Essay on Zapatista Movement in Mexcio - 1273 Words

The Zapatista rebellion in Chiapas, Mexico got worldwide attention on January 1, 1994, when they marched to Mexico City against the signing of the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The free trade agreement was intended to facilitate trading between Canada, United States, and Mexico. The Zapatista claimed that this agreement would affect the indigenous people of Chiapas by further widening the gap between the poor and the rich. In this paper I will examine the NAFTA agreement and the Zapatista’s ideology and claims against the NAFTA agreement to see whether or not any real effects have risen within the indigenous people of Chiapas Mexico and in Mexico as a whole. The goal of North American Free Trade agreement was to†¦show more content†¦agricultural products, which might end Mexican crop subsidies. They argued that this would significantly reduce the income and affect the living standards of many southern Mexican farmers. They would not be able to compete with the subsidized, artificially fertilized, mechanically harvested, and genetically modified imports from the United States. The signing of NAFTA also resulted in a big problem for the indigenous people in Mexico. Prior to the signing of NAFTA, Article 27 Section VII in the Mexican Constitution guaranteed land reparations to indigenous groups all throughout Mexico. With the signing of NAFTA, Article 27 Section VII was instantly removed. This article of the constitution is extremely important to the Zapatista movement given that it was the cornerstone of Emiliano Zapata’s work during the Mexican revolution. Article 27 also protected the ingenious people who had landholdings from sale or privatization. In Noam Chomsky’s Profit over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order, he notes that, â€Å"The uprising coincided with the enactment of NAFTA, which the Zapatista army called a death sentence for Indians...† (122). As soon as the agreement was signed the EZLN declared war on the Mexican state. The impact of NAFTA on Mexico and its farmers is undeniable. In the year 2000, the United States government subsidies to the corn sector totaled an estimated $10 billion. These subsidies have led to