McNair Paper Number 53, Chapter 3, Notes, October 1996

1. On the impact of structural adjustment on Chiapas, see George A. Collier, "Structural Adjustment and New Regional Movements: The Zapatista Rebellion in Chiapas," paper presented at "Ethnic Conflict and Governance in Comparative Perspective," Woodrow Wilson Center, Washington, DC, 15 Nov. 1994. On democratization as cause and resultant of the uprising, see Jonathan Fox, "The Challenge of Democracy: Rebellion as Catalyst," Akwe:kon Journal (Summer 1994): 13-19; and Stephen J. Wager and Donald E. Schulz, The Awakening: The Zapatista Revolt and its Implications for Civil-Military Relations and the Future of Mexico, Washington: Strategic Studies Institute, 1994). For an early analysis by the Mexican government's Secretary of Agrarian Reform, anthropologist Arturo Warman, see "Chiapas Today," 12 January 1994, distributed by the Mexican Embassy in Washington.

2. JosJ Alcina Franch, comp., Indianismo e indigenismo en AmJrica (Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1990), 15.

3. On the movements of the 1970s, see Francoise Morin, ed., Indianidad, etnocidio, indigenismo en Am(rica Latina (Mexico: Insitituto Indigenista Interamericano y Centre d'Etudes Mexicaines et Centramericaines, 1988); Greg Urban and Joel Sherzer, eds., Nation-States and Indians in Latin America (Austin: U. of Texas Press, 1991; and Donna Lee Van Cott, ed., Indigenous Peoples and Democratization in Latin America (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994).

4. Alexis Panagides, "Mexico," in George Psacharopoulos and Harry Anthony Patrinos, eds. Indigenous People and Poverty in Latin America (Washington: World Bank, 1994), 162; Los Indios de M(xico. Los M(s pobres entre los pobres: Las Cifras de la discriminaci(n y la miseria (Mexico City: Frente Independiente de Pueblos Indios(Comit( de Apoyo y Defensa a Los Derechos Indios, N.D.), 4, 7-8.

5. The Maya grouping is the largest (25.2 percent), followed by the Nahua (22.3 percent). While the 1990 Mexican census cites a number of 7.9 percent, the census defines indigenous persons as those speaking an indigenous language, which would exclude a sizable portion of the population. As the Independent Front of Indigenous Peoples (FIPI) points out, this figure suggests that the number of Indians grew only 1.9 percent between 1980 and 1990, a rate 11 times less than that of the population as a whole. FIPI estimates that the indigenous population is three times more than that cited by the census, more than 20 million Mexicans, or around 20 percent. Acording to the Gaia Atlas of First Peoples, the percentage of indigenous people in Mexico is 11 percent. FIPI-CADDIAC, "Los Indios de MJxico", 1-4; Julian Burger, The Gaia Atlas of First Peoples: A Future for the Indigenous World (Anchor Books, Doubleday, 1990), 181-83. For a comprehensive list of the distribution of the country's ethnic groups by state, see Julio C. Tresierra, "Mexico: Indigenous People and the State," in Van Cott, 188-189.

6. After the Mexican Revolution, the government distributed land to Indians and other peasants in the form of community plots called ejidos. While the land belonged to the community and could not be sold or mortgaged, each family farmed its own individual plot.

7. Collier, "Structural Adjustment," 4, 8-11.

8. Rosa Ro(as, "Las comunidades ind(genas se han vuelto apartidistas," El Pa(s(La Jornada, 19 August 1994, 13.

9. The most significant such mobilization in Mexico, in which 10,000 Indians participated, took place in San Crist(bal de las Casas, Chiapas, on Columbus Day, 1992. Also in 1992, hundreds of Indians demanding agrarian reform participated in the Xi'Nich March (March of Ants) from the Maya ceremonial center of Palenque in Chiapas, 700 miles to Mexico City.

10. The revisions of Article 27 allow ejido communities to vote to dissolve the ejido and distribute the land to individual families. On the impact of the reform of Article 27 on Chiapas, see Collier, "Structural Adjustment," and Antonio Garc(a de Le(n, "Los regresos de la historia: Chiapas y la reforma del artRculo 27," Ojarasca 11 (agosto 1993): 20-27.

11. "Interview with Antonio Hernandez Cruz. Maya Tojolabal and Secretary General of the CIOAC," Abya Yala News 8, nos. 1 and 2 (Spring/Summer 1994): 14.

12. Guillermo Bonfil Batalla, ed., "Aculturaci(n e indigenismo," en Indianismo e indigenismo en AmJrica, comp. Jos( Alcina Franch (Madris: Alianza Editorial, 1990), 194-205.

13. Luis Hern(ndez Navarro, "La nueva guerra maya," Enfoque, 9 January 1994, 14-17; Wager and Schultz, 2-3.

14. On the development of independent political organizations in Chiapas in the 1970s, see Juan Gonz(lez Esponda, "Caracterizaci(n del movimiento campesino en Chiapas: 1974-1989," Cuadernos Agrarios 3, Nueva Epoca (September-December, 1991): 96-107; and Luis Hern(ndez Navarro, "La nueva guerra maya," Enfoque, 9 January 1994, 14-17.

15. Araceli Burguete Cal y Mayor, "Chiapas: Maya Identity and the Zapatista Uprising," Abya Yala News 8, nos. 1 and 2 (Spring/Summer 1994): 11.

16. The first, the Central of Independent Agricultural Workers and Campesinos (CIOAC), established in 1977, is a national peasant organization affiliated with the Communist Party that chiefly works to organize farm laborers. The second, National Coordination Plan de Ayala (CNPA) was founded in 1979 to work on agrarian issues. The Chiapan expression of the CNPA is the Emiliano Zapata Campesino Organization (OCEZ), which was founded in the Tzotzil community of Venustiano Carranza in 1982. In 1988 the leader of CIOAC in Simojovel was assassinated, while the following year the leader of OCEZ was murdered. Radical political organizations include Proletarian Line, People United, and the Socialist Workers Party (Wager and Schulz, 2-5).

17. On the economic crisis in Chiapas after 1989, see "La resistencia cafetelera en Chiapas," Campouno, 23 de marzo de 1992, 4-5; and Navarro, 14-17.

18. Collier, "Structural Adjustment," 11. On how the PRI stole the elections see Jonathan Fox, "The Roots of Chiapas," Boston Review, April/May 1994, 25.

19. George A. Collier, "The New Politics of Exclusion: Antecedents to the Rebellion in Mexico," Dialectical Anthropology (Spring, 1994): 13.

20. Ibid., 6-7.

21. Ibid., 5.

22. From interviews with masked EZLN leaders in "No nos dejaron otro camino," La Jornada (19 January 1994); Araceli Burguete Cal y Mayor, "Chiapas: Maya Identity and the Zapatista Uprising," Abya Yala News 8, nos. 1 and 2 (Spring/Summer 1994): 6.

23. See on this point "Preliminary Peace Accord Reached in Chiapas, Mexico," Indian Law Resource Center Newsletter 2, no. 2 (Winter 1994): 1-4.

24. EjJrcito Zapatista de Liberaci\n Nacional, El Despertador Mexicano (1 December 1993), 6.

25. Eugenio Bermejillo, "Indianismo indio," La Jornada del Campo, trans. Van Cott, 25 January 1994, 9.

26. Oscar Camacho Guzm(n, "'Declaraci(n de Guerra' del Ej(rcito Zapatista en Chiapas," El PaRs/La Jornada, 2 January 1994, 8; Warman, 16.

27. David Clark Scott, AMexican Rebels Reject Talks, Vow to Fight to Death for Socialism," Christian Science Monitor, 5 January 1994, 1,8.

28. Warman, 18; "Versi(n de propuesta del EZLN para que se inicie el di(logo," El PaRs/La Jornada, 11 January 1994, 10.

29. Tim Golden, "Mexican Rebel Leader Seeks no Quick Settlement," New York Times, 20 February 1994, A1.

30. Although violence against and illegal incarceration of Indians has always been high in rural Mexico, human rights groups documented an increase in Chiapas in 1993. See in particular a report by the Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights, Civilians at Risk: Military and Police Abuses in the Mexican Countryside (August 1993), which contains a section on Chiapas (10-22).

31. Religious conflict dates back to the late 1960s, when Protestant and evangelical groups began to gain a foothold in Chiapas. The ferocity of the expulsions of Protestant indigenous converts from their ancestral communities was based on the threat Protestantism posed to the authority of traditional indigenous and non-indigenous local power structures. Converts refused to pay taxes for ritual fiestas, to participate in religious public life, or to drink alcohol, which threatened the economic security of the religious office holders, who monopolized the sale of alcohol. On the explusions of Protestant families in Chiapas, see Mar(a Magdalena G(mez Rivera, "El caso de los expulsados ind(genas, por supuestos motivos religiosos (Chiapas, MJxico)," Trabajo presentado en el Concurso Pluralismo Jur(dico y Derecho IndRgena, organizado por ILSA en 1993; and Collier, "The New Politics of Exclusion," 28.

32. David Clark Scott, AChiapas Rebellion Sparks Indian Dissent Across Mexico,@ Christian Science Monitor, 11 February 1994.

33. "Interview with Antonio Hernandez Cruz, Maya To(olabal and Secretary General of the CIOAC," Abya Yala News 8, nos. 1 and 2 (Spring/Summer 1994): 12.

34. Tracy Eaton, "Land grabs accelerate in Chiapas. Militant Chiapas peasants snatching land, kidnapping ranchers, at an increasing rate," Miami Herald International Edition, 5 July 1994, A1, A5.

35. "Interview," 12.

36. Araceli Burguete Cal y Mayor, "Elections in Mexico: Indigenous Suffrage Under Protest," Abya Yale News 8, no. 3 (Fall 1994): 8.

37. Frente Independiente de Pueblos Indios (FIPI), El FIPI en la convenci(n Democr(tica Nacional (Mexico City: FIPI, August 1994); Rosa Rosas, "Las comunidades ind(genas se han vuelto apartidistas," El PaRs/La Jornada August 19, 1994, 13; Rosa Ro(as, "Mayor reconocimiento a derechos indios, demandar(n en la CND," El PaRs/La Jornada, August 7, 1994, 18.

38. While Avenda(o won an unprecedented 30 percent of the vote, and thousands of displaced Chiapas voters were unable to vote due to a lack of abstentee ballots, most impartial observers believe Robledo was the winner.

39. Also in October, the independent faction of CEOIC announced the creation of "transitional governments" as part of a state-wide civil resistance movement against PRI-installed municipal leaders and in support of PRD gubernatorial candidate Amado Avenda(o. Since the August 1994 elections, indigenous and opposition political activists have seized municipal offices from their PRI occupants in 40 percent of the municipal governments of the state. These actions were not directed by the EZLN nor carried out by its forces; however, the seizure of lands and municipal offices occurred in the vacuum of state authority created by a Zapatista offensive beginning in mid-November 1994, which expanded the area of control of the guerrillas, and by the caution demanded of the army by the international community and sectors of Mexican public opinion. A cease fire commenced on January 1, 1995. Personal communication with Jonathan Fox, 16 June 195; Elio HenrRquez y Jos( Gil Olmos, "Bloquea el CEOIC varias carreteras en Chiapas," El PaRs/La Jornada, 28 de octubre de 1994.

40. Press release, "Detengan la guerra. No al Exterminio de los Mayas de Chiapas!" trans. Van Cott. Consejo Ejecutivo del Concejo General de las Regiones Aut\nomas, San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, 13 Feb. 1995 (incorrectly written as 1994). Jos( Gil Olmos y Elio Henr(quez, "Se formar(n grupos parlamentarios regionales: Se extiende a 58 municipios de Chiapas el proyecto de autonom(a," El PaRs/La Jornada, 28 October 1994, 19.

41. Mexico is one of five Latin American countries to have signed ILO 169, which protects the rights of indigenous peoples to govern themselves according to their customs and traditions. The other signatories are Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Paraguay.

42. Mark Fineman, "Military Can't Outflank Rebels in War of Words," Los Angeles Times, 21 February 1995.

43. In 1994, $220 million, 44 percent more than had been budgeted, was poured into Chiapas' social development and infrastructure funds. The state had already been the top recipient of federal aid. Wager and Schulz, 23.

44. ADetengan la Guerra. No al Exterminio de los Mayas de Chiapas!@; Personal communication from Araceli Burguete, FIPI, 15 February 1994. See the comprehensive proposal elaborated by FIPI and the ComitJ de Apoyo y Defensa a Los Derechos Indios (CADDIAC), Pueblos Indios: Hacia una nueva constituci(n y un nuevo estado: Seis principios y seis propuestas (Mexico City: FIPI/CADDIAC, 1994).

45. Bolet(n de Prensa No. 155, "La Soluci(n definitiva al conflicto en Chiapas debe darse por la via del respeto a la ley: Zedillo," Presidencia de la Rep(blica, 14 de feb. de 1995.

46. Note that this list of ideals is identical to that in the original EZLN manifesto "El Despertador Mexicano," except that culture, the sine qua non of the Indian movement, and information have been added.

47. "Convoca el EjJrcito Zapatista a la sociedad civil a realizar una Agran consulta nacional," Internet transmission from the National Commission for Democracy in Mexico, 9 June 1995, taken from La Jornada, 8 June 1995.

48. Antonio Gramsci, ed., Selections from the Prison Notebooks, trans. Q. Hoare and G.N. Smith (New York: International Publishers, 1971/1992).

49. Joseph Rothschild, Ethnicity: A Conceptual Framework (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), 63.

50. Anthony Giddens, The Nation-State and Violence (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987), 215.

51. H(ctor D(az Polanco, "La rebeli(n de los m(s peque(os: Los Zapatistas y la Autonom(a," paper presented at the XIX International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association, 28-30 September 1995, Washington, DC.

52. San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico: Asamblea Nacional Ind(gena Para la Autonom(a (ANIPA), "Extraordinary and Urgent Meeting in Mexico," San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico, Internet transmission, 28 December 1995.