In this paper, we examine the role of local land tenure, community solidarity, and recent commercialization in the 1994 rebellion in Chiapas. We find that neither the ejido land tenure system, nor community solidarity, nor community disruption and proletarianization due to recent economic change, may be considered as primary causal factors behind the revolt. We find the best explanation for the revolt to lie in the desire of certain groups, notably immigrants to the Lacondón rain forest area, for land, and in recent changes in land tenure law which have ended their hopes of acquiring land. The primary effect of economic change was indirect. It promoted population growth, which has led to increasing pressure on land.
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