The Zapatistas timed the rebellion to coincide with the implementation of NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, between Canada, the US and Mexico.
They called NAFTA a "death sentence", as it removed from the Mexican constitution Article 27, a provision won during the first Mexican revolution in the early part of the last century, designed to guarantee collective property rights to those who worked the land.
Vocal opposition to NAFTA gained the rebels support from trade unions and other social movements who tried - and failed - to stop the agreement.
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