ABSTRACT
The Zapatista uprising invigorated the demand for autonomy that was part of the regional formations of indigenous pueblos. The National Assembly of Indigenous People (ANIPA), which developed out of the mobilization for the quincentennial celebration of indigenous resistance, became a key actor in defining and promoting autonomy. Margarito Ruíz Hernández expresses in lyrical terms the galvanizing effect of the celebration of 500 years of resistance:
It was a basic stage that moved the spirit and the heart of the Indian pueblos to recall our history and imagine the future in a different way. This phase was a moment to remember what had been and to dream the outline of a new society, a new State, to recall all that, the five hundred years of darkness, of margination, and of discrimination. They were years of reflection, of recuperating the historical memory of our pueblos, of our ancestors. That is to say, we recalled our forms of government, of organization and of administration of the life in the communities and regions. In this process, little by little we were reflecting and debating on some proposals of reforms in the Mexican laws as a necessary road to lead to the protection of our specific rights as Indian pueblos. Between 1990 and 1992 the number of indigenous organizations increased, inspired in an important way by the hope that signified the breaking forth of the indigenous word, at the national and international level. (Ruíz Hernández 1999:25) [Author’s translation]
The EZLN opened spaces for existing indigenous movements. However, it took over a year of mobilization and dialogue to persuade the revolutionary forces to adopt the ideas developed by ANIPA on autonomy for indigenous pueblos. ANIPA drafted the initial proposals for autonomy that were presented in the federal congress by PRD Repre-sentative Margarito Ruíz Hernández in 1990. The State Council of Indigenous and Campesinos Organizations (CEOIC),27 followed by the organization that supplanted it, the State Democratic Assembly of the Chiapas pueblo (AEDPCH), along with the parallel government of Amado Avendaño, worked on constitutional resolutions to establish the legal basis for the autonomy of indigenous pueblos. In this process, working with the National Democratic Convention (CND) that convoked the huge meeting in the first Aguascalientes in the rain forest in August 1994, the indigenous groups modified and deepened their proposal for a new pact between indigenous pueblos and the nation. They defined three levels of government that would operate simultaneously: community, municipality, and regional (Ruíz Hernández 1999:33). Some of these proposals became incorporated in the San Andrés Accord, but indigenous organizations that had fought for regional representation for autonomous entities were disappointed that the regional level was not included.
