The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (Spanish: Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, EZLN), often referred to as the Zapatistas are a Neo-Zapatist rebel group in Mexico, that has been responsible for the Zapatista Revolution and the creation of the Rebel Zapatista Autonomous Municipalities. They are the main participants in the Chiapas Conflict. Mainly made up of rural indigenous people, there are supporters in Mexican towns and cities as well as internationally.
History
Background
The EZLN is a product of 500 years of indigenous resistance to colonialism, capitalism and ecocide. Drawing inspirations from the long history of indigenous commons and armed uprisings to the Mexican government (notably led by Emiliano Zapata of the Mexican Revolution) as well as Marxist and anarchist theory.
In the aftermath of the Tlatelolco Massacre, much of Mexico's left concluded that peaceful, nonviolent protests were doomed to fail. Leftist student brothers organised to form the FLN (National Liberation Front), a Marxist-Leninist group that operated in secrecy and developed covert networks and safehouses, After being destroyed by police raids, they attempted to recruit more from extremely poor indigenous peasants. Setting up safe houses in towns in Chiapas and secret training camps in the Jungle and contacting a network of solidarity organisations like Maoist groups, cooperative organisers, churchs and community organisations.