69 lines
3.0 KiB
Markdown
69 lines
3.0 KiB
Markdown
The **Rebel Zapatista Autonomous Municipalities** or **Municipios
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Autónomos Rebel des Zapatistas** (**MAREZ**) are an autonomous society
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within the Mexican state that emerged as a result of the [Zapatista
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Revolution](Zapatista_Revolution "wikilink") inspired by the
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[indigenist](Indigenism "wikilink") ideology of
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[Neo-Zapatismo](Neo-Zapatismo "wikilink"). They control roughly a third
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of the [Mexican](Mexico "wikilink") state of Chiapas with a population
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of around 360,000 people.\[1\]
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## Decision-Making
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At a local level, people attend a [popular
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assembly](Democratic_Assembly "wikilink") of around 300 families where
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anyone over the age of 12 can participate in decision-making, these
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assemblies strive to reach a [consensus](consensus "wikilink") but are
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willing to fall back to a majority vote.
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Each community has 3 main administrative structures: (1) the
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*commissariat*, in charge of day-to day administration; (2) the *council
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for land control*, which deals with forestry and disputes with
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neighboring communities; and (3) the *agencia*, a community police
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agency.
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The communities form a [confederation](confederation "wikilink") with
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other communities to create an autonomous municipalities, which form
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further confederations with other municipalities to create a region. The
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Zapatistas are composed of five regions, who in turn form the whole of
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MAREZ.<ref>Niels Barmeyer (2009) Developing Zapatista Autonomy: Conflict
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and NGO involvement in Rebel Chiapas - Chapter Three:
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`Who is Running the Show? The Workings of Zapatista Government.`</ref>
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## Crime
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Each community has an autonomous police agency (agencia), more akin to a
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[neighborhood watch](Neighborhood_Watch "wikilink"), and a judicial
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council. There is almost no [crime](crime "wikilink") and
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[prison](prison "wikilink") population, due to an emphasis on
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[restorative](Restorative_Justice "wikilink") and [transformative
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justice](Transformative_Justice "wikilink") over [punitive
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justice](Punitive_Justice "wikilink") and due to [common
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ownership](Commons "wikilink") of land preventing
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[hunger](hunger "wikilink"), the [control of
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work](Workers'_Self-Management "wikilink") and
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[education](Democratic_Education "wikilink").
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The only two people in jail (in a society of 360,000, which means they
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have the lowest prisoner population per capita in the world) are in jail
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for being admitted foreign agents planting marijuana crops to justify
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military incursions into their communities using the [war on
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drugs](War_on_Drugs "wikilink") as a pretext.
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## See Also
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- [Zapatista Army of National
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Liberation](Zapatista_Army_of_National_Liberation "wikilink")
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- [Zapatista Revolution](Zapatista_Revolution "wikilink")
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- [Neo-Zapatismo](Neo-Zapatismo "wikilink")
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- [Zapatismo](Zapatismo "wikilink")
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- [Chiapas Conflict](Chiapas_Conflict "wikilink")
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- [Mexican Revolution](Mexican_Revolution "wikilink")
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- [Mexico](Mexico "wikilink")
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## References
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<references />
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1. [Wikipedia](Wikipedia "wikilink") -
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<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebel_Zapatista_Autonomous_Municipalities> |