From rebellion against the State to the absence of the State 2023/09/27

In just over three months it will be thirty years since the uprising of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) in Chiapas, which shook all of Mexico. The president's government Salinas He knew of the existence of the guerrillas, but did not want to do anything because he was in negotiations with the United States and Canada to sign the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Suddenly, on January 1, 1994, we woke up to the news of a possible revolutionary movement, the same day that NAFTA came into force that would take us to the First World, as the president in turn had promised.

The rebellion in Chiapas immediately attracted the media agenda. We had to go back to talking about poverty and social inequality and not about the prosperity that the new trade agreement would bring. A new media figure appeared, the subcommander frameswho turned out to be a communicative genius who eclipsed the entire national political class, including the undisputed leader of the national left, Cuauhtemoc Cardenas.

It was an election year and the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas moved the entire board of succession to the president Salinas.

Today, thirty years later, we are once again in an election year and Chiapas is back in the news.

But what a difference.

Three decades ago, the main actor was a group of indigenous guerrillas fighting for social justice and the recognition of their rights as indigenous peoples. I remember the excitement that this event aroused. The caravans of leftist youth who moved to support the Zapatistas in their Chiapas camps.

Today, the main actor is organized crime. In particular, the dispute between the two large criminal groups for territorial control in Chiapas: the Sinaloa Cartel versus the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

Over the weekend, a video went viral showing the “triumphal” entry of an “army” of the Sinaloa Cartel in Chamic, a community in the border area between Mexico and Guatemala. I say “triumphant” because you can see a couple of rows of presumed inhabitants of this region cheering at the large convoy of pick-up trucks full of people with long weapons. I say “army” because that is what it looks like is entering the town.

Angeles Marshal has made a punctual and well-informed chronicle of what happened.

According to the journalist Parallel Chiapas, the residents “were forced to stand in two rows on the edge of the road (…) Most of them with a backpack on their shoulders, tried to hide their faces with bandanas or face masks from the camera that recorded them. Pure Sinaloa!, some shouted in reference to the Sinaloa Cartel (…) It was a message of war addressed to the opposing cartel, the Jalisco Nueva Generación, who for just over four years entered into the dispute over the trafficking routes that pass through through this region adjacent to the Guatemalan border. The dispute over territory between cartels has been worsening and in this war between cartels, more than 280 thousand inhabitants of the municipalities of Frontera Comalapa, Chicomuselo, Motozintla, Siltepec, Amatenango de la Frontera, Mazapa de Madero were trapped in this region alone. , Greatness and The Future”.

The local journalist reports that in this entire area “there is no supply of gasoline, food, and in some places criminal groups cut off power and communication lines.”

The cartels have intensified the “forced recruitment of the population. Some testimonies from relatives of people who are being forced to demonstrate on the roads, to lead marches in support of one group or another, or to serve as hitmen.”

In a previous article, Marshal warned that, due to the confrontation between the cartels, around five thousand teachers had had to suspend their work, leaving 150 thousand children and adolescents without classes.

In another, it reported that in the largest municipality in the Chiapas mountain range, Motozintla, they had run out of tortillas due to blockades, burning of trailers, murders and kidnappings by organized crime. “Residents and businesses closed their doors.”

Until this weekend, State forces were missing in that border area with Guatemala.

30 years ago, Chiapas was in the news for a political-military rebellion against the State. Today it is news due to the absence of the State.

X: @leozuckermann