If you click on the title (above), you will go to a site with lots of links to the various articles and communiques mentioned below.
The EZLN declared a Red Alert in Chiapas at the start of the week taking a number of steps including closing down the Caracoles and the Good Government offices, evacuating the civilian delegates who make up the zapatista structures of regional self management and creating a clear distinction between the military side of the organisation and the civilian healthcare side. This looked a lot like preparation for war but a communique released the following day revealed that the red alert was just a precautionary measure to allow a consulta to take place.
Anarkismo.net brought you news and analysis of this situation as it developed. Here we carry the Zapatista communiques and background materials and links that help explain who the Zapatistas are, what they stand for and what are the causes of the conflict in Chiapas.
Zapatista Consultas are long processes that involve every community in discussions that frame questions that all will then vote on. The first article below written before the red alert perhaps gives some clues as to why this process is taking place. The articles 'What is it that is different about the Zapatistas?' includes an outline of the consulta process in more detail.
Zapatista's - 11 years on, a retreat and a consolidation
What has been happening in Chiapas in recent years?
This article was for publication in Red and Black Revolution, Autumn 2005. News has just come through through of a Zapatista communique that appears to be a preparation for a return to war. At this stage it is not clear what is about to happen so I am releasing the article as I think it provides a useful background of events in the last couple of years and the sort of reasons why the Zapatistas might have decided to return to armed struggle.
EZLN communique - The reasons for the Red Alert
EZLN reveal that the reason for the Red Alert is to allow a consulta to take place on the future direction of the organisation. During a previous consulta the army attacked them so this is a precautionary measure.
EZLN communique -Zapatista Red Alert declared in Chiapas
Zapatistas preparing to go underground once more, requesting peace observers to leave the communities, closing carocols and Goood Government Councils. This appears to be preparation for war!
EZLN communique - Zapatistas can survive a decapatation attack
Communique from EZLN saying that they have put the structures in place which would allow the organisation to survice even if the government or its paramilitaries eliminate "some or all of its publicly known current leadership."
What is it that is different about the Zapatistas?
The EZLN (Zapatista National Liberation Army) came briefly to the worlds attention when they seized several towns in Chiapas on New Years day in 1994. Since then most of the support the Zapatistas have received is strongly based on the idea that the Zapatistas are different. Different not just from the neoliberal world order they oppose but, more fundamentally, different from the armed revolutionary groups that exist and have existed elsewhere in the world. This study on the Zapatistas written by an Irish anarchist in 2001 explains why they are different in more detail.
What is happening with the Zapatistas?
The following piece explains in some detail what is happening with the building of the Caracols ('Good Governement Councils') in Chiapas. It looks in detail at the areas of education, health, economy and justice.
Indigenous Autonomy and Revolutionary Resistance
A text from the now defunct Mexican anarchist group Amor y Rabia (Mexico) that analysis the indigenous basis of the Zapatistas
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