El Bosque, Chiapas, June 6, 2012.

Movement of the People of El Bosque,
For the freedom of Alberto Gomez Pátishtan.

From the community of El Bosque, Chiapas, the birthplace of Professor Alberto Gomez Pátishtan, we thank you very much with all our hearts for the support and solidarity of thousands of compañeros and compañeras who have joined the movement for the freedom of our brother Alberto Pátishtan.

As the Movement of the People of El Bosque, Chiapas, we support the call for the second week of worldwide struggle for the freedom of the political prisoners in Chiapas: Alberto Pátishtan and Francisco Sántiz López (from 8 to 15 June).

We would like to send greetings to the compañeros:

-To the Movement for Justice in El Barrio, New York
-Human Rights Defenders
-International Organizations
-Collectives
-And to all our brothers and sisters throughout the world.

Freedom for Political Prisoners!

The Movement of the People of El Bosque is with you both here and there.

“They are two justices for two opposed worlds. One day our justice shall judge those from above…”:

From Uruguay, Raúl Zibechi issues his support for the “Second Week” in new letter

Compañeras and compañeros:

On behalf of all the immigrant members of Movement for Justice in El Barrio, The Other Campaign New York, we send you affectionate greetings.

In many corners of Mother Earth, the multiple actions planned as part of the “Second Week of Worldwide Struggle for the Liberation of Patishtán and Sántiz López: Bringing Down the Prison Walls!” begin today and last until next Friday, June 15. It gives us great pleasure to welcome you to this second phase in our struggle to free our compañeros, unjust prisoners and hostages of the ambitions of the capitalists and their bad government of Mexico.

To begin this week, we wish to share with you a profound and powerful letter that our Uruguayan comrade, Raúl Zibechi, has written for this occasion. The letter tears apart the unjust punitive logic of those from above and reveals the existence of the two “justice” systems of inequality between those from above and us, those from below. The full text of this moving letter is attached below.

During the following seven days, our dignities will manifest in sync and stronger than ever, echoing the just call that now has a global reach and historical resonance.

More so, we send you once again the most recent message from our sisters and brothers of the Zapatista Good Government Council of Oventic. In this message, our compas demand that the three levels of bad government in Mexico immediately release our compañero Francisco Sántiz López, who has been imprisoned for six months and is a member of the Zapatista support base. The full message is available here:

For more information regarding the history of this national and international struggle, see the video, “Bringing Down the Prison Walls!: The Fight for the Liberation of Patishtán and Sántiz López available here:

We ask that you all please circulate widely the letter and the videos—because the only remedy to the bad government’s lies is the true word touching new hearts of our people.

Our thanks go out to all those who are set to mobilize their honorable efforts to achieve the fulfillment of our shared demand. We want to remind you as well to please keep us all abreast of the activities you are carrying out by sending us updates and chronicles. You may do so via:

Movimientoporjusticiadelbarrio@yahoo.com

With love and solidarity,

From El Barrio, New York.

Movement for Justice in El Barrio
The Other Campaign New York.

To the compañeros of Movement for Justice in El Barrio:
To the Worldwide Struggle Campaign for the Liberation of Patishtán and Sántiz López:

“The color of the jail cell is the marking on the body of the place that was ocupied in history,” states the compañera Rita Laura Segato.

Those from above are criminalizing the place occupied by the people who are the color of the earth. That is the justice of the State and the bad government. A “justice” that imprisons the children of Pachamama and those who defend and care for her, but rewards with freedom those who destroy her in order to turn her into a commodity.

The international campaign to free Patishtán and Sántiz López is revealing the true reasons behind their imprisonment. When those from below stand up, when the poor of the world speak out and organize, they are systematically labelled “terrorists” and “violent” and are turned into the targets of defamation campaigns, with all the machinery of repression thrown upon them.

When those from above steal public resources, when bankers appropriate the money and labor of everyone else, they are rewarded with positions in the bad governments and utilize state money to save their dirty businesses.

These are not errors or abnormalities, but rather the true notion of justice held by the State: To protect those from above and condemn those from below. In this world two forms of justice exist: One for the governments and one for the people. The former is implemented by rich, white men who are protected by armed guards, and who hide in palaces to make decisions. The latter is community justice that is decided in assemblies of common people–the people who are the color of the earth–whereby every can debate because neither lawyers nor experts are required to distinguish between good and bad.

They are two justices for two opposed worlds. One day our justice shall judge those from above; and on that day, they shall be condemned to live off their work, to care for the common good. They shall be condemned to live as we, the 99% of humanity, do.

That day, which is not far off, we will remember our brothers, Patishtán and Sántiz López, as two of the many midwives who made the birth of a new world possible.

Raúl Zibechi
Montevideo, June 7, 2012.

* More than 13 countries have adhered to the campaign to bring down the prison walls

* In a message the Junta greets the Worldwide Week of Struggle for the Freedom of Political Prisoners in Chiapas

By: Hermann Bellinghausen
Periódico La Jornada

The Good Government Junta (JBG) released a message from the Caracol of Oventic, in los Altos (the Highlands) of Chiapas, demanding the immediate and unconditional freedom of Francisco Santiz López, a support base of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (Ejército Zapatista de Liberacion Nacional, EZLN), “detained unjustly six months ago” and currently a prisoner in San Cristóbal de las Casas due to actions by “the bad rulers of our country.”

The message points out: “We have already denounced and demanded his freedom from the three levels of bad government who want to continue to violate human rights. Our  conpañero Francisco is completely innocent, the only “crime” that he has is being a Zapatista support base.”

At the same time it greets the second week of worldwide struggle for the freedom of Chiapas political prisoners: “To all of you in your efforts to struggle for justice, we tell you to continue onward, because the bad state and federal governments are clear that they are going to continue their war against us the Zapatistas and against all the people who struggle for justice and to defend their rights.”

The new week Bring down the prison walls, to be celebrated from June 8 to 15, convoked by the Movement for Justice in the Barrio of the Other Campaign in New York, already has adherents from India, Peru, Uruguay, South Africa, Canada, Brazil, Spain, England, Scotland, Austria, New Zealand, United States and Mexico, to demand the liberation of Santiz López and of professor Alberto Patishtán Gómez, punished with medieval anger by the Chiapas government in a federal prison in Guasave, Sinaloa.

The organizers demand: “of the repressor president Felipe Calderón Hinojosa and the repressor governor Juan Sabines Guerrero” the freedom of those indigenous. They insist that after the first week of struggle, held in May, “some cracks have been made in the unjust prison walls.”

Meanwhile, the Anti-Racism Allies Group of the Occupy Wall Street Movement in New York demonstrated its support for the renewed protests.

At the same time, in a letter delivered directly to Rosaura Leonora Rueda Gutiérrez, the Ambassador of Mexico in the capital of New Zealand, the Wellington Zapatista Solidarity Committee, the program “¡Oye Latino!” on Wellington Access Radio and the Latin American Solidarity Committee showed “profound concern and indignation” for the way in which Mexico punishes with imprisonment “those who are organizing to defend their rights”.

The governments “try to condemn them to oblivion, silence and submission, but their voices and examples reach us clearly through our brothers Alberto and Francisco. We know that they are not guilty, but rather are defenders of social guarantees.” Santiz López, a native of Tenejapa, “was not even present at the acts of which he is accused, in the community of Banavil, as has been widely demonstrated.”

As for Patishtán, “for his dignified rebellion” in the prisons where he has been confined since 2000, “the Mexican State treats him with particular brutality.” The New Zealand activists demand freedom for all the political prisoners in Chiapas: “Prison, repression and impunity cannot and should not continue to prevail in Mexico.”

Originally Published in Spanish by La Jornada
Wednesday, June 6, 2012

En español:http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2012/06/06/politica/021n1pol

English translation by the Chiapas Support Committee for the:
International Zapatista Translation Service, a collaboration of the:
Chiapas Support Committee, California
Wellington Zapatista Support Group
UK Zapatista Solidarity Network

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La cultura y sabiduría ancestral que brotaba por todo su ser no se le escapaba a nadie de los que lo conocimos. El amor por el ecosistema y su íntimo respeto y acompañamiento a los procesos de lucha y resistencia de los pueblos indios de México jamás caerán en el olvido ni la desidia. Va por tí Don Juan, va por tod@s.

Al CNI

Al EZLN

Desde hace mucho, mucho, tiempo, algunos compañer@s tuvimos la suerte de conocer personalmente a Don Juan, un hombre accesible y pegado a la tierra, a la tierra rebelde, fecunda y libre que él junto con millones de campesinos y quienes somos pueblo de abajo y para l@s de abajo, amamos desde las entrañas.

Tierra y Libertad, son dos palabras, es un concepto que define la belleza infinita de fusionar todo aquello que nos aporta por un lado la tierra al entrar en verdadero contacto con ella: sus frutos, su tacto, su olor, su efecto en nuestra mirada y en nuestra alma. Y por otra parte la libertad, esa indomable amiga, compañera y todo, que portamos en nuestros corazones y que nos deja sin respirar si se nos niega. Don Juan sabía vivir en comunión con ambas, y precisamente como hombre del pueblo que fué, su interés residía en transmitir a l@s demás su certeza. Así nos llegó y así se lo reconocemos.

Desde la CGT mandamos a su familia y a todo el CNI en México un fraterno, rebelde y alegre abrazo en recuerdo de su persona y por los sueños que en el día a día él íba forjando, siempre compartiendolos y anhelando lo más importante, que cada vez más, la cotidianidad, el presente, juegue a nuestro favor, que demos los pasos nosotros, l@s de abajo, del baile de la vida, y que por tanto dejemos de arrastrarnos al son de los que desde arriba ansian vernos sometid@s y esclav@s.

Viva el CNI

Viva el EZLN

Por un mundo de niñas, niños, mujeres, hombres, ancianas y ancianos libres.
A Don Juan in memoriam…….

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Una de las últimas apariciones públicas de don Juan fue en diciembre y  enero pasados, en las jornadas del seminario “Planeta Tierra:  movimientos antisistémicos”, en San Cristóbal de las Casas, en el marco  del XVIII aniversario del levantamiento del EZLN. (2012-06-03) · José Juan Estrada Serafín

HERMANAS Y HERMANOS DEL EJERCITO ZAPATISTA DE LIBERACIÓN NACIONAL
HERMANAS Y HERMANOS DEL CONGRESO NACIONAL INDIGENA
HERMANAS Y HERMANOS DEL PUEBLO DE MÉXICO
HERMANAS Y HERMANOS DE LOS PUEBLOS DEL MUNDO
HERMANAS Y HERMANOS DE LA OTRA CAMPAÑA Y DE LA ZEXTA INTERNACIONAL
COMPAÑERAS Y COMPAÑEROS QUE LUCHAN POR UN MUNDO MEJOR

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París, 4 de junio del 2012.

A Don Juan Chávez Alonso,
A la familia y amigos de Don Juan,
A los que caminan abajo y a la izquierda donde el corazón palpita.

Compañeros y compañeras, abuelos y abuelas, niños y niñas, hombres y mujeres de aquí y de allá; así comenzaba Don Juan su palabra, sin olvidar a nadie, acobijando con su voz pausada y firme las esperanzas de cada quien. Con su mirada profunda y honesta nos abría surco para que pisáramos firme en la tierra que se defiende, para que siga viva. Con su palabra verdadera y sabia, nos tocaba el corazón y la razón para no titubear en la lucha contra la destrucción, el pisoteo, el despojo y el olvido, “contra ese pulpo” -como él decía- que es el capitalismo. Con una inmensa rebeldía defendía y acompañaba la tierra, y hoy, Don Juan regresó a ella, plenamente, donde de por sí ya estaba con su corazón y convicción.

Desde acá Don Juan, le damos las gracias por todo lo que nos enseñó, por todo lo que nos dijo, por las risas, por las palabras, por la música, por la dignidad de sus pasos que nos abren hoy camino para seguirle, para pelear por lo que nos queda y dar un espacio a nuestros sueños por un mundo que como usted, anhelamos diferente, mejor, donde todos y todas tengamos cabida con libertad y dignidad, donde nuestros derechos dejen de ser pisoteados, donde la soberbia no encuentre eco como tampoco la impunidad, donde la represión no tenga cobijo.

Mandamos un inmenso abrazo para reconfortar el dolor de sus familiares, amigos, a los que lo han acompañado en su caminar y en su lucha por la autonomía de los pueblos y de su tierra Purépecha, y a los compañeros del congreso nacional indígena. Y les decimos a todos y todas, ¡animo! ¡Que Don Juan Vive y la lucha Sigue!

Don Juan, usted acá sigue con nosotros -y usted lo sabe- porque usted siempre fue semilla.

Les trois passants, París
Caracol Solidario (Franche-Comté)
Comité de Solidaridad con los Pueblos de Chiapas en Lucha, CSPCL,París.
Comité de solidaridad con los pueblos indigenas (CSIA-Ntassinan)

Autonomy “without anyone’s permission”

Following the failure of the entire political class [to ratify] the accords, Don Juan accompanied all the initiatives aimed at achieving agreement, such as the march of 1,111 Zapatistas to Mexico City, the National Consultation on the Rights of the Indian People, the March of the Colour of the Earth and, finally, the putting into practice of autonomy without anyone’s permission, when the Zapatistas organized their territory into five caracoles, in an initiative that had an echo in Nurio, Juan’s village, a community which had been emblematic of the indigenous movement since it hosted the Third CNI, in which the General Command of the EZLN and representatives of more than 40 indigenous communities in the country participated.

In 2001, during the March of the Colour of the Earth, Don Juan was one of the main speakers, next to the General Command of the EZLN, in the Congress of the Union.

As part of the Other Campaign, which was launched in January 2006, Don Juan welcomed Subcomandante Marcos to Michoacan, and toured the north of the country with him. He later took part in the camp that was held in the community of El Mayor, with the Cucapá people, and in the Continental Indigenous Encounter at Vicam, Sonora.

Before the Zapatista uprising, he participated, between 1987 and 1988,
in the National Democratic Front, and encouraged the Indigenous Movement of the Purépecha Nation, which would later divert from the path of autonomy and link with the state government; this is why Don Juan left them and continued his work with the CNI, a network of people, tribes, nations and neighbourhoods of the Indians of Mexico.

An ardent promoter of the safeguarding of Purépecha wisdom, he dreamed and planned to build an indigenous university, very different from those built in Michoacan and other parts of the country.

Don Juan, at the age of 71, was not new to struggle. It was not only his skin that was tough, because since 1970, as an authority of his people, he led the reclamation of the land which the smallholders from Paracho had snatched from their community. Later, in the early 80s, he was arrested by the state authorities, for his struggle in defence of the land, accused of arming his community.

Don Juan brought to his community the 69 Technical High School, the first to be built in a Purépecha community, thanks to the struggle and mobilization of more than 100 communities in the area. He was also promoter of a hostel, an auditorium and a large farm surrounded by pine trees that was planned in 1981 “to organize activities to rescue Purépecha tradition and history, through means such as courses and seminars in traditional medicine and organic farming”, explained Don Juan.

The Purépecha activist also travelled the world spreading the demands of indigenous peoples. In 2002 he visited the office of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, and years later his word travelled through the rural towns of France and various social spaces in Greece and Spain.

Always with his trademark hat, jacket and overcoat, Don Juan was seen only last December and January at the seminar Planet Earth: anti-systemic movements, in San Cristobal de Las Casas, in the context of the 18th anniversary of the uprising of the EZLN.

There Don Juan Chavez apologized for not answering the question raised about the influence of the EZLN in the emerging anti-systemic movements. “I apologize, for I am not the person best qualified to talk about these issues. That is why this event was organized, so those who are organizing the new resistances can share with us their experience. For our part we’ve been busy enough, working in the fields, because we still believe that the struggle continues through sowing the land.”

The national and international community has already sent messages of solidarity with the family, and with the indigenous movement, which has lost one of its pillars. His body will be buried in his native Nurio, with his people. He is survived by his wife Celia Romero, his mother Francisca Alonso, his seven children and his grandchildren.

Los Chimalapas se ha convertido ya en una leyenda. Se habla en muchas partes de la región, se habla en el país y se habla también en muchas otras partes del mundo porque aquí se están librando batallas muy importantes para la conservación de los recursos naturales.

La relativa conservación de la región se debe principalmente a la histórica defensa por la integridad territorial y natural dada por parte de la población indígena Zoque Chimalapa, que de manera ancestral la han habitado, poseído y resguardado.

Los habitantes y dueños de Los Chimalapas, han sido asediados históricamente por intereses ajenos, personificados tanto por empresas madereras, ganaderos privados y narcotraficantes, como por megaproyectos de desarrollo (Proyecto Hidroeléctrico Chicapa-Chimalapa; autopista Cintalapa-Palomares y su desvío de trazo, Ocozocuautla-Ocote-Espinazo del Diablo-Acayucan) impulsados por diversas instancias gubernamentales. A estos intereses se han enfrentado los indígenas Chimalapas, directa, legal e incluso, violentamente (cuando han visto agotados todas las instancias) para defender lo suyo, bajo una lógica de beneficio común, opuesta a la apropiación privada y lucrativa. Por la ausencia de decisión política para hacer privar el Estado de Derecho en esa región, Chimalapas y sus comunidades hoy padecen un grave problema agrario, mezclado con un falso y doloso conflicto de límites estatales entre Oaxaca y Chiapas, situación que amenaza con desembocar en enfrentamientos violentos y al amparo del cual, continúan su acción depredadora, talamontes, traficantes de fauna, ganaderos invasores y narcotraficantes.

Frente a todo ello, hoy día, ONG´s ambientalistas y de derechos humanos, artistas como los integrantes del grupo Maná, académicos y científicos activistas se han unido en apoyo a la Defensa y la Conservación de Los Chimalapas, formando junto con las comunidades el Comité Nacional para la Defensa y la Conservación de Los Chimalapas (CNDCHIM).

Para los campesinos de esta región, como para los indígenas en general de nuestro país, la tierra es algo mucho más allá que simplemente el sustento de la producción; la tierra es donde se originaron, donde están sus casas, donde descansan sus antepasados, donde nacen las siguientes generaciones, los hijos; donde pasan la vida y tienen una interacción con su entorno natural, que por eso lo han protegido y lo han defendido, es un símbolo de identidad, de cohesión, y por ello es que día a día se suman más voluntarios en la Defensa del territorio y de la Selva más biodiversa de México y Mesoamérica: LOS CHIMALAPAS, EL PULMON DE LA HUMANIDAD.