A Place Called Chiapas is a Canadian documentary of first-hand accounts of the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN) the (Zapatista Army of National Liberation or Zapatistas) and the lives of its soldiers and the people for whom they fight. Director Nettie Wild takes the viewer to rebel territory in the south west Mexican state of Chiapas, where the EZLN live and evade the Mexican Army.
The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, EZLN) is an armed revolutionary group (VNSA) based in Chiapas, the southernmost, and one of the poorest, states of Mexico. Since 1994, they have been in a declared war “against the Mexican state,” though this war has been primarily nonviolent and defensive against military, paramilitary, and corporate incursions on their territory. Their social base is mostly indigenous but they have some supporters in urban areas as well as an international web of support. Their main spokesperson is Subcomandante Marcos (currently a.k.a. Delegate Zero in relation to the “Other Campaign”). Unlike other Zapatista spokespeople, Marcos is not an indigenous Mayan.
The group takes its name from Emiliano Zapata, the agrarian reformer and commander of the Liberation Army of the South during the Mexican Revolution and sees itself as his ideological heir. In reference to inspirational figures, in nearly all EZLN villages exist murals accompanying images of Zapata, Che Guevara, and Subcomandante Marcos.
Their ideology combines libertarian socialism, libertarian municipalism, libertarian Marxism, and indigenous Mayan political thought. They align themselves with the wider anti-globalization, anti-neoliberal social movement and seek indigenous control over their local resources, especially land. The New York Times called the Zapatista movement the first “post-modern” revolution: an armed revolutionary group that has abstained from using their weapons since their 1994 uprising was countered by the superior military might of the Mexican army. The Zapatistas quickly adopted a new strategy by trying to garner the support of Mexican and international socialist anarchist societies. They try to achieve this by using the internet to disseminate their statements and to enlist the support of NGOs and solidarity groups. Awareness of the Zapatista Movement has also been raised due to support from bands such as Rage Against the Machine, Leftöver Crack, Brujeria, Anti-Flag and Manu Chao.
“We dont want to impose our solutions by force, we want to create a democratic space. We dont see armed struggle in the classic sense of previous guerrilla wars, that is as the only way and the only all-powerful truth around which everything is organized. In a war, the decisive thing is not the military confrontation but the politics at stake in the confrontation. We didnt go to war to kill or be killed. We went to war in order to be heard.” – Subcomandante Marcos
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November 11th, 2010 at 11:45
The Chiapas massacre was about Chiapas,not N.A.F.T.A.,which is not a ‘partnership’ but a trade embargo from the U.S.against Mexico.I don’t know if I can watch another 2 minute’s of these lies.
November 11th, 2010 at 13:19
The U.S. laon was not the largest financial bail-out in history,it was a pay off to the Mexican government for killing Colosio and continueing the rape of Mexican raw material’s for U.S. economic gain.America will never be able to pay back Mexico the value what it has stolen by genocide and displacement while they complain about Latino’s trying to get out to the U.S and sell Cartel soldier’s gun’s in American stores to perpetrate the American genocide they call ‘The Mexican Drug war’.
November 11th, 2010 at 13:44
The reason Marcos did not give the narrator of this documentary an interview is because of the reasoning that lead her to her conclusion why not-because she represent’s the mentality of those who exploit vulnerable and deprived people and because her countrymen are stained in blood,something she think’s is less significant than her personal participationfor the benefit of her egotistical career as a media scalp hunter.