Days 49 & 50 - Monday 7th & Tuesday 8th November 2005

When I arrived in San Cristobal at 9am after 12 hours on an overnight bus it was cold, raining and I was tired. Thus I decided to use the day to do some of the more mundane things one must do such as catching up on the blog and laundry. I did however manqage to find a bar that was showing the Spurs Vs Bolton game, so I watched that live. It was good to see some English football even if it was the wrong result.

After a good nights’ sleep I woke up on Tuesday and the sun was shining. I used the day to see why San Cristobal is a major stop on the Gringo Trail. One of the first things I noticed was the temperature change. The town is way up in the mountains and is a lot cooler than most of the other places I have visited so far. I found myself wearing my jumper in the middle of the day!

The state of Chiapas is the home of many of the pre-Hispanic people of Mexico. Many of these people live very basic lives and stay within their local communities, rarely venturing into large towns and cities. Walking around the small town of San Cristobal a large indigenous population was clearly evident. The indigenous people are treated like second class citizens in Mexico and on 1st January 1994 this led to an uprising by a rebel uprising known as the Zapatistas. On this day a group of young men armed with machine guns stormed the town, took over Government buildings, and declared war on the Mexican army. Their demands were simple - fairer treatment for the indigenous peoples of Mexico.

The uprising struck a chord wit hthe people of Mexico who saw a widening gap emerging between the rich and the poor. Thus at the next elections, the president was replaced by Ernesto Zedillo who immediately issued an arrest warrant for their leader, known only as Marcos. Marcos promptly escaped into the jungle.

Negotiations carried on for years going backwards and forwards until in 2000 a new president Vincent Fox was appointed, Immediately Fox agreed to all the Zapatistas requests & in April 2001 the national Congress approved constitutional changes granting the indigenous people special rights. The changes were only a partial version of the original agreement and thus the Zapatistas rejected the changes and the whole process took another step backwards. To this day they are still in negotiations.