Abstract

Ten Days That Shook Mexico

The real Zapatista revolution didn't occur during the fighting in Chiapas during the first week of 1994, but rather took place in the Cathedral of San Cristobal de Las Casas during the ten days of negotiations between the Indian rebels and the Mexican government's appointed "peace commissioner." From the outset, the Zapatista National Liberation Army argued that the roots of its rebellion lie not only in the region's poverty but also in the quasi-dictatorial political system that makes such economic oppression possible. During its more than six decades of one-party rule the Institutional Revolutionary Party, has entrenched an authoritarian and recalcitrant network of party bosses and bullies that reaches down to the neighborhood level.