Zapatista Army for National Liberation
Mexico

December 2014

To the compas of the National and International Sixth:
To the National Indigenous Congress:
To the family members and compañeros of those killed and disappeared in Ayotzinapa:

Sisters and brothers:

Compañeros and compañeras:

There are many things we want to tell you. We won’t tell you all of them because we know right now there are more urgent and important issues for all of us.[i] Thus we ask for your patience and your attentive ear.

We Zapatistas are here. And it is from here that we see, hear, and read that the voice of the family members and compañeros of the murdered and disappeared of Ayotzinapa is beginning to be forgotten and that now, for some people out there, the more important things are:

-the words coming from other people that have taken stage;

-the discussions over whether the marches and protests belong to the well-behaved or the badly behaved;

-the discussion about whatever it is that appears most frequently and rapidly in social media;

-the discussion over what tactic and strategy will “move beyond” the movement.

And we think that the 43 from Ayotzinapa are still missing, as are the 49 from the ABC Daycare, the tens of thousands of murdered and disappeared citizens and migrants, the political prisoners and disappeared prisoners.

(Continuar leyendo…)

First World Festival of Resistance and Rebellion Against Capitalism

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Words of the General Command of the EZLN, presented by Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés, concluding the event with the caravan of the families of the disappeared and students of Ayotzinapa, in the caracol of Oventik, November 15, 2014.

Mothers, Fathers, and Family members of our murdered and disappeared brothers in Iguala, Guerrero:
Students of the Escuela Normal[1] “Raúl Isidro Burgos” in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero:
Brothers and Sisters:

We thank you with all our heart for sharing your word with us.

We know that in order to bring us your word directly, without intermediaries or outside interpretations, you had to travel many hours and endure fatigue, hunger, and exhaustion.

We also know that for you this sacrifice is part of the duty that you feel.

It is the duty to not abandon the compañeros disappeared by the bad governments, to not sell them out, to not forget them.

It is because of this duty that you began your struggle, even when no one was paying any attention and the disappeared brothers were being called “amateurs”, “rabble rousers” “future delinquents who deserved what they got,” “agent provocateurs,” radicals,” “hicks,” and “agitators.”

(Continuar leyendo…)

Words by Comandante Tacho, at the opening of the EZLN Encounter with the Ayotzinapa Caravan, November 15, 2014

Compañeras and compañeros:

Fathers and mothers of the disappeared students from the Escuela Normal[1]“Raúl Isidro Burgos” in Ayotzinapa, state of Guerrero, Mexico.

To the students and to all of those accompanying this caravan, and everyone gathered here.

In the name of the boys, girls, young people, men, women, and elderly of the Zapatista Army for National Liberation, we welcome you to this Caracol of Oventik, Caracol II, Resistance and Rebellion for Humanity.

Compañeras and Compañeros:

We the Zapatista Army for National Liberation want to hear your words of pain and rage, which we share.

We are not concerned with whether municipal presidencies are burning, nor with how many cars, doors, or palaces have been burnt.

What we want to hear is your pain, your rage, and the angst that comes from not knowing where your young students might be.

We also want to tell you that we Zapatisas have been accompanying you in the protests and mobilizations that have been held in Mexico and in the world. Though our acts of pain and rage do not appear in the paid media, we want you know that we have joined you with real and true actions.

This is why we want you to speak to us, and why we want to listen to you.

If we had known a few days earlier that you were coming, there would have been many of us here to greet and listen to you, many more than are here now. You can’t imagine the number of people who would have come.

Those of us who serve as representatives here today receive you with all of our hearts to listen to your pain and your rage.

That is all.

[1] The Escuelas Normales in Mexico are teaching colleges that principally train rural and indigenous young people to be teachers in their own communities.

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Words by Comandante Javier, welcoming the Ayotzinapa Caravan to the Caracol of Oventik, November 15, 2014

Brothers and sisters, parents of the 43 disappeared students, and Students and Teachers from the Escuela Normal[1]“Raúl Isidro Burgos” of Ayotzinapa, state of Guerrero:

A very good afternoon to everyone.

In the name of our thousands of compañero and compañera bases of support from the Zapatista Army for National Liberation, we warmly welcome you to this humble center Caracol II of Oventik, Resistance and Rebellion for Humanity, in the Highlands Zone of Chiapas, Mexico.

Those of us present here are representatives of our Zapatista communities, and we receive you with open arms in order to listen to your words.

Know that you are not alone! That your pain is our pain! That your rage is our dignified rage! And that with our actions we support the demand that the 43 students, disappeared by the bad governments’ criminal acts, be returned alive. May you feel at home here, because this place is home to all who struggle.

Thank you.

[1] The Escuelas Normales in Mexico are teaching colleges that principally train rural and indigenous young people to be teachers in their own communities.

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Joint Declaration from the National Indigenous Congress and the EZLN on the Cowardly Attack by Government forces against the Ñatho Indigenous Community of San Francisco Xochicuautla on November 3, 2014

To the Ñatho Indigenous Community of San Francisco Xochicuautla
To the National and International Sixth
To the Peoples of the World

Today once again, our brothers and sisters of the Ñatho Indigenous Community of San Francisco Xochicuautla have defended their territory against the destruction and voracious ambition of those above who want to impose their highway project at any cost and in violation of Mexican and international law.

Not content with having laid waste to the forests, the bad governments of Enrique Peña Nieto and Eruviel Ávila Villegas have kidnapped our sisters Felipa Gutiérrez Petra (67 years old), Rosa Saavedra Mendoza (54 years old), and Francisca Reyes Flores (28 years old), and our brothers Armando García Salazar (50 years old), Venancio Hernández Ramírez (57 years old), Domingo Hernández Ramírez (57 years old), Mauricio Reyes Flores (28 years old) and Jerónimo Flores Arcelino (73 years old).

We warn those above, in case they have forgotten, that as peoples and communities who have walked a long journey of resistance in defense of what we are, what we were, and what we will be, we will not tire of planting rebellion where they cut the flowers, oaks, and firs; we will not tire of building resistance where they impose the machinery of destruction.

(Continuar leyendo…)

Joint National Indigenous Congress – EZLN Declaration denouncing the invasion of the Communal Lands of the Ñatho Indigenous Community of San Francisco Xochicuautla and the attack on Indigenous Yaqui Lauro Baumea

To the Ñatho Indigenous Community of San Francisco Xochicuautla
To the Yaqui Tribe
To the National and International Sixth
To the Peoples of the World

Once more we express our pain and rage as the peoples in rebellion and resistance who make up the National Indigenous Congress. We unite our voices, our rage, and our pain in response to what is happening in the Ñatho Indigenous Community of San Francisco Xochicuautla and to the members of the Yaqui Tribe who are defending their water source.

Our brothers and sisters of Xochicuautla have defended their forests against the construction of the private highway between Toluca and Naucalpan, because they know that life itself emerges from these trees, mountains, and waters. They were granted legal protection prohibiting this work on communal lands, but since October 8 of this year, workers from the construction company under the protection of public “Citizen Security” Forces of the State of Mexico have been invading their lands and cutting down hundreds of trees. The bad government doesn’t care if we below use their laws to defend ourselves; they break those laws themselves in order to destroy us. They made them for the same reason.

(Continuar leyendo…)

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San Cristóbal de las Casas. 22 de octubre de 2014.

Hoy Guerrero y Sonora brillan en Chiapas, en sus caminos nublados, en sus veredas y brechas lodosas. Miles de mujeres y hombres bases de apoyo del Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional se unen a la jornada global de protestas “Una luz por Ayotzinapa”, refrendando su solidaridad con las familias de los estudiantes de la Normal Rural Raúl Isidro Burgos y con los presos políticos de la Tribu Yaqui. Para ello, se colocan cuando atardece a la orilla de decenas de caminos mojados que conducen a sus comunidades autónomas. Llevan en sus manos una luz encendida que luego clavan en la tierra cuando no llueve tanto, o mantas que exigen “presentación con vida de los 43 alumnos desaparecidos”, “castigos a los responsables de asesinatos y desaparición forzada”, así como “libertad incondicional para los hermanos yaquis Mario Luna Romero y Fernando Jiménez Gutiérrez”. Se congregan en las inmediaciones de sus comunidades y sus caracoles porque, a casi un mes de la barbarie policiaca en Iguala, 43 estudiantes siguen desaparecidos mientras nadie responde por los 25 heridos, por el cerebro en coma del joven Aldo Gutiérrez Solano, por el rostro baleado a quemaboca de Édgar Andrés Vargas, por el cuerpo desollado de Julio César Mondragón ni por otras 5 personas asesinadas el 26 de septiembre.

(Continuar leyendo…)

Municipio Autónomo Rebelde Zapatisa San Pedro Polho, Chiapas, 22 de octubre. Reporte colectivo por Koman Ilel, Colectivo Zero, Radio Ñomdaa y Masde131.

Con velas, en silencio, hombres, niños y mujeres del Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN) se volvieron a movilizar por los alumnos y las familias de la normal rural Raúl Isidiro Burgos de Ayotzinapa.

Tal como lo dijeron en el comunicado difundido el día 19 de octubre, aparecieron “iluminando” los caminos, parados en las laderas de comunidades en las cinco regiones en las que se ubican los caracoles zapatistas.

Al recorrer los caminos de la región de los altos, se podían observar grupos de al menos cien personas en distintos puntos como Oventik, Polhó, Acteal y Yabteclum, tomando parte de las movilizaciones que los zapatistas hacían en sus cinco diferentes zonas.

“Presentación con vida de los 43 alumn@s desaparecidos y castigos a los responsables de los asesinatos y la desaparición forzadas” versaba una de las pancartas levantada frente a la iglesia de Polho.

“Apoyamos a los alumnos y alumnas y maestros y familiares de la normal Raúl Isidro Burgos de Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, México”, decía otra pancarta.

(Continuar leyendo…)

Joint Declaration from the National Indigenous Congress and the EZLN on the crime in Ayotzinapa and for the liberation of the Yaqui leaders

(Note: this text was read by CNI members in one of the mobilizations held in Mexico on October 22, 2014, and not by EZLN representatives, as some of the paid press reported.)

Mexico, October 22, 2014

To the students of the Normal Rural[i] Isidro Burgos, in Ayotiznapa, Guerrero
To the Yaqui Tribe
To the National and International Sixth
To the peoples of the world

“Because those of us below hurt with rage and rebellion, not with resignation and conformity.”
EZLN, October 19, 2014

From our peoples in struggle, from within our resistance and rebellion, we send our words as a reflection of this part of the country that we have constitute and call the National Indigenous Congress. We are gathered by the pain and the rage that call to us because it is a pain and rage that we share.

The disappearance of the 43 student compañeros of the Normal Rural Isidro Burgos of Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, kidnapped and disappeared by the Bad Governments, imposes upon us a shadow of mourning, angst, and rage. Our hope for the reappearance of the compañeros is also the pain that unites us; our rage illuminates the candles that today light the way of mobilizations all over the country, raising the cry of dignity and rebellion in Mexico below.

(Continuar leyendo…)