Zapatistas autonomous territories: sketches of an alternative geography

Abstract

In the last three decades, many indigenous organizations have emerged politically around Latin American. The watershed moment of this phenomenon was the armed uprising of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), in Chiapas (Mexico), 1994. Between the already traditional demands posed by indigenous people, as a separate legal-territorial arrangement that would allow Mexican indigenous people the concrete exercise of self-determination. After fail to approve a law that could define this regime’s legal frameworks, the Zapatistas decided to consolidate unilaterally the autonomy that has been developed in their communities, since the end of 1994. From the so-called “autonomy of resistance”, they broke any sort of relation with the State. The changes of this power relationship are projected on a territory where, from the formation of communities, municipalities and autonomous regions, parallel governments have been set and still operating to that date. Therefore, a detailed description of the formation, structure and politico-territorial administration of Zapatista autonomy is the object of this article.