Transcript “Two Mexicos” Physical Geographies • Mountainous— – steep slopes put arable land is at a premium – Generates ¼ of Mexico’s electricity • Forested • Distance.

“Two Mexicos”
Physical Geographies
• Mountainous—
– steep slopes put arable land is at a premium
– Generates ¼ of Mexico’s electricity
• Forested
• Distance from the capital (and the border
w/US)
• Oil
Antecedents
• Loss of land and insertion of the state in the
region during colonization, independence and
revolution
– Porfiriato:patronage and coercion
– Revolution: Carranza’s base, but still about who would
control indian’s labor
– Cardenas
• 1960’s in the Lacandon
– Ruiz and missionaries arrive
– Involvement of students after 1968
1970’s
• Land redistribution in 1970’s
– doesn’t happen as extensively in this area
• Hydroelectricity dams, oil, logging, and ranching,
• Extensive development of economic and political
networks of peasants in Chiapas
• Strength and repression of regional government
and disconnect from national scale
• Indigenous Congress of 1974
1980’s: The State notices Chiapas
• representation of its “problem”
• Global context
– US
– Mexico
• Regional Governor: Castellanos Dominguez
• Technocratic development plans
– Plan del Sureste: isolation has precluded benefits of
developent
– Plan Chiapas: 83 million pesos
Response to the State
• Failure of interventions to reduce social
and agrarian conflicts in Chiapas:
EXACERBATED them
• Upping the Ante
• Birth of the Zapatistas
Salinas and Neoliberalism
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stolen election, computer fraud
Concertacion: pactmaking
1989: International Coffee Organization
Overvalued peso—domestic inflation > by 90%
NAFTA/ (also IMF continued ) reforms
Farming sector deflates
Article 27:
Early 1990’s in the Lacandon forest
• 1990-50% malnutrition
• cholera epidemic 1991
• frontier is reached
– Ranching invades “empty” land
– overcrowding of available ejido land
– timber ban in entire Lacandon forest
• repression in Chiapas continues
– 1992: Xi’Nich march: 400 Mexicans from PalenqueMexico city:
– Chiapas comes onto Mexican national consciousness—
beatings and torture
Ya Basta!
• ”enough is enough”
• “the right to have rights”
• “rights, autonomy, and fulfillment of promise of
Mexican revolution”
• No preconceived plan to “take over” government
• call for solidarity with others and the need for
broad dialogue
• centrality of democracy
San Andres Accords
• basic respect for the diversity of the indigenous population
of Chiapas;
• the conservation of the natural resources within the
territories used and occupied by indigenous peoples;
• a greater participation of indigenous communities in the
decisions and control of public expenditures;
• the participation of indigenous communities in determining
their own development plans, as well as having control
over their own administrative and judicial affairs;
• the autonomy of indigenous communities and their right of
free determination in the framework of the State;
Since 1994
• 1996-San Andres Accords failure
• Dec. 1997: massacre of 45 in Acteal
• 1998: stalemate based on conditions
– free Zapatista “political prisoners”
– end the heavy army presence and disarm paramilitaries in Chiapas;
– offer practical proposals for reforms to make the political and
judicial systems more accessible to indigenous people;
– set up an independent commission to mediate in disputes in the
state;
– make a start on agreed constitutional reforms relating to
indigenous rights
Recently in Southern Mexico
• 2001: World Economic Forum v. Zapatour
• expanded military presence in southern Mexicoespecially Guerrero
– 17000-70,000 government troops
– 30 local armed civilian and paramilitary groups: police,
army, PRI, landowners
– guerrillas
– US involvement: ostensibly about drug trafficking
• deportation of human rights observers
• Governor: Pablo Salazar making strides