EZLN: The Nation-state No Longer Has Decision Making Power

ByElio Henríquez

This article by Elio Henríquez originally appeared in the April 3, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas. The main victim of the current stage of capitalism is the nation-state, which now has no decision-making capacity, stated Captain Marcos of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN).

He added that “in our opinion, we may be wrong, but the reconstruction of the nation-state is not possible because it no longer has fundamental bases.”

Marcos expressed the above during the second day of activities of the April 2026 Seedbed: The Storm Inside and Outside According to the Zapatista Communities & Peoples, which is being held in San Cristóbal with the participation of 418 people from some thirty countries, including Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, the United States, France, England, Iran and Italy, in addition to members of the EZLN.

Captain Marcos of the EZLN in an archive photo. Photo: Cuartoscuro

Speaking this Friday [in discussion entitled], A Peephole into the Storm in the World: Nation-States Under Attack, he said that “the Nation-State is born for capitalism, that is, the bourgeoisie needs a State, a territory, a currency, laws, a geographical delimitation, a coat of arms, a flag. And so nation-states are born.”

In fact, he added, “in Europe, where feudalism was displaced and revolutions began to form the nation-state, that is where capitalism found its breeding ground and began to develop. It developed so much that the nation-state became an obstacle, and capitalism, the system, needed goods to circulate, to be sold quickly, and to generate the greatest profit as quickly as possible.”

He pointed out that “national currencies, the national legal structure, the governance they call it—that is, the form of government and the entire legal system—are obstacles to them. Then, free trade agreements come along, and borders open up for investments and goods but close down for human beings.”

Marcos reiterated that “the nation-state has no decision-making power. Sovereignty is a bad joke. They can’t say that Mexico is sovereign, even if they say so on the Mañanera, if it can’t even decide whether to send oil to Cuba. It can’t be. In a developed nation-state, that decision belongs to the government: to say who to give or sell to, or who not to. It’s no longer possible.”

“The entire offensive under the names of (Donald) Trump and (Benjamin) Netanyahu is related to this. Israel thinks it is defending the nation-state, but that is not true. As long as the people of israel do not understand that Palestine is the home of the Palestinians, that they will always want to return, and that they carry the key to their land with them wherever they go, until they die, are killed, or disappear, this will not stop.”

In reality, he elaborated, “Netanyahu isn’t defending the State of israel, that’s a lie. He’s conquering territory, but the Palestinians aren’t going to surrender. I don’t know how many years it will take; they’re not going to surrender. There’s something deep within the Palestinian people that I can’t explain, and I don’t know if anyone can: Why, with everything against them, do the Palestinian people continue to resist? Why are the Cuban people preparing for an invasion? If they’re supposedly under a dictatorship, why don’t they take to the streets and say: Yes, invade us and liberate us?”

He added: “Why did the U.S. military enter Venezuela to kidnap Nicolás Maduro and Cilia—it was funny how the media didn’t want to say kidnapping and said they went to arrest them—and if they [the opposition] won the elections, why didn’t anyone take to the streets to welcome them? They had to make a one-way trip. It’s not that they had almost no casualties; they didn’t have any because the U.S. military uses mercenaries for that. These mercenaries don’t exist; they’re paid, and if they’re killed, that’s it, but they’re nameless. So, the U.S. military casualties during the kidnapping in Venezuela don’t appear on the lists, and the major left-wing analysts, including those from Cuba, take it for granted that what Trump says about them having no casualties is true. They did. What happened is that they used mercenaries. Just like Putin had to use them in Ukraine. Even a country’s national army can no longer sustain a war as a nation. They have to rely on other resources.”

Subcomandante Moisés

Marcos asserted that in the US and israel’s war against Iran, the big oil companies are the ones who benefit because the price of oil has risen. “That’s what needs to be discussed: who is profiting from these wars?”

He said that “we also need to delve deeper and specify who benefits from Netanyahu’s war against Palestine. Who benefited from the United States’ attack on Venezuela, and who will benefit if they attempt to invade Cuba, which won’t be the same, you know? The Cuban people were born in resistance. They’ve been doing it for over 60 years. It won’t be as easy as they think.”

Subcomandante Moisés, who spoke about A Window to Zapatismo: A Window to Government Counterinsurgency Programs in Territories of Zapatista Indigenous Peoples, expressed that the migration of Indigenous people and peasants to the United States has caused lenders to keep their lands because they cannot pay the loans they took out to emigrate.

“Because of poverty and migration, some people mortgaged their land in exchange for loans. They left, some died, others returned, but they have no way to pay, and the lender keeps the land,” he said.

He added that the fact that “the five, ten, or twenty people who mortgaged or sold their two and a half hectares has led to the emergence of small landowners. Within the ejido, a small or medium-sized landowner has now emerged with 100, 200, or 300 hectares. Before, it was communal land, plots of 20 hectares, and now two, three, or four people own 300 or 400 hectares. The community has been erased. Now it’s just an empty shell.”