The Zapatista Movement: A hybrid and paradoxic political culture
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7203/KAM.12.12371Keywords:
Zapatista Army of National Liberation, democracy, hybrid policy, identity, dialogue, nationalism, dignity
Abstract
This article reveals the hybrid character of the Zapatista movement (Zapatista Army of National Liberation, EZLN). It was announced on January 1, 1994 in protest against the free trade agreement (NAFTA) between Mexico, Canada and the US and entered into force that very same day. The movement launched an armed struggle against the government, under the slogan “Never again a Mexico without us”. In the “Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle”, the movement declared a war on the Mexican federal army. The movement did everything possible to avoid an easy classification so that all univocal interpretations such as a new social movement, or a neo-indigenous movement or pan maya or a traditional guerrilla turned out to be, rather, equivocal. This article will review these interpretations and bring forward the hybridity of this movement. If hybridity was part of a conscious and attempted policy, this article will also point to a series of unintended paradoxes that came to light as a result of a careful analysis of the Zapatista discourse. Its final reflections point to the importance of this movement for the world at large and provide a suggestion for future research.
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