Autonomy and Resistance
(Español) Samir somos todas y todos: la memoria como resistencia
Texto de Camila Plá Osorio; Fotos por Camila Plá y Regina López
Defender la vida y el territorio, ser mujer, buscar a tus familiares desaparecidos o buscar justicia, se han convertido en prácticas de alto riesgo. México es uno de los países más violentos del mundo, sobre todo para las mujeres y para quienes defienden la naturaleza y el territorio.
El asesinato de Samir Flores Soberanes es un ejemplo de esto, ya que fue asesinado por defender la vida y la autonomía. Estaba en contra del Proyecto Integral Morelos (PIM), megaproyecto de muerte que ha sido impulsado por varios gobiernos y repudiado por los pueblos desde el principio de su construcción. «Nos quieren descampezinar» decía Samir hace poco más de un año, «Quieren que nos convirtamos en mano de obra, quieren nuestras tierras y nuestra vida».
Para las comunidades, estos proyectos conllevan la muerte de su forma de existencia, por esto, los han nombrado «proyectos de muerte», con su construcción se busca la aniquilación de las formas de vida campesina, indígena y comunitaria. El desafío y cuestionamiento que generaron las palabras y acciones de Samir como vocero de Amilcingo y del Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra y el Agua (FPDTA-MPT), incomodaron al poder, y ante el miedo a la valentía, los cobardes lo asesinaron. Creían que con su muerte, Samir, el pueblo de Amilcingo y la resistencia en contra del PIM pararían, permitiendo el libre paso del desarrollo capitalista y las políticas de muerte. Pero aun ahora, Amilcingo y Samir siguen desafiando al poder.
A través de la convocatoria a las Jornadas en defensa del territorio y la madre tierra Samir Flores somos todas y todos, lanzada por Amilcingo junto al FPDTA-MPT, al Congreso Nacional Indígena (CNI) y apoyado por el EZLN, se ha demostrado que los pueblos y las resistencias no olvidan, que la rabia y la dignidad son más fuertes de lo que esperaban los asesinos y que los pueblos tienen herramientas de ataque y autodefensa. Porque todos y todas somos Samir, nos unimos en contra de la injusticia, de la cerrazón del Estado, de los sistemas de gobierno y de la gente que sigue permitiendo el despojo y el asesinato.
Las Jornadas duraron tres días, comenzando el 20 de febrero con acciones dislocadas en 20 estados de la república y 7 países diferentes, además de los eventos comunitarios propios de Amilcingo.
We Don’t Need Permission to Fight for Life. Zapatista Women Join the March 9 National Strike
ZAPATISTA ARMY FOR NATIONAL LIBERATION
MEXICO
March 1, 2020
To: Women who struggle in Mexico and around the world
From: The Zapatista indigenous women of the EZLN
Compañera and sister:
We greet you in the name of all of the Zapatista indigenous women of all ages, from the youngest to the wisest—the oldest, that is. We hope you are well and are struggling along with your families, sisters, and compañeras.
Here we are having a lot of problems with the paramilitary forces who now come out of the MORENA party, just like before they came from the PRI, PAN, PRD, and Verde Ecologista parties.
But that’s not what we wanted to talk to you about. We wanted to talk to you about something more urgent and more important: the incredible violence waged against women, which has not only not ceased but actually increased in quantity and in cruelty. The murders and disappearances of women have reached a level that we could not have imagined before, and no woman of any age, class, political affiliation, color, race, or religion is safe. We might think that rich women, women politicians or famous women are safe because they have their security guards and police to protect them, but no, not even they are safe, because the violence that kidnaps, disappears, or kills us often comes from family members, friends, and acquaintances.
We have to stop this violence, wherever it comes from, and that is why we had called for women’s demonstrations on March 8, 2020, in which everyone would organize their actions according to their own ways, times, and places. We had said that the principal demand of these demonstrations should be to stop violence against women, and to declare that we would not forget those murdered and disappeared by all governing administrations, from any party of any color (striped, blue, green, yellow, maroon, orange, brown, or anything else) because they are all the same. We also proposed that we all wear something black on our clothes as a symbol of our mourning for the mass murder of women all over the world and to remind the bad governments and our missing and disappeared compañeras that we would not forget them. The worst part is that even the littlest ones among us are not safe.
Sister and compañera:
A few days ago we learned that a group of feminist sisters from the collective “Witches of the Sea” [Brujas del Mar] in Veracruz had a good idea and called for a women’s strike on March 9, to make clear what things looked and felt like without women. The idea is that we don’t go to work, or buy anything, or move around, that we aren’t seen at all, because that is in fact what it seems like the system is trying to do: annihilate us women as its principal enemy.
Then we saw the reaction of all those patriarchal and macho men and women in the bad government, the political parties, and the big corporations. We saw that they don’t care about the tragedy in which women in Mexico live and die, but only about using that pain for their own gain, then covering it up and arguing over who among them is the biggest badass.
