Twelfth part: Fragments
Fragments of a letter written by Subcommander Insurgent Moises, sent a few months ago, to a geography distant in space but close in thought:

“Sixth Zapatista Commission.
Mexico.

April 2023

(…)

Because then it would be something like, in the face of the terrible storm that is already hitting every corner of the planet, even those who thought themselves safe from all evil, we did not see the storm.

I mean, we don’t just see the storm, and the destruction, death and pain that it brings. We also see what comes next. We want to be the seed of a future root that we will not see, which will then be, in turn, the grass that we will not see either.

The Zapatista vocation, if someone pushes us to a laconic definition, is “to be a good seed.”

We do not intend to leave for inheritance a conception of the world to the next generations. Neither to inherit our miseries, our resentments, our pain, our phobias, or our philias. Nor for them to be a mirror with a more or less approximate image of what we assume is good or bad.

What we want to leave for inheritance is life. What other generations do with it will be their decision and, above all, their responsibility. Just as we inherited life from our ancestors, we took what we considered valuable, and we assigned ourselves a task. And, of course, we take responsibility for the decision we made, for what we do in order to accomplish that task, and for the consequences of our actions and omissions.

When we say that “It is not necessary to conquer the world, it is enough to do it again”, we move away, definitively and irremediably, from the current and previous political conceptions. The world we see is not perfect, not even close. But it is better, without a doubt. A world where everyone is who they are, without shame, without being persecuted, mutilated, imprisoned, murdered, marginalized, oppressed.

What is that world called? What system supports it or is dominant? Well, that will be decided, or not, by those who live there.

A world where the desires to hegemonize and homogenize learn from what they caused in this time and other times, and fail in that world to come.

A world in which humanity is not defined by equality (which only hides the segregation of those who “are not equal”), but by difference.

A world where difference is not persecuted, but celebrated. A world in which the stories told are not those of those who win, because no one wins.

A world where the stories that are told, whether in intimacy, or in the arts, or in culture, are like those that our grandmothers and grandfathers told us, and that teach not who won, because no one won and, therefore, nobody lost.

Those stories that allowed us to imagine terrible and wonderful things and in which, between the rain and the smell of cooking corn, coffee and tobacco, we managed to imagine an incomplete world, yes, clumsy too, but much better than the world that our ancestors and our contemporaries have suffered and are suffering.

We do not intend to leave for inheritance laws, manuals, worldviews, catechisms, rules, routes, destinations, steps, companies, which, if you look closely, is what almost all political proposals aspire to.

Our goal is simpler and terribly more difficult: to leave life for inheritance.

(…)

Because we see that this terrible storm, whose first gales and rains are already hitting the entire planet, is arriving very quickly and very strongly. So, we don’t see the immediate. Or yes, but according to what we see in the long term. Our immediate reality is defined or in accordance with two realities: one of death and destruction that will bring out the worst in human beings, regardless of their social class, their color, their race, their culture, their geography, their language, their size; and another of starting over, from the rubble of a system that did what it does best, that is, to destroy.

Why do we say that the nightmare that already exists, and that will only get worse, will be followed by an awakening? Well, because there are those, like us, who are determined to look at that possibility. Minimal, it’s true. But every day and at all hours, everywhere, we fight so that this minimal possibility grows and, although small and unimportant –just like a tiny seed—, it grows and, one day, it becomes the tree of life that will be of all colors or won’t be at all.

We are not the only ones. In these 30 years we have leaned out into many worlds. Different in ways, times, geographies, own stories, calendars. But equal only in the effort and the absurd gaze placed on an untimely time that will happen, not because of destiny, not because of divine design, not because someone loses so that someone wins. No, it will be because we are working on it, fighting, living and dying for it.

And there will be a meadow, and there will be flowers, and trees, and rivers, and animals of all kinds. And there will be grass because there will be roots. And there will be a girl, a boy, a child who will be alive. And the day will come when she/he will have to take responsibility for the decision she/he makes about what to do with that life.

Isn’t that freedom?

(…)

And we will tell you the story of the indigenous woman of Mayan roots, over 40 years old, who fell dozens of times while learning to ride a 20-wheeled bicycle. But also, got up the same number of times and is now riding a 24 or 26-wheeled bicycle and, with it, she will reach the medicinal plants courses.

Of the health promoter who will arrive on time, to a remote community without a paved road, to administer anti-viper serum to an elderly man attacked by a nauyaca viper.

Of the indigenous, autonomous authority who, with her ‘nagüa’ and her ‘morraleta’, will arrive on time to an assembly of “as women that we are” and will be able to give the talk on feminine hygiene.

And that, when there was no vehicle, gasoline, driver or passable road, to the extent of our development and possibilities, health would reach a champa in a corner of the Lacandon jungle.

A champa where, around a stove, raining and without electricity, the education promoter will arrive, also by bicycle, and, among the smell of cooked corn, coffee and tobacco, she will hear a terrible and wonderful story, told in the voice and tongue of an old woman. And in that story there will be talk about Votán, who was neither man nor woman nor “otroa”. And it was not one, but many. And she will hear her say: “that is what we are, Votán, guardian and heart of the people.”

And that, already at school, that education promoter will tell the Zapatista boys and girls that story. Well, more like the version that she will make of what she remembers having heard, because it couldn’t really be heard, due to the noise of the rain and the muffled voice of the woman who was telling the story.

And about “the cumbia of the bicycle” that some musical youth group will create and that will relieve us all from hearing “the cumbia of the frog” for the umpteenth time.

And our dead, to whom we owe honor and life, perhaps will say “well, we have finally entered the age of the wheel.” And at night they will look at the starry sky, without clouds to hide it, and they will say “Bicycles! From there, the spaceships follow.” And they will laugh, I know. And someone alive will start a tape recorder and a cumbia will be heard that all of us, the living and the dead, hope is not “la del moño colorado.” 

(…) 

From the mountains of the Mexican southeast.
In the name of the Zapatista boys, girls, men, women and ‘otroas’.
Subcommander Insurgent Moisés.
General Coordinator of the “Tour for Life”.
Mexico, April 2023.”

These fragments are taken from the original, and with the authorizations of the sender and recipient.
I attest.

The Captain.
November 2023

Produced by Los Tercios Compas. Mountains of the Mexican Southeast. Copyleft November 2023.
With a Little Help from My Friends, Lennon y McCartney. Version by Joe Cocker.

Eighth Part: P.S. WHAT YOU HAVE TO READ TO KNOW WHAT IT’S ABOUT.

Legend has it that, in the times when time did not matter, rain and night covered the House of Beings. Then the power went out. Everything was darkness. Women, men and ‘otroas’ were stumbling and crashing with each other. For this reason, they argued and fought between brothers and neighbors. They didn’t even recognize each other, even though they were family members and acquaintances, because it was very dark. They scolded each other a lot.

The first gods, those who created the world, were lazy, lying in their hammocks, telling jokes and stories. But all the noise coming from the House of Beings reached them. “Whose noise is this?” asked one. “Who knows,” said another. Ixmucané, who was the mother goddess, said: “Let’s see what the noise is about,” but when she got out of the hammock, she fell and her face landed on the ground and it looked like it was dented, that is, like it had cracks. Ixmucané got up from the ground and did not swear because swear words had not yet been invented. She dusted herself off. She raised her skirt a little and ran towards the House of Beings.

The gods looked at each other and said nothing, but they thought, “Are we going to let a woman beat us?” and they got down from their hammocks, but carefully, and ran to catch up with Ixmucané. But it turns out that, since they had been lazy, they had not made or cleared path and there was a lot of bush. Pure ‘Acahual’, you see. There was an abundance of tzaw ch’ix (thorns), dry branches, sharp grass (which is also called gezau h’ak) and ch’oox tz’an, which is a vine with thorns. But there they went running and jumping as best they could and complaining on the way, those gods, because they were not going to allow a woman to beat them. They later arrived at the House of Beings, all scratched and dented on their faces and hands. But no one looked at them and noticed that they were all beaten up, because there was no light. That is why it is believed that the gods do not have wounds.

The gods didn’t look at anything either. Everything was dark. Just by the sound you knew there were more people. “And now?” the gods asked themselves. Ixmucané did not wonder anything, but remained thinking. The male gods were always very boastful and began to say that you have to go for ocote. Another said that they had to invent the the lamp. Another one said that had to gather a lot of fireflies. And so.

Ixmucané thought: “We have to replace the light. But to replace it, we have to find it. And to find it, we have to know where to look for it. And to know where to look for it, we just have to know what happened.”

Ixmucané gathered the men, women and ‘otroas’ of corn. At that time there were only men, women and ‘otroas’ made out of corn, they came in many colors and everyone had their own way. There were no religions, no nations, no States, no political parties, nor everything that was born later as seeds of war. So, when Ixmucané said “come, little brothers and sisters,” guided by her voice, all the men and women arrived, and ‘othroas’ too – because they did not feel excluded.

So they met in an assembly. They didn’t look at each other because there was no light, but they could talk and listen to each other.

Ixmucané asked them “What are we going to do?” The men, women and ‘otroas’ did not look at each other – because there was no light – but remained silent. Until a voice said “Well, you tell us what we are going to do.” The applause was not seen, but it was clearly heard. Ixmucané laughed heartily and said, “Do you think I know. We don’t know as it is, but maybe gathered together, in an assembly and talking, suddenly some ideas emerge about what we are going to do.» They were all silent, wondering what they were going to do.

The only noise that could be heard was the noise of the male gods who were fighting among themselves, saying where the hell was the ‘ocote’, and whether someone had remembered to create the fireflies, and whether it was not me, and whether that was up to I don’t know who but he always plays dumb or acts like a duck, and someone asked what is a “duck”, because the ducks were not made yet. And so.

In the assembly they were already talking and proposing how to do it. First just a few voices, then more. Then they had to make a list in order to speak in turns and have someone write if there is an agreement. Since there was no light to write or read, there was only the spoken word, so they named Ixmucané, for her to keep in her head everything that is said, and then talks about it.

Many ideas and words were said, and they no longer fit in his Ixmucané head. Then she began to keep them in her hair and her hair became long, that’s why women have long hair. But then it wasn’t enough either, although she adjusted her hair and that’s when the “hair press” was invented, which, as its name indicates, means “grab ideas.” Ixmucané’s hair was already reaching the ground and they continued speaking ideas and words. Then Ixmucané began to keep her ideas in the wounds she had gotten when she fell and with the thorns and vines. She had wounds everywhere: on her face, on her arms, on her hands, on her legs. Her entire body was full of wounds, so she was able to save everything. That’s why they say that old people, that is, sensible people, who have many wrinkles and scars, means that they have many ideas and stories. That is to say they know a lot.

In another turn I will tell you what they agreed on in that first assembly that took place in the House of Beings, but in this one I will tell you what Ixmucané said: “Well, we already have, as it were, a plan to face this problem that we have. Since the world is just being born and we are giving a name to each thing, so as not to confuse ourselves, we are going to call this thing we did «in common», because we all participated: some giving some ideas, others proposing other ideas, and there are those who speak and there are those who keep notes of what is said.”

There was silence first. Heavy, strong was the silence. Then you could hear someone start to applaud, then another, then everyone applauded and you could hear that they were very happy. And they didn’t dance because you could see nothing at all. But they laughed a lot because they had found a new word called “in common,” which means “to seek the path together.” And it was not that the first gods invented it, those who created the world, but it came to be that it was men, women, and ‘otroas’ made of corn, who, in common, found the word, that is, the way.

-*-

Ixmucané was the most knowledgeable of all the gods and, as she was the first to arrive at the House of Beings, she had more wounds, from the fall and from the race she did in the ‘Acahual’, and thus she was marked with those scars. “Wrinkles” and “scars,” they were called. Since then, wrinkles and scars represent wisdom. More wrinkles and scars, more knowledge. Of course, back then there were no social networks and no one was wearing makeup and modifying their photos with a well-known virtual application. And then it happens that you see the profile photo and then you see reality, and you want to run away. No, the wrinkles and scars were a source of pride and not something anybody could have. Even young men and women painted wrinkles and scars, or simply went into the mountains so that the thorns and vines scratched their faces. Because it didn’t matter who was prettier, but rather who was more knowledgeable. Instead of “followers” ​​and “likes” they looked for who had the most wrinkles and scars.

And that’s it.

-*-

Yes, I would also like to know what happened to the lost light. Maybe later, in another postscript, we will know. For now, we have to learn to walk and live like this in the dark. There is no other way.

From the mountains of the Mexican southeast.

The Captain
November 2023. 40, 30, 20, 10 years after.

Seventh part: A Streaming Beetle

November 2023

Durito forwarded me this that reached one of his millions (so he said) of fans:

And he adds the following:

“Although it is a nice touch that they have changed the black color to blue, which protects my secret identity, the reason might be that they want to avoid paying copyright. Above all, for my discreet participation in the SAG-AFTRA strike, alongside my admired Susan. In any case, I appreciate HBO’s humble tribute to the greatest superhero that planet Earth has ever given birth to: myself.»

Almost at the same time, I received this from the HBO Community Manager:

«In relation to the announcement of the programming of the aforementioned film, HBO clarifies that it does not refer to Don Durito (DD for legal issues) nor is it a reference to the next anniversary of the EZLN. It’s a mere coincidence. HBO reiterates its commitment to the system and is already taking steps to reprimand those responsible for our programming for this regrettable misunderstanding. HBO does not make films, nor does it schedule the exhibition of films, of real superheroes, only fictional ones. And, anticipating demands from the aforementioned DD, we want to warn that all the documentation that protects our innocence is already in our legal department. We will not accept demands greater than 10 million USD, although we would be willing to redirect the compensation to Guerrero, as long as it is a reasonable amount that does not exceed the amount referred to and is discussed by the Union Congress of the cemetery called Mexico. We are at your disposal to reach a reasonable arrangement. Sincerely. The CEO of HBO»

I think this has already gotten out of control.

Now Durito will be unbearable. Well, that was it, but more (or is it Max?).

From the office of the DD Artistic Representative (for legal issues).

The Captain.
November 2023.

SIXTH PART: POSTSCRIPT WHO SEEKS HOPING TO FIND.

November 2023.

P.S. THAT SAYS WHAT IT SAYS. – As one of the late Sups said: “history repeats itself twice: once as a tragedy and the other time as well.” And this axiom of life comes to the point, because I received a package with a small note. No, it is not from SEGALMEX (those export, they do not import). The package has a postmark from “a distant geography”, in distant Europe. The date is blurred, but on the return address appears: “I am not Don Durito de La Lacandona, do not confuse. I’m just an AI entity.” That sentence should have been enough to put me on alert, but anyway I read the note and opened the package. The note is brief and says:

“My dear and never missed Cyrano: I will be brief and precise. I’m going over there to help you. Don’t wait for me because I’m going incognito. I still haven’t decided whether I’m dressing up as a cloud or as Bad Bunny or as Luis Miguel or as Al Pacino. In any case, something that allows me to go unnoticed, if you know what I mean. For now, and since it’s stormy, I’m sending you my latest book. That’s all. From a corner in… Slovenia?… hey, what’s the name of this place? Cyprus? Hey? I think I’m going to put “Eastern Europe”… Huh? It’s not that either? Ok, then to hell with the geography up there: “from Fuck The Cardinal Points” Known Address. Zip Code… Hey, what’s the zip code? Huh? 666? Nah, just kidding, right? Right? Can anyone out there confirm that this is a joke? Hello? Hello? Signature: Durito disguised as an AI.”

Yes I know. But believe me, when it comes to Durito, this is a brief and precise message. The book has on the cover, does anyone doubt it?, a beetle… in a tuxedo?!, and the very reassuring title «Survival Manual in the Case of World Collapse.» And, further down, “Everything you wanted to know to face the end of the world with style and elegance. Design the ideal outfit for the end of time. Be the sensation in the Apocalypse. Yessss!”

The book in question only has a blank page and a postscript lost in a corner: “LOOK FOR THE ONE WHO ALREADY LIVES THE HELL THAT AWAITS YOU ALL. SEEK THOSE WHO ARE SEEKING”.

P.S. FOR THE SEEKERS. – Before them, we only knew, for example, about the FNCR ladies. But later others appeared, it seems to me that since the six-year term of Vicente Fox. First a few and scattered throughout the geography. Then more. Then in groups. Now, in this entire clandestine graveyard called “Mexico,” they go from one place to another, looking for who they need. There is no one to help or support them. They are alone in the sense that they only have themselves. Yes, there are men too, but the majority are women. No, they are not fashionable. The disappeared do not vote, and that is what it is about. The entire electoral political spectrum, all the electoral flags, all the party acronyms, have already passed through the governments, and the profession of “SEEKER” is growing.

Years ago, in the written procedures, there was a line where “occupation” was written. Typically, women wrote “housewife,” “office worker,” “employee,” “professionist,” “student,” and so on.

The monstrosity of a system has created another occupation: that of “seeker.” Perhaps the most terrible, distressing, painful and anachronistic of all occupations.

Few things are a greater sign of the failure of a political proposal in power than the existence and growth of the SEEKER occupation.

Imagine someone interviews you: “Hey, what do you do?” She answers “I seek.” “And how much do you earn for that job?” «Nothing». “And how do you do it?” “I don’t know, but I know I have to do it. And I have to do it because she/he knows that I will not rest until I find him/her.” “Is there anything you want to tell other people?” “Yes, look at me, I am you in the future if we do nothing.” The reporter starts crying. She is still crying. What about them? Well, they keep seeking.

Meanwhile, someone in the mountains of Southeast Mexico writes:

“To the Seekers:

We had thought of organizing a meeting with you that would not be one of pain, but of joy. You know: dances, songs, poems, movies, plays, children’s drawings, things like that. Not something that relieves you or heals that wound that does not close, but just a celebration, which your fight deserves.

But a nefarious being, one of those that is never absent, wanted to turn that meeting into an electoral lever for the ill-called opposition. Calling for a “critical vote” for Bertha and that nonsense that only serves to get an opportunist into office. That’s why we haven’t done it… yet. We were not going to allow your noble efforts to be tarnished.

But we tell you here what we were going to tell you there: Don’t stop seeking. Those absent people are valuable because of the blood they inherited, which is your own. We do not know those whom you are missing, but we know you and the nobility of your struggle. Don’t give up, don’t sell out, don’t claudicate. Although the horror you face is unfashionable, your cause is just and noble. And no politician can say the same thing. Your stubborn dignity teaches and shows the way. We wish more people would look at you the way we Zapatista people see you: with admiration and respect.”

P.S.- In Gaza. – The murdered Palestinian children are not collateral victims, they are Netanyahu’s main objective, they always were. This war is not to eliminate Hamas. It’s to kill the future. Hamas will only be the collateral victim. The government of Israel has already lost the media battle, because it turns out that the genocide, although disguised as revenge, does not have as many followers as they believed. Now it is capable of the most unimaginable cruelty. The one who perhaps could stop the massacre is… the people of Israel.

Cheers and may he who seeks find.

From the mountains of the mexican southeast.

The Captain
November 2023
40, 30, 20, 10 years after.

Fifth Part: “Sorry for the blow, lad”

November 2023

P.S. THAT WARNS. – We were already going to tell you what this whole thing is about, but reading, seeing and listening to the string of atrocities that the «specialists» in everything and knowledgeable in nothing say and write (about supposed withdrawals, dismantlements, advances of organized crime and «returns to the past” – Coletos had to be the majority -), we decided rather to let them continue burping.

With their deep analysis and well-founded research, the zapatologists state: “an example of the Zapatista defeat is the loss of indigenous identity: young indigenous people already wear cowboy boots, instead of walking barefoot or in huaraches. And they get ready to flirt, new pants and shirt – or ironed! -, instead of wearing blanket pants and buying their wives according to indigenous uses and customs. And they ride motorcycles, instead of carrying their women coletas bosses on their backs. The only thing left is for young indigenous women to wear pants or, what a horror!, play soccer and drive vehicles, instead of serving the coleta ladies. They even dare to dance cumbias and ska instead of Bolonchon, and sing rap and hiphop instead of psalms and odes to the landowners. And, as another sign of the loss of their indigenous identity, they even pretend the absurdity of being subcommanders, commanders, and women commanders! And pretend to govern themselves. And they don’t ask permission to be however they want to be. And they travel and get to know other lands. And they work and earn their pay without a ‘tienda de raya’. And they do not have them in concentration camps, like in Gaza, so that they do not pick up “Sinaloa” ideas, that is, foreign ones – because the mayo-yoreme in Sinaloa, are all about narcocorridos, my man –. Because of Zapatismo, we anthropologists will no longer have any jobs. What a shame. And all because they did not follow the revolutionary vanguard of the proletariat or MORENA, same thing. A serious mistake of Zapatismo not to obey us. Because today, the indigenous people no longer look down when you bump into them. They look at you with irreverence, with defiance, with rage, as if we were the intruders and not them, as if we were the criminals and not them. Before, only the Zapatistas did that, now any ‘Chamulita’ stands up to you. And, as Marxism-Leninism-Stalinism-Maoism-Trotskyism-all-isms say, any indigenous person who is not like the anthropology manual says is a narco.”

We know for sure that, later, when the full meaning of this stage is known, they will have the minimum of honesty to say and publish: “We do not have the slightest idea of ​​what they did, what they do or what they will do. The best thing would have been to ask the Zapatistas and not the anti-Zapatistas.” Or are they not honest?

Tell those “journalists” that it is always better, although more uncomfortable and not profitable, to interview the actors, not the spectators, ‘villa melones’ and lazy paramilitaries. Investigative journalism is a professional job that often requires risks and discomfort. But, don’t worry, we understand that everyone looks for a living the best way they can.

So, as a greeting to the “zapatologists”, we continue with these P.S. made with love:

P.S. OF THE CAPTAINTY OF PUERTO DE MONTAÑA. – We had prepared a series of clever phrases to make fun of the political class as a whole (government and opposition), but now we think that there is no point, since each flock has its shepherd or each shepherd has its flock. Or does someone naively believe that the matter is between two shepherdesses?

Our silence in these years was not, nor is, a sign of respect or endorsement of anything, but rather that we strive to see further and seek what everyone, men, women and ‘otroas’, is looking for: a way out of the nightmare. While you learn, from subsequent writings, what we have been doing, perhaps you will understand that our attention has been elsewhere.

But we understand that more than one suffers from what we Zapatistas call a “theoretical torticollis” which is caused by looking up, too much, and affects good judgment, common sense, decency and honesty – in addition to being addictive and creating chronic dependency. We understand the limitations of your horizons of analysis. One thing is the desk, the academy, the journalistic column, the commissioned report, the government position, the revolutionary coffee gossip or social networks, and another thing is reality.

The latter not only does not pay, but it also charges very expensively. Shakira has already said it: ‘la realidad factura’ (reality costs), and it does not include VAT. Sorry.

We will not make firewood out of the fallen trees up there. Reality, that implacable fool, will do its thing and the last splinters will be those that organized crime takes from the “cobro de piso” in the proposals of each of them.

Some masturbate with the ‘mañanera’ (morning presidential conference). Others with destruction, deaths, murders, rapes, disappearances, hunger, war, diseases, pain and sorrow. None of them have a viable and serious political proposal, they just entertain… until they don’t anymore.

And, since we are talking about autoeroticism: given the choice between Bertha and Claudia, well, Wendy.

-*-

Okay, cheers and now what am I going to do with my costume to dance corridos tumbados? “Compa, que le parece esa gorra?”… What? That’s not the way it goes? Don’t I tell you? It is the loss of indigenous identity. I hope anthropologists arrive soon to save us.

From the mountains of the Mexican southeast.

The Captain

(Looking very handsome with his cowboy hat, not for bragging. Ajúa my people!)

Mexico 40, 30, 20, 10 years after

P.S. «CONTEXTUAL». – Televisa being Televisa and anthropologists being anthropologists:

https://www.nmas.com.mx/noticieros/programas/en-punto/videos/ezln-cierra-caracoles-avance-crimen-organizado/

STOP THE REPRESSION AGAINST THE OTOMÍ INDIGENOUS COMMUNITY RESIDING IN MEXICO CITY

NO TO THE EVICTION OF THE HOUSE OF THE PEOPLE “SAMIR FLORES SOBERANES”

To the people of Mexico and the world,
To the organizations and groups that defend human rights,
To the media.

In response to the recent acts of repression against the Otomí Indigenous Community residing in Mexico City and the attempted eviction of the “Samir Flores Soberanes” House of Indigenous Peoples and Communities, we declare:

On the 16^th of October, this year, at dawn, more than 500 grenadiers surrounded the House of Indigenous Peoples and Communities “Samir Flores Soberanes” with the order to carry out the eviction of the Otomí Community. This attempted eviction left 10 companions badly beaten and injured, including 13-year-old adolescents, older adults, and companions with different abilities.

The Otomí Community managed to repel the aggression and make the grenadiers retreat, but the result of this repression is the following: a 28-year-old man received strong blows to the body and was injured with a shield in his forehead, causing a deep injury that required suture; a 17-year-old teenager was attacked by a group of 5 grenadiers who kicked and hit him, causing immobility of one of his legs; a 13-year-old girl was beaten by 3 male grenadiers who kicked her head causing her to faint; an 18-year-old teenager was pushed by an element with a shield, causing her to fall, she was pulled by her hair by a male element, 8 other elements arrived who hit her ribs and back, she was kicked repeatedly, they did not want to let her go, they insulted her, pulled her hair to lift her up, and hit her with a shield on her back, causing pain in her back, ribs, head, arms, and hands; 2 elderly women were beaten and thrown to the floor by several elements and a person who was documenting the attack was attacked by a group of at least 8 elements, who beat her, sprained her finger, and broke one of the lenses of her camera and tried to take away his photography equipment and the cell phone with which she was documenting.

Worse still, and as a true act of provocation, almost an hour after the repression a group of more than 6 motorcyclists approached the House of Peoples to attack and provoke. An hour later, the motorcyclists returned and fired three shots at the members of the Otomi community, not only putting at risk the lives of the members of the Otomí community, but also of those who were in the vicinity.

These acts of repression, discrimination and racism against the Otomí indigenous community took place three days after they celebrated the third anniversary of the occupation of the INPI offices, today named the “Samir Flores Soberanes” House of Indigenous Peoples and Communities.

It is regrettable that more than three years after the INPI occupation, the demand for “decent and decorous housing” continues to be ignored just as it was 3 years ago, but also as it was 30 years ago. No matter the color of the government in power, the indifference and contempt remains the same.

Almost twenty days after the Otomí Indigenous Community began the blockade on Mexico-Coyoacán Avenue, and after the bloody repression of last October 16, the response of the government of Mexico City is an ominous silence that leads us to think about the very high probability that at any moment the government will try again to evict and repress the Otomí Community. Consequently, with the above, we demand the cessation of repression and any attempt to evict our brothers who are members of the Otomi Community.

STOP THE WAR AGAINST THE PEOPLE OF MEXICO AND THE WORLD, TOWARDS THE ZAPATIST PEOPLE AND TOWARDS THE ORIGINARY PEOPLE OF MEXICO!

STOP THE EVICTION OF THE HOUSE OF THE SAMIR PEOPLE FLORES SOBERANES!

NEVER AGAIN A MEXICO WITHOUT US!

FOR THE INTEGRAL RECONSTITUTION OF OUR PEOPLE!

SINCERELY

MEXICO, OCTOBER 2023.

NATIONAL INDIGENOUS CONGRESS
ZAPATISTA ARMY OF NATIONAL LIBERATION

April 28, 2023

To the peoples of Mexico and the world,
To the human rights organizations and collectives,
To the National and International Sexta,
To the national and international media.

We denounce with rage that today, April 28, at around 10:38 a.m., a large group of members of the National Guard, the Mexican Navy and the Oaxaca state police violently attacked those participating in the CAMP TIERRA Y LIBERTAD, causing its destruction and stealing the belongings of the peasants who were there. IN A WORRYING WAY, THE MIXE EJIDATARIOS* MARÍA MAGDALENA MARTÍNEZ ISABEL, FERNANDO HERNÁNDEZ GÓMEZ, ADELA SEVERO TEODORO, ESPERANZA MARTÍNEZ ISABEL, ELIZABETH MARTÍNEZ ISABEL AND ELIODORO MARTÍNEZ ISABEL WERE DETAINED WITHOUT BEING KNOWN WHERE THEY REMAIN, AND COMRADE ADELA SEVERO TEODORO WAS BEATEN BY MEMBERS OF THESE MILITARY FORCES. In this sense we denounce, as has happened on other occasions, the intentional use of military and police forces by the state to abuse women and generate terror.

Just today the CAMP TIERRA Y LIBERTAD, organized by the Union of Indigenous Communities of the Northern Zone of the Isthmus, completed 61 days of blocking the railroad tracks of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in the Mogoñe Viejo-Vixidu section, in protest against the imposition of the mega-project Inter-Oceanic Corridor Istmo de Tehuantepec and in order to paralyze the works for the modernization of the railroad.

Likewise, yesterday the NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL CARAVAN «EL SUR RESISTE», in struggle against the Interoceanic Corridor, the Maya Train („Tren Maya“) and all the death projects of this repressive government, servile to the interests of big capital, was received at the CAMP TIERRA Y LIBERTAD with the purpose of weaving together the resistance of the peoples of the south, of Mexico and of the world. Not omitting to point out that since its beginning on April 25 in Pijijiapan, Chiapas, the CARAVAN has been permanently obstructed and harassed by government spying and an endless number of military streetblockades.

With the action orchestrated by the military and police corporations against the CAMP TIERRA Y LIBERTAD it is clear to us, once again, that the current governments are at the service of the large transnational corporations and that militarization, patriarchal violence and repression are the path they have chosen to confront the struggle and resistance of our peoples to the Interoceanic Corridor and the Tren Maya, to capitalist dispossession and war.

WE DEMAND THE IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF OUR COMRADS MARÍA MAGDALENA MARTÍNEZ ISABEL, FERNANDO HERNÁNDEZ GÓMEZ, ADELA SEVERO TEODORO, ESPERANZA MARTÍNEZ ISABEL, ELIZABETH MARTÍNEZ ISABEL AND ELIODORO MARTÍNEZ ISABEL; THE PUNISHMENT OF THOSE GUILTY OF PHYSICAL AND GENDERED VIOLENCE, ROBBERIES AND REPRESSION AGAINST THE TIERRA Y LIBERTAD CAMP; AS WELL AS THE DISCLOSURE OF THEIR REMAIN AND THE GUARANTEE OF FREE TRANSIT AND UNIMPEDED ACTIVITIES OF THE NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL CARAVAN «EL SUR RESISTE».

Sincerely

Mexico, April 28, 2023.

For the Integral Reconstitution of Our Peoples

Never Again A Mexico Without Us

NATIONAL INDIGENOUS CONGRESS

INDIGENOUS COUNCIL OF GOVERNMENT

EZLN-Zapatista Sixth Commission.

—–

Footnotes inserted by the translator

*Mixe: Indigenous People in Oaxaca, Mexico

*Ejidatorios: Members of an ejido. Ejidos: System of land distribution and ownership that was institutionalized after the Mexican Revolution and consists of giving a piece of land to a group of people for collective use. Often, this is the land of indigenous communities, which they collectivly own, manage and cultivate.

Sunday the 13th

To the sixth in Mexico and abroad:
To those who signed the Declaration for Life:
To honest people all over the world:

The Zapatista communities, in agreement with various individuals, groups, collectives, organizations, and movements from across SLUMIL K´AJXEMK´OP, hereby call for protests and mobilizations against ALL CAPITALIST WARS currently being waged in multiple corners of the planet. These wars are happening not just in Ukraine, but also in Palestine, Kurdistan, Syria, on the Mapuche people, on all the originary peoples all over the world, and upon so many different emancipatory processes that are attacked, persecuted, murdered, silenced, and distorted.

As our own response to this call, we will participate in mobilizations to be held Sunday March 13, 2022, and continue to protest wars perpetrated by the system across the world.

We therefore propose the launch of a global campaign against all capital’s wars, in whatever geography they are waged, consisting of concerts, gatherings, festivals, meetings, and so on, in a campaign of the arts against the wars.

We call on all honest people, groups, collectives, organizations, and movements in Mexico and abroad to participate in activities demanding a halt to all wars, starting on Sunday the 13th, and in accordance with their own times and ways and their own independence and autonomy.

For our part, thousands of Zapatistas from our communities will carry out demonstrations in the caracoles, in the county seats of San Cristóbal de las Casas, Yajalón, Palenque, Ocosingo, Las Margaritas, and Altamirano, and in the communities along the highway.

All of our arts, our resistances, and our rebellions against all of the wars!
From the mountains of Southeast Mexico,
Zapatista Sixth Commission
Mexico,
March of 2022

Source: Enlace Zapatista

Ελληνική μετάφραση  (Griego)
Deutsch Übersetzung (Alemán)
Traduzione Italiano (Italiano)
Original en español (Español)

Stop the Repression of the Indigenous Peoples of Mexico!

To the Mexican people:
To the peoples of the world:
To the Sixth in Mexico and abroad:
To the media:

We denounce that on February 15 at approximately 1:20hrs, the repressive agents of the bad government including the National Guard, the state police of Puebla and the municipal police of Juan C. Bonilla, invaded and dismantled the space of resistance and organization of the Altepelmecalli People’s House, an autonomous political and cultural space that until March 22, 2021 was a factory owned by Bonafont. Bonafont is a transnational corporation that has for years stolen and hyper-exploited the aquifers in the Cholulteca region.

We fervently condemn the heightened repression by the capitalist government, which calls itself the “4T,”[i] of the resistance and struggle for life waged by our brothers from the United Peoples of the Cholulteca and Volcanos Region [Pueblos Unidos de la Región Cholulteca y de los Volcanes], who converted that landscape of death into a space of encounter and exchange despite determined efforts to impose the Integral Project for Morelos in the states of Morelos, Puebla and Tlaxcala[ii]. That megaproject would put a natural gas pipeline through the territories of the peoples of the volcano, where old and new forms of organization are sprouting seeds of hope and rebellion.

We are on high alert given the possible persecution of our brothers and sisters from the Altepelmecalli People’s House. We hold the Federal Government responsible for using its armed National Guard thugs to intensify the war of money against life. We hold the government responsible for protecting the Bonafont company, which displaces, steals, privatizes and immorally profits off our people’s waters, creating harm in the form of sinkholes and the running dry of wells, springs, rivers and gullies. This is what has happened to the Metlapanapa river, which the People’s Front of the Cholulteca and Volcano Region [Frente de Pueblos de la Región Cholulteca y los Volcanes] has defended against the river’s exploitation and pollution by industry.

We denounce this repressive offensive on the part of Mexico’s neoliberal bad government against our compañeros and compañeras who are raising the flag of organization from below in their geographies and convoking us to struggle for life. We condemn the following:

1. The assassination of our compañero, Francisco Vázquez, president of the ASURCO Monitoring Counsel[iii], who raised his voice against the theft of water from the ejidos of the Ayala region as part of the operations of the thermoelectric plant in Huexca, Morelos.
2. The criminalization of the Otomí people, and of our compañero Diego García by the head of that shadowy institution of the bad government called INPI [National Institute for Indigenous Peoples], which has served to extend the indigenist and clientelist control of our peoples, and whose offices used to be located in what is today the Samir Flores Soberanes People’s House.[iv]
3. The persecution of the Indigenous Supreme Council of Michoacán for their recent mobilizations against disrespect, racism, and dispossession and for the removal of the appalling monument known as Los Constructores (The Builders) in Morelia, Michoacán[v].
4. The indifference and criminal complicity of the National Guard in the face of violence in Guerrero where drug cartels attack the communities of the Indigenous and Popular Council of Guerrero- Emiliano Zapata who oppose the extractive megaprojects and denounce the governments’ complicity with narco-paramilitary groups that kill and disappear our brothers[vi].
5. The militarization of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in order to impose the Salina Cruz-Coatzacoalcos Interoceanic Corridor megaproject[vii] as well as the illegal occupation of our communities’ lands for this project like what’s happening in the Binnizá community in Puente Madera[viii] belonging to the commons of San Blas Atempa, Oaxaca.
6. The utilization of the National Guard and armed state and municipal groups to stifle the demands of normalistas[ix] students in Ayotzinapa, Tiripetío and Mactumatzá for justice[x] and for recognition of their terms for the escuelas normales.

We hold the Mexican federal government responsible for the escalation of repression against our peoples, and we demand that the National Guard and police forces cease actions against those who oppose the exploitation and destruction of nature and the plundering of the territories and community heritage of originary peoples in order to impose megaprojects of death promoted by the Mexican State.

We call on the peoples, nations, and indigenous tribes of Mexico, as well as on allied organizations and collectives, to be on alert for this wave of neoliberal repression announced by the capitalist government of this country in an agreement published in the Official Journal of the Federation on November 22, 2021.[xi] This agreement also declares the projects and federal governmental works matters of public interest and national security which they can then use as a pretext to exercise armed force against peoples who oppose this unprecedented dispossession and destruction of Mexican territory.

We call on the people, groups, collectives, organizations, and movements in the territory of SLUMIL K´AJXEMK´OP (also known as “Europe”) to mobilize and come out against the transnational corporation Bonafont-Danone, headquartered in France, and the agencies of the current Mexican federal government in Europe.

For life!
Solidarity and support for the originary peoples of the National Indigenous Congress!

Sincerely,
February 16, 2022
For the Full Reconstitution of our Peoples
Never Again a Mexico Without Us
National Indigenous Congress—Indigenous Governing Council
Zapatista Army for National Liberation
Sixth Commission.

[i] The López Obrador campaign has deemed its governing project the “Fourth Transformation” (4T), supposedly on par with historic events such as Mexican Independence (1810), a period of reform in the mid-19th century, and the Mexican Revolution (1910).
[ii] “The Integral Project for Morelos, for example, consists of two thermoelectric plants and well as gas and water pipelines that will dispossess the Nahua indigenous peoples who inhabit the Popocatépetl Volcano region in the states of Morelos, Puebla, and Tlaxcala of their land, water, security, health, identity, and life on the land. The State, along with Elecnor, Enagas, Abengoa, Bonatti, CFE, Nissan, Burlington, Saint Gobain, Continental, Bridgestone and many other companies have imposed this project via the use of state, federal, and military violence, instilling terror in the inhabitants through torture, threats, imprisonment, judicial persecution, the closing of community radios, and now the murder of our brother Samir Flores Soberanes.” https://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/2019/03/12/samir-lives-the-struggle-continues-declaration-from-the-third-national-assembly-of-the-national-indigenous-congress-the-indigenous-governing-council-and-the-ezln/
[iii] Francisco Vázquez was assassinated on February 11, 2022 in Ayala. ASURCO is the Asociación de Usuarios del Río Cuautla [Cuautla River Users’ Association].
[iv] The Otomí community in Mexico City has occupied the INPI offices in Coyoacán since October 12, 2020, renaming it the Samir Flores Soberanes People’s House at the anniversary of the occupation in October 2021. https://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/2021/10/06/cdmx-invitacion-a-celebrar-con-resistencia-y-rebeldia-un-ano-de-la-toma-del-inpi/
[v] On February 14, 2022 the Indigenous Supreme Council of Michoacán tore down the statue known as “The Builders” [Los Constructores] that depicted the Spanish priest Fray Antonio de San Miguel giving orders to a group of enslaved indigenous people, symbolizing domination and genocide of the indigenous by the Spanish.
[vi] Most recently, on January 30, 2022, the Indigenous and Popular Council of Guerrero-Emiliano Zapata was attacked by the narco-paramilitary organization called Las Ardillas (The Squirrels). The attack lasted for two hours during which the governmental authorities never responded or intervened.
[vii] The Salina Cruz-Coatzacoalcos Interoceanic Corridor is one of the largest proposed megaprojects that would connect the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean by a rail line between two ports in the states of Oaxaca and Veracruz.
[viii] On February 4, 2022, two people were caught deforesting and fencing off areas of Pitaya communal lands without the community’s permission.
[ix] Normalista refers to students that participate in the Escuelas Normales which are teaching colleges that principally train rural and indigenous young people to be teachers in their own communities.
[x] In 2014, 43 students from the Escuela Normal in Ayotzinapa in Guerrero were abducted and disappeared.
[xi] The announcement is posted here in Spanish: https://dof.gob.mx/nota_detalle.php?codigo=5635985&fecha=22/11/2021