timeline of key dates

1492	Christopher Columbus arrives in the Americas;
	indigenous communities often refer to this date as
	the beginning of five hundred years of resistance.
1519-1521	Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, a significant
	event in the Spanish colonization of the Americas.
1528	The conquest of most of Chiapas is completed
	under the leadership of Spanish conquistador
	Diego de Mazariegos.
1712	Tzeltal Revolt in the municipality of Cancuc in the
	highlands of Chiapas.
1810-1821	Mexican War of Independence from Spain.
1824	Chiapas becomes part of Mexico.
Mid-1800s	La Reforma, a period of modernizing liberal
	reforms in Mexico that strip both the church and
	indigenous communities of lands; in seeking to
	curtail the power of the clergy, La Reforma resulted
	in the enrichment of large landholders and wors-
	ened conditions for landless peasants.
1869	Caste War in the Tzotzil municipality of Cham-
	ula, sparked by the dispossession of indigenous
	communities.
1910-1920	Mexican Revolution.
1917	Mexican Constitution is ratified.
1929	Formation of the ruling Partido Nacional Revolu-
	cionario (National Revolutionary Party, PNR), later
	renamed the Institutional Revolutionary Party or PRI.
1930s	Colonization of the Lacandon Jungle by indigenous
	peasants fleeing from fincas begins.
1934-1940	Lázaro Cárdenas is president of Mexico and
	implements land reform that was promised in the
	Mexican Constitution of 1917.
1950s	Colonization of the Lacandon Jungle intensifies;
	the government seeks to relieve mounting tensions
	over land by encouraging land-poor indigenous
	peasants from the highlands to settle the rainforest
	in eastern Chiapas.
1960	Samuel Ruiz becomes the bishop of the Catholic
	Diocese of San Cristóbal de las Casas (and would
	remain so until the year 2000).
1969	Formation of the clandestine National Liberation
	Forces or FLN in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon.
1974	The Indigenous Congress, organized by the Diocese
	of San Cristóbal, brings together over a thousand
	indigenous delegates and catalyzes an increased
	level of organization in the indigenous communi-
	ties of Chiapas.
Late 1970s	The FLN begins recruiting indigenous members in
	the northern zone and central highlands of Chiapas.
1982	Mexico declares that it is unable to pay its interna-
	tional loans, triggering a debt crisis and ushering in
	an era of strict neoliberal policies.
Nov. 17, 1983	Members of the FLN form the EZLN.
1992	Leading up to the implementation of NAFTA, the
	Mexican Constitution is changed to allow ejidos to
	be bought and sold.
1992	Alcohol is banned in Zapatista communities.
1993	The CCRI is formed as the highest body of leader-
	ship within the EZLN, replacing the nonindigenous
	leadership of the FLN. Additionally, the EZLN
	passes a series of revolutionary laws, including the
	Women’s Revolutionary Law.
Jan. 1994	Zapatista uprising.
Dec. 1994	The EZLN declares the existence of more than thirty
	autonomous municipalities.
Feb. 9, 1995	The Mexican military launches an offensive against
	Zapatista communities.
Feb. 16, 1996	The EZLN and the Mexican government sign the
	San Andrés Peace Accords on Indigenous Rights
	and Culture.
July 27-	The EZLN holds the First Intercontinental Gather-
Aug. 3, 1996	ing for Humanity and against Neoliberalism.
Oct. 1996	Comandanta Ramona travels to Mexico City for
	the founding meeting of the National Indigenous
	Congress.
Sept. 1997	Mobilization of 1,111 Zapatistas to Mexico City.
Dec. 22, 1997	Acteal massacre.
1998	Series of incursions by the Mexican armed forces
	into Zapatista villages.
1999	The EZLN holds the Consulta Nacional.
2000	The PRI loses the presidential elections in Mexico
	after seven decades of one-party rule.
2001	The EZLN organizes the March for Indigenous
	Dignity, and Comandanta Ester becomes the
	first indigenous woman to address the Mexican
	Congress.
2005	The EZLN launches the Other Campaign.
2006	Comandanta Ramona passes away.
2007	The Third Gathering between the Zapatista People
	and Peoples of the World “Comandanta Ramona
	and the Zapatistas.”

Zapatista march in San Cristóbal de las Cases to launch the Other Campaign, January 2006. (Photograph by Francesc Parés.)