Ever since the creation of the Republic of Mexico, the indigenous people have been neglected, mis-treated, and have not been listened to. The first leader to help the natives was Emilio Zapata from 1910-1915. He was an illiterate Mayan who felt that the land needed to be redistrubted and felt that there needed to be more reforms. He rallied the farmers of southern mexico under the slogain, "Land and Liberty-. Since then, the native Mexicans have been given little rights or little more land and began to become disguted with the "unjust and illegitamite- 65 year old Mexican dictatorship run by the PRI.(Institutional Revolutionary Party). On January 1st 1994, a new group calling themselves the Zapatistas(named after the first Mexican revolutionist) declared war on the state of Mexico demanding that land be more equally distributed within the indigounous communities, wealth be more distributed throughout the country, and that the native Mexicans be granted equal access to the political sytem at state and nation levels.
Once declaring war, the 1500 indignous rebels took over almost all of the towns in the southernmost Mexican state of Chiapas. They were able to do this with little opposition and even took over the state's biggest tourist attraction San Cristobal de las Casas. The Mexican government reacted by sending in federal troops and retaking all of the cities forcing the Zapatistas to retreat into the Jungle. The zapatistas are fighting for their own liberty and rights but the Mexican Government is prohibiting them from being like any other Mexican citizen. .
Even though the Mexican government have said they are trying to help the Zapatistas, the leaders of the Mexican government are racist towards the Indians. President Fox repeatly refused reforms for the people of Chiapas. The majority of white Spanish Mexicans are racist towards the chiapans. In years past the natives coulden't even walk the streets without being hassled or even arrested.