Questions without Answers, Answers without Questions, Councils and Counsels.
(Pages from the Cat-Dog’s Notebook)

October 20, 2016

To Whom It May Concern:

Questions without answers:

—So what about the women murdered for the grave crime of being women? Will the fact that they have demanded that the attacks stop and, with their blood, raised the topic not just to the national agenda but the global one, make them the object of mockery, disdain, and accusations that they are playing to the right? Because they aren’t dying, they are being killed. What if they refuse to accept that this is a problem that can be solved by addressing corruption? And if they dare to say that the origin of this murderous hate is located in the system itself? What if they come up with the crazy idea to sideline men with regard to the most vital decisions (yes, as in questions of life of death)? And if they decide to take their destiny into their own hands? Would any part of that, or all of it, be a governmental maneuver to avoid… etcetera?

—What about the others (loas otroas)? Must they wait for the political class to turn its haughty gaze on one of the most vilified peoples below? Must they resign themselves to be knocked off until the murder rate finally gets high enough to attract attention? And what if they organize themselves and demand respect, if they decide they’ve had enough of the fact that being disrespected means being killed? Would they be told that their problems are not a priority, that their position is not generally politically correct and is in fact counterproductive with regard to the electoral race, and that their demands should unite and not detract?

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San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas. Reunidos en el CIDECI/Universidad de la Tierra Chiapas en el Quinto Congreso Nacional Indígena, delegados de 33 pueblos, naciones y tribus originarios de México y la Comandancia General de EZLN decidieron en asamblea iniciar una consulta “en cada una de nuestras geografías, territorios y rumbos” para nombrar un Consejo Indígena de Gobierno “cuya palabra sea materializada por una mujer indígena” como candidata independiente para las elecciones del 2018, para contender a nombre del CNI y el EZLN. En otras palabras, un gobierno indígena, anticapitalista y antipatriarcal, horizontal y colectivo, cuya voz se haga escuchar por medio de una mujer indígena, para ejercer el “mandar obedeciendo” a nivel nacional.

En la asamblea se aclaró que la lucha no es por el poder, sino por la organización de los pueblos originarios y la sociedad civil para detener la destrucción que se vive en nuestro país y “construir la paz y la justicia rehilándonos desde abajo, desde donde somos lo que somos”.

La decisión surge de un análisis de la situación que se vive en el país, reflejada en los espejos que son los pueblos organizados en el CNI. En el pronunciamiento final de la asamblea, acordado la noche del 13 de octubre, se documentan los mecanismos de despojo, violencia y represión que sufren los pueblos originarios del CNI a manos de los gobiernos, empresas y la delincuencia organizada, así como las formas de resistencia y de construcción y reconstitución de la vida: “fortalecimiento en los espacios colectivos para tomar decisiones, recurriendo a recursos jurídicos nacionales e internacionales, acciones de resistencia civil pacífica, haciendo a un lado los partidos políticos que sólo han generado muerte, corrupción y compra de dignidades, se han hecho alianzas con diversos sectores de la sociedad civil, haciendo medios propios de comunicación, policías comunitarias y autodefensas, asambleas y concejos populares, cooperativas, el ejercicio y defensa de la medicina tradicional, el ejercicio y defensa de la agricultura tradicional y ecológica, los rituales y ceremonias propias para pagar a la madre tierra y seguir caminando con ella y en ella, la siembra y defensa de las semillas nativas, foros, campañas de difusión y actividades político culturales”.

La decisión de lanzar un Consejo Indígena de Gobierno en la figura de una mujer indígena para la presidencia del país es la respuesta de los pueblos originarios ante la violencia y el despojo, para “construir una nueva nación por y para todas y todos”.

Es el tiempo de la dignidad rebelde… ¡Que retiemble en sus centros la tierra!

Lee el pronunciamiento aquí.

MAY THE EARTH TREMBLE AT ITS CORE

To the people of the world:
To the free media:
To the National and International Sixth:

Convened for the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the National Indigenous Congress and the living resistance of the originary peoples, nations, and tribes of this country called Mexico, of the languages of Amuzgo, Binni-zaá, Chinanteco, Chol, Chontal de Oaxaca, Coca, Náyeri, Cuicateco, Kumiai, Lacandón, Matlazinca, Maya, Mayo, Mazahua, Mazateco, Mixe, Mixteco, Nahua, Ñahñu, Ñathô, Popoluca, Purépecha, Rarámuri, Tlapaneco, Tojolabal, Totonaco, Triqui, Tzeltal, Tsotsil, Wixárika, Yaqui, Zoque, Chontal de Tabasco, as well as our Aymara, Catalán, Mam, Nasa, Quiché and Tacaná brothers and sisters, we firmly pronounce that our struggle is below and to the left, that we are anticapitalist and that the time of the people has come—the time to make this country pulse with the ancestral heartbeat of our mother earth.

It is in this spirit that we met to celebrate life in the Fifth National Indigenous Congress, which took place on October 9-14, 2016, in CIDECI-UNITIERRA, Chiapas. There we once again recognized the intensification of the dispossession and repression that have not stopped in the 524 years since the powerful began a war aimed at exterminating those who are of the earth; as their children we have not allowed for their destruction and death, meant to serve capitalist ambition which knows no end other than destruction itself. That resistance, the struggle to continue constructing life, today takes the form of words, learning, and agreements. On a daily basis we build ourselves and our communities in resistance in order to stave off the storm and the capitalist attack which never lets up. It becomes more aggressive everyday such that today it has become a civilizational threat, not only for indigenous peoples and campesinos but also for the people of the cities who themselves must create dignified and rebellious forms of resistance in order to avoid murder, dispossession, contamination, sickness, slavery, kidnapping or disappearance. Within our community assemblies we have decided, exercised, and constructed our destiny since time immemorial. Our forms of organization and the defense of our collective life is only possible through rebellion against the bad government, their businesses, and their organized crime.

We denounce the following:

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