January 2, 1995: The EZLN issues the Third Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle, calling for the formation of a new "National Liberation Movement". Declares that peace will only come "hand in hand with democracy, liberty, and justice for all Mexicans".
January 15, 1995: The EZLN meets with the Conai and government representatives, including Interior Minister Estéban Moctezuma, in the Lacandon jungle. Both sides agree to work for the establishment of a stable cease-fire and a reopening of negotiations.
January 16, 1995: The EZLN announces a "unilateral and indefinite cease-fire" of all threatening, hostile, or offensive military actions.
February 9, 1995: The federal government suddenly announces arrest warrants for those it accuses of being the "top Zapatista leadership", unilaterally breaking the cease-fire, and launches a vast military offensive against the EZLN and their communities of supporters, both inside and outside of Chiapas. The EZLN, however, retreats into the mountains, as do most of their support bases, and refuses to return fire against the government troops.
February 9-March 11, 1995: The government continues its offensive, destroying and permanently occupying communities such as Guadalupe Tepeyac, bombing and wreaking havoc in others such as El Prado, and forcing over 20,000 indigenous supporters of the EZLN to flee into the mountains. The army is never able to locate the CCRI-CG(General Command) of the EZLN in order to apply the arrest warrants. However, several dozen people in Chiapas, Mexico State, Veracruz, and Mexico City are arrested, tortured, and jailed on trumped-up terrorism charges for supposedly being members of the EZLN.
February 14, 1995: Eduardo Robledo, Governor of Chiapas, steps down, and is replaced by Julio Cesar Ruiz Ferro.
February, 1995: Global Exchange, a San Francisco based organization that supports public education and human rights all over the world, responds to Bishop Ruiz's call for international support and establishes an international peace house in San Cristobal de las Casas.
March 11, 1995: Upon tacitly recognizing the failure of the military operation, the Mexican Congress approves (and the President signs) the Law for Dialogue, Reconciliation, and a Just Peace in Chiapas. The law calls for a reinitiation of peace talks, a suspension of military operations against the EZLN, a suspension of arrest warrants against its supposed leadership, as long as the dialogue continues. A legislative commission, the Commission on Concordance and Pacification (Cocopa), will be in charge of facilitating and laying the bases for this new dialogue.
March 17: The EZLN accepts the Law for Dialogue, Reconciliation, and a Just Peace in Chiapas.
April 9, 1995: A delegation of the CCRI-CG of the EZLN meets with representatives of the federal government, the Conai, and the Cocopa in the village of San Miguel (municipality of Ocosingo) in order to agree upon the logistics and the agenda for the upcoming peace talks.
April 20, 1995: The EZLN and the federal government representatives meet for the first time in San Andrés Sacamch'en de los Pobres (Larrainzar), a Tzotzil Zapatista community in the highlands north of San Cristóbal, which will be the "permanent site of negotiations" between the two sides.
April 21, 1995: The federal government temporarily suspends the first meeting of the new peace talks, allegedly due to the presence of several thousand indigenous supporters of the EZLN who had arrived at San Andrés in order to take part in the civilian security cordons for the protection of the EZLN comandantes. The talks are renewed as soon as the CCRI-CG thanks their supporters, and asks them to return to their communities.
May 10, 1995: The EZLN rejects the government proposal to resolve the conflict by essentially cordoning off the insurgent troops of the EZLN into "autonomous" areas of relocation, which some compared to US style Indian Reservations, or even to concentration camps.
May 16, 1995: The EZLN and the Federal Government, meeting for their second major session in San Andrés, agree on minimal procedural guidelines for the continuation of the talks.
June 8, 1995: The EZLN, frustrated by the government's refusal to negotiate anything on a national level, and by the continued insistence that the EZLN's presence, influence, and demands are "limited to four Chiapas municipalities", decides to convoke a massive national and international Consulta(consultation, or plebiscite) to let all Mexicans, and even foreigners, vote on the EZLN's demands, as well as on the very future of the rebel organization itself. The dialogue with the government, meanwhile, seems to have stagnated.
August 27, 1995: The Consulta Nacional e Internacional is carried out, with the participation of over 1.2 million Mexicans, and more than 100,000 people from outside of Mexico. 97.5% of national voters expressed agreement with the principal demands of the EZLN; 92.7% agreed that all the democratic forces in the country should unite in a broad social and political opposition front in order to fight for those demands; 94.5% approved of a "profound political reform" in order to guarantee democracy; 93.1% agreed that women should be guaranteed equal representation and participation at all levels of civil and governmental responsibilities; and 52.6% suggested that the EZLN should convert itself into a new and independent political force (while 48.7% suggested this should be done through a unification process with pre-existing organizations). This was, indeed, the greatest success yet of the EZLN's attempts to dialogue with civil society.
September 10, 1995: The EZLN lays out its proposal for the rules of the dialogue and the installation of working groups to deal with six major themes for the dialogue: Indigenous Rights and Culture; Democracy and Justice; Welfare and Development; Reconciliation in Chiapas; Rights of Women in Chiapas; and, finally, the Cessation of Hostilities.
October 3, 1995: Installation of the negotiating table in San Andrés regarding Indigenous Rights and Culture. The EZLN announces that, in accordance with the governing procedures for the San Andrés negotiations--which allow for an unspecified number of "advisors" and "guests" to join each side at the negotiating table--it has invited more than 100 intellectuals, activists, and representatives of social, cultural, and indigenous organizations to become "advisors" to the EZLN during the talks on Indigenous Rights and Culture, thus opening up the negotiations to representatives of civil society throughout Mexico.
October 18-22, 1995: The first phase of talks is held between the EZLN and the Federal Government with regards to Indigenous Rights and Culture. The working groups are divided into the following: 1) Community and Autonomy: Indigenous Rights; 2) Guarantees of Justice to the Indigenous Peoples; 3) Political Participation and Representation of the Indigenous Peoples; 4) The Situation, Rights, and Culture of Indigenous Women; 5) Access to the Means of Communication; and 6) Promotion and Development of Indigenous Culture.
October 23, 1995: The Mexican Attorney General's Office (PGR) announces the October 21st arrest in Mexico City of Fernando Yañez Muñoz, previously accused by the Federal Government of being "Comandante German" of the EZLN. The EZLN, in turn, declares the arrest to be a direct violation of the Law for Dialogue and Reconciliation (which specifically prohibits the arrest of those accused of being members or leaders of the EZLN, as long as the dialogue between the two sides continues). The EZLN declares a "red alert".
October 27, 1995: Under pressure from the Cocopa, Yañez Muñoz is released and charges against him dropped.
October 28, 1995: The EZLN suspends the "red alert", and announces it will attend the upcoming second phase of peace talks in San Andrés regarding Indigenous Rights and Culture.
November 13-18, 1995: The second phase of talks regarding Indigenous Rights and Culture are held in San Andrés (with the same working group themes as phase I).
December, 1995: As the EZLN begins preparations for the New Year's celebration of the Second Anniversary of the Zapatista uprising, the Mexican Army heavily increases its presence in and around the indigenous communities of Chiapas. Tension is especially high surrounding the four new "Aguascalientes" being constructed in the villages of La Realidad, Oventic, La Garrucha, and Morelia.
December 31, 1995-January 1, 1996: Despite continuing threats of a new military offensive by the Mexican Army, the Zapatistas go ahead with their New Year's celebrations, and inaugurate the amphitheaters of the new Aguascalientes in La Realidad, Oventic, Morelia and La Garrucha. The Fourth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle is issued by the EZLN, calling for the formation of a new Zapatista organization--the Zapatista Front of National Liberation (FZLN)--which is to be a national, nonviolent, and independent civilian political force with its base in the EZLN. This carries out the EZLN's promise to abide by the results of the Consulta Nacional e Internacional held five months earlier.
Originally written by Joshua Paulson for the FZLN.