It is worthy to note that neo-Zapatista movement was preceded by organised "campesino" unions of the Selva Lacandona. They resisted the so-called Presidential Decree of the "Lacandon Breach" ("La Brecha Lacandona") by which the majority of selva lands was granted to the Lacandon community (tribal people living in the selva for about 300 years) which deprived other indigenous people in this area of their titles to the same land. The controversial nature of this decree may be explained in the context of Mexican government's agrarian policy in 40-60s which focused mainly on colonisation of "unpopulated" lands and preferring rather the extensive, not intensive development of its agrarian sector. In search for new lands, thousands of indigenous migrants from the states of Guerrero, Michoacan, Morelos, Chihuahua as well as from other regions of Chiapas moved to the Selva Lacandona trying to establish their homes there. Through a decade, settlers were motivated and commended by the Mexican Government and Secretaria de la Reforma Agraria (Ministry of Agrarian Reform) who legally granted them titles for "unpopulated" lands hoping to resolve the vibrant Mexico's issue of the 60-s - deficiency of land.
The settlers' land titles became invalid when the Decree of the "Brecha Lacandona" was enacted in 1973. Of course, the Presidential Decree envisaged the following re-settlement of peasants from the area of the Selva Lacandona (called "Lacancon Community") and special re-settlement programmes were taken. Nevertheless, indigenous settlers of the Selva (tzeltal, chol, tzotzil and tojolabal indigenous peoples) resisted the displacement and rightly saw it as a consequence of unlawful and inconsistent agrarian policy of the Government.
In 1975, then biggest campesino union Quiptic Ta Lecubtesel was created uniting 23 resisting settlements ("Quiptic"). Marcela Acosta Chavez, researcher of Quiptic, notes that resistance to the unjust Presidential Decree was the main organising factor in strenghening and uniting of the Selva peasants (Marcela Acosta Chavez, "La Quiptic Ta Lecubtesel"). They managed to organise their representation and negotiated with Chiapas government their land titles by urging them to resolve the real root of the conflict (land deficiency), and opposing government's usual "quick solutions" which they saw in replacement of "irregular" indigenous settlements.
This was the first attempt in the modern Chiapas history to resolve the main and long-lasting Chiapas conflict: deficiency of land and uneven distribution of income, which later developed in Zapatista rebellion and San-Andres Accords.
