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Solidarity and support for our brothers and sisters of the Wixárika people

Listen to the words of the CNI and the EZLN, in the voice of Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés, during the Assembly to constitute the Indigenous Governing Council:
[podcast]https://radiozapatista.org/Audios/CIG_AsambleaConstitutivaPlenaria_03_wixarika.mp3[/podcast]

To the Wixárika People
To the Peoples of the World

Gathered together in the Constitutive Assembly of the Indigenous Council for Mexico at CIDECI–UNITIERRA, Chiapas, the indigenous peoples, nations, and tribes who make up the National Indigenous Congress and the Zapatista Army for National Liberation say to the Wixárika people that we stand together, that your pain and rage are also ours, and that the path of your historic struggle is part of the hope we have as a country and as a world.

We repudiate and condemn the cowardly murder of the compañeros Miguel Vázquez Torres and Agustín Vázquez Torres of the Wixárika community of Waut+a- Saint Sebastian Teponahuaxtlán in the state of Jalisco on May 20 of the present year at the hands of the mercenaries of organized crime. This crime could not have happened without the absolute complicity of the bad governments on all levels, given that the riches of the Wixárika lands are coveted by the powers of capital which know no limits and which use their narco-paramilitary groups to try to dismantle an organization as exemplary as that of the Wixaritari.

We know they will not achieve this; they have never been able to and never will because the fabric that keeps the originary peoples alive also sustains the hope we are building together in order that a new world be born of resistance, rebellion, and the determination to keep existing.

We salute the exemplary defense of the territory that the compañero Miguel led, without ever turning back, as well as the paths the Saint Sebastian community is forging to recuperate nearly 10 thousand hectares invaded by ranchers, supposed small landowners from Huajimic, Nayarit. These ranchers are protected by the capitalist governments’ determination to pretend to dialogue while preparing a bloody end to this conflict, disguising it as drug cartel activity, as unclear state or municipal borders, as lying “task forces”i, as complicated judicial proceedings, or as supposed budget limitations.

Wixaritari compañeras and compañeros, we are with you and we know that the steps you collectively decide to take will be wise and dignified. We will not be indifferent nor oblivious to the support and solidarity that we have mutually shared on the CNI’s historic path.

We emphatically demand the solving of this crime against a whole people, punishment of the guilty, and the dismantling of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and all the criminal capitalist corporations that seek to take over the territories and autonomous organization that we peoples, nations, and tribes defend.

We demand that the the ancestral territories of the Wixárika people be wholly respected, that the territory invaded on the outskirts of Huajimic, Nayarit, be urgently restored [to the people], and that the forms of security and justice decided upon and exercised by the community of Waut+a- Saint Sebastian Teponahuaxtlán be fully respected.

Attentively,
May 27, 2017
National Indigenous Congress
Zapatista National Liberation Army

The Time Has Come

Listen (in Spanish) to the Declaration, read during the Assembly to Constitute the Indigenous Governing Council, Cideci/Universidad de la Tierra Chiapas, 28 May 2017:
[podcast]https://radiozapatista.org/Audios/CIG_AsambleaConstitutivaPlenaria_21_declaratoria.mp3[/podcast]

To To the People of Mexico,
To the Peoples of the World,
To the Media,
To the National and International Sixth,

We send our urgent word to the world from the Constitutive Assembly for the Indigenous Governing Council, where we met as peoples, communities, nations, and tribes of the National Indigenous Congress: Apache, Amuzgo, Chatino, Chichimeca, Chinanteco, Chol, Chontal of Oaxaca, Chontal of Tabasco, Coca, Cuicateco, Mestizo, Hñähñü, Ñathö, Ñuhhü, Ikoots, Kumiai, Lakota, Mam, Matlazinca, Maya, Mayo, Mazahua, Mazateco, Me`phaa, Mixe, Mixe-Popoluca, Mixteco, Mochó, Nahua or Mexicano, Nayeri, Popoluca, Purépecha, Q´anjob´al, Rarámuri, Tének, Tepehua, Tlahuica, Tohono Odham, Tojolabal, Totonaco, Triqui, Tseltal, Tsotsil, Wixárika, Xi´iuy, Yaqui, Binniza, Zoque, Akimel O´otham, and Comkaac.

THE WAR THAT WE LIVE AND CONFRONT

We find ourselves in a very serious moment of violence, fear, mourning, and rage due to the intensification of the capitalist war against everyone, everywhere throughout the national territory. We see the murder of women for being women, of children for being children, of whole peoples for being peoples.

The political class has dedicated itself to turning the State into a corporation that sells off the land of the originary peoples, campesinos, and city dwellers, that sells people as if they were just another commodity to kill and bury like raw material for the drug cartels, that sells people to capitalist businesses that exploit them until they are sick or dead, or that sells them off in parts to the illegal organ market.

Then there is the pain of the families of the disappeared and their decision to find their loved ones despite the fact that the government is determined for them not to, because there they will also find the rot that rules this country.

(Continuar leyendo…)

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Pueblos, organizaciones y comunidades integrantes del CNI del estado de Chiapas: Ejido Tila, San Sebastián Bachajón adherentes a la Sexta Declaración de la Selva Lacandona, Las Abejas de Acteal, Semilla Digna, San Felipe Ecatepec C.N.P.I., 5 de Marzo, PUDEE, Frente Cívico Tonalteco y Concejo Autónomo regional de la Costa, Xinich y San Pedro Ocosingo, convocamos a integrantes del CNI Chiapas, registrados como “Delegados participantes” (con acta de acuerdo presentada en la segunda etapa del 5° Congreso Nacional Indígena llevada a cabo en diciembre pasado), a una reunión en las instalaciones del CIDECI-UniTierra en San Cristóbal de las Casas, el sábado 13 de mayo del año en curso, para analizar la convocatoria de la conformación del Concejo Indígena de Gobierno del CNI con la presencia de la Coordinación Provisional, con los siguientes puntos del ORDEN DEL DÍA:

9.00 am    Registro.

10:00am   Bienvenida y presentación.

Análisis de la convocatoria a la conformación del consejo indígena de gobierno del CNI

2:00 pm   Comida.

4:00 pm   Mesas de trabajo por regiones.

5:00 pm  Presentaciones de acuerdos.

7:30 pm  Clausura.

8:00 pm  Cena.

¡¡¡Por la reconstitución integral de nuestros pueblos!!!

¡¡¡Nunca más un México sin nosotros!!!

¡¡¡Viva el Congreso Nacional Indígena!!!

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Denuncia del CNI del 13 de abril de 2017

A la Sociedad Civil en General
A los Medios de Comunicación
A las Organizaciones de Derechos Humanos

Denunciamos que desde el día de ayer 11 de abril del presente año, a las 10:50 de la noche  un grupo de personas de nombres Juan Gómez Jiménez, Juan Pérez Pérez y Antonio Méndez Sántiz por órdenes de Manuel Sántiz Vázquez, agente municipal del barrio Río Jordán, municipio de Chenalhó, llegaron a la casa de los compañeros Alonso Ruiz López, Alonso Jiménez Méndez y Manuel Jiménez Méndez, a quienes pidieron que salieran de sus domicilios y al hacerlo fueron privados de su libertad en el ejido Los Chorros, donde permanecen retenidos hasta que paguen 5mil pesos por cada uno de los ellos.

Los compañeros retenidos y otras familias, como parte de la Organización Civil Las Abejas, miembros del Congreso Nacional Indígena se han negado a participar con proyectos del mal gobierno como lo son una clínica y de drenaje que imponen los malos gobiernos, por lo que han sido presionados y amenazados para tomar cargos de gestores de este proyecto, a lo que se han negado por contar con sus propios promotores de salud. Además de esto no contaban con el servicio de electricidad que les fue cortado desde hace un año y cuatro meses, por lo que habían acordado el reconectar la electricidad y el agua potable para las familias de los compañeros José Ramón Vázquez Entzin y Antonio Ramírez Pérez.

Señalamos que del ejido Los Chorros salieron los grupos paramilitares que perpetraron la masacre de Acteal del 22 de diciembre de 1997, quienes además de gozar de impunidad, desde entonces presionan a los compañeros de Las Abejas para aceptar los programas del mal gobierno, como es el caso de los compañeros hoy retenidos y las familias afectadas por el corte de servicios, quienes debieron salir de sus domicilios por las amenazas de agresiones físicas existentes en su contra.

Repudiamos la agresión a nuestros compañeros de la Sociedad Civil Las Abejas de Acteal y exigimos la inmediata e incondicional liberación de los retenidos por no aceptar los proyectos del mal gobierno.

Exigimos respeto absoluto a las decisiones autónomas tomadas por la asamblea delas Abejas y nos pronunciamos en contra de la simulación que ha hecho el mal gobierno para proteger a los mandos políticos y militares responsables de la muerte de 45 compañeros y 4 no nacidos en 1997.

Desde el Congreso Nacional Indígena saludamos la campaña Acteal: Raíz, Memoria y Esperanza que levantan  los hermanos de Las Abejas en el contexto de los 20 años de la masacre en Acteal y en contra la impunidad que prevalece en favor de los autores materiales e intelectuales del terror y la muerte a manos de paramilitares.

Atentamente

Abril de 2017
Nunca Más Un México Sin Nosotros
Congreso Nacional Indígena

Joint Communique from the CNI and the EZLN Denouncing the Repression Against the Purépecha community of Arantepacua, Michoacán

To the Purépecha Community of Arantepacua, Michoacán,
To the alternative media,
To the peoples of the world.

The peoples, nations, and tribes who make up the National Indigenous Congress express our outrage at the bad government’s cowardly attack against the Purépecha community of Arantepacua, Michoacán, on April 4 and 5 of the present year.

As a commission of community members sought dialogue with the bad government of the state of Michoacán, the governor Silvano Aureoles Conejo betrayed them: first, by obstructing their path with hundreds of riot police and dozens of trucks as they made their way to Morelia to try to come to agreements on the resolution of an old agrarian conflict; and again when, as the commission negotiated with government, large contingents of the Michoacán Police and the State Ministerial Police together with federal forces attacked the community, sowing terror, entering houses to detain community members, and opening fire indiscriminately, killing three Arantepacua community members:

• José Carlos Jiménez Crisóstomo (age 25)
• Luis Gustavo Hernández Cuenete (age 15)
• Francisco Jiménez Ajejandre (approximately age 70)

In addition, an unspecified number of community members were injured, two of whom are in critical condition, as well as 38 arrested by the Michoacán government on April 4 and 18 more on April 5 on fabricated charges that seek to criminalize their demand for their rights.

Brothers and sisters of Arantepacua, your pain over the murder of your compañeros is ours. We struggle because we are certain that punishment for the guilty will come from the dignity, resistance, and rebellion of our peoples. Sowing truth and justice amidst the destruction brought upon us by the powerful is what our peoples know how to do.

The bad governments think that by spreading terror in the indigenous territories of Michoacán and across a large part of the nation they will be able to silence the peoples and their voice, but this will not happen, because the words shouted collectively today by the originary peoples are born precisely of our rage, our frustration and the decision to not allow ourselves be killed, dispossessed, divided, or bought off.

We pronounce jointly with the communal assembly of Arantepacua our demands for:

1. An immediate halt to the escalated repression against Arantepacua and the Purépecha communities of the region.
2. The immediate release of the compañeros detained by the bad government.
3. Justice for the victims of this cowardly aggression and indemnification for all damages caused.
4. Punishment of governor Silvano Aureoles and all those responsible, materially and intellectually, for the crimes committed.
5. The withdrawal of the police and military forces from Aratepacua, given that as long as they are present the harassment of the community members will not cease.

Attentively
April 6, 2017

Justice for Arantepacua
Justice for the Purépecha People
For the Full Reconstitution of our Peoples
Never Again a Mexico Without Us
National Indigenous Congress
Zapatista Army for National Liberation

Convocation to the Constitutive Assembly of the Indigenous Governing Council for Mexico

NATIONAL INDIGENOUS CONGRESS

CONVOCATION

Given the decision made in the second phase of the Fifth National Indigenous Congress December 29, 30, and 31, 2016 and January 1, 2017, during which it was agreed:

FIRST: “…to name an Indigenous Governing Council with men and women representatives from each one of the peoples, tribes, and nations that make up the CNI. This council proposes to govern the country. It will have an indigenous woman from the CNI as its spokesperson, which is to say, a woman of indigenous blood who knows her culture. This indigenous woman spokesperson from the CNI will be an independent candidate for the presidency of Mexico in the 2018 elections.”

SECOND: “…[to call] on the originary peoples of this country, the collectives of the Sixth, workers, coalitions and committees who struggle in the countryside and the city, students, intellectuals, artists, scientists, the elements of civil society that are not organized, as well as all good-hearted people to close ranks and go on the offensive. We call on you to dismantle the power of above and to reconstitute ourselves now from below and to the left, not only as peoples but as a country, to come together in a single organization where dignity will be our final word and our first action. We call on all of you to organize with us to stop this war, and to not be afraid to sow our seeds and build ourselves upon the ruins left by capitalism.”

THIRD: “…[to convoke] a constituent assembly of the Indigenous Governing Council for Mexico in the month of May 2017…to make the earth tremble at its core, to overcome fear and recuperate what belongs to humanity, what belongs to the earth, and what belongs to the peoples, to recuperate the territories that have been invaded or destroyed, for the disappeared of this country, for the freedom of all political prisoners, for truth and justice for all of those who have been murdered, for the dignity of the countryside and the city…making dignity the epicenter of a new world.”
We have agreed to convoke the authorities, representatives, delegates, and councilpersons named by the indigenous peoples, nations, tribes, barrios, communities, and organizations that participate in the CNI to celebrate the:

CONSTITUTIVE ASSEMBLY OF THE INDIGENOUS GOVERNING COUNCIL FOR MEXICO

To be held May 26, 27, and 28 of 2017 at the facilities of the Indigenous Center for Integral Learning (CIDECI-UNITIERRA) in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Zapatista territory, in accordance with the following schedule:

PROGRAM (Continuar leyendo…)

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Esperamos  que las redes sociales nos permitan abrir un camino de acercamiento con las y los otros, un camino de información generado desde nosotr@s, y que será el espacio en el que se irán anunciando las diferentes actividades y acontecimientos concernientes al camino que recorreremos en los próximos meses como CNI.

Photo: Agencia Infomanía

Traduzione italiano
Tradução em portugês

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Communique from the National Indigenous Congress

March 9, 2017

To the national and international Sixth
To the free media
To civil society in general

Compañeros, compañeras, as our peoples continue to organize ourselves, each in our own ways and forms, analyzing and making agreements in order to form a Concejo Indígena de Gobierno [Indigenous Council of Government], the war against our peoples doesn’t stop. The three levels of bad government continue to act against our mother earth, our peoples, and our autonomous organizations through plunder and repression.

In the state of Oaxaca

We denounce and condemn with outrage the events in the community of San Francisco del Mar in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec region, Oaxaca, where violent actions were carried out, including the use of firearms, in order to try to impose approval of wind power projects that would dispossess the community of a good part of their common use lands and seriously affect the rich and delicate ecosystem there.

These events unfolded during the assembly of the comisariado de bienes comunales [communal resources or the commons] of San Francisco del Mar which was convoked to discuss authorization of the use of over 15,000 hectares for shrimping projects in Pueblo Viejo in the zone known as bocabarra. Various speakers expressed their opposition to the authorization, giving evidence that its true purpose was for wind power projects. They explained that bocabarra is a vital area for thousands of fishermen, that approval of the project would remove their source of livelihood, and that such an important decision required the participation and decision of the whole population.

Bocabarra is part of the Isthmus lagoon system and a vitally important area for its role as a key fishing zone and for its sacred and spiritual sites. In this part of the region, fishing provides the most important source of economic livelihood and food for the population. It is also a highly coveted zone for wind power companies because of its powerful winds, and there has already been an attempt by Mareña Renovables to construct a wind power plant in the Barra of Santa Teresa which provoked large mobilizations in opposition from the surrounding communities.

It is necessary to add that what happened in San Francisco del Mar is not an isolated event but rather a comprehensive plan of plunder and dispossession to be applied to the territories of the communities of the Isthmus in order to allow the imposition of megaprojects in the region via the Special Economic Zone of the Tehuantepec Isthmus [ZEE by its Spanish acronym] which undergirds this second phase of wind power development.

In the state of Michoacán

On February 24, in the community of Calzonzin, the bad government of the state of Michoacán in complicity with the federal government savagely repressed the P’urhépecha people of Caltzontzin who were protesting in defense of their right to restitution of communal territory.

That day the repressive forces of the Mexican State laid siege to the community of Caltzontzin, not allowing anyone to enter or exit, and then proceeded to launch tear gas bombs from a helicopter over the community and invaded community territory to arbitrarily arrest 17 community members, of which 13 are still being held and one of which is mentally disabled. At the same time, they entered various homes in the community without search warrants, destroying what they found and violating human rights in their mission to defend the privileges of the transnational railroad company Kansas City Southern.

We demand the immediate release of the political prisoners of the originary peoples of Michoacán, in particular the 13 community members detained in Caltzontzin whose only crime is the defense of communal property, of dignity, and of life for their communities and for future generations.

On the coast, the Nahua community of Santa María Ostula is under attack by criminal organizations which have penetrated the territory to the southeast of the municipality of Aquila and, through death and looting, attempt to dismantle the community’s autonomous organization and community security in order to bring back to the area terror and the extraction and exploitation of natural resources and communal lands.

On February 5 of this year, five community police from San Pedro Naranjestil, to the south of the municipality of Aquila affiliated with the municipal police, were kidnapped by members of the Marines who later turned them over to the organized crime groups led by Jesús Cruz Virrueta (alias Chuy Playas), Fernando Cruz Mendoza (alias El Tena), José María Cruz (alias el Tunco), Federico González Medina (alias Lico) and Mario Álvarez López (alias El Chacal). This act has been followed by actions impeding operations by the self defense groups of the Aquila, Chinicuila, and Coahuayana municipalities to detain members of organized crime.

To the former we must add the frequent instances in which the armed forces of the bad government have acted in coordination with criminal gangs against the indigenous community of Santa María Ostula, which has contributed to the collective grief and the demand for justice for the 34 community members who were murdered and the 5 who are disappeared.

In the state of Querétaro

The bad government is unjustly holding prisoner the indigenous Ñhañhú compañero Raymundo Pascual García, of San Ildefonso, Amealco, Querétaro, who was detained along with other compañeros for participating with his community in the protests against the gas hikes. We also denounce the continued plunder of the lands of the Fundo Legal of the Galeras and La Peñuela communities in the municipality of Colón though the corrupt actions of the bad governments and political parties.

As a consequence, the peoples, nations, and tribes who make up the National Indigenous Congress declare that:

1. We hold the municipal president and the commissioner of the bienes comunales of San Francisco del Mar responsible for the violent acts in Ikoot territory and the attempt at land dispossession. We denounce the complicity between well known state and federal authorities and politicians and we demand clarification of the events and punishment of those responsible for the shots fired during the assembly. We demand respect for the legitimate right of the people of San Francisco del Mar to determine the destiny of their lands and natural resources.
2. We demand that the autonomy and communitarian organization of Santa María Ostula be respected. We demand the arrest of Jesús Cruz Virrueta (alias Chuy Playas), Fernando Cruz Mendoza (alias El Tena), José María Cruz (alias el Tunco), Federico González Medina (alias Lico), and Mario Álvarez López (alias El Chacal), the dismantling of the political and economic structure that sustains them, the punishment of the soldiers and politicians responsible for the murder of the child Hidelberto Reyes Garcia and all of the murdered community members, the cancellation of arrest warrants for the [community police] commanders in Ostula and the Sierra Costa region, the return of the disappeared, and absolute respect for the communal territory of Ostula.
3. We demand immediate and absolute freedom for the compañero Raymundo Pascual García from San Ildefonso, Amealco, Querétaro, who was detained for protesting with his community against the gas hikes imposed by the bad government, a halt to land dispossession in the communities of Galeras and La Peñuela in the municipality of Colón, Querétaro, and punishment of those responsible for the unjust imprisonment of over 3 years of the Ñhañhu indigenous compañeras of Amealco, Querétaro, Jacinta Francisco Marcial, Alberta Alcántara Juan and Teresa González.

We say to our brothers and sisters of the Ikoot, P´urhépecha, Nahua and Ñhañu peoples in these regions and the rest of the country who everyday sustain our hope, rebellion, and dignity with their struggle: you are not alone. In the colors, tongues, and geographies that make up the CNI, we are you; your yearning for justice is ours, your pain is ours, and your demand, which brings into bloom the birth of another world, is our heart and our unwavering certainty.

Until dignity becomes tradition

Freedom for all of the political prisoners
Return of the disappeared
Justice for San Francisco del Mar
Justice for Calzonzin
Justice for Santa María Ostula
Justice for the Ñhañu people of Querétaro

Attentively,

For the Full Reconstitution of Our Peoples
Never Again a Mexico Without Us
March 2017

National Indigenous Congress

Stop the assassinations of Rarámuri Indigenous Compañeros Defending Their Territory!

Indigenous Territories of Mexico
February 4, 2017

To the people of Choreachi,
To all of the Rarámuri People,
To the Indigenous Peoples,
To the people of Mexico,
To the peoples of the world,

We learned today of the murders of Indigenous Rarámuri compañeros Juan Ontiveros Ramos and Isidro Baldenegro, both of the community of Choreachi in the municipality of Guadalupe y Calvo, Chihuahua, yesterday February 2, and 15 days ago, respectively.

We urgently denounce these new acts of barbarity against compañeros known for their commitment to the struggle of their people for the recuperation of their territory, which was taken over 40 years ago by large landowners/ranchers and organized crime.

As the National Indigenous Congress and the Zapatista Army for National Liberation, we are in solidarity with the Rarámuri People who have been so hurt by these murders, now totaling 18 homicides committed against their communities since 1973, four of them in the last year.

Compañeros and compañeras, you are not alone! We accompany you in your pain, we open our hearts to the tireless struggle you are waging against organized crime and the landowners backed by the bad governments, and we offer you our support as indigenous peoples of this country who are organizing ourselves to defend our lives and our territories.

STOP THE ASSASSINATIONS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE IN STRUGGLE!
NEVER AGAIN A MEXICO WITHOUT US!

NATIONAL INDIGENOUS CONGRESS
ZAPATISTA ARMY FOR NATIONAL LIBERATION

Source: Enlace Zapatista