MEXICO CITY (AP) — The Zapatista indigenous rebel movement in southern Mexico said in a statement posted Monday it is dissolving the “autonomous municipalities” it declared in the years following the group’s 1994 armed uprising.

The Zapatistas led a brief rebellion to demand greater Indigenous rights, and since then have remained in their “autonomous” townships in the southern state of Chiapas, refusing government aid programs.

In the statement, dated “November” and signed by rebel Subcommander Moises, the group cited 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 areas near the border.