In the past few years violent conflict has escalated in Chiapas, Mexico, not only between the Ejercito Zapatista de Liberacion Nacional (Zapatista Army of National Liberation-EZLN) and the Mexican government but also within indigenous communities, where political divisions have increased, thousands of people have been displaced, and over a hundred political assassinations have taken place. Paramilitary groups formed and operating within rural communities have terrorized local populations, reaching such extremes as the events in Acteal, Chenalho, where 45 members of Las Abejas (the Bees) were massacred while praying in a local chapel on December 22,1997. In this context, diverse actors-the state and federal governments, the army,nhundreds of independent peasant organizations, the Catholic Diocese of San Cristobal de Las Casas, and the EZLN, among others-state that they are working to promote peace. Unless the causes of violence and oppression are addressed, however, peace is an empty term. It could refer to increasing militarization, a cease-fire, or suppression of any activity challenging the established social order. As the anthropologist Richard Fox observes, scholars often assume that peace means “the absence of collective violence,” and therefore peace has been untheorized and underexplored.
