Understanding the EZLN

By Gustavo E. Castro Soto [1]

San Cristóbal de las Casas, Mexico, August 2003

The EZLN set its new strategy in a series of communications published between July and August 2003. The political class of Mexico (political parties and the executive, legislative and judicial powers) "betrayed the hopes of millions of mexicans and of thousands of people from other countries", according to the EZLN, "when they denied the carrying out of the San Andrés Agreements". That given, the EZLN decided to suspend completely any contact with the federal government and the political parties [2] . This clearly shows that for the indigenous people the dialogue, the negociations and the political participation in elections won't be the mechanisms to obtain human rights, particularly the rights of the indigenous people, but the they "opted for resistence as their principal form of struggle". On the other hand, the EZLN conceded that the San Andrés Agreements will be "applied in the territories of the rebels by deeds". Two central axis are prominent in its strategy: resistance and rebellion. "The only way that they left for us is to organize ourselves with resistance and rebellion", assured the commandante Tacho. For the commandante David "with our fight, resistance and rebellion we wish to give a little contribution to the bigger fight against neoliberalism and the deadly globalisation that threatens the entire humanity.

So, another possible way to act appears for the indigenous people: by taking action. The EZLN has decided to strengthen even their last strategy: look down to the feet, to the soil as the foundation of autonomy that enables them to start a new way from underneath. For the EZLN the strategy focuses on “exercising our rights in practice like the fair way of change for the indigenous people in Mexico”.

From the local to the global, from the global to the local. Not only does the EZLN not forget the social struggles in the whole country, in the continent or around the world, but it shows solidarity with those movements. The EZLN acts locally but thinks globally. If globalization has to pass through a process of localization, the Zapatistas have decided to strengthen the local fight that is confronted with the attack coming from neoliberal politics. In the same way, thinking locally, they fight on the global scene. The rallying cry they did in 1996 at the International Meeting for Humanity and Against Neoliberalism was an example of that vision, as well as is its presence in the mobilization against the 5th Ministerial Conference of the WTO in Cancun.

By breaking the silence, the EZLN fixed its positions concerning the problems and challenges the process of globalization presents. This process confronts the indigenous people with global problems and struggles. The Zapatistas mentioned the aggression against the Iraqi people, the sovereignty of the people of Venezuela, the international action against the war and the resistance against politics that are trying to dominate and control the people worldwide. The EZLN also mentioned the Free Trade Agreements, the WTO and the American Free Trade Zone (ALCA), as “devices and elements for the extinction of the heritage of every country, its sovereignty and culture”. These elements that they outlined in their analyses will be decisive for the implementation of their strategy, to be analyzed later. In their communications they  show solidarity with the Cuban people, with the people of the U.S. after the September 11 attacks, and especially with the migrants; with the social movements in France as well as with organizations from Italy to Argentina: "We respond with the humble wind that we are and our embrace encompasses Latin America as a whole".

The new political structure: After a critical and self-critical evaluation of the last years' work, that indicated deviations and successes  concerning the process of establishing its autonomy. Also it showed its relations with other neighboring activists: the participation and help of the national and international civil society in form of caravans, humanitarian help, brotherhoods, economical projects. Among other things, the Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos declared that the EZLN "decided the death of the so called "Aguascalientes" (hot waters) of the communities La Realidad, Oventik, La Garrucha, Morelia and Roberto Barrios" and converted them to "Caracoles" (snails). Nevertheless, the 27 Autonomous Rebel Zapatista Communities (MAREZ as an abbreviation in Spanish) gathered around the five "caracoles", "still the exclusive functions of the government of the MAREZ are the following: the imparting of justice, a community health system, education, housing, land, work, nutrition, commerce, information and culture, local transport".

In every "Caracol" there will be a "Meeting House of Good Government" (Casa de la Junta de Buen Gobierno), formed by one or two delegates of every one of the autonomous consultants of the mentioned zone, "to build a more direct bridge between them and the world".

The Meetings of Good Government (Juntas del Buen Gobierno). The new political structure of autonomy will now  have the following dispositions and goals: among all the speeches and information of the EZLN we can group the following: a) counteract the inequality of development of the autonomous municipalities and the communities ("left-overs, humble donations and the imposition of projects are not accepted"); b) mediate in the conflicts; c) attend the denunciations of violations of human rights; d) keep vigilance over the realization of projects and community works ("it will not be allowed that donations and help from the national and international civil society be destined to someone in particular or to a special autonomous municipality"); e) watch that laws are respected; f) attend and guide the national and international civil society to visit communities, to promote productive projects, install peace camps, realize investigations, etc; g) promote and approve the participation of the MAREZ in activities or events away from the rebellious communities; h) expediate certificates or accreditations to a person that will be sent to "ask for money for sick people, projects, trips or things like that"; i) request a contribution of 10% of the economical help that one community receives ("brotherhood tax") destined to another community that does not get financial help; j) distribute the excess or bonus for the commercialization of the products of cooperatives and Zapatista communities (…..), so that those colleagues that can not commercialize their products or that do not receive any help get support.

Who are the Zapatistas? “Only those persons, communities, cooperatives and production and commercialization associations that are registered in the meeting of good government are considered Zapatistas. By doing so we will avoid that people who are not Zapatistas or even anti-Zapatistas pass as Zapatistas (this is the case of some organic coffee growing and commercializing cooperatives)”. But the EZLN ensures “that it is not necessary to be zapatista in order to be attended and respected by the meeting of good government of the autonomous municipalities. As a member of a community everyone has the right to be attended.

The military structure: The EZLN also modifies its strategy concerning its own army. The new arrangements are: a) the EZLN raises up all the Zapatista reserves (they will only be installed in case of emergency) and eliminates the charge of private people; b) check the vehicles "that could smuggle wood, drugs or arms"; c) prohibit the introduction of alcohol, as was claimed by the women; c) protect the communities from the aggressions of the bad government, of the paramilitary groups and of all those who want to harm them: the army is to be used for defense only, not to govern. The work of an army does not consist of being a kind of police or an agent of the State Prosecutor; d) the Subcommandante Marcos will no longer be spokesperson of the MAREZ; e) the autonomous consultants can't use the military forces for government work: "they must use common sense and not force to govern". f) the EZLN does not have any "safe house" in Mexico-City and does not offer any training; g) be vigilant, through the CCRI-CG EZLN, that no "acts of corruption, intolerance, arbitrary acts, injustices and deviation from the Zapatista principle "ruling by obeying" occur.

The Plan La Realidad – Tijuana. The calling of the EZLN focuses on defending in a "coordinated and united" way the national sovereignty and opposes in a "direct and radical form the imminent privatization of electric energy, of oil and other natural resources". In opposition to the plan Puebla Panama (PPP), the EZLN launched the plan La Realidad – Tijuana, a plan that symbolizes a Mexican people united from the extreme south to the extreme north of the country. Within this plan are local agreements proposed by the Zapatistas. Those agreements should be signed and in some cases, amplified to include organizations that are "independent". The agreements are the following: 1) respect for the autonomy and independence of social organizations; 2) the promotion of ways of self-government and self-administration throughout the national territory; 3) the exercising of rebellion and peaceful civil resistance in the face of bad government and political parties; 4) the establishment of a "network of basic commerce" between communities and the encouragement to "distribute basic products in stores all over the country"; 5) form a network of information and culture on a local, regional and national scale in order to demand true and balanced information from the media; 6) organize the defense and the promotion of the local culture, the sciences and the universal arts.

On the other hand, the plan also claims nine basic demands 1) defense of the common ownership (ejidos) of the land; 2) the protection and defense of natural resources; 3) dignified work and a fair salary for all; 4) decent homes; 5) free public healthcare; 6) food for all; 7) clothing for all; 8) secular education for children and teenagers being free of charge; 9) respect for the dignity of women, children and elderly.

The reactions: the refusal from some political parties that asked for the prohibition of the MAREZ and its meeting of good government did not take long. In the meantime, the bishop of the dioceses of San Cristobal de las Casas asked the federal government to approve of the Agreements of San Andrés and that violence should be avoided. The national, and even more strongly, the international business community sees the Zapatista movements as a threat to their investments; and that is why its new strategy should be destroyed. But many civil organizations, national and international solidarity groups welcomed the initiative with approval.The National Indigenous Congress (CNI-Congreso Nacional Indígena) announced that it will join the initiative of the EZLN that promotes the indigenous autonomy in the whole country and by doing so put in practice the rights of the ingenious people. The federal government will respect the EZLN’s actions as long as the freedom of expression and association is respected, and the actions have to be devoted to the Constitution as well as to the laws of the country. It emphasizes that “while this contact (between the government and the EZLN) stays alive and both sides are willing to cooperate, by accepting the Cocopa as a middle-man, the situation should remain the same as it is right now, and of course the law of amnesty that also defines the terms and conditions of how to deal with the situation in Chiapas won’t change, no matter the conditions of the time that remains in this legislation”. The government also underlined that the armed forces will not be used as long as democracy is preserved and it also welcomed that the EZLN promotes a “new form of political organization by demilitarizing its structure” among the communities that are affiliated to the Zapatistas. The government called for the EZLN to resume the dialog. It declared that its disposition for peace remains “unchanged”.

But even should the call of the government be sincere this time, after nine years the Zapatistas don’t believe in that anymore and they have definitely put an end on any dialogue with any governmental request.

Legality or Legitimity?

The federal government minimized the Zapatista proposition by transferring the solution to the state level, that is that this will be the level of government that measures the compatibility and legality with the laws of the state of Chiapas. For some intellectuals, writers, human rights centers and civil organizations the meetings of good government don’t oppose to the Constitution and besides, they fulfill the international conventions signed by mexican governments, in the sense of consolidating the autonomous government. Those agreements based on the convention 169 of the OIT and the Vienna Convention that establish that no state is able to allege internal reasons to accomplish the rights established in the above mentioned convention of the OIT [3] .

The meetings of good government don’t create an extra level of government, laid down by the Constitution, even though the federal government could argue its unconstitutionality because of the “creation of parallel municipalities” to those already “established under constitutional right”. Nevertheless, the problem is not about legality or illegality. The Zapatistas don’t fight for political power but for dignity. Basically the problem is about the legitimacy of human rights and especially the rights of the indigenous people, be they acknowledged by the economical power, by the political power and the political parties in the present federal and state laws or not. The public power comes completely from the people and it is established for their benefit. The people have at any time the inalienable right to transform or modify the form of its government (article 39 of the Constitution). So if the will of the mexican people is to organize themselves in “free and sovereign states” (article 40 of the Constitution) and those states in “free municipalities” without any intermediate authority with the state government (article 115 of the Constitution) the autonomous municipalities would not break the Constitution by doing so. So, the interpretation of the legality of the Zapatista proposition seems to be tinted by political and economical interests.

With those changes the new political, economical, social, cultural and military proposition of the EZLN stays institutionalized. the thread that combines the life of the autonomous municipalities will be the “Radio Insurgente. Voice of the EZLN” in short wave of 49 meters, at 5.8 megahertz where the Subcomandante Insurgentes Marcos will make his voice heard. And here again the right to information is exercised by facts. This radio, according to national laws that give a monopoly to some companies, is illegal from this point of view. But, the agreements of San Andrés grant the indigenous people the right to have their own mechanisms of communication and information. Even the radio stations of the National Indigenous Institute (INI) will gradually be handed over to the indigenous people.

The scene: With that new structure the EZLN gives solidarity to its internal consolidation and also gives clear channels of relation with the national and international civil society. “So now the “civil societies” know with whom they have to agree on projects, peace camps, visits, donations, etc. The defenders of human rights now know towards whom they have to turn the denunciations that they get and who will give them an answer. The army and the police know now who they can attack (only that they should consider that we (that is the EZLN) are taking action as well in that attack. The media that says exactly the things that they get paid for, know now whom they have to slander and/or ignore. The honest media now know whom to consult to ask for interviews or reports in the communities. And the powerful rich now know who they have to fear”. Considering this we can begin to see some conclusions and tendencies:

ONE: The EZLN will put salt in the wound for the transnational private investments not only in the framework of the Plan Puebla Panama (PPP), but also in the framework of the agreements of free trade of Mexico with Central America, of the ALCA and the agreements of the WTO. For the EZLN the PPP as a separatist project for the southeast of Mexico won’t pass through rebellious Zapatista territories. The PPP for the Zapatistas is something already extinct for at least three reasons: a) “it has already been undermined and the simple attempt to put it in practice will only aggravate the social riots”; b) “the plan wants us to accept that things are already decided and that nobody opposes to that. That is wrong. The routes of resistance and rebellion go across the whole national territory and they also prosper in areas where modernity seemed to be a complete success”; c)”in the southeastern mountains, its implementation won’t be allowed for any reason”.

TWO: The federal government won’t stop in its attempt to undermine the process of encouragement of the indigenous autonomy as it has done so far, despite the reconciling, tolerant and comprehensive speeches, that aim to calm the nerves of foreign investors; above all the commercial and multinational banks as is the case for the Interamerican Development Bank and the World Bank that start to focus their strategy on the privatization of the strategic resources of Chiapas [4] . Among the instruments that the federal and state government will foreseeably use are paramilitary groups that patrol the indigenous areas. Those have neither been dismantled nor have the actions of harassment from the Mexican army towards the autonomous municipalities been stopped [5] . So the violence won’t stop, especially when the Zapatistas, that until now have not responded to the aggressions, declare that they will react from now on. The headquarter of the EZLN sent a message to paramilitary groups and told them that their actions won’t stay unpunished.

THREE: Politically, the system of political parties and electoral politics will be strongly threatened. The political parties will be able to observe the decrease of the electoral process in the Zapatista areas. If the meetings of good government work out well and respond to the necessities of all the indigenous communities (including the non-Zapatistas) they will convert themselves into a lightning rod where the communities will find solutions to their legal problems, their internal community conflicts, to their problems with health-care and education, among others. Let’s not forget that the Zapatistas have announced a total rupture in dialogue and meeting with the political parties. With this panorama in mind, the federal government will probably be even keener to destroy the autonomous municipalities and their Caracoles by using economical resources as part of the war of low intensity. Millions of pesos from the Worldbank and the Interamerican Development Bank will keep on being destined to the state, for so-called projects of development, health-care and education.

Evolution of the Autonomous Zapatista Municipalities
(Name and Setting)