The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, EZLN) is an armed revolutionary group based in Chiapas, one of the poorest states of Mexico. Their social base is mostly indigenous but they have supporters in urban areas as well as an international web of support. Their spokesperson and military commander, although not their leader, is Subcomandante Marcos (currently a.k.a. Delegate Zero in relation to the "Other Campaign"). Unlike other Zapatista comandantes, Subcomandante Marcos is not an indigenous Mayan.
The group takes its name from Emiliano Zapata, the most progressive proponent of the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920); The Zapatistas see themselves as his ideological heirs, and heirs to five hundred years of indigenous resistance against imperialism. (read more...)