Tiempos e identidad. Notas sobre el Acontencimiento Chiapas

Abstract

The war in Chiapas, begun in 1994, revealed the social and political contradictions at work at the time -contradictions that have a long history and an unfortunate present. It also revealed internal moral and conceptual contradictions among the groups involved as well as external contradictions determined by the economic and social reality as a reflection of the current ideology which has for years ignored or denied issues related to the Spanish conquest and colonization, and even more so to the values attached to the native cultures. These notes explore the relation between facts and deeds, and speech at the moment of the formation of the discourse scene: the situation, protagonists, theses, context, etc., and the motivations of the discourse: the need to speak, be heard and to move to action. More specifically, we will analyze the conception of time and the use of verb tenses by two of the principal protagonists: the Ministry of the Interior and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) during the first two days of the conflict.