Who needs Zapatismo? state interventions and local responses in Marqués de Comillas, Chiapas

Abstract

The Zapatista uprising in 1994 has affected many areas of Mexican politics. This article analyses its impact in Marqués de Comillas, a sub-region of the Lacandon forest in Chiapas, by examining new projects of sustainable development and the creation of new local governments. Although each of these initiatives can be seen as part of the state's counter-insurgency strategy to undermine support for Zapatismo, local responses reveal a more ambiguous situation, in which the reproduction of exclusionary forms of economic and political organization are contested by the most marginalized groups, particularly women. The main argument is that Zapatismo remains a vital source of political identity and practical inspiration, as well as a necessary reminder of the pending tasks of democratization in Chiapas and beyond.

Notes

1 The ‘ejido’ is one of the principal forms of land ownership in Mexico. It is distinct from private property because it is the outcome of a government land grant (or ‘dotación’) to groups that have applied for land and it is managed collectively through an ejido commission, which defines the use of the ejido lands amongst the members of the ejido. With the passing of a new agrarian law in 1992, for the first time the legal sale of ejido lands was permitted, providing the ejido assembly was in favour. Ejido Unions (Uniones de Ejidos, UE) are organizations that bring together more than one ejido in order to be able to promote joint actions in a particular region, such as the commercialization of agricultural products. They have therefore occupied a key role in political networks in rural areas (see below for the Ejido Unions in Marqués de Comillas).

2 On the history of colonization and development of Marqués de Comillas, see Arizpe, Paz and Velázquez 1996, de Vos 1988, Durán et al. 1988, González Ponciano 1996, Bray 1997, Gutiérrez and Herrera 1995, Neubauer 1997, Harvey 1998b, Cortez 1998, Saldívar 1998, O'Brien 1998 and Villafuerte Rosales 1999.

3 This section of the article draws on research carried out as part of a collaborative project entitled ‘La Remunicipalización en Chiapas’, directed by Araceli Burguete Cal y Mayor and Xochitl Leyva Solano in 2000 and 2001. The complete results of this research will be published in Spanish in three edited volumes [Harvey, 2005a 2005b 2005c, in press].

4 As previously noted, the region of Marqués de Comillas previously belonged to the municipality of Ocosingo. The municipal government designated local leaders to represent its authority in the region. These local authorities are known as agentes municipales.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Neil Harvey

Neil Harvey, Department of Government, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces. [email protected]. This article is based on research carried out in Marqués de Comillas during field trips in the summers of 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000 and 2001. I am grateful to the College of Arts and Sciences of New Mexico State University for a mini-grant that enabled research in 1997 and the Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social (CIESAS)-Sureste for its support in 2000. I also thank Domingo Hernández Gómez for his assistance in carrying out interviews in 2000 and my wife, Maria Harvey, for her support and accompaniment on several of these visits to Marqués de Comillas. Finally, I am grateful to all the people in Marqués de Comillas for their time, hospitality and interest in this research.