SPAN 44 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Fidel Castro, Prague Spring, Cuban Revolution
Week 10: Contesting Neoliberalism: New Indigenous Movements and the
Zapatista Uprising
**Final NOT culmulative**--covers material after first midterm
The uprising of the peoples of Abya Yala
● Abya Yala → term that indigenous peoples and indigenous organizations use to refer to Latin America
since the early 1980s
● Renaming the continent as the first step towards decolonization
● Increased levels of organization of indigenous groups since the early 1990s
○ Creation of organized structures (federations, political parties, etc.) in order to advance social
and political demands within a national framework
○ Coordination with other indigenous movements across the globe → Indigenous Summits and
Encounters
○ Recognition of Convenio 169 → International (global) recognition of the specificity of rights
(O.I.T. and U.N., 1989 and 2007)indigenous
■
○ Coordination of protests across the continent related to symbolic moments → 500 Years of
Resistance (1992)
Resistance Reactivated: Why?
● Long term factors → the (long term) effects of colonization
○ General situation of exclusion across the continent → highest rates of poverty and extreme
poverty, unemployment or informal employment, illiteracy, child mortality and child work,
malnutrition, etc.
○ Lack of political representation
○ Lack of recognition of cultural diversity → policies of integration, assimilation,
homogeneization
■ Seen as primitive and encouraged to abandon their own culture
● Indigenous peoples believed cultural diversity is a positive thing we need to
embrace (and not a sign of backwardsness)!
○ Endurance of high levels of racism, discrimination, and marginalization / segregation
● Short term factors → the effects of globalization and neoliberal policies on indigenous populations
○ Further impoverishment (especially indigenous women) and increasing economic and social
inequalities (urban vs. rural; rich vs. poor; whites and mestizos vs. indigenous peoples)
○ Privatization of public services (health care, education, potable water, etc.) and increasing
difficulty to access them by indigenous comunities
■ → people need to pay price for these services determined by the market→ increasingl
unaffordable→ further decline of the quality of life
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■ Lacking access of elements fundamental for life→ armed uprising/social uprising over
potable water in Bolivia
○ Impact of agricultural and mining multinationals → Disposession of collective lands,
displacement of communities, pollution of natural resources…
■ What in theory could have positive macroeconomic impacts for the production of the
country in practice impacted many indigenous communites poorly
■ Lost lands to multinationa/transnational interests/firms;
● Comandanta Esther mentions several of these factors in her speech
Uprisings Across the Continent
● Indigenous movements will adopt different strategies to obtain their goals → from (Zapatista
uprising) guerrilla warfare (Mexico); creation of indigenous political parties (Ecuador); establishment of
political alliances with other sectors of society (Bolivia); reclaiming independence from the nation-
state… (Guatemala)
● Indigenous movements will obtain different levels of success → Bolivia (extreme success) vs.
Guatemala (not very successful)
the case of mexico: the zapatista uprising in chiapas
● Mexico down the road of neoliberal reforms
○ Government of Carlos Salinas de Gortari (1988-1994)
○ Privatization of the banking system, telecommunications, and abolition of the ejidos (last vestige
of Mexican Revolution and its land reform)
○ Inspired in the hero of the Mexican Revolution, Emiliano Zapata
● January 1, 1994 → two crucial events
○ NAFTA is enforced → free trade between United States, Canada, and Mexico
○ Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN) raises up in arms
● Rebellion will be located in Chiapas (Southern Mexico)
○ Poorest state in the country
○ Majority of indigenous population (different Mayan ethnicities) → heavily impacted by
neoliberal reforms
The (semi)visible faces of the zapatista uprising
● Subcomandante Marcos
○ Most visible leader of the EZLN → served as the Zapatista spokesman until 2014
○ Anti-capitalist thinker → global capital and multinationals as a homogenizing force that,
unless actively opposed, will eventually destroy indigenous peoples, cultural diversity, and
humanity at large
○ Globalization and neoliberalism as “The Fourth World War” waged against the poor people of
the world
○ “The Fourth World War has Begun” (optional text)
● Comandanta Esther, Comandanta Ramona…
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Week 10: contesting neoliberalism: new indigenous movements and the. The uprising of the peoples of abya yala. Abya yala term that indigenous peoples and indigenous organizations use to refer to latin america since the early 1980s. Renaming the continent as the first step towards decolonization. Increased levels of organization of indigenous groups since the early 1990s. Creation of organized structures (federations, political parties, etc. ) in order to advance social and political demands within a national framework. Coordination with other indigenous movements across the globe indigenous summits and. Recognition of convenio 169 international (global) recognition of the specificity of rights (o. i. t. and u. n. , 1989 and 2007)indigenous. Coordination of protests across the continent related to symbolic moments 500 years of. Long term factors the (long term) effects of colonization. General situation of exclusion across the continent highest rates of poverty and extreme poverty, unemployment or informal employment, illiteracy, child mortality and child work, malnutrition, etc.
