Where is Subcommandante Marcos and the EZLN?

[CamiloCienfuegosG.]

I have been reading up on S. Marcos and the Zapatistas, but everything I read is at least 4-5 years old. Does anyone know where I can find more updated info on their activities?

[Kléber]

Unfortunately, they aren't as active anymore. Marcos and co. agreed to stop the revolution in exchange for aid and NGO support to set up their utopian agricultural cooperatives.. which went nowhere. Last I heard, the "subcomandante" was being escorted by police on a peaceful tour across the country, and said that he feels the Zapatista movement he represented has now "gone out of style." I've heard there was a brief formation of radical anti-Marcos Zapatistas who opposed his line a couple years ago, but that's all I know about it.

[Magón]

They just sit in their minor co-ops doing nothing but supporting one another, kinda...

[HammerAlias]

It's a shame what has happened to the movement.

[Diello]

Unfortunately, they aren't as active anymore. Marcos and co. agreed to stop the revolution in exchange for aid and NGO support to set up their utopian agricultural cooperatives.. which went nowhere. Last I heard, the "subcomandante" was being escorted by police on a peaceful tour across the country, and said that he feels the Zapatista movement he represented has now "gone out of style." I've heard there was a brief formation of radical anti-Marcos Zapatistas who opposed his line a couple years ago, but that's all I know about it.

Ah, goddamnit. I had no idea.

[Sosa]

http://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/

I think this is their official website/blog. its updated regularly, but its in spanish

[Hoipolloi Cassidy]

...and a couple of gringos don't see it on TV, does it still exist? Uh, yes. If you want to keep yourself up-to-date you can check in periodically with narconews.com, which has hands down the best English-speaking journalism on Central America.

Haven't kept up particularly, I was last in Chiapas about three years ago and things were going quietly well despite some serious government attacks. Wish you guys had been there, seeing all the liberated areas is a tremendously moving experience.

[Diello]

...and a couple of gringos don't see it on TV, does it still exist? Uh, yes. If you want to keep yourself up-to-date you can check in periodically with narconews.com, which has hands down the best English-speaking journalism on Central America.

Haven't kept up particularly, I was last in Chiapas about three years ago and things were going quietly well despite some serious government attacks. Wish you guys had been there, seeing all the liberated areas is a tremendously moving experience.

Feel free to expand on that; I, for one, am interested in hearing more.

[Sixiang]

Feel free to expand on that; I, for one, am interested in hearing more.

I second this. That sounds very awesome.

[Hoipolloi Cassidy]

Feel free to expand on that; I, for one, am interested in hearing more.
Very hard to explain. Either you know and love Southern Mexico, in which case what I'm going to say is stupidly obvious, or you don't know about it, in which case I'll try.

Mexico (I mean South of Leon) has a very large, very independent indigenous population that still has many of its rights and customs. The Zapatista movement, like Zapata's original one, isn't a Western-style proletarian uprising, it's really about working out a post-colonial future for indigenous people: "Tierra y Libertad," "Land and Freedom." If you're a gringo you can turn up in San Cristobal de las Casas, and without too much difficulty get invited to any number of the independent communities that call themselves "free" and try to get that to stick. They try to control violence - especially the violence of the Government and its stooges, they're adamantly non-sexist (many of those communities have strong matriarchal traditions), they build self-defense as best they can, they return to the traditions of communal land and property. And, obviously, it's a very difficult situation, what with the Government's divisive tactics. To give you an example, the Government plays the Evangelist Christian groups from further down the mountain, in Yucatan, against the Chiapans who are nominally Catholic, although some of them are involved in very particular, local kinds of religious practices (one of which involves drinking coke in church, under the belief that the burps are holy.)

Now that's Chiapas. A wholly different situation further North, in Oaxaca. I think the fact that Chiapas has not turned into Oaxaca is quite an achievement. Considering the mess in Mexico right now, I'm curious to know how the compadres are weathering things.

[Diello]

If you're a gringo you can turn up in San Cristobal de las Casas, and without too much difficulty get invited to any number of the independent communities that call themselves "free" and try to get that to stick.

Is this something you'd recommend?

[Hoipolloi Cassidy]

Is this something you'd recommend?

Depends. If you're young, and living in the Midwest, and you haven't traveled much (not into Southern Mexico), I'd say grab a ticket for Cancun (cheapest), head immediately North through Merida on the bus, then up into Chiapas, it's one of the most deeply moving places you'll ever be. Is it safe right now? Not sure, but the quicker you're away from Cancun the happier you'll be. Most Mexicans are extraordinarily gentle people, it comes from all the violence they have to put up with. There's some bad stuff going on in Oaxaca, and I wouldn't head there unless I really knew what I was doing. Also if you're a girl don't go by yourself.

Is Mexico an extraordinary experience that no-one should miss, especially Americans from the Midwest, especially if they're young and don't mind roughing it? When I was very young I had the immense honor of meeting a very old man by the name of Carleton Beals, one of the great progressive US writers on Latin America. Look up his books.

[ComradeGrant]

This is something I've been wondering about recently. After reading about the "autonomous municipalities," I became infatuated with the idea but the articles are a few years old. Anyone know the status of these?