Ya Basta! - the battle cry of the faceless

 

In Mexico on January 1, 1994, Indians of Mayan origin staged an armed take-over of several Chiapas municipalities. But the Zapatista Army of National Liberation did not wish to sieze power; rather it demanded land, work, housing, education, healthcare, food, justice, independence, freedom and democracy. The Indians' spokesman and head of military operations, Subcommandant Marcos, is not an Indian. He has been able to rally public opinion both at home and around the globe on the Indians' tragic living conditions.

 

Today a war of words has replaced the armed struggle and the Zapatista movement's cause echoes world-wide. In this documentary it is the Indian men and women who speak. It re-situates their struggle in its human, cultural and historical context and reveals that their lives today in the mountains and the jungles of Chiapas are no less precarious and tragic than before.