The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) – a rebel Indigenous group best known for staging an uprising in January 1994 – has announced the dissolution of its “autonomous municipalities” in the southern state of Chiapas.

“A few months ago, after a long and profound critical and self-critical analysis, and after consulting all the Zapatista towns, it was decided to disappear the Zapatista Rebel Autonomous Municipalities (MAREZ) and the Good Government Juntas,” the EZLN said in a statement signed by Zapatista leader Subcomandante Moisés.

The EZLN has said that it will announce what the “new structure of Zapatista autonomy” will be, as they face violence from criminal groups.

Via @tokenboomer

  • livusOP
    1•10 months ago

    From the article:

    The Associated Press reported that the changes may be related to the upcoming presidential election, noting that the EZLN has put forward candidates in the past.

    Gerardo Alberto González Figueroa, an academic at the College of the Southern Border in San Cristóbal de las Casas, told the newspaper Milenio that the EZLN has ceded control of its strongholds to criminal groups that operate in Chiapas.

    While the EZLN statement didn’t say that, it did speak at length about crime problems in Chiapas…

    The southern border region of Chiapas has long been plagued by a turf war between the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, as well as local crime groups affiliated with those organizations.

    The EZLN statement also said that “the main cities” of Chiapas “are in complete chaos” and that mayors’ offices are “occupied by what we call ‘legal hitmen’ or ‘disorganized crime.'”

    “There are blockades, robberies, kidnappings, extortion, forced recruitment, shootings. This is the effect of the protection of the state government and the dispute over political positions,” it said.