Protest and Human Rights Networks: The Case of the Zapatista Movement

Abstract

The Zapatistas gained political access due in part to Mexico's efforts to participate and sustain its position in the world economy. This goal demanded greater sensitivity to the call for democratic openness by the human rights community, anti-North American Free Trade Agreement groups, and indigenous rights organizations. Mexico's effort to bolster its record on human rights internationally created a political opening for the Zapatista protest. The Zapatistas' network of support created a situation where it was able to force the government to constrain their traditional military policy towards popular movements. This is in part due to the need to placate financial and human rights interests in Mexico and internationally. However, the tactics used by paramilitary groups and low-intensity measures taken by the military to deal with the Zapatistas were not under similar constraints, leaving space for their liberal application. and expel the French empire from our soil, and later the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz denied us the just application of the Reform laws and the people rebelled and leaders like Villa and Zapata emerged, poor men just like us. We have been denied the most elemental preparation so they can use us as cannon fodder and pillage the wealth of our country. They don't care that we have nothing, absolutely nothing, not even a roof over our heads, no land, no work, no health care, no food nor education. Nor are we able to freely and democratically elect our political representatives, nor is there independence from foreigners, nor is there peace nor justice for ourselves and our children (EZLN 1993).

Determinants of Latin American Activism: Domestic and Transnational Political Opportunities and Threats

“…The Mexican government, wishing to maintain an image of stability as it attempted to become a developed nation, conceded to the newly developed Zapatista Transnational Solidarity Network by declaring a truce with the Zapatistas and coming to the bargaining table. The press the Zapatistas got on the international scene incensed the international community, who forced the government to back down, thus allowing the Zapatistas time to negotiate and rethink their goals as a movement (Muñoz 2008).…”

“…Despite debate about the continuing limited importance of democracy due to global political integration and increasing economic dependence between the global South and North (Babb 2005; Otero 2004), studies have agreed that it remains relevant internationally (Smith and Wiest 2005; Tarrow 2005a). The studies discussed below point to the presence or absence of democracy, the regional political shift to the Left, availability of new allies, and instability of previous elite regimes as evidence of the continuing importance of democratization for social movement activity (Inclán 2008, 2009; Muñoz 2008; Rothman and Oliver 1999; Wolford 2007). States continue to present real opportunities and threats to activism and social movement activity within the region.…”

“…General openings in political structure matter more for policy outcomes related to movement activity, while changes in issue-specific concerns may matter more for specific protests, and coupling the two jointly influences movement formation (Meyer and Minkoff 2004). Zapatista research, discussed below, supports this by showing the stability of elite alliances between the Mexican president and his military leaders, and the openness of the system through electoral competition can exert different effects on initial mobilization than it does for ongoing protest events (Inclán 2008(Inclán , 2009Muñoz 2008).…”

“…More recently, with countries like Brazil under Lula (Bianchi and Braga 2005;Sader 2006), Bolivia under Evo Morales (Goméz 2006;Salman 2007), and Ecuador with Rafael Correa (Conaghan 2008), Latin America experienced a greater shift to the left of the political spectrum (Castañeda and Morales 2008;Morales 2008), creating further opportunities for activists as elite stability shifted and new allies championed their causes. As states in the region democratize and shift to the political Left, civil society flourishes and the threat of political repression diminishes, encouraging the growth of social movement groups within the region (de Almeida et al 2000;Muñoz 2008;Rothman and Oliver 1999;Welch 2006;Wolford 2007).…”

“…Analysis of TSMOs in the global South suggests that they continue to grow in numbers and develop ties with global INGOs and IGOs to increase institutional access to organizations like the UN and to make new allies available (Smith 2005;Wiest and Smith 2007). TAN's, which may include INGOs and TSMOs, provide valuable resources, establish new elite ties, and pressure international institutions and nations directly (Keck and Sikkink 1998), Studies of INGOs, TSMOs, and TANs suggest their importance for predicting outcomes, such as reduced political repression by the state (Hafner-Burton and Tsutsui 2005;Muñoz 2008), increased political participation and representation for women (Paxton et al 2006;Ramirez et al 1997), better schools and educational outcomes (Schafer 1999), reduced urbanization, greater economic development, more access to clean water (Bradshaw and Schafer 2000), and to strengthen positions of economically weak states in the world system (Smith and Wiest 2005).…”