Redeeming the Society which Rejected Them The Mayan Rebellion in South West Mexico.

The impact of the peasant rebellion in southeast Mexico has resonated tar beyond the region. Part of the reason for this was the upsurge of unrest in a country whose government was a champion of fast-track neo-liberal reforms. The uprising appeared to be a timely indictment of these economic reforms - a view which seemed further confirmed by the rebellion's coincidence with the creation of the NAFTA. Our paper acknowledges the significance of these facts but argues first for a deeper historical perspective. The Mayan rebellion criticises not only neo-liberalism but also the whole post revolutionary trajectory. We also argue for the need to lake into account a variety of intervening factors which facilitated the rebellion. One inspiration for the rebellion came from an unexpected source from a radical section of the Catholic Church, a church which had supposedly been buried as a political three for over a hundred years. The combination of theology of liberation and the sensitivity of post-1968 radicals to indigenous traditions behind the uprising exposed the extent to which the Mexican elite had systematically disregarded the condition of the indigenous population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]