The military leader and spokesman for the Zapatista Army is Subcomandante Marcos who is not a Mayan and not from Chiapas. The government says he is a professor of philosophy and communications from Mexico City. It appears that Marcos came to the jungle 12 years before the uprising. He brought with him a quest for social change and an unerring sense of how to fight a revolution through the media. The Zapatistas retreat into the jungle.
People die on both sides.
Some say 150, some say 500. The government declares a ceasefire. Most of the ranches remain in Zapatista hands. The Zapatistas announce that after consulting with their communities in the Lacandon jungle, they are rejecting the government's peace proposals. The Zapatistas briefly seize towns and roadblocks throughout Chiapas.