The Struggle for Liberation and Reconciliation in Chiapas, Mexico

Las Abejas and the Path of Nonviolent Resistance

Bibliographic Data

ID4500249
AuthorsChristine Kovic (0000-0002-3955-2799, corresponding author)
Year2003
Volume30
Issue3
Pages58-79
Publication date2003-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLatin American Perspectives (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0094-582X • E-ISSN: 1552-678X
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0094582x03030003005
OpenAlexW2067478789
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited11

In past few years conflict has escalated in Chiapas, Mexico, not only between Ejercito Zapatista de Liberaci6n Nacional (Zapatista Army of National Liberation-EZLN) and Mexican government but also within indigenous communities, where political divisions have increased, thousands of people have been displaced, and over a hundred political assassinations have taken place. Paramilitary groups formed and operating within rural communities have terrorized local populations, reaching such extremes as events in Acteal, Chenalho, where 45 members of Las Abejas (the Bees) were massacred while praying in a local chapel on December 22, 1997. In this context, diverse actors-the state and federal governments, army, hundreds of independent peasant organizations, Catholic Diocese of San Crist6bal de Las Casas, and EZLN, among others-state that they are working to promote peace. Unless causes of violence and oppression are addressed, however, is an empty term. It could refer to increasing militarization, a cease-fire, or suppression of any activity challenging established social order. As anthropologist Richard Fox observes, scholars often assume that means the absence of collective violence, and therefore has been untheorized and underexplored (1995: 275). For case of Chiapas, Rosa Rojas (1995) writes ofthe violent peace or pseudo-peace that fails to address just demands of impoverished peasants and indigenous peoples. This contains racism, marginalization, exploitation, dispossession, lack of respect for indigenous

Archaeology · Context (archaeology) · Ethnology · Government (linguistics) · Indigenous · Militarization · Oppression · Peasant · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Racism · Sociology · State (computer science) · History · Law · Political Conflict and Governance · Politics and Society in Latin America · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies

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