On New Year's Day in the Mexican city of San Cristobal de las Casas, we found ourselves immersed in a crowd of 15,000 marching Zapatistas. They wore their trademark black caps covering their faces and raised machetes high while chanting various political rhymes .The Zapatistas have gotten world wide recognition in the past decade for fighting for the rights of indiginous peasants with the goal to turn back the land and resources from the state to their hands. They have been fighting hard against a wealthy minority's monopoly of the state of Chiapas and pushing for education, health care, civil rights, justice, and reform.

The march we saw was on the anniversary of the armed 1994 takeover of the town and surrounding areas by the EZLN (Zapatista National Liberation Army). It was a short lived victory however, because it only took the Mexican army a few days to take back the town and run out the rebels who fled to the surrounding hills where they continued fighting a propoganda war which brought world wide sympathy. Their leader is known as Subcomadante Marcos and he has become a bit of a cult figure with his masked image.

Their story goes on that an agreement was made between the EZLN and the government that would give a bit of autonomy back to the people but once again they were disappointed that none of these policies became law. Tensions grew as did the killings in 1997 and 1998 resulting in the Mexican government increasing their troops and intimidation to the Chiapas area. This caused thousands to flee their homes and villages and it was estimated that 21,000 Chiapas indigenous people were displaced from their homes by 1999.

With the election in 2000 of a new, slightly more sympathetic, government, hopes have risen and some people are starting to return to their homes. And in February 2002, the original legislation was reintroduced to Congress.

The most curious and unsaid thing about this complex conflict is the rumor that there is said to be oil-lots of it-lying underneath some of the eastern Chiapas land...