Contextualizing the Zapatista Rebellion

1. Contextualizing the Zapatista Rebellion February 3, 2000

2. The rebellion • January 1, 1994 • The government reaction • The drive back to the Lacandon jungle • Autonomous (non-gov’tal) communities • grappling with the meanings

3. The San Andres Accords (1996) • 1.basic respect for the diversity of the indigenous population of Chiapas; • 2.the conservation of the the natural resources within the territories used and occupied by indigenous peoples; • 3.a greater participation of indigenous communities in the decisions and control of public expenditures; • 4.the participation of indigenous communities in determining their own development plans, as well as having control over their own administrative and judicial affairs; • 5.the autonomy of indigenous communities and their right of free determination in the framework of the State;

4. Some useful concepts • Political process model (exacerbation of grievance; indigenous resources; political opportunity structures) (McAdam) • cognitive praxis (Eyerman and Jamison) • counter-hegemony (historic bloc; war of position) (Gramsci) • frame resonance (Snow and Benford)

5. Understanding the context • Exacerbation of threat • What was the new threat to the communities of the Lacandon and Las Canadas area starting in the early 1990s? • Indigenous resources • What ideological, social, and leadership resources were enjoyed by the lowland communities? • Political opportunity structure • How were the rebels able to survive, not be wiped out, and become an international presence?

6. The political economy of Chiapas

7. Physical geography of Chiapas

8. The exacerbated threat, 1 • Model of development in Chiapas starting in 1972 • Migration to jungle • The post 1982 crises • flooding by Guatemalan refugees • Rise in political repression (fewer goodies) • rush to restore fiscal credibility through increased exports • Discovery of oil • Plans to use water resources, set up biodivrsity reserves

9. Exacerbated threat, 2 • The rewriting of the Constitution in 1992 • The opening up to international capital to invest in dams and oil with NAFTA

10. Indigenous resources • Recent migration and ethnic mixture: pan-Indian identity • Geography • Protestantism • Liberationist Catholicism • High-quality ideological leadership

11. Political opportunity structure • Mexican political culture: the Revolution, Constitution, and patronage • Strategy of gov’t: wear down through low-intensity war of attrition • The politics of entry into NAFTA: need for Mexico to distiguish itself from Guatemala • The widespread domestic sympathy for rebels • The rapid mobilization of international attention (the “netwar”)