Mexican History Through the Eyes of the Zapatistas - Subcomandante Marcos

First and foremost, Subcomandante Marcos believes that the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) was a governing political party, and consequently prevailing national government, not representative of a large segment of Mexican society. In fact, Subcomandante Marcos and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation believe that the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) was only the most recent Mexican governmental system in a long line of various forms of Mexican government, including Spanish colonial rule, that exploited and suppressed the views of a vast majority of Mexicans to the benefit of a rich, internationally connected minority. Subcomandante Marcos counts among members of the EZLN: various indigenous groups, women, children, the elderly, and other Mexicans that have been exploited by the current system of Mexican government. In essence, Subcomandante Marcos and the EZLN feel that the PRI administration of Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon was continuing a history of repression of indigenous Mexicans and exploitation of the Mexican state for material gain for the ruling class.

Subcomandante Marcos and the EZLN bring into focus the reoccurring political tension and conflict in Mexican history between regionalism and centralization. While the traditional seat of power in Mexico has been centralized in Mexico City throughout much of its national history, the Mexican nation has a history of caudilismo in both the southern and northern reaches of the Mexican state. Such caudillos have often sought equal representation for marginalized Mexicans of varying racial and ethnic backgrounds who lived in the rural, underdeveloped regions of the nation. The EZLN, based in the southern state of Chiapas, continues the revolutionary spirit of Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa by seeking representation for indigenous populations by undermining the prevailing Mexican government in the wake of neo-liberalism and new foreign pressures, namely NAFTA.