8.9 The Spatio Temporal Fix revisited

At this point it is useful to look back at the level of success of both discourses. To what extent did they materialize their goals as presented in paragraph 4? At first sight, the administration of Salinas de Gortari has fulfilled its main goals. Nevertheless, it has gone through turbulent times, culminating in 1994 with two political killings and a serious economic crisis in December of that same year (Knight 1996:1-2). In the sixth and last informe, Salinas de Gortari lets go of the image of a unified society. The elections in 2000 marked a historical break. The PRI, after 70 years of continued leadership, lost the presidency to the biggest opposition party, the PAN. This event can be seen as the final result of the decline of the power position of the PRI that started in 1968 and was accelerated after the earth quake in Mexico City in 1985 (Hamnett 1999, Medina Peña 1995).

The EZLN has been less successful in achieving its immediate goals. It has not been able to break the state-party system, or to cause a political crisis. It has achieved a paper triumph: the San Andrés Accords on Indian Rights and Culture of 1996. However, it has achieved a more substantial success in raising the interest of civil society. Even if they have not mobilised the Mexican population in the way they had envisioned, they have definitely strengthened civil society (Otero 2004:234). The EZLN has brought the Indigenous question back to the political agenda. It has achieved worldwide attention and sympathy for its struggle.

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