LEADERSHIP TRANSFORMATION AND THE EXERCISE OF POWER: POLITICAL DIVISIONS IN SAN JERÓNIMO TULIJÁ, CHIAPAS

Abstract

This article presents an ethnographic analysis of three indigenous leadership types and their formation in contemporary Chiapas. In their interaction with state institutions—and with its policies for political organization and economic development, these cases show the leadership strategies they use to benefit their communities and to help understand local definitions of power. In San Jerónimo Tulijá, the area under study, the regional state formation process is the historical framework where local practices and beliefs are shaped and reshaped during daily interactions. This paper shows how some communitarian factions were formed in the context of commercial interactions introduced by development projects brought into the state; these evolved into political divisions that are still recognizable in the context of the low intensity warfare experienced in this region. Therefore, an anthropological-historical perspective is needed to grasp how fighting in or against the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) is closely linked to historic local struggles and disputes.