Thirty-one years after the uprising of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, little has been written in the Mexican or international press about the epic struggle of the Maya people who took up arms on January 1st, 1994, to stop the devastation that NAFTA would wreak on their territory. And yet, they are there, continuing their struggle and resistance against the effects of capitalism that seeks to strip them of their way of life.
Within their towns and communities, their organization not only remains, but grows and rejuvenates. Projects to bring health, education, agroecological production, or any of the objectives set before their public appearance, to their bases are multiplying. They do so at their own pace and in their own way, with the silence that has characterized them for some years, which is only broken when their ideas are ripe to be expressed and shared. One example is their proposal for struggle in the face of what they call the Coming Storm. They sense that the advancing situation of capitalist dispossession will reach them sooner rather than later, and they warn about the threats they see in the world, such as the genocide in Gaza.
For this reason, they have been alerting global social organizations for years about the need to wake up and radically confront dispossession and exclusion. They call for a listening ear to the global experiences that seek to transform the world into a place where justice, peace, and democracy are respected. They unequivocally point to capitalism as the great enemy to be defeated, and use the figure of The Pyramid to highlight its exclusionary and predatory nature, as well as the everyday practices in which we can find ourselves entangled, which they urge us to dismantle.
Against this backdrop, the Zapatistas convened us this past summer to the “Encounter of Resistances and Rebellions: Some Parts of the Whole.” Hundreds of people from the five continents listened to each other and spoke about this storm that threatens us and how to confront it. The Zapatistas have shown us their approach. First, by overthrowing what didn’t work: the Pyramid that the Good Government Council system had become, established in 2003, which for them was a copy of what had existed for 500 years. A bottleneck where the Councils failed to fulfill their function as representatives of their peoples. A capitalist Pyramid, due to its top-down and sometimes corrupt practices, that had to be overthrown. And so it was.
In front of the nearly 3,000 people gathered at the Caracol in Morelia, the Zapatistas presented us with a blistering, sincere self-criticism about the past 20 years, when their commitment to self-government hadn’t worked as they thought it should. The Councils were formed by representatives of the people who held office for three years. They represented the authority of an entire zone, the so-called Caracoles, for decision-making that they were not always able to translate into the mandate of the grassroots. Furthermore, each of the 12 zones worked in isolation from the Zapatista movement as a whole, with no communication between the 12 Good Government Councils. In other words, they went their own way, not always respecting the common mandate. It was necessary to think of new, more radical, more democratic forms of representing the will of the Zapatista people.
The proclamation of the Local Autonomous Governments (GAL) in 2024 was the answer. Each of the 12 zones or Caracoles is divided into regions, and these in turn are divided into different towns. Each town and its authorities, agents, and commissioners make up a GAL. This is where the authority of Zapatismo resides, from the assemblies of the hundreds of towns that, together with their authorities, organize at the grassroots level. The Zapatista Collectives of Autonomous Governments (CGAZ) are the meeting of the GALs in a region, and when the CGAZs meet in the zones (Caracoles), they form the space for the Assemblies of Collectives of Autonomous Zapatista Governments (ACGAZ). But be careful, we refer to these as meeting spaces or gatherings, not as a hierarchy of authority, as the Good Government Councils once were. Anyone who is invited to the CGAZ and the ACGAZs can attend. These are messengers who will convey the will of the people. If there is a need to discuss health or education, everyone involved will attend, from GAL authorities to promoters, advisors, or whoever else is necessary. In fact, Sub-commander Moisés has already warned that the names of these last two spaces may change in the near future, as they do not clearly express the fact that they are not places of authority, but rather places for transmitting messages from the people.
The meeting of the 12 ACGAZs forms the inter-ACGAZ, the pooling of zones, regions, and peoples, that is, of autonomy. When the inter-ACGAZ meets with the command and the Clandestine Indigenous Revolutionary Committee (CCRI), the inter-Zone is formed. This space is the place to share and express the will of the people. But again, it is not a space of authority. The presence of the CCRI and the command provides political-military guidance, but that’s as far as it goes. It’s important to mention that, since the founding of the Caracoles in 2003, the EZLN has sought to separate the realization of autonomy from military functions. The Zapatista army’s vocation is to relegate itself to the functions of safeguarding the territory. But something evident in the self-criticism about the JBG is that much remains to be built in autonomy. As Sub Moisés mentions: “We are not revolutionaries; we still have a long way to go.”
And if all of the above weren’t enough, in January, construction began on the Light of the World Operating Room “Fallen Compañeros of the World” as a shared demand from the peoples of the inter-Zone. The Zapatistas took us to the vicinity of the Caracol in Dolores Hidalgo for the public presentation of the operating room’s progress. It is, in reality, a large hospital that will serve both Zapatistas and non-Zapatistas, people in need, miles from the nearest public hospital, covering a territorial area that will save lives. A great advance for the Zapatista Autonomous Health System for all. Because, as Moisés says, we are all the same blood, bones, and flesh.
And it is this same sense of co-responsibility and brotherhood that leads the Zapatistas to dedicate the beginning of the Gathering to the Palestinian struggle and denounce the genocide. They point out that pure solidarity is not enough and that they must move on to organization, because today it is Palestine, but later they will come for them. That is why the Palestinian flags wave throughout the nursery, and the kufiyas are visible, protecting them from the merciless sun and persistent rain of these August days.
The renewal of the structure within autonomy, overthrowing the pyramid, represents a new organizational form that will allow for greater communication with each other, so that the flows of information and action can reach everyone and everywhere at the same time. With an eye toward the next 120 years, toward the Zapatista youth who will engender new Zapatista youth, and so on, until perhaps one of these generations will see revolution, peace, justice, and democracy for themselves and for the world.
The Encounter, one of the longest ever held in Zapatista territory, concluded with an invitation to continue building the Commons and tearing down the pyramids of capitalism, because there is no other way, says Moisés, just like in 1994. And just like three decades ago, Zapatismo is very much alive, reinventing itself to continue growing stronger.
Original article by Arturo Landeros, Viento Sur, September 8th, 2025.
Translated by Schools for Chiapas.