Posted on 04/01/2011 2:37:41 PM PDT by OddLane
On January 1st, 1994, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation catapulted itself from the jungles of southern Mexico onto the international political stage. The leftist rebels declared war against the Mexican state — while proclaiming indigenous rights and seizing land. The Zapatistas formed autonomous settlements, places to put their Marxist theories into practice. Those settlements are still there today in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas.
But in recent years, grinding poverty has led many young Zapatistas to leave in search of construction work in luxury resort cities like Cancún and Playa del Carmen. This migration from the epicenter of anti-capitalist Zapatismo to the Mayan Riviera begins in places like the small Zapatista village of Juan Diego.
23-year old Isaac lives in Juan Diego. With dirt floors, a plywood table and a pig out front, his reality couldn’t be further from the luxury of Cancún. But the lure of jobs there is definitely felt in Juan Diego.
“Here, somebody’s always on the radio saying there are jobs up there, that you can make a little money,” Isaac said. “But then they screw you over, because they only pay you $15 a day, and you start at six in the morning and go home at seven at night. Sometimes the boss feeds you, and sometimes not.”
Isaac couldn’t stand Cancún. With its opulent five-star resorts and wet t-shirt contests, it’s the exact opposite of the communal farming lifestyle the Zapatistas aspire to. But in the nearby town of Ocosingo, other young Zapatistas are ready to join the migration wave.
(Excerpt) Read more at theworld.org ...
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Communism is ripe from the Mexican border to the tip of South America.
It's not a HUGE problem right now because the drug lords keep them marginalized with buckets of cash for those who want to "work".
When/if the Narco State fails, look for Lenin to raise his ugly head, big time.
That said, the US will help destroy the Narco State. First through continued aid, political pressure and "advisers". And, probably eventually, legalization of their principal cash crop, pot. Yeah, there's a lot of money in coke and heroin, but pot is still the money-maker.
ping
All of the little self-governing Zapatista communities seem like a means for the big shots to shake down the peasantry, according to this story.
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