They complain angrily that the EZLN is still occupying over 40,000 hectares of the most productive land in Chiapas, neglecting to say that these ranches would formerly have been in the hands of less than a hundred families, while the indigenous labourers were paid less than a pound a day for their work. Things have come to a head this Christmas as the government party has managed to win a couple of local municipalities, using a new and more ingenious system of fraud. It has given the local oligarchy the excuse to threaten mass evictions from the occupied farms, driving the descendents of Mexico's first inhabitants back into oblivion. The 1st of January seems like a likely date for this to begin. Tension is very high.
Nobody knows what to expect.
New Year's Day passes off peacefully in the end. The official PRI party has been forced into negotiations with some of the opposition groups and there is a brief respite for the men, women and children of the maize fields. Nevertheless they are still nervous of what the last year of the millenium may bring. The previous 500 have not been easy.