History

When Central America achieved independence from Mexico in 1823, western Chiapas was annexed to Mexico. More of current day Chiapas was transferred after the disintegration of the Central American Federation in 1842. The remainder of the current state taken from Guatemala in the early 1880s by President Porfirio Díaz.

Chiapas remained one of the parts of Mexico least affected by change, with the descendants of the Spanish continuing to control indigenous peoples through such institutions as debt peonage, despite attempts by the central government to abolish those practices.

In the late twentieth century, indigenous peasant farmers felt that their poor and largely agricultural region had been too long ignored by the Mexican government. One of the chief complaints was that many indigenous farmers were required to pay absentee landlords,^{[citation needed]} despite repeated government promises of agrarian reform. Article 27 of the 1917 constitution guaranteed indigenous peoples the right to an ejido or communal land. As Mexico restructured its economy after the 1982 financial crisis, land reform (long since completed in most of the country) was de-prioritized. The Mexican government under President Carlos Salinas de Gortari sought to liberalize Mexico’s closed economy. As part of this process, Mexico repealed the constitutional guarantee of communally owned ejidos for rural communities.

As the North American Free Trade Agreement came into effect on in 1994, indigenous Chiapanecos felt increasingly left behind.

As of the mid 1990s, most people in Chiapas were poor, rural small farmers. About one quarter of the population were of full or predominant Maya descent, and in rural areas many did not speak Spanish. The state suffers from the highest rate of malnutrition in Mexico, estimated to affect more than 40% of the population. "Without roads, cities or even small towns, eastern Chiapas is a kind of dumping ground for the marginalized, in which all of the hardships peasants confront in the highlands are exacerbated."

The increasing presence of Central American gangs known as Maras, and illegal immigration from Central America in general (mostly immigrants on their way to the United States), stresses an already poor state.