Peasant Movements in Chiapas

Abstract

of the most vulnerable stratum of the population, it is also true that other phenomena have combined to make expansion of peasant demands almost uncontrollable. This expansion is springing up all over Chiapas in the most diverse forms: petitions to the occupation of municipal buildings; the with? drawal of livestock from the estates by workers; the disruption of transport. Whether they use weapons or not, whether they are respectful of the law or not, whether they are denouncing or negotiating, Chiapan peasants have broken a long tradition of docility in which each uprising for at least a century was in support of the conservative policy of the state and the landowners who held them in subjection. The peasants of Chiapas demanded their Agrarian Reform half a century late in a climate of extreme mistrust which originated in the existence of cacique models of control, which provoked the peasants to constantly question the regional power structures. It is the purpose of this paper to focus on the issues of identity, regional diversity and the limited impact of land reform in Chiapas as contributing to the inoperability of programmes of development, which are generally poorly planned and regionally and socially unbalanced, maintaining the anachronistic socio-economic structure. THE REGIONAL GEOGRAPHY