By Henry Srebrnik, [Saint John, N.B.] Telegraph-Journal
Most people have probably forgotten about Mexico’s Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), the insurgents who captured the world’s attention on New Year’s Day 1994. But they haven’t disappeared and have recently even criticized the Mexican government for its position on the war in Ukraine.
In 1994, the Zapatistas, named after Emiliano Zapata, the agrarian reformer in the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1920, took up arms in the southeastern Mexican state of Chiapas, a largely Mayan and impoverished region. Zapatista ideology synthesized traditional Mayan practices with elements of anarchism and socialism.
The EZLN had been established in Chiapas in 1983 by a group of activists from the National Liberation Forces (FLN), a leftist militant organization formed in the state of Monterrey in 1969. Led by “Subcomandante Marcos” (Rafael Sebastián Guillén Vicente), between 2,500 and 4,000 Zapatista indigenous militia stormed San Cristobal and three other large towns in the state.
Some 15,000 federal troops poured into Chiapas in the following days, and the violence of the initial government response contributed to public outrage, including a demonstration of two hundred thousand protesters in Mexico City.
Both sides de-escalated the violence and in February 1996, the San Andrés Accords were signed between the Mexican government and the Zapatistas, granting autonomy, recognition, and other rights to the indigenous population of Mexico.
Though they have never been implemented, in 2001 the Mexican Congress passed the Indigenous Law, a watered down version of the Accords. By 2017, more than 250,000 people lived in 27 autonomous Zapatista municipalities in Chiapas and that number increased by eleven in 2019.
Since being elected president of Mexico in 2018, the left-wing populist Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador, who has throughout his career supported indigenous rights, has proposed incorporating the San Andrés Accords into the Mexican constitution, indicating his interest in establishing trust with the Zapatistas. He also approved the 2019 expansion of Zapatista territory.
Although the Zapatistas do not occupy the place they once did in the popular imagination, they continue to be an important reference point for social movements in Mexico and around the world.
While never formally laying down its weapons, the EZLN has become known more for its peaceful mobilizations, dialogue with civil society, and structures of political, economic, and cultural autonomy.
For example, thousands of indigenous supporters of the Zapatistas in Chiapas demonstrated on March 13 against “all capitalist wars” in Chiapas, where they showed solidarity with Ukraine. They marched in the cities that the guerrillas took in 1994: San Cristobal de las Casas, Palenque, Margaritas and Ocosingo.
They demanded an end to the war in Ukraine. “Out with the Russian army from Ukraine that disintegrates families,” was one of the slogans of the contingent, which was estimated at 5,000 people. The men wearing balaclavas also chanted slogans such as “Yes to life,” “No more persecution for those who fight for life,” “Let the capitalist system die” and “Stop the war.”
They had called for this massive protest after the Russian invasion of Ukraine that began on Feb. 24. Prior to the protest, they circulated a manifesto denouncing the “aggressor force, the Russian army. There are interests of big capital at stake.”
The EZLN argued that “those who win in this war are the big arms consortiums and the big capitals that see the opportunity to conquer, destroy and rebuild territories.” It also criticized the inability of Europe, the United States and other powers to stop the war.
The Zapatista demonstration came as Mexico, which sits on the United Nations Security Council, faced pressure to take a stronger stance against Russia. The nation’s response to the war has been mixed. President Lopez Obrador declared that Mexico would remain neutral in the conflict.
He condemned the Russian invasion but has refused to apply economic sanctions against Moscow, which Ukraine’s ambassador to Mexico, Oksana Dramarétska, requested on March 10. The Mexican government also announced it would not send arms to Ukraine, after Ukrainian authorities asked the country for military assistance.
However, Mexico has played a proactive role at the United Nations. The UN General Assembly March 24 overwhelmingly approved a resolution, proposed by France and Mexico, blaming Russia for the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine and urging an immediate cease-fire and protection for millions of civilians.
The resolution “strongly encourages the continued negotiations between all parties, and again urges the immediate peaceful resolution of the conflict between the Russian Federation and Ukraine through political dialogue, negotiations, mediation and other peaceful means in accordance with international law.”
On May 6, in a Security Council statement co-authored by Mexico and Norway, the Council expressed strong support for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ efforts in the search for a peaceful solution.
In a statement on the 212th anniversary of Mexican independence, delivered on Sept. 16, Lopez Obrador presented his proposal for the establishment of a High-Level Caucus for Dialogue and Peace in Ukraine. In a follow-up presentation to the Security Council on Sept. 22, and later to the General Assembly, Secretary of Foreign Affairs Marcelo Ebrard formally presented Mexico’s proposal.
However, some in Lopez Obrador’s governing party, the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA), adopted a more pro-Russian stance. About a half-dozen members in Congress created a “Mexico-Russia Friendship Committee” March 23 and applauded Russian Ambassador Viktor Koronelli after he addressed them.
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