OCOSINGO, Mexico (AP) โ Members and supporters of the Zapatista indigenous rebel movement celebrated the 30th anniversary of their brief armed uprising in southern Mexico on Monday even as their social base erodes and violence spurred by drug cartels encroaches on their territory.
Hundreds gathered in the remote community of Dolores Hidalgo in the preceding days to mark the occasion. Some 1,500 young Zapatistas donning uniforms โ black balaclavas, green caps and red kerchiefs โ stood in formation listening to speeches early Monday.
Subcommander Moises โ his nom de guerre โ called for the Zapatistas to continue organizing themselves to fight to maintain their autonomy, freedom and democracy.
โWeโre alone, like 30 years ago, because alone we have found the new path that we are going to follow,โ Moises said. He noted the continuing need to defend their communities from violence. โWe donโt need to kill soldiers and bad governments, but if they come weโre going to defend ourselves.โ
In November, it was Subcommander Moises who sent a statement saying the Zapatistas had decided to dissolve the โautonomous municipalitiesโ they had established.
At the time, Moises cited the waves of gang violence that have hit the area of Chiapas that borders Guatemala, but did not say whether that was a reason for dissolving the townships. The area held by the Zapatistas includes land near the border.
Details about what will replace the autonomous municipalities remain scarce, but it appears they will reorganize at more of a community level.
The Zapatistas were launched publicly on Jan. 1, 1994 to demand greater Indigenous rights.
Hilario Lorenzo Ruiz saw a number of his friends die in those early days of clashes with the Mexican army in Ocosingo, one of the five municipalities the Zapatistas took control of in January 1994.
Years later he left, demoralized by the movementโs limited results in areas like health access, education, land reform and employment.
Reflecting this week, Ruiz said perhaps the movementโs greatest achievement was drawing the Mexican governmentโs and the worldโs attention to the impoverished state of Chiapas. While some land was redistributed, access to basic services remains poor, he said.
โEven this improvement is relative, we canโt say weโre well, a lot is lacking,โ Ruiz said. โNot even in the municipal center is the health service good. We come here to the hospital and thereโs nothing.โ
The levels of poverty now in Chiapas remain stubbornly similar to what they were 30 years ago when the Zapatistas appeared, according to government data.
Support for the movement has eroded with time and Ruiz lamented that younger generations have not carried the same convictions to maintain the struggle.
Gerardo Alberto Gonzรกlez, a professor in the Department of Public Health at the Southern Border College in San Cristobal de las Casas, who has observed the Zapatistas for decades, said the group successfully transitioned from armed conflict to politics and achieved a level of autonomy and recognition for Mexicoโs Indigenous peoples that hadnโt existed before.
Gonzรกlez said the Zapatistas should be lauded for their contributions to Mexicoโs democratization. But after 30 years, the Zapatistas' ranks have been thinned by outward migration and the incursion of drug traffickers, he said.
Gonzรกlez also faulted internal power struggles and a lack of turnover in leadership positions, which have been held by many of the same people for years.