Zapatistas always rejected the anarchist label to my knowledge.

They do the classic anarchist thing of being like, “we don’t need to put a label on it, we are who we are and do what we do”, despite clearly and evidently being organized around anarchist principles.

It’s definitely a counter example to a claim I don’t think that guy was making

He literally claimed that trusting marxist-leninist leaders would be “safer” than organizing by anarchist principles.