Photo Essay : CHIAPAS

Faces of poverty, faces of injustice, faces of war. This is the human aspect of rebellion, the simmering insurgency in Mexico’s southernmost state that has been like a sword dangling over two consecutive Mexican presidencies, the nation’s troubled economy and the thin veneer of stability throughout Mexico’s impoverished countryside for the past year.

Since the Zapatista National Liberation Army’s sudden New Year’s Day uprising of 1994 left at least 145 people dead--most of them Zapatistas--in a two-week shooting war with the Mexican army, the ski-masked, pipe-smoking rebel leader who identifies himself only as Subcommander Marcos has proved himself far more masterful at propaganda than guerrilla warfare. Using alternating threats of renewed war and promises of a new peace, Marcos and his fighters are helping shape the future face of Mexico without stepping foot outside their stronghold in the Lacondon Rain Forest near the Guatemalan border.

When they have stepped out, the impact has been enormous. On Dec. 19, when rebel fighters broke through the military cordon and joined a few hundred peasant supporters in briefly taking over highways and town halls throughout northern Chiapas, the action chased $1 billion in capital from the country in a single day, helping to detonate Mexico’s current economic disaster. The rebels and the government of Mexico’s new president, Ernesto Zedillo, are now headed back to the bargaining table.

In the aftermath of a one-day insurrection last month, Zedillo used a combination of military threat and concessions to persuade Marcos to begin negotiating again through Roman Catholic Church mediators his long list of demands, which include sweeping democratic reform and equal rights for the indigenous Mexicans in Chiapas and other states.

But for all the talk, threats and the consequences for Mexico as a whole, little has changed for the people of Chiapas. Peasant frustration has deepened, occasionally exploding in violent clashes between squatters and well-armed, wealthy ranchers. But for most Chiapecanos, life remains a daily exercise in survival far below the poverty line.