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The “Zapatista invasion” has begun!
After months of preparations, a delegation of the Zapatistas has set sail from Mexico towards Europe. The “reversed conquest” has well and truly started.
It was a genuine surprise when the Zapatistas published their communiqué “A Mountain on the High Seas” on October 5, 2020, announcing a tour of the EZLN (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional) across five continents, starting with Europe. Even though the Zapatistas have not shied away from organizing initiatives in Chiapas and across Mexico — the March of the Color of the Earth just 20 years ago is a case in point — it is basically the first time since 1994 that they are leaving the borders of their homeland behind.
Then, on January 1 of this year, they published a Declaration for Life, co-signed with hundreds of individuals, collectives and organizations, outlining the objective of this voyage: making a contribution to the effort for anti-capitalist struggles — which are inseparable from the struggles for life — to converge in full consciousness of their differences and unhampered by homogenizing or hegemonizing forces.
In the past six months, extensive organizing has taken place at the European level, as well as in each individual country or “geography,” according to the Zapatista vocabulary. For instance, a francophone coordinating body has been established, which includes eight regional federations of collectives and local initiatives.
Meanwhile, the EZLN confirmed that a large delegation of more than a hundred members, three-quarters of which are women, was getting ready. The delegation is also said to be accompanied by members of the National Indigenous Congress–Indigenous Council of Government which unites Indigenous struggles across Mexico, as well as a contingent of the People’s Front in Defense of Land and Water of Puebla, Morelos and Tlaxcala which is fighting against the installation of a massive power plant that is threatening to divert water resources indispensable to the peasants in the region.
(Español) “Cuando acabe todo esto nadie va a venir a seguirnos matando”
Ante el circo y el plomo, la Cali Resistencia continúa aletosa, firme y organizada. Música, asambleas populares, literatura, talleres, cantos y dignidad se mantienen vivas en los ahora puntos de juntanza y organización barrial.
Horas antes antes del diálogo entre el Comité del Paro Nacional y el Estado Colombiano, que de hecho este día (11 de mayo) se negó a reconocer la responsabilidad del ESMAD y de policías vestidos de civil en los asesinatos de jovenes y ataques con fuerza desmedida a manifestantes, así como en la desaparición forzada de centenas de personas desde el 28 de Abril pasado, las voces de las juntanzas de Cali y otras ciudades de Colombia, además de ser por demás claras y firmes, van es ya pa’lante: “el punto más importante para una negociación: ¿quién le va a responder a la madre que quedó con la esperanza de que su hijo volviera a la noche y no volvió?(…) Bastante duro resistir todos estos días pero listo. Nosotros no tenemos armas pero tenemos aguante y resistencia. Eso vale más que muchas cosas, vos sabés. Siempre hasta el final, Cali“.