Zapatista Army for National Liberation.

Mexico

March 14, 2016

Compas and non-compas:

We write to tell you a little about how plans are going for the activities in July, October, and December of 2016. We have received a few questions, so here are a few answers, but only regarding the festival “CompArte for Humanity.”

“How is the registration for the art festival looking?”

As of March 12, 2016, we had registered:

21 attendees from Mexico and 5 from other countries.

99 participants from Mexico and 30 from other countries (Chile, Argentina, Greece, Canada, United States, Spanish State, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Guatemala, Colombia, Costa Rica, Brazil, Peru, Cross-border or Without Borders, Uruguay, France, and the Sufi Community with Islamic music).

“What kind of activities or artistic works are registered so far?

According to those who have registered so far, there is: rap, poetry, visual arts, contemporary dance, painting, engraving, literature and stories, theater, puppets, embroidery, iron work, silk-screening, photography, documentaries, cinema, sculpture, ceramics, short films, illustration, reggae, rock, graffiti, gastronomy, aerial dance, murals, music, music, and more music.

“What is this about “alternate sites” for the CompArte Festival?”

We are hoping that the compas of the Sixth in Mexico and in the world understand what you might call the subliminal message of the convocation and organize activities—in their own geographies and in accordance with their own calendars—either before, during, or after the festivals/gatherings convoked by the Zapatistas. That is, we hope that whether at local, regional, zone, or national levels, the Sixth organizes festivals and gatherings to give space for and echo to artistic activities. And of course, also to celebrate the National Indigenous Congress’ 20 years of rebellion and resistance, as well as a space where scientists will find attentive ears and critical thought.

“Is it necessary to register to attend, without participating in, the ‘CompArte’ festival?”

Yes, just clarify that you are registering as an attendee.

“Is necessary to register to attend and participate in the “CompArte” festival?”

Yes, and we ask you to specify the form your participation will take.

“What is the email where one can register for the ‘CompArte for Humanity festival’?”

The email is compArte@ezln.org.mx

“Can you tell me again the dates and locations for the ‘CompArte for Humanity’ festival?”

No, those are already in the communiqué from February 29…. Okay, okay okay, here they are:

Dates: July 17-30, 2016

Location:

July 17-22 in the caracol of Oventik. Only Zapatista bases of support will participate in this part. Attendance is open for escuchas [ears/listeners] and videntes [seers/viewers], but requires registration.

July 23-30, 2016 in CIDECI, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas. All registered artists can participate. Attendance is open for listeners and viewers, but requires registration.

“Is there a registration fee, either for attendees or participants?

No.

“Are you (Zapatistas) going to pay for travel expenses, food, and lodging?”

No.

“According to Zapatismo, is gastronomy an art?”

Everyone can categorize their practice as they see fit. In the case of the difficult culinary arts, the insurgentas, as an echo of March 8, will contribute a menu that is…hmm… how can I put it… disconcerting: “tamale shakes and coffee with chili pepper” (note: for the tamale shake they don’t use a blender or any other machine, only the cooking fire and their “wisdom”). I already suffered… I mean, tasted it and it is… disconcerting.

“Can children participate?”

Yes, children can register to participate or attend. Except for the girls, because what a shame, the deadline has passed, it was March 8, so oh well…eh? But it’s that… ay! Okay, okay okay: the girls can register too. Note: all minors should be accompanied by a mother or father or tutor, tutora, or tutoroa.

“Is anything banned from these events?”

Yes, the production, consumption, or sale of drugs and alcohol is strictly forbidden. If you aren’t capable of making or enjoying art without taking something before or during, well your method is mistaken.

“There still isn’t a report back on the Little School?”

No. The questions sent by students are currently being reviewed. When something is ready, we’ll let those interested know.

That’s all for now.

Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés.  Subcomandante Insurgente Galeano.

Mexico, March 2016.

From the diaries of the cat-dog:

The time of the police (part one):

One: In Mexico, a Latin American country that suffers the global crisis like they all do, but which is fueled by the solid triad of corruption-clumsiness-ignorance made into a government, the official in charge of public education, Aurelio Nuño Mayer, cannot hide his passion for the policing profession. Encouraged by his accomplices, Mr. Nuño believes that he can win the presidential candidacy for his party, the PRI, if he functions more as paid thug than as promoter of Mexican education. Fond of making threats, running his own repressive squads, and operating like any boss in the early stages of savage capitalism, Mr. Nuño finds special pleasure in converting the teaching profession into a destination not for better schools, training, and salaries, but for arbitrary injustices, beatings, and firings. Playing the role of prosecutor, judge, and jury; of Labor Minister (decreeing firings without severance); of Minister of the Interior (using the police and the army at his whim); of clumsy media spokesperson, dismal builder of “spontaneous” support, and twitterer in permanent slow motion, Mr. Nuño’s only resumé merit is having sheltered himself within that group of criminals who engage in criminal activity with total immunity. Despite his suits and ties, his heavily made up and photo-shopped media image, Mr. Nuño cannot hide what he has always been: a sad and mediocre policeman who gets pleasure from and money for repressing and humiliating others. Mr. Nuño has always longed to be a good policeman, but… when the den of thieves is insufficient to accommodate so many, when his secret protector falls, Mr. Nuño will also show he is a good runner… when fleeing becomes the order of the day.

Another one: In this country known in the realm of the world cups (although no further than the quarterfinals) as “Mexico,” in the so-called “highest place of study,” the Autonomous National University of Mexico (UNAM), Mr. Enrique Graue Wiechers has reached the highest bureaucratic position (and ladder to governmental post): the title of rector [like chancellor or dean]. In addition to the fact that his academic and professional career has been located within the bureaucracy of the academy and carefully guided by the Zedillo Ponce de León family’s psychiatrist, Mr. Graue did his graduate work in a North American university know for having invented the energy drink self-named “Gatorade,” which should give you an idea of how advanced he is in his specialty field of ophthalmology. A few days ago, Mr. Graue declared he was “outraged” because of the insufficient quantity of drugs police planted on one of the activists from the Che Guevara Auditorium (which the university authorities are futilely trying to call the Justo Sierra Auditorium). Mr. Graue was not enraged that the federal budgeting for higher education would not be sufficient to cover hundreds of thousands of young people; nor was he enraged by the mercantilist conditions that academic faculty and staff are subjected to; nor was he enraged because the UNAM has become a nest of undesirables, that is, of bureaucratic functionaries who don’t even know how to write the name of their overseer (that is, the rector); nor was he enraged by the lack of security endured by faculty, staff, and students on the UNAM campuses (assaults, rapes, and murders); and he was not enraged because an anti-democratic gangsterism had placed, in the highest post of the “highest place of study,” a mediocre bureaucrat.

No, Mr. Graue was enraged because the police didn’t do a good job of setting someone up to be framed. And this outrages Mr. Graue because all his life he has endeavored to be a good police agent. With his indignant police discourse (seconded by people who don’t even know where the Justo Sierra Auditorium is, much less the Che Guevara), Mr. Graue gives a lecture: “the problem with higher education in Mexico lies with a vegetarian cafeteria, a screen printing workshop, and a bakery training space, among other things. These subversive activities are promoted by a group of anarchists, that is, dirty, ugly, and bad people who contrast sharply with the neatness and style of the university bureaucracy. They don’t even sell Gatorade, but rather water and juices of unknown origin. They are drug addicts (the high, medium, and low-ranking officials hide cocaine, crystal meth, ecstasy, and even crack and an occasional roach in their desk drawers —even within bureaucracy there are classes, my friend), they’re anarchic-anarchists, not part of the university community (various officials swallow hard) and that auditorium… the auditorium, what’s that auditorium… secretary quick, what’s the name of that auditorium that we want to liberate.. ah yes, the Justo Sierra Auditorium in the School of Medicine… eh? …It’s not in the School of Medicine?.. huh?… you’re recording? Give notice!… okay… in the School of Philosophy and Letters of Acatlán… no?… is it in Ciudad Universitaria?…Oh isn’t CU where the Pumas play?…So there are academic departments there too?… I’m only familiar with the rector’s suite… well anyway, wherever it is, it should be “liberated” by the police, and by police who know how to plant the evidence properly, not those scatter-brains that don’t even know how to place a bit of “spearmint” in a backpack. That’s why an elite group of my officials are going to start a degree program on how to place drugs in briefcases. Yes yes I know that’s not the same, but we don’t carry backpacks, we carry briefcases. As I have said… what, no applause?… Turn on the recorder man! No, not that one, you’ll ruin my cabinet career ambitions. The other one! Yes that one! Thank you, thank you to the authentic university community members who know that the university serves to domesticate, not to teach nor investigate! Thank you, thank you, thank you! How was that? Wha? I said turn that recorder off! No not the one with the cheering, the other one, the one that’s recording!

Mr. Graue is furious, he was just trying to be a good police agent.

I testify: woof-meow.

Cat-dog.

Copyleft 2016. Permission from the Good Government Council under conditions of “we’ll be back tomorrow to see if its ready, who knows, maybe it will be a new Council rotation by then, but in the meantime let me tell you the history of Zapatista autonomy. You already know it? Well then we should review it, as they say, until it truly sticks in your head. Did you bring your notebook? Write in “resistance and rebellion” or “rebellion and resistance,” it’s the same thing, because the order of the “r’s” doesn’t’ affect our autonomy. Haven’t you studied mathematics? Just songs? Well look, you need arts and sciences, there’s no way around it.”

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A la opinión pública
A los medios de comunicación Estatal, Nacional e Internacional
A los medios alternativos
A los hermanos_as del Pueblo Creyente
A la Diócesis de San Cristóbal
A la Sociedad Civil
A las organizaciones independientes
A las defensoras de derechos humanos

Preso injustamente Roberto Paciencia Cruz cautivo en el penal num. 05 de san Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas a causa de la injusticia que me ha llevado a estar 2 años con 7 meses privado de mi libertad a pesar de la minuta de trabajo que se hizo con los solidarios de la voz del Amate con funcionarios de gobierno el pasado 8 de febrero. Se comprometieron a liberarme, ya pasaron 3 semanas, sin respuesta. Cada dia esta empeorando mi visualidad por los golpes de la tortura que sufrí en las oficinas de FECDO, el pasado 7 de agosto de 2013.

Es por eso que exijo al gobernador Manuel Velasco Coello mi libertad lo mas pronto posible. Como tambien la libertad del compañero Alejandro Diaz Santis que se encuentra enel CEFERESO num. 15 de Villa Comatitlán que lleva 16 años, con 6 meses recluido sin delito.

Por último invito a todas las organizaciones independientes locales, nacionales e internacionales a seguir reclamando justicia y las libertades de todos_as los_as presos-as injustamente del país.

Justicia y libertades
FRATERNALMENTE
Roberto Paciencia Cruz
Penal num. 5 San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas. A 1 de marzo de 2016

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San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas. 28 de Febrero de 2016.

A la Comandancia General del EZLN.
A la Sexta nacional e Internacional.
A las organizaciones solidarias, honestas y consecuentes.
A los Organismos defensores de los derechos humanos gubernamentales e independientes. A los Medios Libres de comunicación y medios de paga
Al Pueblo Creyente.
Al pueblo en general.
A los estudiantes

Hermanas , hermanos, compas, sociedad civil,.

En días pasados hemos dado a conocer ante los medios de comunicación la situación de desplazamiento forzado del que hemos sido víctimas las familias de Shulvó integrantes del Municipio Autónomo Vicente Guerrero, adherentes a la Sexta Declaración de la Selva Lacandona, municipio oficial de Zinacantán. Así como hemos hecho pública nuestra exigencia de retorno inmediato a nuestra comunidad.

Hoy 28 del mes de febrero es la fecha que fue acordada entre las partes y con los delegados de gobierno y la iglesia católica, para la búsqueda de solución del problema, que conduzca al cumplimiento de nuestras tres demandas: el retorno inmediato a nuestra comunidad, la reparación de los daños causados por el desplazamiento forzado y el castigo a los responsables materiales e intelectuales de esos hechos.

(Continuar leyendo…)

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San Isidro los Laureles, municipio de Venustiano Carranza, Chiapas México, Adherentes a la Sexta Declaración de la Selva Lacandona, del espacio de lucha de Semilla Digna, integrantes del CNI.

Denuncia pública.

AL EZLN.
A los y las adherentes a la sexta nacional e internacional.
A Los organismos de derechos humanos nacionales e internacionales.
AL Congreso Nacional Indígena (CNI).
A Los medios de comunicación libres y alternativos.
A La opinión publica de México y del mundo.

A los 62 días de haber recuperado nuestra madre tierra, siendo a las 12:40 pm, pasó una camioneta doble cabina Cheyenne color blanca con placas de circulación DSF-73-24, llevando consigo 6 personas dentro del vehículo, usando chalecos antibalas llevando armas de alto poder, en los predios recuperados del municipio de Venustiano Carranza Chiapas, mandados por los propietarios Rodrigo Ruiz, Francisco Ruiz, Octavín Albores, y apoyados por algunos pequeños propietarios, con toda la intención de intimidarnos a las compañeras y compañeros, jóvenes y niños de San Isidro los Laureles y comunidades, y que denunciamos lo siguiente.

(Continuar leyendo…)

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Alejandro Reyes – Radio Zapatista

On December 20, 2015, the community of San Isidro Los Laureles recuperated 200 hectares of land that belonged to their ancestors, and where many of their grandparents worked in sugar cane plantations since the mid-twentieth century. In a visit to the recovered land, we spoke with some of the peasants from San Isidro, who explained the historic context and the meaning of the land recovery.

[podcast]https://radiozapatista.org/Audios/sanisidro_feb2016.MP3[/podcast]

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Foto: A un año de la muerte de Antonia (Miguel López Girón)

Antonia López Méndez, niña tzeltal, murió en desplazamiento forzado sin atención médica adecuada el 21 de febrero de 2015. A un año de su muerte, su familia retornó de manera temporal a su comunidad de Banavil, Tenejapa, Chiapas, para recordar su memoria según la costumbre como pueblos originarios.
(Continuar leyendo…)

Chicoasén en defensa del agua from InquietaDoc on Vimeo.

Ejido Chicoasén has been struggling for over 40 years to recover their lands, expropriated through deception by the state and violating their right to prior consultation. In this territory, the hydroelectric dam Chicoasén I was built, and the dam Chicoasén II is currently under construction. The ejidatarios have won an order for temporary suspension of the construction, and demand compliance.

Most ejidatarios are over 70 years old, in precarious health conditions, and with warrants for their arrest. They demand full recognition of their agrarian rights, in the fense of their territory.

Production: Inquietadoc/Frayba

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Organización de la Sociedad Civil Las Abejas
Tierra Sagrada de los Mártires de Acteal
Acteal, Ch’enalvo’, Chiapas, México.

A 22 de febrero de 2016.

A las Organizaciones Sociales y Políticas
A las y los Defensores de los Derechos Humanos
A los Medios de Comunicación Alternativos
A la Prensa Nacional e Internacional
A la Sociedad Civil Nacional e Internacional
A la junta de buen gobierno
Al congreso nacional indígena (CNI)
Y a la opinión publica

Hermanos y hermanas: Recurre hoy nuevamente esta celebración de la conmemoración de los mártires de Acteal. Han pasado 18 años con 2 meses de haber ocurrido este hecho tan cruel, a pesar de tantos sufrimientos, de tantos agravios, de tantos engaños y de tantos acosos que pretende hacer el mal gobierno, nosotros seguimos resistiendo y exigiendo justicia para nuestros mártires. Porque nosotros y nosotras no podemos ocultar la verdad ni podemos olvidar lo que ha pasado, porque aún no hemos encontrado la justicia.

Hoy recordamos que hace 6 días cumplió 20 años la firma simulada de los acuerdos de San Andrés, entre el gobierno federal y el E.Z.L.N. Según el acuerdo elaborado es para el bienestar de los pueblos originarios en México, respetando sus usos y costumbres, la libre autodeterminación, el derecho de la educación, la salud e utilizar las riquezas de la madre tierra, pero esto aún sigue incumplido, y estancado por los malos partidos. Hasta ahora nada nos han servido todos los que se creen grandes expertos legisladores y diputados y hasta mismo la Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación siguen pisoteando sus propias leyes sin el consentimiento de los pueblos indígenas en México.

(Continuar leyendo…)

And in the Zapatista Communities?

Zapatista Army for National Liberation

Mexico

February 2016

To the compañer@s of the Sixth:
To whom it may concern:

Compañeroas, compañeros and compañeras:

Now we are going to tell you a little bit about the Zapatista communities, where the bases of support resist and struggle.

What we are going to share with you now comes from reports by the Zapatista compañeras and compañeros in the communities who are coordinators for their commissions (for example, health, education, young people, etc), autonomous authorities, or other organizational coordinators. But along with the compas of the Comité [CCRI] we checked to make sure this information wasn’t a lie, that things hadn’t been altered so that the good things would appear and bad things would remain hidden. The work of these writings is not to lie to our compas of the Sixth nor to those who support us and are in their solidarity. We won’t lie to you, to them, nor to anyone else.

(Continuar leyendo…)