiapas, and around the world.
The indigenous of Mexico have suffered 500 years of oppression by foreign invaders. In that time they have been exploited and kicked off the land that was originally theirs. An empire has been built on the graves of these people. The oppressors have electricity, food, running water, and health care while the majority of Mexico, especially in Chiapas, die on a regular basis because of a lack of these things. 70% of the people in Chiapas are without electricity, 34% nation wide are without electricity, 67% live on or below the minimum wage, 41% live without running water , and the statistics continue. So in the First Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle the EZLN said "Ya Basta!"(enough is enough).
The reasons behind the EZLN's revolt were clearly defined in the First Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle where the Zapatistas called for: "work, land, housing, food, health care, education, independence, freedom, democracy, justice and peace." The EZLN is comprised mostly of indigenous from Chiapas, but is a national movement ment to inspire other civil groups in Mexico.
The EZLN has its roots in the resistence groups of the 70's and 80's. Subcommandante Insurgente Marcos, the leader of the armed Zapatistas, says that he gets his orders from the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee - General Command( CCRI-CG). The CCRI-CG is a council that makes decisions that is located in the towns that are the support bases of the EZLN. The EZLN recognizes that violence is not the only way to achieve their goals. "We don't see the armed struggle in the classical sense of the earlier guerillas, which is to say, the armed struggle as the only road, as a single all-powerful truth by means of which everything is held together. Since the beginning we've always seen the armed struggle as part of a series of processes or forms of struggle that will be changing. Sometimes one form is more important and sometimes another."(Marcos)
Marcos immediately gained celebrity status after the first strikes by the EZLN in the first days of 1994. He is viewed as a "Robin Hood" figure by many peasants. Marcos may have been involved in the National Liberation Forces(FLN). The Mexican government says that Marcos is an alias of Rafael Sebastian Guillen who was supposedly a college professor from Tampico. Marcos mocked this revelation but did not deny it. Marcos said: "Marcos is gay in San Francisco, black in South Africa, an Asian in Europe, a Chicano in San Ysidro, an anarchist in Spain, a Palestinian in Israel, a Mayan Indian in the streets of San Cristobal, a jew in Germany, a gypsy in Poland, a Mohawk in Quebec, a pacifist in Bosnia, a single woman on the Metro at 10:00 P.M., a peasent without land, a gang member in the slums, an unemployed worker, an unhappy student and, of course, a Zapatista in the mountains."
Many things have happened since New Year's day. On February 9, 1995 the Mexican federal army mounted a huge invasion into Zapatista zones of control using a strategy of civilian targeted warfare. All of this followed a report issued in January of that year by the Chase Manhattan Bank asking the Mexican government to "eliminate the Zapatistas." The Zapatistas retreated deeper into the Jungle. In April of 1995 peace talks resumed. In 1996 the Zapatistas held the first Intercontinental Encuentro for Humanity and Against Neoliberalism. Many thousand people attended this meeting. In 2001 the Zapatistas led a march from San Cristobal de las Casas to Mexico city following the route taken by Emiliano Zapata in 1914. The EZLN wanted the Mexican government (now under the leadership of Vicente Fox) to approve the San Andres Accords signed by the EZLN and the government in February of 1996. Despite the mass support for the bill it was passed with major modifications to the original form. The Zapatistas said that the law was inconsistent with the original Accords and left Mexico City to return to Zapatista controlled land in Chiapas.
Vicente Fox has been proven wrong in his promise during his campaign for presidency to end the conflict in Chiapas in "fifteen minutes."
The Zapatistas have been in silence for a good deal of time now. Many people think that the rebellion has fizzled out but these long silences have happened before. As the Fourth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle says; "The flower of the word will not die. The masked face which today has a name may die, but the word which came from the depth of history and the earth can no longer be cut by the arrogance of the powerful. We were born of the night. We live in the night. We will die in her. But the light will be tomorrow for others, for all those who today weep at the night, for those who have been denied the day, for those for whom death is a gift, for those who are denied life. The light will be for all of them. For everyone everything. For us pain and anguish, for us the joy of rebellion, for us a future denied, for us the dignity of insurrection. For us nothing." Viva EZLN!