NAFTA Takes Effect as Zapatista Uprising Protests Privatization of Indigenous Lands

The North American Free Trade Agreement officially takes effect on January 1, 1994, the same day that 3,000-4,000 indigenous campesinos of the EZLN (Zapatista Army of National Liberation) launch an armed uprising in Chiapas, Mexico, declaring NAFTA a “death sentence” for indigenous communities. The Zapatistas specifically targeted NAFTA’s forced privatization of communal indigenous lands (ejidos), which the Mexican government had removed from constitutional protection as a precondition for the trade agreement.

NAFTA’s provisions allowed subsidized U.S. agricultural products to flood Mexican markets, devastating small farmers and indigenous communities who could not compete with industrial-scale American agriculture. The agreement forced Mexico to eliminate Article 27 of its constitution, which had protected communal indigenous lands from privatization since the Mexican Revolution, viewing these protections as “intolerable barriers to investment.”

The uprising’s timing was intentionally symbolic, highlighting how neoliberal trade policies prioritize corporate investment rights over indigenous land rights, food sovereignty, and community self-determination. The Zapatistas’ resistance revealed the human cost of deregulation and “free trade” policies that benefit multinational corporations while displacing vulnerable populations. The uprising lasted from January 1-12, 1994, and sparked a broader movement challenging the neoliberal economic model across Latin America.