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La Relatora Especial de las Naciones Unidas para la Situación de Defensores de Derechos Humanos, Mary Lawlor, abogó en favor del activista. Dijo que debía ser liberado porque los cargos en su contra fueron fabricados en represalia por su activismo.

El juez Julio César Victoria Gómez condenó a 58 años y 4 meses de cárcel al indígena Versaín Velasco García, habitante de la comunidad Nueva Palestina, municipio de Ocosingo. Él y su familia fueron expulsados de la comunidad y luego acusados de diversos delitos, por personas vinculadas con el tráfico de personas y droga, que operan en la región.

15 de diciembre de 2021, Versaín fue víctima de un intento de linchamiento por parte de un grupo armado, junto con policías comunitarios y autoridades de Nueva Palestina. Su yerno Fredy Gómez Sántiz fue desaparecido durante la agresión; una de las mujeres de su familia sufrió abuso sexual.

Un día después, él y su familia, unas 34 personas, tuvieron que abandonar la comunidad para evitar ser asesinados. En la cabecera municipal de Ocosingo denunció ante la Fiscalía de Chiapas la agresión y desaparición de su yerno; en represalia, lo acusaron del homicidio de un policía.

A su hija Isaura Velasco, y a su esposa Antonia Aguilar Solorzano, las acusaron de robo con violencia agravado; ellas estuvieron encarceladas un año hasta que, por falta de pruebas, lograron su libertad.

Versaín se consideraba defensor de derechos humanos; la población acudía a él en busca de ayuda y asesoría cuando sufría un abuso de autoridad. Meses antes de su detención denunció la colusión que había entre autoridades locales y grupos dedicados al tráfico de personas y droga en la zona selva, donde se encuentra Nueva Palestina, la comunidad más grande de Ocosingo.

“Lo último que denunció mi padre fue que detuvieron a unos jóvenes y los tuvieron encerrados 12 días -en una cárcel que hay en Nueva Palestina-, sin agua y sin comida. Luego de eso se nos vinieron encima”, explicó Moctezuma Velasco, su hijo.

A dos años de su detención, el juez Julio César Victoria Gómez sostuvo una audiencia durante tres días, para dictar sentencia. Este viernes, Moctezuma Velasco explicó que en la misma se omitió considerar las pruebas de la agresión que sufrió Versaín y su familia, también se desestimó los testimonios a personas de la comunidad, y las irregularidades que hubo en la detención.

Este viernes por la tarde, el juez dijo que la sentencia contra Versaín Velasco era de 58 años y 4 meses de prisión. “No es justo todo esto, ¿para qué sirve entonces toda la supuesta justicia en la tierra. No es justo, no es justo que el estado esté a favor de estos asesinos y paramilitares”, dijo su hijo al saber la sentencia.

La familia Velasco actualmente se encuentra en situación de desplazamiento forzado. Sin embargo, ha denunciado formalmente las agresiones que ha sufrido. Hasta el momento han interpuesto tres denuncias: una en la Fiscalía de Justicia Indígena, por los intentos de homicidio, lesiones, amenazas, daños, y los que resulten; otra en la Unidad Especializada de Investigación del delito de Tortura, por la tortura sexual; y la tercera en la Fiscal Contra la Desaparición Forzada de Personas y la Cometida por Particulares, por la desaparición Forzada de Fredy Gómez Santíz. En ninguna se ha ejercido acción penal en contra de los probables responsables.

También han solicitado al Consejo Estatal de Atención Integral al Desplazamiento Interno, sin que esta instancia haya sesionado para dar respuesta. Desde el ámbito internacional, el 01 de febrero de 2023 el Comité contra la Desaparición Forzada de Personas de la Organización de las Naciones Unidas requirió al Estado mexicano la Acción Urgente 1569/2023 por la desaparición forzada del indígena maya tseltal Fredy Gómez Sántiz. Tampoco ha habido una respuesta favorable.

El pasado lunes, dos días antes de la audiencia, La Relatora Especial de las Naciones Unidas para la Situación de Defensores de Derechos Humanos, Mary Lawlor, abogó a favor de Versaín Velasco. En sus redes sociales publicó una imagen de él con el siguiente mensaje: “Seguiré de cerca el juicio del defensor Versain Velasco García en Chiapas, México este lunes. Los cargos en su contra parecen falsos, fabricados en represalia por su trabajo en favor de los derechos humanos. Debe ser liberado”.

A continuación, el comunicado de prensa firmado por: Las cinco familias de Nueva Palestina Ocosingo, familiares de Versain Velasco García, Comité Chalchihuitle, de Desplazados Forzados de Chalchihuitán Chiapas, Comité de Solidaridad por la libertad y justicia para Versain Velasco y su Familia.
(Continuar leyendo…)

INVITATION TO THE THIRTY ANNIVERSARY OF THE BEGINNING OF THE WAR AGAINST OBLIVION.

December 2023.

The Zapatista communities and the EZLN invite all people, groups, collectives, associations, organizations and movements that signed the so-called Declaration for Life, the indigenous peoples gathered in the National Indigenous Congress, the International Sixth, the non-governmental organizations defenders of human rights and, especially, those whose destiny is in artistic creation, to the celebration of the thirtieth anniversary of the beginning of the war against oblivion.

The celebration will be on December 30 and 31, 2023 and January 1 and 2, 2024. Guests will be able to arrive from the 29th, not before that day.

Registration of attendees will be at the CIDECI in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas. Press, guests and the National Indigenous Congress register there, or directly at the caracol headquarters.

The central celebration of the 30th anniversary will be at the Caracol “Resistance and Rebellion: A New Horizon”, inaugurated 3 years ago in the town of Dolores Hidalgo, founded on recovered land. Climate from temperate to hot during the day. From cool to cold at night-early morning.

Location: one hour from the head of the official municipality of Ocosingo, highway to Monte Líbano. About 4-5 hours from San Cristóbal de las Casas. In Ocosingo there are hotels of different prices. From San Cristóbal, the route through Chanal-Altamirano towards the head of Ocosingo is recommended. Then take the road to Mount Líbano. They pass the federal barracks of Toniná and further on, always on the road to Mount Líbano, there will be signs on the different GALs that are at the foot of the road. From Ocosingo, in one hour-hour and 20 minutes you will arrive at the Caracol of the celebration.

Dates: December 30 and 31, 2023. Cultural festival with participation of Zapatista youngsters and children. There will be plays, songs, dances and poetry. Dance in the afternoon and evening.

January 1, 2024. At 00:00: central Zapatista words. In the afternoon and evening cultural participation by family guests from all over the world. Those whose vocation is art and culture will be able to present their creations in front of the Zapatista communities and guests on January 1 and 2, 2024. Dance, Theater, Cinema, Music, Murals, etc., will be welcome.

January 2, 2024. Cultural participation from family members from around the world. Dance.

It is recommended to bring something to put between the floor and your battered anatomy at bedtime. Here, in addition to being dignified, the ground is hard.

There will be internet service by tokens, so that they can notify their relatives that they arrived safely. There will be non-specialized food stalls (that is, there are no vegan or vegetarian food stalls). Look into it.

We recommend that people with special diet and medication bring what they need. There will be ambulance service and primary medical care.

For the assignment of rest areas and bedrooms, people of sound mind (what you call “seniors” or “golden age” or “elders” or “people in the process of aging”), and minors, have preference.

Minors are warned that it is prohibited to stone, harass or hunt whales, unicorns, crocodiles, dragons, dogs, cats, ‘cuches’, chickens, roosters, rabbits, cows, oxen (without harm), mules (without harm) ), horses, mares, sheep, bicycles and other fantastic animals you may find. The 3 times T “Popcorn Command” will be patrolling and ensuring that no living being is attacked by thought, word or deed. On the other hand, it is allowed to attack the stones, as long as it is with the head. Be warned.

We remind you that in the Zapatista territories the consumption, trade, transfer and planting of drugs is prohibited. Likewise, the consumption of alcohol in any of its forms is prohibited.

The exhibition, distribution, propaganda and apology of any of the electoral political parties of any geography is also prohibited.

Also prohibited are sexist, religious, nationalist, racist, ideological, political and sporting manifestations that promote mockery, bullying, harassment, aggression and violence against people because of their color, race, sexual orientation, religion, language, culture, social origin, size, nationality, ideology, etc.

The celebration is of and for the Zapatista peoples. Respect is required for our uses and customs, for our ways and times, for our struggle.

From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.

Subcommander Insurgent Moisés.
Mexico, December 2023.

Zapatista militiamen and militiawomen working on preparing the place for the 30th anniversary celebration. Zapatista bicycle workshop. The 3 times T “Comando Popcorn” reinforced with the ‘pelusa colocha’ on its canine wing. Images courtesy of Los Tercios Compas, copyleft December 2023. Music: Armad@s de Baile. Bossanonimos. Original and Copla ℗ 2014 Bossanónimos Released on: 2014-10-23

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Eighteenth Part: The Rage

Is it inherited? It is acquired? Grown? Is it lost? Does it change? Is it spread? What channels is it transmitted through? How is it done collectively? Is it creative?

At what point does she become worthy? When do you begin to distance itself from resentment and revenge? Is it getting closer to justice?

How does it become the historical root of entire peoples, different in geography, language, culture, history, time?

Is rage the bridge between pain and rebellion?

At what moment do anguish, desperation, and helplessness turn into rage?

What if the disappeared men and women, conversely, inherit the rage to those who search for them? What if they give birth to their parents?

What if the seekers do not seek consolation, pity, sympathy, the alms of another’s ear? What if they also seek our rage?

What if all anger has the same root and they, we, the people, find each other at that root?

Will we greet each other? Will we have the strength to smile at each other, hug each other, exchange not only pain, but also the details of the person responsible – his same face (although different), his sardonic laugh, his mocking look, his cynicism, his way of knowing he goes unpunished, the flag of money?

What if sometime, in the unfinished book of history, someone looks at a light, any one, that, without any fuss or slogans, points out “this light was given birth to by rage”?

What if what unites us, despite all the differences, is the same rage? Who will face us? Who will sentence us to the same defeat as in the past, now, today? Who will threaten us with a tomorrow which looks exactly as yesterday?

Who will lose and who will find?

-*-

Zapatista youngsters practicing a play to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the beginning of the war against oblivion. Images courtesy of Los Tercios Compas, copyleft December 2023. Music by Keni Arkana: “La Rage”.

The Captain.
Mexico, December 2023.
40, 30, 20, 10, 1 year later.

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^{Movilización del EZLN en la ciudad de San Cristóbal de las Casas. Marzo, 2022. Foto: Tercios Compas / Enlace Zapatista}

El pasado 25 de noviembre se cumplió un año de la detención arbitraria de José Díaz Gómez, Base de Apoyo del Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (BAEZLN), quien permanece recluido en prisión preventiva oficiosa en el Centro Estatal de Reinserción Social de Sentenciados (CERSS) No. 17, también conocido como “El Bambú”, ubicado en Catazajá, región norte de Chiapas.

Acorde a un comunicado del Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas (CDH Frayba), Díaz Gómez, integrante del pueblo Ch’ol y acusado por robo, “permanece en una situación grave de vulnerabilidad a su dignidad humana por la fabricación de un delito en su contra”.

“La acusación se basa en montajes por parte de la Fiscalía General del Estado. Este ha sido el modo de operar de esta instancia quien opera un patrón de fabricación de culpables y criminalización contra personas defensoras en complicidad con el Poder Judicial local”, contextualiza el centro de derechos humanos.

Te puede interesar – Existe un patrón de criminalización contra defensores indígenas en Chiapas: organizaciones internacionales

El CDH Frayba detalla que el proceso de prisión preventiva contra Díaz Gómez se ha visto “maliciosamente prolongado”. También señala que, ante la falta de evidencia para vincular a Díaz Gómez, la Fiscalía de Distrito Selva y el Juzgado de Control se han articulado para simular el proceso, a costa de su libertad.

Por ejemplo, ambas instancias han ampliado los tiempos de la investigación con el objetivo de retrasar la audiencia del juicio, “a sabiendas de que es imposible acreditar cualquier responsabilidad en su contra”, sostiene la organización.

Otro punto a destacar es la falta de la debida diligencia por parte de la defensoría pública del estado de Chiapas. Hace poco más de dos meses se le asigno un nuevo defensor, quien aún transcurrido este tiempo no se ha entrevistado con Díaz Gómez para actualizar su situación penal y conocer las necesidades de acceso a justicia del imputado. “En consecuencia, no ha realizado acciones necesarias para impulsar su pronta liberación”, denuncia el CDH Frayba.

Ante este escenario, el pasado 15 de noviembre, Díaz Gómez solicitó ante el Juzgado de Control de Catazajá la modificación de sus medidas cautelares para llevar su proceso en libertad condicionada.

El BAEZLN tiene dos hijos menores de edad y esposa, “quienes también sufren las consecuencias de su detención, afectando la convivencia familiar, así como su situación física, psicológica y económica por lo que el cambio de medida es una necesidad para aminorar tales impactos. Al momento no se ha dado respuesta a la solicitud”, contextualiza la organización de derechos humanos.

El EZLN ha denunciado que José Díaz Gómez es rehén del gobierno de Chiapas por ser zapatista. Lo mismo ocurrió en el caso de Manuel Gómez Vázquez, quien recientemente recuperó su libertad tras casi tres años de permanecer arbitrariamente privado de su libertad.

El centro de derechos humanos, con sede en San Cristóbal de las Casas, enfatiza que existe un patrón de criminalización en otras latitudes de México, “donde los pueblos originarios se oponen a la imposición de megaproyectos por parte del actual gobierno. Destacan así la existencia de ordenes de aprehensión en contra de poblaciones opositoras al Tren Interoceánico” en referencia a la persecución contra los miembros de la comunidad binizaá de Puente Madera, en Oaxaca.

En el caso de Chiapas, se suman los casos de la detención de Cesar Hernández y José Luis Gutiérrez, defensores tseltales criminalizados por oponerse a la imposición de una base de la Guardia Nacional en su territorio. También, el caso de cinco defensores tseltales de San Juan Cancuc, quienes fueron sentenciados a 25 años de prisión por defender su territorio ante megaproyectos como la “carretera de las culturas”.

Te puede interesar – En Chiapas, condenan a 25 años de prisión a tzeltales por defender su territorio

“La fabricación de delitos en contra de defensores indígenas representa una estrategia selectiva del actual gobierno Federal, que busca ocasionar un efecto inhibidor hacia las comunidades y personas que defienden sus derechos, destaca que en su mayoría se dirige en contra de personas indígenas defensoras del territorio”, sostiene el CDH Frayba.

Seventeenth part: Never more…
Tercios compass and the Captain

Memory is not only the food of dignified rage, it is also the root of the tree of dignity and rebellion. In the case of the indigenous peoples, it is a root that sinks into centuries of darkness, and that, with the peoples of the world, says and is said: “never again.”

Those at the top look at the past with the same nostalgia with which a mature humans sees photos of his/her birth and childhood.

Those below look at the past with rage. As if every humiliation, every wound, every affront, every mockery and every death were part of a present wound that must be healed.

Those at the top thus choose their heroes, and they split and distribute history where they are the culmination of the whole thing. They disguise as “justice” what is nothing more than alms.

Those at the bottom see history as a single page that has not yet been finished writing yet, and there are no heroes, only a constant rewriting where the hand that scribbles changes, but not the collective heart that dictates horrors and errors, and, of course, accounts receivable.

When Zapatista towns look to the past, they look and speak to their dead. They ask them to question the present – themselves included. And this is how they pick into the future.

This is how the Zapatista communities fight and live, who have not read Walter Benjamin. And I think they don’t need it…

-*-

Zapatista youngsters practicing a play that describes, not a distant past, but something that happened on a common basis just about 40 years ago in Chiapas. In other parts of Mexico and the World, it is the present… and perhaps the future. When Zapatismo says that it is against the patriarchal system, it does not do so because it is fashionable, a novelty or a matter of political correctness. It does so because of memory. And, dear friends and enemies, few things are as subversive as memory… and dignity.

Preparatory rehearsal for the celebration of the 30 years since the beginning of the war against oblivion. Images courtesy of Tercios Compas, copyleft December 2023. Music by León Gieco “La Memoria”, voices by León Gieco and Víctor Heredia. Embracing all of ‘latin america’, the one that is written and lived with lowercase letters, the one from below, the sister despite borders and neoliberal and progressive governments.

The Captain
Mexico, December 2023. 40, 30, 20, 10, 2, 1 year, a month after.

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Fourteenth Part and Second Approach Alert:
The (other) Rule of the Excluded Third

November 2023

The meeting was a year ago. One early morning in November. It was cold. Subcommander Insurgent Moisés arrived at the Captaincy chamber (yes, you are not wrong, by that time SupGaleano had already died, only his death had not been made public). The meeting with the bosses had ended late, and the SubMoy took time to stop by and ask me about what I had progressed in the analysis that had to be presented the next day at the assembly. The moon was moving lazily towards its first quarter and the world population reached 8 billion. Three notes appeared in my notebook:

The richest man in Mexico, Carlos Slim, to a group of students: “now, what I see for all of you is a buoyant Mexico with sustained growth, with many opportunities for job creation and economic activities” (November 10, 2022). (Note: perhaps he refers to Organized Crime as an economic activity that generates employment. And with export goods).

“(…) the number of people who are currently reported missing in Mexico, since 1964, now amounts to 107,201; that is, 7 thousand more than last May, when the 100 thousand threshold was exceeded. (November 7, 2022). (Note: Seek for the seekers).

In Israel, the UN set the number of Palestinian prisoners at around 5,000, including 160 children, according to the report by the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967. Netanyahu takes over as head of the government for the third time. (November 2022). (Note: he who sows winds will reap storms).

-*-

A crack as a project.

It was not the first time we had discussed the topic. What’s more, during the last few moons it had been the constant: the diagnosis that would help the assembly make a decision about “what’s next.” They had also been discussing this for months, but the idea-proposal of Subcommander Insurgent Moisés had not landed jet, or materialized. It was still a kind of intuition.

«It’s not that all the doors are closed,» I began. – There are no doors. All those that appear as “true” do not lead anywhere other than to the starting point. Any attempted route is just a trip through a labyrinth that, at best, takes you back to the beginning. At worst, to disappearance.

So? SubMoy asked, lighting the umpteenth cigarette.

-Well, I think you’re right, all that remains is to open a crack. It’s not good to look elsewhere. You have to make a door. It’s going to take time, yes. And it’s going to cost a lot. But yes, it is possible. Although not just anyone. What you are thinking, no one, ever. I myself didn’t think I would get even to hear it – I pointed out.

SubMoy remained thoughtful for a while, looking at the floor of the champa, full of cigarette butts, tobacco residue from the pipe, a burnt match, wet mud, some broken twigs.

Then he got up and, heading to the door, he only said: «Well, there’s no way, we need to see… what’s missing is yet to come.»

-*-

Failure as a goal.

To understand what that brief dialogue meant, I must explain a part of my job as captain. In this case, a work that I inherited from the late SupGaleano, who in turn received it from the late SupMarcos.

A thankless, dark and painful task: foreseeing the Zapatista failure.

If you are considering an initiative, I look for everything that could make it fail, or, at least, reduce its impact. Look for the contradictory opposite. Let’s say something like “Marcos Contreras”. I am, therefore, the maximum and only representative of the “pessimistic wing” of Zapatismo.

The objective is to attack the initiatives with all types of objections from the moment they begin to be born. We suppose that this causes this proposal to be refined and consolidated, whether it be an internal organizational, or an external initiative, be it a combination of these two.

To put it clearly: Zapatismo prepares itself to fail. That is, it imagines the worst-case scenario. With that horizon in perspective, plans are drawn up and proposals detailed.

To conceive these “future failures”, the sciences that we have at our disposal are used. You have to look everywhere (and when I say “everywhere” I mean everywhere, including social networks and their bot farms, fake news and the tricks that are carried out to get “followers”), obtain the greatest amount of data and information, cross it and thus obtain the diagnosis of what the perfect storm would be and its result.

You must try to understand that it is not about building a certainty, but rather a terrible hypothesis. In terms of the deceased: “suppose everything goes to shit.” Contrary to what one may believe, this catastrophe does not include our disappearance, but something worse: the extinction of the human species. Well, at least as we conceive it today.

This catastrophe is imagined and we begin to look for data that confirms it. Real data, not the prophecies of Nostradamus or the biblical Apocalypse or equivalent. That is, scientific data. Scientific publications, financial data, trends, records of facts, and many publications are then used.

From this hypothetical future, the clock is set in reverse.

-*-

The rule of the excluded third.

Already in possession of the drawing of the collapse and its inevitability, the rule of the excluded third begins to work.

No, it is not the known one. This is an invention of the late SupMarcos. In his time as a lieutenant, he said that, in the event of a failure, a solution was first attempted; second, a correction; and third, since there was no third, it remained as “there is no remedy.” Later, he refined that rule until he reached the one that I now explain to you: if a hypothesis is supported by true data and scientific analysis, it is necessary to look for two elements that contradict the aforementioned hypothesis in its essence. If these two elements are found, the third is no longer sought, then the hypothesis must be reconsidered or confronted with the most severe judge: reality.

I clarify that, when the Zapatistas say “reality,” they include their actions in that reality. What you call “practice”.

I then apply that same rule. If I find at least 2 elements that contradict my hypothesis, then I abandon the search, discard that hypothesis and look for another one.

The complex hypothesis.

My hypothesis is: there is no solution.

Notes:

Balanced coexistence between humans and nature is now impossible. In the confrontation, the one who has the most time will win: nature. Capital has turned the relationship with nature into a confrontation, a war of plunder and destruction. The objective of this war is the annihilation of the opponent, nature in this case (humanity included). With the criterion of “planned obsolescence” (or “expected expiration”), the commodity “human beings” expires in each war.

The logic of capital is that of greater profit at maximum speed. This causes the system to become a gigantic waste machine, including human beings. In the storm, social relations are disrupted and unproductive capital throws millions into unemployment and, from there, into “alternative employment” in crime, and into migration. The destruction of territories includes depopulation. The “phenomenon” of migration is not the prelude to the catastrophe, it is its confirmation. Migration produces the effect of “nations within nations”, large migratory caravans colliding with walls made of concrete, of police, military walls; criminal walls, bureaucratic walls, racial and economic walls.

When we talk about migration, we forget the other migration that precedes it on the calendar. That of original populations in their own territories, now converted into merchandises. Have the Palestinian people not become migrants who must be expelled from their own land? Doesn’t the same thing happen with the indigenous peoples around the world?

In Mexico, for example, the native communities are the “strange enemy” that dares to “desecrate” the soil of the system’s farm, located between the Bravo and the Suchiate. To combat this “enemy” there are thousands of soldiers and police, megaprojects, buying of consciences, repression, disappearances, murders and a veritable factory of guilty people (cf. https://frayba.org.mx/). The murders of brother Samir Flores Soberanes and dozens of nature guardians define the current governmental project.

The “fear of the other” reaches levels of frank paranoia. Scarcity, poverty, misfortunes and crime are responsible for a system, but now the blame is transferred to the migrant who must be fought until annihilated.

In “politics” alternatives and offers are offered, each one falser than the next. New cults, nationalisms – new, old or recycled -, the new religion of social networks and its neo prophets: the “influencers”. And war, always war.

The crisis of politics is the crisis of alternatives to chaos. The frenetic succession in governments of right wing, extreme right wing, the non-existent center, and what is presumptuously called «left», is only a reflection of a changing market: if there are new models of cell phones, why not «new” political options?

Nation-States become customs agents of capital. There are no governments, there is only one Border Patrol with different colors and different flags. The dispute between the “Fat State” and the “Starving State” is just a failed concealment of its original nature: repression.

Capital begins to replace neoliberalism as a theoretical-ideological alibi, with its logical consequence: neo-Malthusianism. That is, the war of annihilation of large populations to achieve the well-being of modern society. War is not an irregularity of the machine, it is the “regular maintenance” that will ensure its operation and duration. The radical reduction in demand to compensate for supply limitations.

It would not be about social neo-Darwinism (the strong and rich become stronger and richer, and the weak and poor become weaker and poorer), or Eugenics, which was one of the ideological alibis for the Nazi war of extermination of the Jewish people. Or not only. It would be a global campaign to annihilate the majority population of the world: the dispossessed. Dispossess them of life too. If the planet’s resources are not sufficient and there is no spare planet (or it has not been found yet, although they are working on it), then it is necessary to drastically reduce the population. Shrink the planet through depopulation and reorganization, not only of certain territories, but of the entire world. A Nakba for the entire planet.

If the house can no longer be expanded nor is it feasible to add more floors; if the inhabitants of the basement want to go up to the ground floor, raid the cupboard, and, horror!, they do not stop reproducing; if “ecological paradises” or “self-sustaining” (in reality they are just “panic rooms” of capital) are not enough; if those on the first floor want the rooms on the second and so on; in short, if “modern civilization” and its core (private ownership of the means of production, circulation and consumption), is in danger; well, then you have to expel tenants – starting with those in the basement – until “balance” is achieved.

If the planet is depleted of resources and territories, a kind of «diet» follows to reduce the obesity of the planet. Searching for another planet is having unforeseen difficulties. A space race is foreseeable, but its success is still a very big unknown. Wars, on the other hand, have demonstrated their “effectiveness.”

The conquest of territories brought the exponential growth of the «surplus», «excluded», or «expendable». The wars over distribution continue. Wars have a double advantage: they revive war production and its subsidiaries, and eliminate those surpluses in an expeditious and irremediable manner.

Nationalisms will not only re-emerge or have new breath (hence the coming and going of far-right political offers), they are the necessary spiritual basis for wars. “The person responsible for your shortcomings is whoever is next to you. That’s why your team loses.» The logic of the “cliques”, “gangs” and “hooligans” -national, racial, religious, political, ideological, gender-, encouraging medium, large and small wars in size, but with the same objective of purification.

Ergo: capitalism does not expire, it only transforms.

The Nation-State long ago stopped fulfilling its function as a territory-government-population with common characteristics (language, currency, legal system, culture, etc.). National States are now the military positions of a single army, that of the capital cartel. In the current global crime system, governments are the “Jefes de plaza” that maintain control of a territory. The political fight, electoral or not, is to see who is promoted to head of the plaza. The “cobro de piso” is through taxes and budgets for campaigns and the electoral process. Disorganized crime thus finances its reproduction, although its inability to offer its subjects security and justice is increasingly evident. In modern politics, the heads of national cartels are decided by elections.

A new society does not emerge from this bundle of contradictions. The catastrophe is not followed by the end of the capitalist system, but by a different form of its predatory character. The future of capital is the same as its patriarchal past and presents: exploitation, repression, dispossession and contempt. For every crisis, the system always has a war at hand to solve that crisis. Therefore: it is not possible to outline or build an alternative to collapse beyond our own survival as indigenous communities.

The majority of the population does not see or does not believe the catastrophe is possible. Capital has managed to instill immediatism and denialism in the basic cultural code of those below.

Beyond some native communities, peoples in resistance and some groups and collectives, it is not possible to build an alternative that goes beyond the local minimum.

The prevalence of the notion of the Nation-State in the imaginary below is an obstacle. It keeps struggles separate, isolated, fragmented. The borders that separate them are not only geographical.

-*-

The Contradictions.

Notes:

First series of contradictions:

The struggle of the brothers from the Cholulteca region against the Bonafont company, in Puebla, Mexico (2021-2022). Seeing that their springs were drying up, the residents turned to look at the person responsible: the Bonafont company, from Danone. They organized and took over the bottling plant. The springs were recovered and water and life returned to their lands. Nature thus responded to the action of its defenders and confirmed what the peasants said: the company deprecated water. The repressive force that evicted them, after a time, could not hide the reality: the people defended life, and the company and the government defended death. Mother Earth responded to the question like this: there is a remedy, I correspond with life to those who defend my existence; we can coexist if we respect and care for each other.

The pandemic (2020). The animals recovered their position in some abandoned urban territories, although it was momentary. The water, the air, the flora and fauna had a break and remade themselves, although they were once again overwhelmed in a short time. They thus indicated who the invader was.

The Journey for Life (2021). In the East, that is, in Europe, there are examples of resistance to destruction and, above all, of building another relationship with Mother Earth. The reports, stories and anecdotes are too many for these notes, but they confirm that the reality there is not only that of xenophobia and the idiocy and petulance of their governments. We hope to find similar efforts in other geographies.

Therefore: balanced coexistence with nature is possible. There must be more examples of this. Note: look for more data, review the Extemporánea reports again upon returning from the Journey for Life – Europe Chapter, what did they see at and what did they learn, follow the actions of the CNI and other organizations and movements of sister indigenous peoples in the World. Pay attention to alternatives in urban areas.

Partial conclusion: the contradictions detected put one of the premises of the complex hypothesis in crisis, but not yet the essence. The so-called “green capitalism” could well absorb or supplant these resistances.

Second series of contradictions:

The existence and persistence of the Sixth and the people, groups, collectives, teams, organizations, movements united in the Declaration for Life. And many more people in many places. There are those who resist and rebel, and try to find themselves. But it is necessary to search. And that is what the Seekers teach us: seeking is a necessary, urgent, vital struggle. With everything against them, they cling to the remotest hope.

Partial conclusion: the mere possibility, minimal, tiny, improbable up to a ridiculous percentage, that resistance and rebellion coincide, makes the machine stumble. It is not its destruction, it is true. Not yet. The scarlet witches will be decisive.

The percentage probability of the triumph of life over death is ridiculous, yes. Then there are options: resignation, cynicism, the cult of the immediate (“carpe diem” as vital support).

And yet, there are those who defy walls, borders, rules… and the law of probabilities.

Third series of contradictions: Not necessary. The Excluded Third Rule applies.

General conclusion: therefore, another hypothesis must be raised.

-*-

Ah! Did you think that the initiative or step that the Zapatista people announced was the disappearance of MAREZ and JBG, the inversion of the pyramid and the birth of the GAL?

Well, I’m sorry to ruin your peace of mind. It is not so. Go back to before the so-called “Fist Part” and the discussion about the motives of wolves and shepherds. Already there? Now put this:

Permissu et gratia a praelatis dico vobis visiones mirabiles et terribiles quas oculi mei in his terris viderunt. 30 Anno Resistentise, et prima luce diei viderunt imagines et sonos, quod nunquam antea viderant, et tamen litteras meas semper intuebantur.  Manus scribit et cor dictat.  Erat mane et supra, cicadae et stellae pugnabant pro terra…

With the permission and grace of the superiors I tell you the wonderful and terrible visions which my eyes have seen in these lands. In the year 30 of the resistance, and at the first light of the day they saw images and sounds which they had never seen before, and yet they always looked at my letters. The hand writes and the heart dictates. It was dawn and above, crickets and starlings were fighting for the land…

The Captain.

He did not appear then because you did not know about the death of SupGaleano, nor about the other necessary deaths. But that’s how we Zapatistas are: what we keep silent about is always more than what we say. As if we were determined to design a puzzle that is always unfinished, always with a pending piece, always with that extemporaneous question: what about you?

From the mountains of the Mexican southeast.

The Captain.

40, 30, 20, 10, 2, 1 year later.

P.S.- So what is missing? Well… what’s missing is yet to come.

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Fuente: Avispa Midia

Por Sare Frabes

En 2022 se cometieron al menos 768 agresiones contra 131 defensoras y 41 organizaciones que defienden el derecho de las mujeres en El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, México y Nicaragua. Tres de estas defensoras fueron asesinadas: Grisell Pérez Rivera y Jasibhe Natalie Díaz Morales en México, y Nesly Consuegra Monterroso en Guatemala. Los datos son del registro mesoamericano de agresiones contra defensoras de la Iniciativa Mesoamericana de Mujeres Defensoras de Derechos Humanos (IM-Defensoras), organización que articula a casi 3 mil defensoras y 300 organizaciones en Mesoamérica.

La mayoría de estas agresiones, 500, tuvieron carácter colectivo, frente a las 154 que estuvieron dirigidas contra defensoras a nivel personal y 112 contra organizaciones o grupos. Alrededor de 56% de las agresiones se dieron en el espacio público, principalmente en la calle. Una de cada diez se perpetró a través de medios virtuales o electrónicos como redes sociales, teléfonos, correos electrónicos o aplicaciones de mensajería de texto.

Los Estados aparecen como los principales agresores de las defensoras, siendo identificados como responsables en más de la mitad de las agresiones (56,1%) a través de fuerzas de seguridad y autoridades públicas de diferentes niveles. Por otro lado, uno de cada cinco perpetradores (20%) es desconocido, ya sea porque no se identifica a la persona que realiza la agresión directa presencial o porque se trata de un usuario virtual desconocido.

Las defensoras y sus organizaciones son quienes acompañan a las víctimas de la violencia machista, quienes denuncian ante las autoridades y la opinión pública, quienes llevan a cabo campañas de prevención y proporcionan albergue y protección para las mujeres y sus hijos, hijas e hijes, entre muchas otras acciones.

Para la IM-Defensoras, reconocer la importancia de su trabajo, así como garantizar que puedan manifestarse en las calles y ejercer su labor sin limitaciones y de manera segura, es urgente y vital en un contexto como el mesoamericano, donde la violencia contra las mujeres está generalizada y normalizada y donde existe una de las tasas de feminicidios y de impunidad más altas del planeta.

En los países

En México, la IM-Defensoras documentó un total de 519 agresiones contra 91 defensoras y 5 organizaciones. La mayor parte de las agresiones se dieron en acciones colectivas como las manifestaciones feministas. Adicionalmente se registraron 23 casos de abuso sexual durante acciones colectivas. La Policía aparece como la principal responsable de las agresiones en este país, 38%.

En Nicaragua, se documentaron 155 agresiones contra 17 defensoras y 35 organizaciones.  Más de la mitad de estas agresiones fueron perpetradas por autoridades públicas, 58%. Sólo en 2022, las autoridades de este país cancelaron la identidad jurídica de 30 organizaciones sociales que trabajan por los derechos de las mujeres y niñas.

En Honduras, sedocumentó 70 agresiones contra 15 defensoras. Casi la mitad de las agresiones, 47%, fueron perpetradas por una persona denunciada previamente por la defensora, o el/la abogada o personas que respalda a dicha persona.

En El Salvador, las agresiones documentadas, 14, fueron en su mayoría de carácter colectivo y dirigida a organizaciones. Los usuarios virtuales desconocidos fueron los principales agresores, seguidos de instituciones del Estado.

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