ZAPATISTA ARMY FOR NATIONAL LIBERATION
MEXICO

March 1, 2020

To: Women who struggle in Mexico and around the world
From: The Zapatista indigenous women of the EZLN

Compañera and sister:

We greet you in the name of all of the Zapatista indigenous women of all ages, from the youngest to the wisest—the oldest, that is. We hope you are well and are struggling along with your families, sisters, and compañeras.

Here we are having a lot of problems with the paramilitary forces who now come out of the MORENA party, just like before they came from the PRI, PAN, PRD, and Verde Ecologista parties.

But that’s not what we wanted to talk to you about. We wanted to talk to you about something more urgent and more important: the incredible violence waged against women, which has not only not ceased but actually increased in quantity and in cruelty. The murders and disappearances of women have reached a level that we could not have imagined before, and no woman of any age, class, political affiliation, color, race, or religion is safe. We might think that rich women, women politicians or famous women are safe because they have their security guards and police to protect them, but no, not even they are safe, because the violence that kidnaps, disappears, or kills us often comes from family members, friends, and acquaintances.

We have to stop this violence, wherever it comes from, and that is why we had called for women’s demonstrations on March 8, 2020, in which everyone would organize their actions according to their own ways, times, and places. We had said that the principal demand of these demonstrations should be to stop violence against women, and to declare that we would not forget those murdered and disappeared by all governing administrations, from any party of any color (striped, blue, green, yellow, maroon, orange, brown, or anything else) because they are all the same. We also proposed that we all wear something black on our clothes as a symbol of our mourning for the mass murder of women all over the world and to remind the bad governments and our missing and disappeared compañeras that we would not forget them. The worst part is that even the littlest ones among us are not safe.

Sister and compañera:

A few days ago we learned that a group of feminist sisters from the collective “Witches of the Sea” [Brujas del Mar] in Veracruz had a good idea and called for a women’s strike on March 9, to make clear what things looked and felt like without women. The idea is that we don’t go to work, or buy anything, or move around, that we aren’t seen at all, because that is in fact what it seems like the system is trying to do: annihilate us women as its principal enemy.

Then we saw the reaction of all those patriarchal and macho men and women in the bad government, the political parties, and the big corporations. We saw that they don’t care about the tragedy in which women in Mexico live and die, but only about using that pain for their own gain, then covering it up and arguing over who among them is the biggest badass.

(Continuar leyendo…)

February 26, 2020

To the people of Mexico:
To the networks of resistance and rebellion:
To the Sixth in Mexico and abroad:
To the press:
To human rights organizations:
To organizations working in defense of territory and Mother Earth:

We hereby denounce the assault, repression, and kidnapping of eleven members of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) from the communities of San Antonio Bulujib and Guaquitepec in the municipality of Chilón, Chiapas, on February 23 at 5:00pm by the ejidal authorities of San Antonio Bulujib who belong to the “CHINCHULINES” and “ORCAO” paramilitary groups, and by MORENA party members in the region. This attack was carried out in retaliation for the CNI members’ participation in the “Days of Action in Defense of Territory and Mother Earth ‘We Are All Samir’”, convoked by the Zapatista Army for National Liberation and the CNI, in this case for having hung a sign regarding the event at the town entrance of San Antonio Bulujib. The names of those attacked are: María Cruz Espinoza, Juana Pérez Espinoza, Feliz López Pérez, María Cruz Gómez, Ana Gómez Hernández, Alejandra Gómez, María Luisa Pérez Gómez (one year old), María del Rosario Mazariegos Gómez (11 months old), Manuel Cruz Espinoza, Juan Gómez Núñez, and Isidro Pérez Cruz.

After being held for 24 hours, our CNI compañeros and compañeras were released at 8:30 pm on February 24, under the following conditions imposed by San Antonio Bulujib ejidal authorities: that the eleven CNI members pay a fine of 2500 pesos along with 15 cases of soft drinks and renounce their CNI membership if they wanted to remain in the community. Our compañeros and compañeras were threatened with eviction from their lands and houses if they didn’t pay the fine by Sunday, March 1, 2020, on which date their lands and houses would be sold and they would be locked up in the town jail.

We hold all three levels of government as well as the paramilitary groups organized in our communities responsible for anything that happens to our compañeros and compañeras. We specifically hold responsible the president of Mexico ANDRÉS MANUEL LÓPEZ OBRADOR, the governor of Chiapas, RUTILIO ESCANDÓN, the San Antonio Bulujib ejidal authority, MIGUEL LÓPEZ GUZMÁN, the community’s Security Deputy, MATEO GÓMEZ MÉNDEZ, who is also a member of the ORCAO and CHINCHULINES organizations, the Municipal Auxiliary Agent JUAN SILVANO MORENO and his assistant MANUEL GÓMEZ PÉREZ, and JOSÉ PÉREZ, supposed leader of ORCAO who supports and promotes the paramilitaries who invade community lands and are protected by the bad governments at the federal, state, and municipal levels. It is in the name of the supposed Fourth Transformation that these people have threatened the safety and lives of the eleven CNI compañeros and compañeras named above, as well as that of other CNI families.

We call on all of the communities, organizations, and collectives in Chiapas, Mexico, and the world who participated in the “Days of Action in Defense of Territory and Mother Earth ‘We Are All Samir’” for their solidarity and support for our CNI sisters and brothers in Chilón.

Sincerely,

February 26, 2020

For the Full Reconstitution of Our Peoples

Never Again a Mexico Without Us

National Indigenous Congress

Indigenous Governing Council

Zapatista Army for National Liberation

Caracol Jacinto Canek. JBG Flor de nuestra palabra y luz de nuestros pueblos que refleja para todos. Comunidad del CIDECI-Unitierra. Municipio oficial de San Cristóbal de las Casas.

Caracol Resistencia y Rebeldía un Nuevo Horizonte. JBG La luz que resplandece al mundo. Dolores Hidalgo. Tierra recuperada.

Caracol Espiral digno tejiendo los colores de la humanidad en memoria de l@s caídos. JBG Semilla que florece con la conciencia de l@s que luchan por siempre. Tulan Ka’u, tierra recuperada.

Caracol Raíz de las Resistencias y Rebeldías por la humanidad. JBG Corazón de nuestras vidas para el nuevo futuro. Ejido Jolj’a.

Caracol Floreciendo la semilla rebelde. JBG Nuevo amanecer en resistencia y rebeldía por la vida y la humanidad. Poblado Patria Nueva, tierra recuperada.

Caracol Madre de los Caracoles de nuestros sueños. JBG Hacia la Esperanza. La Realidad.

Caracol Torbellino de Nuestras Palabras. JBG Corazón del Arcoiris de la esperanza. Morelia.

Caracol Que habla para todos. JBG Nueva Semilla que va a producir. Roberto Barrios.

Caracol Resistencia Hacia un nuevo amanecer. JBG El camino del Futuro. La Garrucha.

Caracol Resistencia y Rebeldía por la Humanidad. JBG Corazón céntrico de los zapatistas delante del mundo. Oventik.

To the people of Mexico:
To the Networks of Resistance and Rebellion:
To the Sixth in Mexico and abroad:
To the press:

The National Indigenous Congress, Indigenous Governing Council, and Zapatista Army for National Liberation denounce the cowardly arrest of our compañero Miguel López Vega, CNI delegate, member of the Zacatepec community radio and of the People’s Front in Defense of the Land and Water of Puebla, Morelos, and Tlaxcala. This arrest was carried out by armed members of the bad government who, without identifying themselves, detained Miguel on a supposed arrest warrant.

The kidnapping of our compañero outside Government Secretariat Offices today, January 24, at 2:30 pm, is the response of those who say they govern this country to the originary people’s determination to prevent the destruction and industrial contamination of the Metlapanapa River. This repression is their answer to being confronted with life where they only saw money soaked in the pain of our people.

As peoples of the CNI-CIG, we voice our opposition to the destruction and privatization of the Metlapanapa River which, along with the other megaprojects of death, aims to subjugate our country with mourning and war.

We demand immediate freedom for our compañero Miguel López Vega.

Sincerely,
January 2020
Never Again a Mexico Without Us
National Indigenous Congress
Indigenous Governing Council
Zapatista Army for National Liberation

INVITATION TO DAYS OF ACTION IN DEFENSE OF TERRITORY AND MOTHER EARTH
“WE ARE ALL SAMIR”

SISTERS AND BROTHERS OF MEXICO AND THE WORLD:

First: Today more than ever, capitalism grows through war and the ongoing dispossession of all forms of life. The bad governments and the big capitalist businesses, all of which can be identified by name, try to disappear our struggles in defense of territory and Mother Earth, even normalizing the murder of our brothers and sisters who defend that territory and our Mother Earth. Today our collective heart hurts for the murders of:

• Samir Flores Soberanes of the Nahua people of Amilcingo, Morelos.
• Julián Cortés Flores, of the Mephaa people of the Casa de Justicia in San Luis Acatlán, Guerrero.
• Ignacio Pérez Girón, of the Tzotzil people of the municipality of Aldama, Chiapas.
• José Lucio Bartolo Faustino, Modesto Verales Sebastián, Bartolo Hilario Morales, and Isaías Xanteco Ahuejote of the Nahua people organized as the Indigenous and Popular Council of Guerrero – Emiliano Zapata (CIPOG – EZ).
• Juan Monroy and José Luis Rosales, of the Nahua people Ayotitlán, Jalisco.
• Feliciano Corona Cirino, of the Nahua people of Santa María Ostula, Michoacán.
• Josué Bernardo Marcial Campo, also known as TíoBad, of the Populuca people of Veracruz.

Our compañeros were murdered for opposing the war the bad government is waging on our lands, hills, and waters in order to consolidate the dispossession which today threatens humanity’s existence.

We also feel the pain of the forced disappearance of our brother Sergio Rivera Hernández, Nahua of the Sierra Negra, Puebla, who also defended land and Mother Earth.

Second: The current neoliberal phase of capitalism takes on ever more monstrous forms, declaring open war on humanity and against the earth, our mother. Economic development today, based everywhere on finance capital and supported by the military and extractivist industries, dominates peoples, nations, and entire continents. It grows through real or fictitious wars and the proliferation of organized crime as well as invasions and coups d’état. Its insatiable consumptive and accumulationist capitalist logic has brought us to the brink of irreversible climate change and a limit at which the very conditions for human life on the planet are at risk.

Third: In addition, the current system’s patriarchal organization, inherited from previous systems and civilizations but deepened over the past several centuries, has been exposed as a violent enemy of humanity as a whole but especially of women and our Mother Earth. In other words, the exploitation of and profound structural violence against women is an integral part of capitalism, although it was born long before. Capitalist private property, the foundation of this system, cannot be explained or understood except as part of a patriarchal system of domination over women and the earth.

Fourth: In Mexico, the acceleration of mining, extraction, and hydrocarbon pipelines, the creation of the National Guard within the logic of the Merida Initiative, and the imposition, at all costs, of major megaprojects (The Salina Cruz – Coatzacoalcos Trans-Isthmus Corridor, The Mayan Train, the Morelos Integrated Project, and the New International Airport in Mexico City)—all of which are intended to reorganize territories, populations, and both the northern and Central American borders in a logic of capitalist displacement and exploitation—make a clearly anti-capitalist and anti-patriarchal defense of human life, of the territories of our peoples, and of the earth all the more urgent. For these reasons:

We invite: the peoples of Mexico and the world; organizations and collectives of workers of the countryside, city, and seas; women; students; children; elders; and those across the range of sexual diversity to:

DAYS OF ACTION IN DEFENSE OF TERRITORY AND MOTHER EARTH
“WE ARE ALL SAMIR”

On the following dates:

February 20, 2020: Local actions in Mexico and around the world in Defense of Territory and Mother Earth; in demand of justice for our dead, disappeared, and imprisoned; and against the megaprojects of death.

February 21, 2020: March for Justice for Our Brother Samir Flores Soberanes and for our dead, disappeared, and imprisoned, and in Defense of Territory and Mother Earth. Meet at the offices of the Federal Electricity Commission, Avenida Reforma, Mexico City, 4pm.

February 22, 2020: Assembly in Defense of Territory and Mother Earth, to take place in downtown Amilcingo, municipality of Temoac, Morelos State, starting at 10am.

Sincerely,

January 7, 2020.
For the Full Reconstitution of Our Peoples
Never Again a Mexico Without Us

AMILCINGO ASSEMBLY OF RESISTANCE
NATIONAL INDIGENOUS CONGRESS/ INDIGENOUS GOVERNING COUNCIL
ZAPATISTA ARMY FOR NATIONAL LIBERATION

PEOPLES, COMMUNITIES, ORGANIZATIONS, COLLECTIVES, AND INDIVIDUALS PARTICPATING IN THE FORUM IN DEFENSE OF TERRITORY AND MOTHER EARTH HELD DECEMBER 21-22, 2019, IN THE CARACOL JACINTO CANEK/CIDECI-UNITIERRA, SAN CRISTÓBAL DE LAS CASAS, CHIAPAS.

(Continuar leyendo…)

Source: Enlace Zapatista
Audio: Radio Pozol

Words of the Indigenous Revolutionary Clandestine Committee-General Command of the EZLN, in the voice of Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés, on the 26th Anniversary of the Beginning of the War Against Oblivion

.

December 31, 2019.
January 1, 2020.

Good afternoon, good morning, good evening, good day to everyone, [todas, todos y todoas]:

To the compañeras and compañeros who are Zapatista bases of support:
To the compañeras and compañeros who are Zapatista comandantas and comandantes:
To the Zapatista autonomous authorities:
To the compañeras and compañeros who are milicianos, milicianas, insurgentas and insurgentes:
To the National Indigenous Congress – Indigenous Governing Council:
To the National and International Sixth:
To the Networks of Resistance and Rebellion:

Brothers and sisters in Mexico and throughout the world:

Through me, the Zapatista Army for National Liberation speaks.

“Canek said:

I read in a book that in the old days, the rulers wanted to call together armies to defend the lands they governed. First, they called up the cruelest men because they supposed that these men were accustomed to blood. So they drew their armies from the prisons and the slaughterhouses. But it turned out that when these people stood face to face with the enemy, they turned pale and threw down their arms. Then the rulers turned to the strongest men – the stone masons and the miners. To these men, they gave armor and heavy weapons and sent them out to do battle. But again, the mere presence of the enemy instilled weakness in their arms and dismay in their hearts. The rulers wisely then turned to men who were neither strong nor fierce nor bloodthirsty, but were simply brave and had something rightly to defend – the land they worked, the women they slept with and the children whose laughter delighted them. And when the time came, these men fought with so much fury that they drove off their enemies and were forever free of their threats and persecution.” [i]

Sisters, brothers, hermanoas:

It was 26 years ago, on an afternoon like this one, that we came down from our mountains to the big cities in order to challenge those in power. At that time, we had nothing more than our own death – a double death, because we were dying a physical death and also a death of oblivion. We had to choose: whether to die like animals or die like human beings who struggle for their lives.

So it was that when dawn broke on that January 1, we had fire in our hands.

The big boss we faced then is the same one who despises us today. He had another name and another face, but he was and is the same ruler.

We rose up and a space was opened for the word. So we opened our heart to the hearts of other sisters and brothers and compañeros, and our voice was met with support and comfort from all the colors of the world from below.

(Continuar leyendo…)

Listen to and/or download the audio of the closing words in the voice of Comandanta Yésica:
(Descarga aquí)  

December 2019, Encounter of Women Who Struggle. Photo: RZ.

ZAPATISTA ARMY FOR NATIONAL LIBERATION
MEXICO

December 29, 2019

Compañeras and sisters:

We want to share a few words with you as we close this Second International Gathering of Women Who Struggle.

We have listened to the words and proposals everyone has shared in each of our work sessions as well as other proposals that have been made.

We are going to create a space for all of you to see these ideas and proposals, as well as others that emerge, and offer your own words and opinions. This is for those of you who were able to attend this gathering and have returned to your own geographies with time to think and reflect on what we saw and heard here these last few days, and above all it is for those of you who could not attend.

We think this is important because if we don’t listen to each other as the women that we are, then we aren’t really women who struggle for all women, but only for our own group, idea, or organization and that won’t do at all.

While it may be easy to say that we are going to think about and reflect on these proposals, in reality it is difficult, because even for that process we need to be organized.

With that in mind, we propose this first agreement:

1. We all learn about the proposals made here and make our own proposals regarding violence against women and what we will to do stop this serious problem we have as women.

Do you all agree?

As we are preparing this message we don’t know whether you will agree or not. But if we do agree, then we have one year, sister and compañera, to move this work forward. (Continuar leyendo…)

Inauguration of the Encounter of Women Who Struggle, 2019. Photo: RZ

ZAPATISTA ARMY FOR NATIONAL LIBERATION
MEXICO

December 27, 2019

Compañeras and sisters:

Welcome to these Zapatista lands.

Welcome sisters and compañeras from geographies across the five continents.

Welcome compañeras and sisters from Mexico and the world.

Welcome sisters and compañeras from the Networks of Resistance and Rebellion.

Welcome compañeras from the National Indigenous Congress-Indigenous Governing Council.

Welcome compañeras from the National and International Sixth.

Welcome compañeras from the Zapatista Bases of Support.

Welcome compañeras who are milicianas and insurgentas in the EZLN.

Sister and compañera:

We want to report that as of yesterday, December 26, 2019, registration for this second gathering came to:

3,259 women
95 little girls
26 men

From the following 49 countries:

(Continuar leyendo…)

PROGRAM FOR THE FORUM IN DEFENSE OF TERRITORY AND MOTHER EARTH

To be held December 21-22, 2019 in the Caracol JACINTO CANEK (CIDECI in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico)

December 21:

9:00-9:30am: Inauguration by the CG-CCRI of the EZLN and the CNI/CIG

9:30 – 9:50am: Yaqui Tribe of Bácum, Sonora: “The Yaqui Tribe’s Defense of Territory”

9:50 – 10:10am: Indigenous People’s Assembly of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Defense of Land and Territory, Binnizá People, Oaxaca: “The Isthmus at a Crossroads.”

10:10 – 10:30am: Organizational Process of the Sierra of Santa Martha, in the South of Veracruz: “Resistances and Rebellions in Nuntaj+yi and Nahua Indigenous Territory of Santa Marta.”

10:30 – 10:50am: Náyeri People of Nayarit: “The Náyeri People’s Resistance in Defense of the River.”

(Continuar leyendo…)

Sorry, this entry is only available in Español. For the sake of viewer convenience, the content is shown below in the alternative language. You may click the link to switch the active language.

Escucha aquí: (Descarga aquí)  

Al pueblo de México
A los pueblos del Mundo
A la Sexta Nacional e Internacional
A las Redes de Resistencia y Rebeldía
A los medios de comunicación

Hermanos, hermanas

Desde el Caracol Zapatista Jacinto Canek, en el CIDECI- UNITIERRA, en San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, los días 18 y 19 de diciembre de 2019, para celebrar la 4ª Asamblea Nacional del Congreso Nacional Indígena y el Concejo Indígena de Gobierno los pueblos Afromexicano, Binizaa, Chinanteco, Chol, Chontal, Comca’ac, Hñahñu, Kumiai, Mam, Maya, Mayo, Mazahua, Me´phaa, Mixe, Mixteco, Nahua, Náyeri, Purépecha, Quiché, Rarámuri, Téenek, Tepehuano, Tohono Oódam, Tojolabal, Totonaca, Tzeltal, Tzotzil, Wixárika, Yaqui, Zoque, Chixil, Cañari y Castellano, provenientes de 24 estados de la república, así como invitados de Guatemala, Ecuador, El Salvador y Estados Unidos, nos encontramos para escucharnos, para ver en el compañero y compañera que en colectivo somos pueblos, naciones y tribus.

Nos encontramos para ver y entender la guerra neoliberal que de arriba viene cubierta de mentiras simulando gobernar, cuando ponen el país en manos del gran capital, al que le estorba la conciencia colectiva de los pueblos y echa a andar su maquinaria de despojo:

1. A través de la violencia sanguinaria y terrorista en contra de los pueblos que defienden la tierra.

El luto y la rabia que nos habita a quienes hoy nos encontramos, es por el daño a la madre tierra, el despojo de todas las formas de vida. Y aquellos que decidieron destruirla para convertirla en dinero tienen nombre y apellido, así como los asesinos de nuestros compañeros. Nos duele en el corazón colectivo el asesinato del compañero delegado popoluca del CNI, Josué Bernardo Marcial Campo, también conocido como TíoBad quien por su arte, su música y su protesta en contra de los megaproyectos que el mal gobierno pregona haber terminado como es el fracking, fue desaparecido y encontrado brutalmente asesinado el pasado lunes 16 de diciembre.

El compañero Samir Flores Soberanes del pueblo nahua de Amilcingo, Morelos

(Continuar leyendo…)