Thousands of Mexican campesinos in the impoverished southern state of Chiapas have taken to the streets to protest the government’s neglect of their poor state. This isn’t the Subcommandante Marcos blond-haired, blue-eyed internal Sandalista crowd at work, but a spontaneous protest by the poor to seek concrete action from the government to improve their lives. The protestors don’t seem to want a new socialist collective, they just want the darn bridge, devastated after Hurricane Stan, fixed. The other reason for the protest is land. The Chiapas protestors are saying they’ve lost land due to the diversion of a river, making it a title deed issue. Mexico still has very poorly defined title deed and property rights. The shantytowns you see in Chiapas, or any poor country, are the telltale proof of problems with title deed, signalling a denial of access to capital.

The place has always been poor and the government has always neglected it. That’s why the timing of this huge protest is so intriguing. The Vicente Fox government has done a lot to embrace the Mexican protestors of Los Angeles this weekend, incorrectly reading them as their constituency. But they may well have ignited protests of their own inside Mexico.

It’s just a theory because this is a first report, but I think it’s a good one.

U.S.-Americans frequently complain that Mexican illegals come up here because they don’t want to stay home and improve their own country. Coming up here is supposedly “easier.” (Actually, it’s not.) Now, Mexico’s got protests, and they look pretty big, and they don’t look like the usual recognizable leftwing rentamob production, but something new. We’ll keep an eye on this because if Vicente Fox is the legitimate target of this, it will amount a far bigger backlash than any immigration-control measure that might be passed in the states.

This story may be very significant. Read it here.