No ski masked Don Quixote.


Alex Lopez-Ortiz






Almost a year after they first took arms, the Zapatista army on the Mexican 

state of Chiapas, conquered 38 additional municipalities unopposed by the 

Mexican army, causing a debacle of the Mexican currency, pushing the loonie 

and the American dollar to new lows, and causing downturns in stock 

markets worldwide. How this came to be? Who are the Zapatistas and how 

they came to yield so much influence over the world markets?



On January 1st, 1994 a well trained guerrilla of Mayans Indians took several 

towns and cities of Chiapas, a southern state in the Mexican-Guatemalan 

border. Chiapas is one of the poorest states in that country. The only one in 

which the distinction between indigineous (Indian) and mestizo culture 

permeates civil society. A virgin territory for social reform.



In the following days, the plight of the guerrilla touched the heart of 

idealistic people everywhere. It had many romantic components: The first 

armed movement of the post-cold war era, with colorfoul Indian brandishing 

ecologically sound sticks shaped in the form of AK 47s. Their leader, the 

self-named subcommandant Marcos has, to the delight of Vanity Fair, deep blue 

eyes. And the movement was far away so as not to interrupt our daily 

commute over Mercier Bridge. All in all, the ideal struggle to support. 



Though much downplayed by the self-censored Mexican press, heavy fighting 

took place throughout the early morning of January 1st and subsequent days 

in 1994. Then, all of a sudden a unilateral truce was declared by the 

government.


The newly appointed Minister of the Interior, the well known human rights 

champion, Jorge Carpizo, called for negotiations for peace .



This placed the Zapatistas in an odd situation. When they took up arms, they 

planned for war and expected a country wide uprising. Neither occurred. Here 

was the government calling for peaceful negotiations while Mexican civil 

society expressed disapproval to the armed way (though sympathy for their 

vague demands for justice and equity was unanimous).



The subcommandant Marcos, and the people at the leadership of the 

Zapatista army, never counted on a political victory without fighting and had 

not planned for this circumstance. They hurriedly pieced a set of demands to 

bring forth to the negotiation table. The set of demands verged on asking for 

the impossible. Again, to their surprise, the government acceded to most of 

them. They could not reject the government proposal outright. As well, some 

of their demands were related to the presidential elections to take place in 

August, and they could not depose arms until then, to ensure their 

implementation. 


In a country like Mexico, with a history of nearly 69 years in peace, the very 

existence of the EZLN helped create a political vacuum. As a consequence of 

this vacuum, the ruling partys (PRI) presidential candidate was assassinated. 

The EZLN lied low after this tragic event, not wishing to be implicated with 

the homicide.


In August, the elections transcured without any major irregularities and 

despite uncountable small irregularities, the outcome of the election was 

clear. The PRI candidate triumphed by a 20 margin over his closest opponent 

a candidate from the right wing National Action Party. This was a double 

defeat for the EZLN, not only did the ruling party won, the Zapatista 

sympathizer candidate from the PRD slipt into third place, obtaining only half 

as many votes in percentage points as in the 1988 elections.



In the elections for the governorship of the state of Chiapas, the PRD 

candidate suffered a traffic accident that some journalists were too quick to 

report as an attempt on the candidates life. He made a full recovery, but still 

lost to the PRI candidate. (Though admittedly, there were more significant 

irregularities in these elections).



To compound things, a few weeks later, one of the main reformers of the PRI 

was gunned down in Mexico City.



The peso was then hanging from a thin thread: Overvalued against the dollar 

by 20%, with a US$25 billion current account deficit, with enormous 

pressures on the stock market deriving from the political situation and the 

mild recession caused by anti-inflationary policies and NAFTA.



Enter Monday, 18th of December, 1994. The EZLN, ever so desperate to 

engage the Mexican army, provokes the government forces by breaking the 

cease fire lines and taking over 38 additional municipalities. 



The government once again showed its patience and the army, under strict 

orders not to fire, simply watched the movements of the guerrilla troops. 

Unfortunately, foreign stock market investors were not so patient. They 

misread the importance of the EZLN action and started cashing in their stocks 

in droves.



The Mexican government wisely refused to defend the peso (England, Spain, 

Italy and Sweden were unsuccessful when they tried to defend their currencies, 

and only compounded their loses). The peso then lost about 50% of its value 

against the US dollar over the following days. On Thursday December 29th, 

the full impact of the Mexican economic emergency (as it was termed by 

President Zedillo) was felt all over the world. The Canadian dollar reached a 

new low, at 1.40 per US dollar, the US dollar was valued at a five month low 

against the German mark, and the London, Tokyo and New York stock 

exchanges saw mild losses during the day.



Welcome to the global village, where the flap of the proverbial butterfly in the 

(Maya) forest caused the stock market to fall nearly 3,000 miles away.



At this time, the Mexican government has acceded to the new set of demands 

from the EZLN, in hopes to bring about a peaceful resolution to the conflict. 

It is time for the EZLN to act in kind.