Un Mundo Donde Quepan Muchos Mundos: A Postcolonial Legal Perspective Inspired by the Zapatistas (original) (raw)

On January 1, 1994, the day when NAFTA entered into force, a group of indigenous appeared from the Lacandon jungle in Chiapas, occupied the city hall of San Cristóbal de las Casas, presented themselves as the Zapatista Army and announced: "We are the product of 500 years of fighting. [. . . ] But today we say: It is enough." This was the beginning of a rebellion which attracted international attention and is still going on today. Taking the announcement seriously, this article traces the history of 500 years from a legal perspective. By considering also the international dimension of this history, it shall be revealed that the reasons for the Zapatista revolt range from the Lacandon jungle through Chiapas, Mexico, Latin America, to the world and its global order. The article will focus on their demand for "land and freedom" which leads to the so-called agrarian question and the long history of bloody disputes about land, means of existence, natural resources, autonomy, sovereignty, power, dominance, oppression, life and death.