Violence against Zapatista Communities

Data on Violence against Zapatista Communities

Since the uprising of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) on January 1, 1994, thousands of hectares of land usurped by landowners were recovered by their legitimate owners: the original peoples. From there, the 1994 War began, and has continued with a counterinsurgency strategy, designed and implemented in an integral manner through different ways in order to wear down and disarticulate the Zapatista families, communities and peoples. The government of AMLO and the “Fourth Transformation” continues the counterinsurgency model; human rights continue to be violated, using a supposed electoral legitimacy to do the same criminal work of the previous governments of the PRI, PAN and PRD, thus dispossessing the land and common goods to convert them into merchandise.

Chiapas: necropower and paramilitarism

Chiapas 94 Campaign Plan. This plan had as its strategic-operational objective “to destroy the EZLN’s will to fight, isolating it from the civilian population and achieving the support of the latter, for the benefit of the Army’s operations”. The tactical objectives of Plan Chiapas 94 included “to destroy and/or disorganize the political and military structure of the EZLN”. For this purpose, together with intelligence, psychological, population control and logistical operations, it instructed to organize, train, advise and support “self-defense forces or other paramilitary organizations” (sic). And it added: “In case there are no self-defense forces, it is necessary to create them”. It was ordered to “secretly organize certain sectors of the civil population – among others, cattle ranchers, small landowners and individuals characterized with a high sense of patriotism – who will be employed on orders in support of our operations”.

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