CHIAPAS

estado ("state") of southern Mexico. It is bounded southwest by the Gulf of Tehuantepec and the Pacific Ocean, east by Guatemala, north by Tabasco, and west by Veracruz and Oaxaca. Much of its territory is mountainous and forested. The mountainous region of the Sierra Madre, in the south, includes a fertile, temperate plateau inhabited by most of the state's population, mainly Indians, but isolation and lack of transportation facilities have retarded its development. The extension across Chiapas of the Pan-American Highway and an inter-American railway in the 1950s improved the economic and social conditions of the people. In 1994, however, Chiapas was the scene of an armed uprising against the federal government. The rebels consisted of impoverished Indians protesting the expulsion of many others from their farmlands and forest tracts by large-scale cattle ranchers and loggers. Agriculture (coffee and rubber), stock raising, timber cutting, fruit farming, and salt making are the state's principal sources of income and furnish the main exports. Mineral resources include gold, silver, copper, and petroleum. Linked with Guatemala in colonial days, Chiapas became a Mexican state in 1824; its boundaries were fixed in 1882. The early Maya ruins of Palenque, now accessible to tourists, are in the northeastern rain forest. Bonampak, with its famous Maya temple murals, may be reached from Tuxtla, the state capital. Area 28,653 square miles (74,211 square km). Pop. (1990 prelim.) 3,203,915.