I’ve seen some pretty frequent posters on the Fediverse participating in the dissemination of anti-EZLN/pro-capitalist/pro-state propaganda, so I thought it would be a good time to repost this. Yes, I was personally concerned when I first read the article by AP News, but it turns out this restructuring has been (probably deliberately) misconstrued and presented as a weakening of the Zapatistas, when such is not the case!

Here’s the original release if you’d rather read it for yourself instead of the tumblr post. I just think that tumblr blog laid it out nicely and easily.

All the other disparagements of Zapatistas that I’ve seen in the mainstream news are the exact same regurgitated racist/classist statements that are made by the western media against literally any indigenous group ever. Let’s see if I can list them:

There’s poverty

No shit. Poverty created by the Mexican state and colonialism long before the Zapatistas existed.

There’s lack of access to healthcare

Oh, really? So the US media should be the arbiter of what constitutes fair access to healthcare?

There’s gang/cartel activity

…which are bolstered by an inequitable capitalist system and are only able to function within the framework of an oppressive state. Again, this is remarkably not the fault of the Zapatistas.