Skip to main content

page search

Library Land, conflict, and political process: the case of the Lacandon Community, Chiapas, Mexico (1972–2012)

Land, conflict, and political process: the case of the Lacandon Community, Chiapas, Mexico (1972–2012)

Land, conflict, and political process: the case of the Lacandon Community, Chiapas, Mexico (1972–2012)

Resource information

Date of publication
December 2014
Resource Language
ISBN / Resource ID
AGRIS:US201600014080
Pages
127-155

This contribution analyses how indigenous land disputes have taken place within a political process and the political responses to land tenure disputes. It does so by analysing the case of the Comunidad Zona Lacandona (Lacandon Community; Chiapas, Mexico) and the land tenure disputes in which it has been involved during the period 1972–2012. The paper argues that the Lacandon Community (LC) has a micro-corporatist relationship with the state and that its creation has brought its beneficiaries (comuneros) into an ongoing dynamic of conflict and cooperation with the state, fellow landed communities, social and non-governmental organisations and guerrillas. By analysing its relationship with the state and the 40-year long conflict, the paper presents the way in which the LC has defended its land rights within institutional channels as well as by means of contentious action. The essay also shows how conflict has been dealt with within a political process and contributes to the theoretical understanding of the categories of micro-corporatism and political process as they are employed in those cases where indigenous peoples enter into conflict over land. Data for this paper comes from interviews, agrarian archives, public information requests, newspaper articles and ethnographies on the case study and the region.

Share on RLBI navigator
NO

Authors and Publishers

Author(s), editor(s), contributor(s)

Calleros-Rodríguez, Héctor

Publisher(s)
Data Provider
Geographical focus