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MariChuy

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Red Universitaria Anticapitalista

(Español) Megaproyectos, mujeres y la lucha por la vida.

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Ma. de Jesús Patricio Martínez
Samantha César
Alicia Castellanos
Luciana Kaplan

Viernes 15 de Mayo, 20:00 hrs.

Transmisión en vivo:
Red Universitaria Anticapitalista
@rua_mx

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Mujeres y la Sexta | Red de feminismos decoloniales

(Español) Violencias múltiples y despojo – CDMX, 16 de mayo

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Sin Embargo TV

(Español) Marichuy: “Las consultas están amañadas para consumar los proyectos”

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Radio Zapatista

(Español) II Encuentro Metropolitano de Redes, Colectivos, Organizaciones, Individu@s y Adherentes a la Sexta en apoyo al CIG y su vocera Marichuy.

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El pasado 19 de mayo se llevó  a cabo el II Encuentro Metropolitano de Redes, Colectivos, Organizaciones, Individu@s y Adherentes a la Sexta en apoyo al CIG y su vocera Marichuy en la Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia (ENAH).

(Continuar leyendo…)

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Radio Zapatista

What’s Missing Is Yet to Come – Communiqué and audios of the conference “The Next Step in the Struggle” by CNI-CIG-EZLN

Mexico City, 2 May 2018.- Today at noon a press conference was held by the National Indigenous Congress, the Indigenous Governing Council (CIG), and the Sixth Commission of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, where they announced the aggreements of the CIG’s second work session (held on April 28 and 29 in Mexico City).

(Descarga aquí)  

Communiqué by the CNI-CIG-Sixth Commission of the EZLN, in the voice of María de Jesús Patricio (Marichuy).

(Descarga aquí)  

Words by Carlos González, of the Indigenous Governing Council.

(Descarga aquí)  

Evaluation by council members regarding the achievements and difficulties of the CIG’s tour in Mexico (4’33 min.)


Communiqué by the CNI-CIG-Sixth Commission of the EZLN:
(Source: Enlace Zapatista)

WHAT’S MISSING IS YET TO COME

April 2018.

To the CIG and Marichuy Support Networks:
To those who participated in the Civil Association entitled, “The Hour for Our Peoples to Flourish Has Come”:
To the National and International Sixth:
To the Mexican people:
To the free, autonomous, alternative and independent media:
To the national and international press:

Faced with the intensification of war, dispossession, and repression in our communities, and as the electoral process advances, we, in accordance with the path walked by our spokeswoman Marichuy together with the councilmembers of the CIG [Indigenous Governing Council], respectfully address the Mexican people to say:

We hear the pain of all the colors we are, all of the colors which make up Mexico from below.

Under the pretext of collecting signatures, we traveled throughout the indigenous territories of our country where together we grew our political proposal from below, and through this process made visible the struggles, problems, and proposals of many originary peoples.

Through our participation in this electoral process, we reiterated to the indigenous and non-indigenous peoples of Mexico that we will not be silent while those above steal and destroy our land, which we inherited from our grandparents and which we owe to our grandchildren. We will not remain silent while they poison rivers and blow holes in mountains to extract minerals; we will not sit idly by as they turn the peace and life that we have been building every day into war and death via the armed groups that protect their interests. Have no doubt: our response will be organized resistance and rebellion to heal the country.

With the massive mobilization of thousands and thousands of compañeras and compañeros from the support networks around the country, we realized, and it became shamelessly clear, that to get on the ballot we would have had to prove ourselves as bad as or worse than those above. If we collect signatures, they must be fraudulent or else they won’t count; if we spend money it should come from a shady source; if we say anything it has to be a lie; if we come to any serious agreements, they must be with corrupt politicians, extractivist corporations, bankers, or drug cartels, but never, ever, with the Mexican people.

Getting on the ballot is only for those who seek to administer power from above to oppress those below, because the power they seek is rotten to the core.

It’s a competition that can be won with deceit, money, and power, as the political class’ elections are merely a commodity. There is not nor will there ever be room there for the word of those below—those who, whether they are indigenous or not, despise power and build democracy by making collective decisions which then become a form of government in the street, barrio, town, ejido, collective, city, or state.

The electoral process is one big pigsty where the competition is between those who can falsify thousands of signatures and those who have billions of pesos to coerce and buy votes. Meanwhile, the majority of the Mexican people are caught between poverty and misery.

That’s why our proposal isn’t like theirs. That’s why we’re not campaigning, falsifying signatures, or collecting and spending the monies that the people of Mexico need to meet their basic needs. That’s why we don’t need to win any election or get involved with the political class. Rather, we’re in search of power from below, born of the pain of the peoples. That’s why we’re seeking out the suffering of all the colors that make up the Mexican people: that’s where hope lies, in a good government that rules by obeying and which will only be able to emerge from organized dignity.

The racism inherent in the political structure is not the only thing that kept our proposal off the ballot. Well, even if those who oppose the destruction wrought by the capitalist system on the world had different eyes, whether they were blue or red, public policy and this supposed democracy would still be meant to exclude them.

The originary peoples and those of us who walk below and to the left don’t fit in their game. This is not because of our color, race, class, age, culture, gender, thought, or heart, but rather because we are one and the same with the Mother Earth and our struggle is to stop everything from being turned into a commodity, as this will mean the destruction of everything, starting with our destruction as peoples.

This is why we struggle and organize ourselves. This is why not only do we not fit into the structure of the capitalist state, but we also feel more disgust each day for the power above which makes its profound contempt for all Mexicans more obvious by the hour. Our peoples are facing a very serious situation, a situation which has only gotten worse in recent weeks as repression and displacements have increased, and this has been met with complicit silence by every candidate.

As a consequence, and as agreed upon during the second working session of the Indigenous Governing Council which took place April 28-29 in Mexico City, neither the CIG nor our spokeswoman will seek or accept any alliance with any political party or candidate, nor will they call for people to vote nor for people to abstain from voting. Rather, we will continue to seek out those below to dismantle the rancid power above. Whether you vote or not, organize yourselves. We will walk forward by building the keys to heal the world.

Among the originary peoples of this country—where the formation of the Indigenous Governing Council was decided, and where our spokeswoman walked, weaving bridges as she was mandated to do by the general assembly of the CNI—we find the resistances and rebellions that give shape to our proposal for the whole nation. For this reason, we traveled together with the councilmen and councilwomen from every state and region through their geographies, where every day people face war and the invasion of the capitalist monster; where people are expelled from their land so that it can be taken out of collective hands and transferred into the hands of the rich, so their territories can be occupied and destroyed by mining companies, so the aquifers can be devastated by fossil fuel extraction, so the rivers can be poisoned and the water privatized in dams and aqueducts, so the sea and air can be privatized by wind farms and aviation, so native seeds can be contaminated by genetically modified seed and toxic chemicals, so cultures can be turned into folklore, so territories can be configured for the ideal functioning of international drug trafficking, and so that organization from below can be suppressed by the terrorist violence of narcoparamilitaries at the service of the bad governments.

We saw ourselves reflected on paths illuminated by the worlds that have preserved their cultures, where the words and plans of all the indigenous peoples are being drawn, and where from each struggle and each language arise the fundamental reasons for the existence of the Indigenous Governing Council.

That’s where we see the glimmer of hope we set out to find. We also see it in the parts of civil society organized as the Sixth and in the CIG Support Networks and groups that stepped forward not only to show their solidarity and create an agenda for the whole country, but also to build, from below and out of these capitalist ruins, a better country and a better world. We have deep admiration and respect for all of them.

We call on all the women and men of the Mexican people, all the compas from the CIG Support Networks in all the states of the country, and all the compañeras and compañeros who made up the “The Hour for Our Peoples to Flourish Has Come” Civil Association to continue their process of discussing and evaluating our work, making assessments, and finding and walking the paths we decide upon, always organizing ourselves, regardless of whether we vote or abstain from voting for any candidate. Your words, feelings, and proposals are important to us.

We will continue to extend respectful bridges toward those who live and struggle in order to together grow the collective word that helps us resist injustice, destruction, death and dispossession, and to reweave the fabric of the country with the consciousness of those below who dream and rebel with their own geographies, cultures, and customs.

The collective proposal of the peoples contains our word that we share with the world. We will continue walking further below, towards the indigenous peoples, nations and tribes we are. For this reason we call for a General Assembly of the National Indigenous Congress in October 2018 in order to announce the results of the evaluations by the originary peoples who make up the CNI, and to advance on the next step.

Sisters and brothers of the Mexican people and the world, let us continue together, as what’s missing is yet to come.

For the Integral Reconstitution of Our Peoples
Never again a Mexico Without Us

National Indigenous Congress
Indigenous Governing Council
Sixth Commission of the EZLN

May 2, 2018

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Radio Zapatista

(Español) ¿Y entonces, quiénes? – Día 5, Conversatorio “Miradas, escuchas, palabras: ¿prohibido pensar?”

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En su segundo turno a la palabra, la joven concejal tsotsil Lupita Vázquez inició el recuento de su experiencia de los últimos meses con una aparente contradicción que suena a ejemplo de las avenidas hacia la libertad evocadas por Paul Theroux al conocer hace unos días el caracol de Oventik: “He aprendido mucho y al mismo tiempo no he aprendido nada”. Jaime Martínez Luna señaló que nunca entendió la propuesta pero le había dado gusto darle su firma a Marichuy y, poco antes que ambos, Fernanda Navarro compartió su incredulidad para explicarse por qué no se había logrado entender en todos los rincones de este país tan herido una propuesta tan inédita e incluso más fuerte que el “Ya basta” de 1994, aunque adelantó que quizás ahora, sin el maldito reloj del INE, es cuando realmente ella arrancará. Y la Comisión Sexta del EZLN, en voz del SubGaleano aportó dos guías decisivas a la valoración colectiva de esta tarde: en los comunicados del CIG y el CNI sobre la propuesta nunca se alojaron meses sino décadas y, a diferencia de 1994, esta vez la convocatoria a hacer frente a la guerra no es excluyente sino incluyente.

Esta tarde, las dudas sobre la posibilidad de ganar el partido quizás se volvieron miradas, pensamientos y preguntas sobre el campo de juego y sobre quiénes han desdeñado o temido no ya firmar sino entrarle al partido. Por ejemplo, Lupita contó que a los concejales solían pedirles carreteras o preguntarles si las comunidades podían formar parte del CNI aunque recibieran apoyo económico del gobierno; Jaime Martínez Luna contó que suele preguntarse a cada rato si en Oaxaca realmente mandan las más de 8 mil asambleas comunitarias y los 417 municipios libres o en realidad lo hace el gobernador en turno; y la abogada Erika Bárcenas, que con el colectivo Emancipaciones ha protegido y acompañado el proceso autonómico de Cherán los últimos siete años, indicó que el Estado no es un ente monolítico sino fraccionado e incoherente al que se le pueden hallar –en su caso desde el Derecho– suturas y oportunidades para la transformación social.

Para no perderse en ese piso hoy tan rojizo y minado, Jaime Luna explicó con su voz de pie, con rabia y con coraje, que necesitamos ratificar, reconocer y respetar lo que somos: seres comunales –¡y no individuos!– a quienes nos han roto y oscurecido; y Lupita indicó que algo a lo que le tenían mucho miedo era a caer en el juego de los partidos políticos, a decir “yo mando” o “yo soy tu ejemplo”. Aquí, el punto de encuentro con Jaime (mantenernos juntxs trabajando-en-movimiento por la reciprocidad) fue sorprendente: la lucha es, había dicho Lupita, “(…) para que nadie sea más ni nadie sea menos. Todos somos iguales. Que nadie sea superior ni esté por encima de nadie (…) No lograrán exterminarnos mientras tengamos fe en nosotros mismos y trabajemos y resistamos (…)”.

Más tarde, para cerrar la jornada del 19 de abril que había iniciado con un violento desalojo de profesores en San Cristóbal (desalojo tras el cual varios niños de primaria y preescolar sufrieron daños por los gases lacrimógenos) y con la denuncia de la desaparición forzada del concejal Catarino Aguilar Márquez y el comunero Noé Aguilar Rojas en Azqueltán, Jalisco, a manos de un grupo armado, con la convocatoria abierta al partido decisivo de la supervivencia como marco de fondo, el EZLN en voz del SubGaleano trajo a cuenta una larga cita que no es del Che sino de Al Pacino, Oliver Stone o alguien más. Con ella los zapatistas dijeron describir lo que es no sólo su vida sino la de cualquiera:

“Estamos en el fondo del infierno, podemos quedarnos ahí o podemos luchar para salir a la luz. Luchar por escalar cuesta arriba, pulgada por pulgada, una por una, uno aprende que la vida es eso… que la lucha es por esa pulgada, y esas pulgadas que necesitamos por escalar están por dónde quiera alrededor de nosotros. Están en cada minuto, en cada segundo. Aquí luchamos por cada una de esas pulgadas. Aquí nos hacemos pedazos a nosotros mismos ya los que nos rodean por esas pulgadas. Arañamos y nos aferramos con las uñas por esas pulgadas porque sabemos que cuando sumamos todas esas pulgadas eso es lo que hace la puta diferencia entre la vida y la muerte, y les digo que en cualquier lucha es quién esté dispuesto a morir por esa pulgada quién la va a conseguir. Y si estoy vivo es porque aún estoy dispuesto a luchar y morir por esa pulgada, porque eso es vivir, y o lo hacemos en colectivo o moriremos como individuos”

“Así nos tocó”, concluyó el SubGaleano.

“Y pues creo que es todo y tomé de más el tiempo porque luego cuando agarro confianza ya no paro, muchas gracias”, concluyó la jóven concejal tsotsil del CIG Lupita Vázquez, quién antes ya había adelantado: “Lo que nosotros queremos que siga es lo que todos queramos, no lo que los compas quieran ni lo que el Concejo Indígena quiera que siga ni lo que el CNI quiera que siga, sino el pueblo, ¿qué es lo que quiere que siga?”

¿Entonces quién se animará a jugar? ¿El pueblo tan evocado todos estos días, meses y décadas? ¿Lxs futurxs zapatistas? ¿Quiénes, pues?

Escucha/descarga los audios:

 

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Radio Zapatista

(Español) ¿Cumplimos o no cumplimos? – Día 2, Conversatorio “Miradas, escuchas, palabras: ¿prohibido pensar?”

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Tras la incursión al espacio de la democracia electoral permitida y promovida por el sistema político institucional, ¿cumplimos o no cumplimos?, ¿terminamos en lo mismo o realmente hicimos otra cosa? Así la pregunta, la reflexión, la autocrítica, el verdadero examen y el espejo propuestos por el EZLN en voz del SubComandante Insurgente Galeano en el primer día de charlas del conversatorio “Miradas, escuchas, palabras: ¿Prohibido pensar?”. Con esta invitación ha iniciado este lunes 16 de abril en el CIDECI-UNITIERRA de San Cristóbal la valoración colectiva de la etapa en la cual el Concejo Indígena de Gobierno intentó contar con una vocera que participara como candidata en las elecciones presidenciales de este año. Algunas de las primeras respuestas compartidas fueron: “Faltará en la opinión pública el nos están matando”; “Se logró un importante avance pues se construyó, reinstaló y amplió un auténtico espacio político que abre el camino y el horizonte de los pueblos”; “Tal vez como experiencia estuvo buena, pero debemos cuidarnos de no repetirla”; “Sabemos muy bien que nuestros sueños no caben ni cabrán jamás en sus urnas, en cualquier tipo de urnas”; “Nosotros decimos que no legitimamos al sistema sino que lo desnudamos” o “La verdad, hicieron un desmadre”.

A la par de éstas y las próximas reflexiones sobre la recolección de firmas como pretexto para generar organización colectiva autónoma –el SubGaleano incluso declaró que ellos pensaron que a lo mucho se obtendrían 100,000 firmas y que de ellas quizás 10,000 personas entenderían la propuesta–, en el primer día de este nuevo “semillero” sobresalió lo que en su momento era la agenda secreta del zapatismo. Al contarnos el origen y el camino para preparar el Primer Encuentro Internacional de las Mujeres que Luchan, las compañeras de base y coordinadoras de los cinco caracoles zapatistas, así como Mercedes Olivera, Márgara Millán, Sylvia Marcos y María de Jesús Patricio Martínez, trazaron veredas sobre cómo pensar y hacer hoy, juntxs y desde abajo, una transformación radical, ese “caminar que va lento, de lo pequeño a lo mayor, se va apropiando del territorio, tiene reglas desde el trato hasta lo que se produce y lo que se consume, se burla del dinero, reencuentra el juego, el espacio de la fiesta, se niega a la victimización, distribuye y disemina el poder y es siempre atento al poder de las estructuras de género”.

Entonces, ¿valió la pena el reciente esfuerzo al que fuimos convocadxs? A decir de Marichuy, en el CIG-CNI querían promover el poder y la organización desde abajo. El recorrido fue con esa finalidad y les dio gusto encontrar organización en los lugares donde imperaban el dolor, el despojo, la criminalización y la división comunitaria impuesta por los partidos políticos. “Más que ir nosotros a decirles, aprendimos mucho. Y yo creo que eso nos va a servir mucho al CNI. El recorrido fue un primer paso de muchos que se avecinan. Vamos a seguirle porque hay mucho qué hacer. Sigue lo que sigue. No podemos pensar que ya no la hicimos, sino que tenemos que seguir fortaleciendo los trabajos que hacemos de por sí. Falta mucho por hacer”, sintetizó Marichuy. A las preguntas zapatistas de los últimos años –¿Valió la pena el esfuerzo? ¿El trabajo generó organización o no? ¿Somos más grandes en horizonte (que no en número) y en capacidad? ¿Cumplimos o no cumplimos?– Marichuy respondió “Cumplimos”, pero acaso el auditorio del CIDECI se inundó con la sensación de que quedaron y quedan pendientes muchas más respuestas en muchxs otrxs lugares.

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Juan Villoro

(Español) Paradojas de la honestidad

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Por Juan Villoro | Reforma

“Para estar fuera de la ley hay que ser honesto”, canta Bob Dylan. La frase invita a revisar la ley electoral diseñada por los partidos. Para ser candidato independiente a la Presidencia hay dos alternativas: perder con limpieza o ganar con trampa.

Conseguir 867 mil firmas en al menos 17 estados, teniendo en cada uno de ellos el 1% del padrón electoral, es una desmesura. Con el nombre de “candidaturas independientes” se brindó un repechaje para los profesionales que no alcanzan nominación. De modo lógico, quienes declararon haber cubierto las firmas provenían del PRD, el PRI y el PAN.

El INE creó una aplicación para recabar firmas que sólo funcionaba en celulares de gama media, recurso discriminatorio en un país con más de 50 millones de pobres. María de Jesús Patricio, candidata del Concejo Indígena de Gobierno, protestó por estas condiciones, pero las acató con total honestidad, demostrando que un movimiento social prefigura en su conducta el futuro por el que lucha.

Cerca de diez mil auxiliares se movilizaron para apoyar a la vocera indígena sin otro pago que la ilusión. Con recursos que apenas llegaron a los 600 mil pesos, y una solidaria economía de préstamos, Marichuy recorrió buena parte del país.

(Continuar leyendo…)

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CNI, CIG, EZLN

Convocation for the Next Step in our Struggle

Convocation for the Next Step in our Struggle

Sisters and brothers, compañeras and compañeros of the countryside and the city, in Mexico and around the world:

The National Indigenous Congress (CNI), the Indigenous Governing Council (CIG), the Civil Association “The Time for the Flourishing of Our Peoples Has Come,” and the Zapatista Army for National Liberation here address those individuals, groups, collectives, organizations, peoples, barrios, tribes, and nations that, in Mexico and in other countries, took on as their own the initiative to register the CIG spokeswoman, María de Jesús Patricio Martínez, as candidate for the Mexican presidency.

The information that we have been able to verify is the following:

  • Signatures received by the National Electoral Institute (INE): 281,955. Of these, 10,624 were registered on paper, rather than via the digital application. Of those paper registrations, the vast majority came from community assemblies.
  • According to the INE’s own criteria, 94.5% of the signatures collected were found to be valid.
  • Auxiliaries: 14,117 people registered as auxiliaries, with 5,704 actively registering signatures. With respect to the difference between registered and active auxiliaries (8,413), of 5,322 emails that were sent to those who registered as auxiliaries but did not document any signatures, there were 2,137 replies. Of those replies, 1,618 explained that they did not have an adequate mobile device with which to gather signatures, either because of the requirements of the INE application or because of the quality of the camera on their device.
  • Average number of signatures per active auxiliary: 49.43 (information from the webpage of our brothers and sisters at Cryptopozol, who processed this information from November 3, 2017, through February 24-26, 2018. See: https://criptopozol.github.io/avance_marichuy/
  • The following is an approximate (but not precise) count of auxiliaries by state:

Location not listed        4930

Aguascalientes             89

Baja California              251

Baja California Sur        69

Campeche                    42

Chiapas                        864

Chihuahua                    188

Mexico City                 3398

Coahuila                       92

Colima                          30

Durango                       42

Mexico State                1070

Outside Mexico            105

Guanajuato                  345

Guerrero                       99

Hidalgo                         179

Jalisco                          1040

Michoacán                    264

Morelos                        274

Nayarit                          63

Nuevo León                  257

Oaxaca                         242

Puebla                          407

Querétaro                     301

Quintana Roo               189

San Luis Potosí             197

Sinaloa                          98

Sonora                          149

Tabasco                        48

Tamaulipas                   69

Tlaxcala                        94

Veracruz                       367

Yucatán                       151

Zacatecas                    89

(Note: the final count does not match the registered auxiliaries because, we are told, some auxiliaries registered more than once out of desperation because the INE did not respond in a timely manner).

-*-

Compañeras and compañeros, sisters and brothers:

As is evident, we did not reach the necessary number of signatures to register Marichuy as a presidential candidate.

We think explanations for and evaluations of this fact should stem from a serious and rigorous analysis.

Had we reached the number of signatures necessary we would have been able to take advantage of this space to continue to reveal the suffering and struggle of the originary peoples and to point to the criminal character of the system, as well as to echo the pain and rage that seethes across the entire national territory and to continue to promote self-organization, resistance, and rebellion.

We did not reach that goal, but we must continue on our path, seeking out other ways, methods and forms with ingenuity, creativity, and boldness to achieve what it is that we want.

Our purpose was never to take Power, but was and will be for self-organization, autonomy, rebellion and resistance, for solidarity and mutual aid and for the construction of a world built on democracy, freedom, and justice for all.

The National Indigenous Congress’ initiative to form the Indigenous Governing Council and run its spokeswoman, Marichuy, as candidate for the Mexican presidency has completed another stage. The first stage was marked by the decision made during the Fifth National Indigenous Congress on our twentieth anniversary in October of 2016 to hold a referendum on this initiative among all of our peoples and communities. The second stage consisted of the CNI’s internal referendum from October through December of 2016 on whether to form the CIG and name its spokeswoman. The third stage culminated in the Constitutive Assembly of the CIG and the naming of María de Jesús Patricio Martínez, by consensus of that Assembly, in May of 2017. The fourth stage consisted of the collection of signatures for Marichuy’s presidential bid, a process that we have just concluded.

Our path continues. The fundamental difference between the current moment and the previous stages is that there are now many more originary peoples walking together with us, and, MOST IMPORTANTLY, that there are many more people, groups, collectives, and organizations focused on finding our own solutions, solutions that we know will never come from above.

This last stage was marked by the involvement of many more people and sectors, beyond the originary peoples and the CNI, in a civil, peaceful, and inclusive struggle for a just cause using legal, legitimate, and honest methods toward a horizon of the radical transformation of the reality we all suffer today. This is something that no member of the institutional political class can say.

Faced with the undeniable fact that we did not reach the number of signatures required by law to continue this stage, we call for an analysis and evaluation that, like the entire process so far, is collective, participative, inclusive, honest, and true.

For these reasons, and for others for which we have no words:

First: We thank with all our hearts the people who, in Mexico and in other countries, gave their signatures. For us, each of them is an embrace and encouragement to continue on without fail. We salute each and every one of them and, in response, reaffirm our commitment to not falter on this path.

Second: We offer special thanks to those who, with or without the label of “auxiliaries,” understood the reach of our initiative and made it their own, offering their time, resources and labor in the process of creating, growing, and consolidating collective and communitarian organization in order to be able to confront in better conditions the storm that we are all living through.

Third: The Civil Association “The Time for the Flourishing of Our Peoples Has Come,” the National Indigenous Congress and all who constitute it, the Indigenous Governing Council, and the Zapatista Army for National Liberation have begun a serious internal analysis and evaluation of the stage which has just concluded.

Fourth: We think this analysis is not just up to us. We believe that, given the collective effort put into this initiative which far surpassed the horizon of the originary peoples, we want to consolidate and maintain this broader desire to build another way of doing politics.

Thus, we convoke:

All those individuals, groups, collectives, organizations, nations, tribes, peoples, and communities of the countryside and the city, indigenous and non-indigenous, in Mexico and in other countries, who committed themselves to this process and took it on with work, dedication, and honesty: we invite you carry out an analysis and evaluation of this effort using the objectives announced by the CNI and the CIG and above all, the objectives you yourselves established, and to send it to us at the following email:

valoraciones@congresonacionalindigena.org

We would also like to announce that, parallel to these analyses and evaluations, the Civil Association “The Time for the Flourishing of Our Peoples Has Come,” the National Indigenous Congress, the CIG, and our Zapatista brothers and sisters will convoke a series of public activities open to all those who participated in the process in order to follow through with this struggle that, as we know, has only just begun. These activities will be announced by the convoking bodies.

We also invite you to hold your own activities for analysis and evaluation of what is happening in Mexico and around the world according to your own ways, times, and criteria. As the CIG and its spokeswoman Marichuy have said time and again, the horizon of our struggle is not marked by July 1, 2018, nor does it apply only to Mexico.

Resistance, rebellion, and the endeavor to build a world where many worlds fit is an international one and is not limited by the calendars or geographies of those above who exploit, disrespect, rob, and destroy us.

Mexico, March 2018.

NEVER AGAIN A MEXICO WITHOUT US

NEVER AGAIN A WORLD OF DEATH AND DESTRUCTION

NATIONAL INDIGENOUS CONGRESS

INDIGENOUS GOVERNING COUNCIL

CIVIL ASSOCIATION “THE TIME FOR THE FLOURISHING OF OUR PEOPLES HAS COME”

ZAPATISTA ARMY FOR NATIONAL LIBERATION

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Juan Villoro | NY Times

(Español) Prohibido votar por una indígena

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María de Jesús Patricio no obtuvo el registro como candidata independiente a la presidencia de México. Sin embargo, la causa a favor de grupos minoritarios y contra la discriminación seguirá su camino para cambiar el país.

CIUDAD DE MÉXICO — El 14 de febrero una camioneta recorría el desierto de Vizcaíno en Baja California Sur. Daban las 3:30 de la tarde, después del almuerzo, bajo un calor intenso, en la Carretera Federal 1, que carece de curvas y adormece peligrosamente. Todo conspiraba a favor del riesgo, pero la caravana no podía detenerse.

En octubre de 2017, la indígena María de Jesús Patricio, conocida como Marichuy, inició su campaña para convertirse en candidata independiente a la presidencia, respaldada por el Concejo Indígena de Gobierno. Durante cuatro meses visitó los más diversos rincones del país para escuchar a sesenta etnias que carecen de representación en la política mexicana. Se suele pensar que los indígenas representan un bloque monolítico, con idénticas costumbres y creencias; en realidad, se trata de un mosaico multicultural que responde a realidades y proyectos diferentes. Para obtener la candidatura, Marichuy debía lograr antes algo más difícil: unir a las comunidades en objetivos comunes.

El jueves 14 avanzaba en las precarias condiciones que la acompañaron en todos los caminos. Si los políticos viajan en aviones y camionetas blindadas, Marichuy se sometía a trayectos extenuantes y se adentraba en regiones inhóspitas (el 20 de enero el coche de prensa que la acompañaba fue asaltado en Michoacán por una banda del crimen organizado). A cinco días de que venciera el plazo para lograr el registro como candidata independiente, la vocera hacía proselitismo en una de las regiones menos pobladas del país. No apostaba por el pragmatismo electorero, sino por acercarse a los más apartados.

Bajo el denso sol de la tarde, la camioneta abandonó la carretera y volcó en la tierra donde crecen los huizaches. En el accidente murió Eloísa Vega Castro, de la red de apoyo a los pueblos indígenas. Varios tripulantes quedaron heridos y Marichuy sufrió la fractura de un brazo y tuvo que ser operada. Pasaron cerca de doce horas hasta que los heridos llegaron al Hospital Juan María de Salvatierra, en La Paz.

El 15 de febrero la candidata indígena acaparó las portadas de todos los periódicos. Un impacto de muerte recibió la atención que no se le había prestado a sus ideas.

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