Theorizing about grassroots or bottom-up Information Warfare doesn't nearly get as much
attention as the dominant models and as a consequence there is not much written on the subject.
11
The case of the global pro-Zapatista networks of solidarity and resistance offers a point of
departure for further examination of grassroots infowar. One feature of Zapatista experience over
the course of the last 5 years is that it has been a war of words, as opposed to a prolonged military
conflict. This is not to say there isn't a strong Mexican military presence in the state of Chiapas.
Quite the contrary is true. But fighting technically ended on January 12, 1994 and since then there
has been a ceasefire and numerous attempts at negotiation.12
What scholars, activists, and
journalists, on both the left and the right, have said is that the Zapatistas owe their survival at
this point largely to a war of words. This war of words, in part, is the propaganda war that has been
successfully unleashed by Zapatista leaders like Subcommandante Marcos as well as non-Zapatista
supporters throughout Mexico and the world. Such propaganda and rhetoric has, of course, been
transmitted through more traditional mass communication means, like through the newspaper La Jornada.
13 But quite a substantial component of this war of words has taken place on the Internet. Since
January 1, 1994 there has been an explosion of the Zapatista Internet presence in the forms of email
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