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| 1994, Jan |
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| The Zapatista Army for National Liberation (EZLN) seized four towns in the southern state of Chiapas in opposition to the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement, whose free-trade policies they claimed would increase poverty and insecurity of poorer Mexicans. Pres. Carlos Salinas de Gortari pressed for formal peace talks with the rebels, asking for a cease-fire and promising amnesty for all combatants. The rebels continued to take a defiant stance against the government and gained widespread popular sympathy. | 1 |
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| March 2 |
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| The Zapatistas accepted a tentative reform pact with the government, but later (June 16) rejected the proposed peace agreement, citing the government's narrow approach to the peace talks and refusal to discuss wider democratic reforms. The insurgents, however, vowed to continue to observe the cease-fire. | 2 |
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| March |
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| A Tijuana mechanic assassinated leading presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) after a campaign speech. Despite identifying several suspects and making several arrests, the government failed to prove there was a conspiracy to kill Colosio. | 3 |
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| Aug. 21 |
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| Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León of the PRI was elected president by a comfortable majority. Foreign observers noted the absence of visible fraud, in contrast to the 1988 presidential vote. | 4 |
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| Sept. 28 |
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| José Francisco Ruíz Massieu, second-ranking official in the PRI, was killed by a single gunshot in Mexico City. A suspected assassin was arrested; allegations linked him either to drug traffickers or antireform factions in the PRI. | 5 |
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| Nov. 23 |
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| Deputy Attorney General Mario Ruíz Massieu resigned, charging that PRI officials were blocking his investigation into the murder of his brother, José Francisco Ruíz Massieu. | 6 |
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| Dec. 20 |
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| Mexico devalued the peso by 13 percent, and it then suffered another drop of 15 percent, precipitating a massive financial crisis that continued into the next year. | 7 |
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