On New Year's Eve 1993, there was little indication
that popular President Carlos Salinas de Gortari was about
to take a monumental fall. Mexico was in the midst of
unprecedented prosperity. The world's oldest ruling
political party, Mexico's PRI, enjoyed substantial support.
Allegations of corruption within an authoritarian regime
were now frivolous charges obscured by economic success.
The nation was poised to become a major player in the global
market; vying with Japan to be the second largest trading
partner of the U.S.A. The North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA) between Canada, the largest trading
partner of the U.S., Mexico and the United States became
effective January 1, 1994.
Just after midnight 1994, the Zapatista National
Liberation Army (EZLN) went to war in the southern Mexican
state of Chiapas. Approximately 2500 peasants (mostly
indigenous men of Mayan descent) had mobilized against the
Mexican government. The violence sparked world wide
interest in the human rights of Mexican Indians. Ten days
later, as the EZLN retreated into the jungle, an
international audience remained captivated by the struggle.
The Mexican Army did not advance. The EZLN refused to lay
down its arms.
Within the year, the Mexican economy collapsed. Soon
thereafter, President Salinas went into voluntary exile
amidst charges of high crimes against the state.
Was it just a coincidence that the rebellion coincided
with the implementation of NAFTA? Did the treaty really
present such an enormous threat to Mexico's underclass? Did
NAFTA contribute to the nation's political problems? The
following thesis answers these questions. It is the product
of years of travel and study throughout Chiapas and Mexico,
both before and after the rebellion. The intricacies of the
relationship between NAFTA, the Mexican government and the
EZLN are revealed.
The government's position and rebel demands are
reconcilable. This is an important conclusion. But Mexico
is a poor country embroiled in a rebellion to the south as
well as a precarious economic treaty with the world's
wealthiest nation to the north. In addition, the EZLN has
come to represent the world's beleaguered poor in an era of
free trade. As Mexico's past and present are explored,
conclusions about the country's future have implications
that go beyond NAFTA. / Graduation date: 2000
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/33181 |
| Date | 30 July 1999 |
| Creators | Veit, Steven J. |
| Contributors | Wood, Guy H. |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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