NAFTA and the Zapatista uprising
On the day the North American Free Trade Agreement takes effect, masked Indigenous rebels of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation seize towns in Chiapas.
- The Chiapas Rebellion: The Struggle for Land and Democracy — Neil Harvey, Duke University Press (1998)
- NAFTA Revisited: Achievements and Challenges — Gary Clyde Hufbauer and Jeffrey J. Schott, Peterson Institute for International Economics (2005)
- Opening Mexico: The Making of a Democracy — Julia Preston and Samuel Dillon, Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2004)
President Carlos Salinas de Gortari staked his presidency on NAFTA, linking Mexico with the United States and Canada. On 1 January 1994, the day it took effect, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), made up mostly of Maya peasants and led by the pipe-smoking, masked Subcomandante Marcos, occupied San Cristóbal de las Casas and other towns in Chiapas, demanding land, democracy and Indigenous rights. About twelve days of fighting killed well over a hundred people before a ceasefire.
- The Chiapas Rebellion: The Struggle for Land and Democracy — Neil Harvey, Duke University Press (1998)
- Opening Mexico: The Making of a Democracy — Julia Preston and Samuel Dillon, Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2004)
1994 kept getting worse: the PRI’s presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio was assassinated in March, and in December the peso collapsed, requiring a US-led rescue. The Zapatistas never took power but built autonomous communities in Chiapas and inspired anti-globalisation movements worldwide. NAFTA meanwhile transformed Mexico into a manufacturing exporter, though economists debate how much it raised overall growth and wages.
- Opening Mexico: The Making of a Democracy — Julia Preston and Samuel Dillon, Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2004)
- NAFTA Revisited: Achievements and Challenges — Gary Clyde Hufbauer and Jeffrey J. Schott, Peterson Institute for International Economics (2005)
NAFTA modernised the economy, attracted investment, built a powerful export industry in the north and centre, and helped create a larger middle class.
- NAFTA Revisited: Achievements and Challenges — Gary Clyde Hufbauer and Jeffrey J. Schott, Peterson Institute for International Economics (2005)
Opening to subsidised US corn ruined small farmers, the 1992 reform ending land redistribution betrayed Zapata's legacy, and growth bypassed the Indigenous south. The Zapatistas called NAFTA "a death sentence" for Indigenous peoples.
- The Chiapas Rebellion: The Struggle for Land and Democracy — Neil Harvey, Duke University Press (1998)
Why it matters today
NAFTA tied Mexico's economy to the United States: today Mexico is the US's largest trading partner, building cars and electronics for American markets. The Zapatistas forced the country to confront the poverty and exclusion of Indigenous peoples. Both still divide opinion.
NAFTA became a symbol in American politics of lost factory jobs, attacked by both Donald Trump and many Democrats; it was replaced by the USMCA in 2020. Yet North American supply chains it created are woven deep into US industry.