The Zapatista uprising began on January 1, 1994 in Chiapas, Mexico in protest against neoliberal economic reforms and the implementation of NAFTA. Indigenous communities led by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) took control of several municipalities. While some died in clashes with government forces, the EZLN soon withdrew to the forest and began negotiating with the government. The Zapatistas framed their struggle in local, national, and global terms and utilized new technologies and media to spread their message of resistance to neoliberalism internationally. Their decentralized network-based organization and use of the internet to coordinate support groups helped spark the global justice movement.