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The Indian Heart of the Nation: The Evolution of the Political Discourse of the EZLN in Mexico (1993–2009)

2010; Routledge; Volume: 5; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/17442222.2010.513827

1744-2230

Ramón Maíz Suárez,

Indigenous Cultures and History

For students of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), the events surrounding the Mexican election of 2006, and the subsequent mass protests of the supporters of losing presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador, testified to the divorce between the EZLN and many of its former allies on the Mexican political, intellectual and Indianist left, who by that time were viewed by Zapatistas as traitors to the cause. Together with serious discrepancies and rifts between the EZLN and the indigenous organizations and communities that for many years constituted its social base, these events highlighted the increasing isolation of the EZLN and the scant success of its 'Other Campaign' in its pursuit of 'an anticapitalist national leftist uprising' (Castellanos 2008 Castellanos, L. 2008. Corte de Caja. Entrevista al subcomandante Marcos, Mexico: Altemo. [Google Scholar], p. 117). On the basis of an analysis of Zapatista discourse, this article shows that this estrangement is connected to the shifting Zapatista position regarding its Mexican nationalist perspective on the defense of indigenous rights and autonomy.