The Death of Ramon Gonzalez and the 21st Century Dilemma

This rather bleak assessment does not deny the importance of many countertrends
operating at every level of society. I will write about some of these hopeful trends
throughout this essay. However, it would be wrong and dangerous to conclude that we
have set society firmly on the right path to healthy communities and ecosystems. The first
step in solving serious problems is to recognize their nature and severity.
NAFTA, the Land, Pesticides, Migration, and Democracy
Rebellion, the land, the forests, and emigration
On January 1, 1994, two closely related events occurred that did much to define
the issues Mexico has struggled with over the last two decades. The North American Free
Trade Agreement (NAFTA) came into effect, and an organization of mostly indigenous
people in the southernmost Mexican state of Chiapas took up arms to call attention to the
exploitation they had suffered for centuries. They called themselves Zapatistas in honor
of the Mexican revolutionary peasant leader, Emiliano Zapata, assassinated in 1919. The
rebels believed that NAFTA would make it even easier than before for others to rob them
of land and resources essential to their survival and intensify the problems caused by their
subjugation to corrupt politicians. They were concerned not only about their own future
but also about that of all poor Mexicans.
The Zapatistas briefly seized the highland city of San Cristobal de las Casas
(named after the Spanish priest who had fought against exploitation of indigenous people
four centuries before) and a few other sizable towns. After about a month, the Zapatistas
withdrew to defensible villages. There they have continued to build their organization.
For more than a decade now, they have insistently put forward their thesis that
fundamental political and economic change is necessary in Mexico as a whole in order to