Mexican Army Harasses Zapatistas in La Realidad
San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, México
10 March 2015
The Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba), has documented, through the Civilian Observation Brigades (BriCO), systematic incursions by the Mexican Army, who are harassing the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) bases of support, in the territory of the Good Government Council of La Realidad, Jungle-Border zone, Caracol I “Toward Hope” (JBG).
The military actions in the territory of the JBG consist of incursions in convoys with trucks, hummers, jeeps, and motorized equipment; with members of the Mexican Army that range from 4 to 30 people. There are also low flights with light aircraft and helicopters photographing and filming members of the BriCO, zapatistas, and the JBG facilities. Since July 2014 these actions have been increasing, both in the size of the troops and the frequency with which they happen. (See the record of military activity at La Realidad).
Frayba is concerned with the increasing harassment by the Mexican Army in zapatista territory, since it constitutes actions to provoque and besiege that harm the rights to autonomy and free determination stipulated in the Mexican Constitution, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization (ILO), and the San Andrés Accords.
Therefore, this Human Rights Center demands: Respect for the free determination and autonomy of zapatista peoples; and an end to the harassment by the federal government through the Mexican Army.
Finally, we recall that on May 2, 2014, members of the Central Independiente de Obreros Agrícolas y Campesinos Histórica (CIOAC-H), ambushed zapatista bases of support in the territory of the JBG of La Realidad; durng the attack, the armed group murdered José Luis Solís López, “Maestro Galeano,” and destroyed the Autonomous Clinic and School. The aforementioned organization is part of the municipal government of Las Margaritas and has the protection of the state government of Manuel Velasco Coello, which has allowed it to carry out aggressions, forced displacements, and murders in the region. (See Frayba Bulletin 16 on the aggression to zapatista bases of support at La Realidad on 5 May 2014.)
Thank You Part III. The most expensive building in the world.
Thank you Part III:
The Most Expensive Building in the World
Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés. Subcomandante Insurgente Galeano.
February-March, 2015
[showtime]
It is the eve of the big day… in the wee hours of the morning. The cold bites under the cover of shadow. On the solitary table that furnishes this small hut (which has no sign but is known to now be the headquarters of the Zapatista Command), there is a handwritten, wrinkled sheet of paper detailing the accounts for the construction of the clinic-school in the Zapatista community of La Realidad. A voice summarizes the gazes, silences, smoke, rage:
The accounts don’t balance. The life of any Zapatista is worth more than Peña Nieto’s white house and the houses of all of the rich in the whole world combined. The entirety of the funds required to construct the huge buildings where the powerful hide in order to organize their thievery and crimes would not be enough to pay for a even a single drop of Indigenous Zapatista blood. That is why we feel that this is the most expensive building in the world.
So must state clearly that what doesn’t appear in the accounts is the blood of our compañero Galeano. All of the papers in the history of the world would not be enough to balance that account.
And so that is how it should appear in those lists that come out in the press where they name the richest people, and where the poorest live. The rich have first names, last names, lineage, and pedigree. But the poor only have a geography and a calendar. So they should say that the most expensive building on the whole planet is in Zapatista La Realidad, Chiapas, Mexico. And that the Indigenous Zapatista girls and boys attend the most expensive school in the world. And that the men, women, boys, girls, elderly, indigenous, Zapatistas, Mexicans, when they get sick in La Realidad, will be treated in the most expensive clinic on earth.
But the only way to balance these accounts is to struggle to destroy the capitalist system. Not to change it. Not to improve it. Not to make it more human, less cruel, less murderous. No. To destroy it completely. To annihilate each and every one of the heads of the Hydra.
Even then there would be more to do, as what we want here is to construct something better: another system, one without masters, without patrons, without bosses, without injustice, without exploitation, without disrespect, without repression, without dispossession. One without violence against women, children, anyone who is different. One where work is paid justly. One where ignorance does not rule. One where hunger and violent death are just bad memories. One where no one can be above on the backs of others below. One that is reasonable, one that is better.
Then and only then, the Zapatistas can say that the accounts are even.
