To the compañeros of Movement for Justice in El Barrio:
To the Worldwide Struggle Campaign for the Liberation of Patishtán and Sántiz López:

“The color of the jail cell is the marking on the body of the place that was ocupied in history,” states the compañera Rita Laura Segato.

Those from above are criminalizing the place occupied by the people who are the color of the earth. That is the justice of the State and the bad government. A “justice” that imprisons the children of Pachamama and those who defend and care for her, but rewards with freedom those who destroy her in order to turn her into a commodity.

The international campaign to free Patishtán and Sántiz López is revealing the true reasons behind their imprisonment. When those from below stand up, when the poor of the world speak out and organize, they are systematically labelled “terrorists” and “violent” and are turned into the targets of defamation campaigns, with all the machinery of repression thrown upon them.

When those from above steal public resources, when bankers appropriate the money and labor of everyone else, they are rewarded with positions in the bad governments and utilize state money to save their dirty businesses.

These are not errors or abnormalities, but rather the true notion of justice held by the State: To protect those from above and condemn those from below. In this world two forms of justice exist: One for the governments and one for the people. The former is implemented by rich, white men who are protected by armed guards, and who hide in palaces to make decisions. The latter is community justice that is decided in assemblies of common people–the people who are the color of the earth–whereby every can debate because neither lawyers nor experts are required to distinguish between good and bad.

They are two justices for two opposed worlds. One day our justice shall judge those from above; and on that day, they shall be condemned to live off their work, to care for the common good. They shall be condemned to live as we, the 99% of humanity, do.

That day, which is not far off, we will remember our brothers, Patishtán and Sántiz López, as two of the many midwives who made the birth of a new world possible.

Raúl Zibechi
Montevideo, June 7, 2012.