Comandante Ramona

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Comandante (Spanish: "Commander") Ramona (died January 6, 2006) was the nom de guerre of an officer of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), an insurrectionist indigenous rights organization based in the Southern Mexican state of Chiapas. She was perhaps the most famous female Zapatista figure for her role early in the uprising, although in later years there have been other female comandantes, notably Comandante Esther, with more visible roles. She was a member of the Zapatista leading council, the CCRI (Spanish: Indigenous Clandestine Revolutionary Committee).

"Ramona", a Mayan woman, took control of the city of San Cristóbal de las Casas, the seat of Chiapas, during the January 1, 1994 Zapatista uprising. Since 1994, she had been fighting cancer. In 1995, she received a kidney transplant from her brother, extending her life another 10 years.

Her last public appearance was at a preparation meeting --a plenary session for "The Other Campaign"-- in Caracol de La Garrucha in the municipality of Francisco Gómez on September 16, 2005.

Upon learning of her death, Subcomandante Marcos (aka Delegate Zero) suspended "The Other Campaign" activities for several days in order to be present at Ramona's funerary service.