Moisés: Little Zapatista Schools in the Communities Are Full

Space in the Communities for the Little Zapatista School is Full

ZAPATISTA NATIONAL LIBERATION ARMY

MEXICO

 June 2013.

To: adherents to the Sixth in Mexico and the World:

To: those invited to the little Zapatista School:

From: Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés.

Compañeras and compañeros of the Sixth and students of the little school:

Receive Zapatista greetings, everyone.  We want to let you know how we’re doing with preparations for our little school.

Good, well there’s good news and bad news:

First the bad news:

There is no longer space for attending classes in a community on the August 12 to 16 2013 dates.  And space for the course in CIDECI, en San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, is also about to fill up.

There are many compañer@s want to attend the little schools in our Zapatista communities.  Many more than what we expected. More than what the people believed that changed their allegiance saying that the Zapatistas were no longer fashionable, that their initiatives were no longer ‘attractive,’ and the foolishness that those that have nothing to do repeat.

Then, what we want to report to you is that all the spaces for those who attend in a community in August are already full, all the little classrooms are full; in other words, there is no more space, there is no more room for students.  Because not only are we dealing with receiving them, we also have to see that they are housed and fed well, according to our humble abilities, of course.

First we had prepared to receive 500 students in the Zapatista community. It filled up quickly.  Later we expanded to 1,000 students, and that didn’t last.  Now we made space for 1500 students and now that’s also full.  And we are no longer able to fit more this time around because we think about taking good care of them and keeping them happy.

But don’t be sad, or get discouraged; to the contrary, because we are looking for another date, for another month, for those that will not be able to enter into the little school in a community this time. We’ll advise you of the date later.  What’s most certain is that it will be for next December-January.

And now the good news:

Our Zapatista compañer@s, the ones that will be the teachers, are now finishing their preparations for being teachers.

Yes, they are finishing their preparation because all of the Zapatista peoples will participate in the school. You will have three teams of teachers: the compañeras and compañeros from the communities who will receive, house, and feed you; the compañeras and compañeros who will accompany you at all times and who will take care of you, that is, the guardians, or your “VOTAN”; and also your teachers in the little school.

But SupMarcos, in a separate communiqué, will explain further the three teams of teachers and how things will be in the schools. His computer is almost fixed.

In addition there will be teachers for the videoconference, and for the DVD version they have almost finished recording the class lectures.

The textbooks are also ready. We only need to add the DVDs, filmed by our own compañeras and compañeros in the Zapatista media, which show what we have done in every Zapatista corner here in Chiapas.

Don’t forget that afterwards there will be videoconferences or you can request these materials.

And we are also thinking of sending, later, a team of teachers to other places where there are people who would like to understand our struggle for freedom. Of course, only if they are invited.

In another communiqué, SupMarcos will give you some more information about how everything is going with the students. For now, I will just let you know that the vast majority are young people.

I would also like to take this opportunity to extend a general invitation to everyone who would like to come for the party to celebrate 10 years of the Good Government Juntas.

I also remind you of the “Seminar Tata Juan Chávez Alonso,” which is open to everyone that wants to attend, and that will be celebrated in the CIDECI of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, starting August 17, which is also when all the students are leaving the communities, so that those that are in the community will also be able to attend and to listen to the word of other original peoples of Mexico that struggle for indigenous rights and culture.  Precisely in the month of July, we will have a meeting of the Organizing Commission, in other words of those who call everyone to the homage for our beloved compañero Don Juan Chávez Alonso.

It is all for now.  We await you here.

From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast,

Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés,

Mexico, June 2013

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En español: http://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/2013/06/13/cupo-lleno-en-comunidades-para-la-escuela-zapatista/

Click on the link above to listen and watch the videos below that accompany this text:

The song “The Anarchist” by Paradoxus Luporum. Dedicated to the anarchist compas, the new major enemy of the institutional “left.”

Mario Benedetti, in his own voice, “What can the young people do?” also for the anarchists.

So that you can start practicing your steps for the party on the 10 year anniversary of the caracoles and the Good Government Councils: Zapatista Band in Oventik.

 

 

 

EZLN Announces Indigenous Seminar

Indigenous Organizations and the EZLN create the Traveling Seminar: “Tata Juan Chávez Alonso”

JUNE 3, 2013

TRAVELING SEMINAR “TATA JUAN CHÁVEZ ALONSO”

June 2013.

We are the Indians that we are, we are peoples, we are Indians.
We want to continue to be the Indians that we are; we want to continue to be
the peoples that we are; we want to continue speaking the language we speak;
We want to continue thinking the words that we think;
we want to continue dreaming the dreams that we dream;
we want to continue loving those we love;
we want to be now what we already are;
we want our place now; we want our history now, we want the truth now.
Juan Chávez Alonso. Words presented at the National Congress.
March 2001. Mexico.

Brothers and Sisters:

Compañeras and compañeros:

This is the word of a group of indigenous organizations, native peoples, and the EZLN. With this word we want to bring among us the memory of a compañero.

After one year without him, with his memory as company, we want to take another step in this long struggle for our place in the world.

His name is Juan Chávez Alonso.

We were and are the path for his step.

With him, the Purépecha people became travellers amongst the people who gave birth to and who sustain these lands.

Tata was, and is, one of the bridges that we built with others in order to see ourselves and recognize ourselves as what we are and where we are.

His heart was and is the perch from which the indigenous peoples of Mexico look, even though we are not seen, from which we speak but are not heard, and from where we resist, which is how we walk through life.

His path and his word always sought to give voice and echo to the pains and grievances of that Mexico below (the “basement” of Mexico).

The National Indigenous Congress is one of the great houses that his hands helped to build.

The struggle for the recognition of indigenous rights and culture has, in him, in his memory, a reason and an engine to persevere.

Rather than fleeting condolences and a quick forgetting of his absence, we, a group of indigenous organizations and peoples, have looked for the way to extend his walk with us, to raise his voice with ours, to expand the heart that, with him, we are.

We, as the collective color of the earth, have agreed in our hearts and minds to build a space in which the word of the indigenous peoples of Mexico and this continent that we call “America” can be heard without intermediaries. This space will carry the name and history of this brother and compañero.

We have decided to name this space the “Seminar Tata Juan Chávez Alonso,” in order to emphasize how much our native peoples have to teach others during these calendars of pain that now shake all the geographies of the world. In this space we will be able to listen to the lessons of dignity and resistance of the native peoples of America.

As a continuation of the efforts that took shape during the “First Encounter of Indigenous Peoples of America” celebrated in October of 2007 in Vicam, Sonora, on the territory of the Yaqui tribe, the seminar “Tata Juan Chávez Alonso” will hold its sessions at different locations of indigenous America throughout the continent, in accordance with the geographies and calendars agreed upon by those who convoke this seminar and those who join along the way.

This seminar is meant to build a forum in which the indigenous peoples of the continent can be heard by those who have an attentive and respectful ear for their word, their history, and their resistance.

Indigenous organizations and representatives and delegates of native peoples, communities, and neighborhoods will have the floor.

In order to inaugurate this forum, we will hold the:

FIRST SESSION OF THE

TRAVELING SEMINAR “TATA JUAN CHÁVEZ ALONSO”

Here different native peoples, organizations, and communities will speak in their own voice about their histories, pains, hopes, and above all, their resistance.

This first session will have the following characteristics:

1. The first session of the Seminar “Tata Juan Chávez Alonso” will be held Saturday and Sunday August 17-18, 2013, at CIDECI in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, México.

2. The organizations that have convoked this seminar now constitute the “Organizing Commission,” which will invite the participation of other indigenous peoples and agree upon all things related to the method of this first session.

3. The “Organizing Commission” will extend a special invitation to organizations, groups, and individuals who have consistently accompanied the struggle of the indigenous peoples.

4. Those who have convoked the forum and those indigenous peoples and organizations of Mexico and the American continent invited by the “Organizing Commission” will participate in this first session with their word.

5. The various sessions of this seminar will be open to the general public.

6. More information regarding the calendar and schedule of participation will be made public by the Organizing Commission at the appropriate time.

Within the framework of the Seminar “Tata Juan Chávez Alonso,” and with Don Juan’s gaze as our horizon, the participating indigenous organization and peoples will also meet on their own to propose (extending an even wider invitation) the re-launching of the National Indigenous Congress of Mexico, and simultaneously make a call to the indigenous peoples of the continent to resume our encounters.

For recognition and respect for indigenous rights and culture.

CONVOKED BY:

Nación Kumiai

Autoridades Tradicionales de la Tribu Yaqui

Tribu Mayo de Huirachaca, Sonora

Consejo Regional Wixárika en Defensa de Wirikuta

Comunidad Coca de Mezcala

Radio Ñomndaa de Xochistlahuaca, (Pueblo Amuzgo), Guerrero

Comunidad Zoque en Jalisco

Organización de Comunidades Indígenas y Campesinas de Tuxpan (Pueblo Nahua), Jalisco

Comunidad Nahua en Resistencia de La Yerbabuena, en Colima

Colectivo Jornalero de Tikul (Pueblo Maya Peninsular), Yucatán

Comunidades Purépechas de Nurío, Arantepacua, Comachuén, Urapicho, Paracho, Uruapan, Caltzontzin, Ocumicho

Comuneros Nahuas de Ostula

Comunidad Nahua Indígena de Chimalaco, en San Luis Potosí

La Otra indígena Xilitla (pueblo Nahua)

Comunidad Mazahua de San Antonio Pueblo Nuevo, Edomex

Comunidad Ñahñu de San Pedro Atlapulco, Edomex

Centro de Producción Radiofónica y Documentación Comunal de San Pedro Atlapulco (Pueblo Ñahñu), Edomex

Comunidad Nahua de San Nicolás Coatepec, Edomex

Ejido Nahua de San Nicolás Totolapan, DF

Comuneros Nahuas de San Pedro Atocpan, DF

Mujeres y Niños Nahuas de Santa Cruz Acalpixca, DF

Mazahuas en el DF

Centro de Derechos Humanos Rafael Ayala y Ayala (Pueblos Nahua y Popoluca), de Tehuacán, Puebla.

Asamblea Popular Juchiteca (Pueblo Zapoteco), Oaxaca

Fuerza Indígena Chinanteca “KiaNan”.
Consejo Indígena Popular de Oaxaca-Ricardo Flores Magón, (Pueblos Zapoteco, Nahua, Mixteco, Cuicateco), Oaxaca.

Comité de Bienes Comunales de Unión Hidalgo, (Pueblo Zapoteco) Oaxaca

Unión Campesina Indígena Autónoma de Río Grande (Pueblo Chatino y Afromestizo), Oaxaca

La Voz de los Zapotecos Xichés en Prisión, Oaxaca.

Temazcal Tlacuache Tortuga de la comunidad de Zaachilá, (Pueblo Zapoteco), Oaxaca

Colonia Ecológica la Minzita, (Pueblo Purépecha), Morelia, Michoacán.

Colectivo Cortamortaja de Jalapa del Marqués (Pueblo Zapoteco), Oaxaca.

Radio Comunitaria Totopo de Juchitán (Pueblo Zapoteco), Oaxaca

CIDECI-UNITIERRA, Chiapas.

CCRI-CG del Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (Pueblos Tzeltal, Tzotzil, Chol, Tojolabal, Zoque, Mame y Mestizo), Chiapas.

Mexico, June 2, 2013.

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See and listen to the videos that accompany this text:

In memory of Don Juan Chávez Alonso. Produced by the Cooperativa de Condimentos para la Acción Cinematográfica.

El Comandante Guillermo, introduces Don Juan Chávez Alonso at the Festival of Dignified Rage (Digna Rabia), in CIDECI, San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, México.

Baile tradicional “Los Viejitos,” performed by students of the Casa del Estudiante Lenin, Michoacán, México.

Translated by El Kilombo Intergaláctico

 

Zapatista News Summary – May 2013

 

MAY 2013 ZAPATISTA NEWS SUMMARY  

Is this where they want to sell beaches, coastal regions, borderlands and oil?

    

 In Chiapas

1. News Update on Alberto Patishtan - On May 31, the FPDT (Atenco), Las Abejas and Alberto Patishtan’s son, Hector, released a short documentary on YouTube about Alberto’s case. On May 27, Mexico’s Supreme Court sent its file on the Alberto Patishtan case to the federal circuit court in Chiapas via ground transportation. There is no explanation in these press reports for the long delay. However, Patishtan’s lawyers are hoping for a June decision (before the July vacation break). Newspaper reports also indicate that Patishtan was taken twice to Mexico City for medical follow-up on his brain surgery at the National Neurology and Neurosurgery Center, once in April and recently in May, but these reports give no  information about the results of the examinations.

2. San Sebastián Bachajon Legal Dispute Over Ticket Booth Continues – On May 16, a Chiapas court issued its decision in the case of San Sebastián Bachajon (SSB). The decision orders a replacement of the procedure allegedly authorizing the government to take several parcels of land away from the ejido, conveniently all on land belonging to adherents to the EZLN’s Sixth Declaration, for use as a ticket booth where visitors to the Agua Azul Cascades pay an entry fee. The SSB adherents went to court claiming that the procedure used to grant the government authority to do that was unlawful. They asked the court for the return of their land and an order restraining the government from taking it. The decision does not return the land to them, but rather orders that the matter be presented to the Ejido’s Assembly for its position in a lawful procedure. The SSB adherents are concerned that the pro-government contingent in the ejido, especially the ejido commissioner, will manipulate the process. Consequently, two SSB adherents went to Mexico City to present their position in the matter to a member of Mexico’s Supreme Court. They also visited the offices of the UN’s High Commissioner on Human Rights, asking for intervention, and the offices of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, seeking precautionary measures following last month’s (April 24) assassination of the community leader Juan Vasquez Gomez.

3. Two Campesinos Murdered in Venustiano Carranza – On May 5, two campesinos died of gunshot wounds in a confrontation that occurred in the municipality of Venustiano Carranza, allegedly over agrarian and political disputes. Two campesinos were killed in the confrontation and 20 houses burned or damaged. There were also injuries. According to newspaper accounts, this attack stemmed from an old dispute for control of the Casa del Pueblo, which was aggravated with the arrival of a new president (in January of last year), who accused his predecessor of “misplacing” 67 heads of cattle. The dispute is between the Emiliano Zapata Campesino Organization-Casa del Pueblo (OCEZ-CP) and an internal dissident group. The dissident group of 49 families was expelled last year and is sheltered in government buildings near the state capital and demands a safe return to their homes. Those in the current OCEZ-CP leadership want the state government to relocate the dissidents. It arrears that 12 OCEZ-CP members have been arrested in connection with the May 5 violence and that the organization and its allies have set up an encampment and are occupying Cathedral Plaza in San Cristóbal. Supporters allege that paramilitary groups backed by the state government are responsible for the violence. The groups involved are not connected to the Zapatistas in any way, but are part of a large leftist campesino organization in Chiapas.

4. Chiapas Teachers Settle Strike - On May 15, National Teachers Day, Chiapas teachers belonging to Local 7′s Democratic Block went on strike over reforms to the federal education law passed in the federal Congress. Teachers throughout much of Mexico staged massive demonstrations on May 15 against the reforms which take away some of their union rights and job security, and can also lead to the privatization of education. The strike ended 5 days later after union negotiators reached an agreement with the state government. The state government signed a memorandum with the teachers committing that “the entry (hiring), promotion, recognition and permanence (job security) of education workers “will not be conditioned by any standardized evaluation with punitive character that might affect their labor rights.” The state administration also committed to guarantying that the agreements between the rector council of the Pact for Mexico, the federal government and the CNTE “will be ratified by the Chiapas government.” The education reform is part of Peña Nieto’s package of neoliberal reforms. See our blog for more information about the teacher protests and the education reform. Also see: http://newpol.org/content/mexican-teachers-rebel-against-governments-educational-reform

In Other Parts of Mexico 

FPDT Leaders

1. Seven Years After the Police Terrorism in Atenco - On May 3 and 4, the community of San Salvador Atenco commemorated the 7-year anniversary of the brutal police repression that resulted in 2 young people dead, more than 150 jailed and 26 women sexually assaulted by police while in custody. As a result of this police terrorism, the leadership of the Peoples Front in Defense of Land (FPDT, its initials in Spanish) were placed in a maximum-security prison with sentences longer than the lifespan of a human being. The FPDT is the San Salvador Atenco-based organization that successfully resisted (with raised machetes) the government’s plan to take away their agricultural lands in order to use them for building a new Mexico City international Airport. The state and federal police action of May 3 and 4, 2006 was seen by many as “payback” for the FPDT’s successful resistance to the airport; but, its significance went beyond the airport resistance. At that time, the Zapatistas were traveling the country during the “Other Campaign” and had visited Atenco just a couple of days before the police action. The police repression in San Salvador Atenco halted the Other Campaign for several months and, in general, put Mexico’s social movements on notice of what to expect in the future. On May 3 and 4, 2006, the governor of the state of Mexico, where Atenco is located, was Enrique Peña Nieto. He is now Mexico’s president and once again there are plans to build an airport, industrial park and urban sprawl on lands belonging to Atenco and surrounding ejido lands.

2. Amnesty International (AI) Issues Report on Mexico Violence – Amnesty International (AI) recently issued its 2013 Report on human rights. It refers to the term of Felipe Calderón. A number of human rights abuses are described, including the fact that Mexican authorities do not recognize the gravity of the problem and that there is complicity in these abuses by public servants. The complete report on Mexico can be read  here. According to numbers released by the federal government and published by La Jornada, there were 5,296 murders in Mexico, allegedly related to organized crime, during the first 151 days of Enrique Pena Nieto’s presidency; in other words, from December 1, 2012 to April 30, 2013. This represents a slight decrease from the same time period  the previous year under Calderón, but it is, nevertheless, a tragic number of deaths.

In the United States

1. President Obama Visited Mexico on May 2 – United States President Barack Obama visited Mexico beginning May 2. He met with President Peña Nieto and gave a speech to an audience of students and business people. Press reports indicate that the two presidents talked less about security and more about economics, thereby prompting the shopping cart cartoon above. Obama said he was hopeful on immigration reform, but not so hopeful about restrictions on guns. The Mexican economy relies on money (remittances) that Mexicans living and working in the United States send to their families in Mexico. Those remittances are one of Mexico’s top three sources of income and foreign exchange. The United States is also Mexico’s largest supplier of illegal weapons that end up in the hands of organized crime groups and thus feed the current violence in Mexico.

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Compiled monthly by the Chiapas Support Committee.The primary sources for our information are: La Jornada, Enlace Zapatista and the Fray Bartolome de las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba).

We encourage folks to distribute this information widely, but please include our name and contact information in the distribution. Gracias/Thanks.

Click on the Donate button of  www.chiapas-support.org to support indigenous autonomy.

_______________________________________________________

Chiapas Support Committee/Comité de Apoyo a Chiapas

P.O. Box  3421, Oakland, CA  94609

Email: cezmat@igc.org

www.chiapas-support.org

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Chiapas-Support-Committee-Oakland/86234490686

 

 

 

 

 

 

Resumen de noticias de los zapatistas – Abril de 2013

Abril DE 2013 RESUMEN DE NOTICIAS SOBRE LOS ZAPATISTAS

Viaje de shopping

En Chiapas

1. Asesinato político de líder pro-zapatista en San Sebastian Bachajón – El miércoles 24 de abril, Juan Vázquez Gómez, líder de los pro-zapatistas en San Sebastian Bachajon, fue asesinado por individuos no identificados mientras caminaba hacia su casa. Era dirigente de los ejidatarios adherentes a la Sexta Declaración de la Selva Lacandona en su resistencia al despojo de sus tierras por parte del gobierno para la explotación turística.  Es el primer asesinato político en Chiapas contra zapatistas o pro-zapatista en un largo rato, y puede indicar un aumento en la represión ahora que el PRI está en el poder.

2. Amenazas de desalojo forzado continúan en San Marcos Avilés, caravana  recibe amenazas – El 19 de abril, la Junta de Buen Gobierno en Oventik publicó una denuncia que enumera todas las amenazas contínuas y actos de hostigamiento sufridos por los bases de apoyo zapatista en el ejido San Marcos Avilés desde julio del 2011.  La Red por la Paz en Chiapas luego anunció que el 21 y 22 de abril una Caravana de Observación Civil iría a San Marcos para escuchar testimonios de los zapatistas.  La Caravana fué amenazada por “miembros de partidos políticos” en San Marcos Avilés.  Amenazaron con quitarles los vehículos a la caravana y que “correrá sangre” si no se los entregaban.  Afortunadamente, las amenazas no se convirtieron en acciones y la caravana logró recopilar testimonios sobre las contínuas amenazas de muerte, incluyendo amenazas con matar a niños, y robo de tierras.

3. Marcha en Chiapas por la liberación de Patishtán – El 19 de abril, el movimiento a favor de la liberación de Alberto Patishtán organizó una movilización en Tuxtla Gutiérrez, capital del estado de Chiapas, para exigir su libertad.  En la marcha participaron much@s tzotziles de los Altos del estado, además de la organización católica Pueblo Creyente, Las Abejas, y el Bloque Democrático de la Sección 7 del Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación, quiénes en total sumaron unos 15,000 manifestantes.  Los inconformes marcharon hacia la sede del Poder Judicial federal en el estado, donde se espera se pronuncie una decisión sobre el caso de Patishtán en los próximos dias.

4. La Suprema Corte mexicana libera a otros 15 hombres encarcelados por el caso de la masacre de Acteal – El 11 de abril, la Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación liberó a otros 15 de los indígenas procesados y sentenciados por su participación en el asesinato en Acteal de 45 indígenas tzotziles el 22 de Diciembre de 1997.  Esta liberación y reconocimiento de inocencia, al igual que en los casos anteriores, estuvo basada   en la falta de pruebas y violaciones al debido proceso. De los 87 que originalmente fueron condenados por el crimen, ya sólo permanecen 6 en   prisión.  El obispo Felipe Arizmendi, de la diócesis de San Cristóbal de Las Casas, lamentó esta nueva liberación de los sentenciados, muchos de cuáles habían confesado su participación en la masacre.  En su rechazo a esta nueva liberación, la Organización Civil Las Abejas denunció que muchos de ellos ya se han visto caminando por los alrededores de Acteal y comunidades cercanas.  Tanto Las Abejas como el obispo Arizmendi se preguntan, “Si los hombres anteriormente condenados y ahora liberados no son los responsables de la masacre, ¿quién fué?”.

Por otras partes de México

1. Las comunidades forman sus propias patrullas de policías - Como resultado del crecimiento dramático del crimen organizado y la total incapacidad de las fuerzas de seguridad de México para tratar con él, un fenómeno nuevo está surgiendo. Algunas comunidades están tratando de proteger a sus residentes formando sus propias patrullas de policías comunitarias. Hasta el momento, al menos 40 comunidades en ocho estados han formado tales patrullas. Mientras mucha de la violencia que está plagando a las comunidades está vinculada al narcotráfico y los oficiales gubernamentales, la policía y los militares corrompidos por las narco pandillas, las comunidades también están buscando protegerse de la tala ilegal y la invasión de compañías mineras y sus “guardias” armadas. Algunas comunidades indígenas siguen la tradición de elegir a los policías/guardias que protegen a las comunidades de crímenes comunes como el robo o la embriaguez en vía pública, y los crímenes relacionados. Han estado haciendo esto por más de 15 años. Estas policías comunitarias tiene sus armas de caza, machetes y garrotes, ningunos de los cuales son ilegales. Sin embargo, otras comunidades tienen policías armados con armas de alto calibre que son ilegales. Los gobiernos estatales y federales están preocupados sobre este nuevo acontecimiento y quieren poner estas patrullas comunitarias bajo el control de autoridades locales con rango oficial. Pero las comunidades ven a las autoridades locales como parte del problema.

En Los Estados Unidos

1. El presidente Barack Obama visitará México y Costa Rica el 2-4 de Mayo – El presidente de los Estados Unidos, Barack Obama, tiene planes para visitar México el 2 de mayo. Mientras que México espera  lograr un acuerdo sobre más dinero para la Iniciativa Mérida, el Secretario  de Estado estadounidense John Kerry, dice que el presidente Obama también quiere enfocar su visita en tratar asuntos económicos y de comercio. Organismos de derechos humanos, sin embargo, enviaron una carta al Presidente Obama, al presidente de México Peña Nieto y a los presidentes de Centroamérica solicitándoles, entre otras cosas, re-pensar el modelo de seguridad regional (la guerra contra las drogas) y considerar la regulación de las drogas en lugar de su prohibición. También,  23 congresistas estadounidenses, de ambos partidos, enviaron una carta al Secretario Kerry para expresar su preocupación por el incremento en cinco veces más de las quejas contra personal militar sobre abusos en los derechos humanos en los últimos 6 años . La congresista Barbara Lee, de Oakland, firmó la carta.

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Compilación mensual hecha por el Comité de Apoyo a Chiapas.

Nuestras principales fuentes de información son: La Jornada, Enlace Zapatista y el Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de las Casas (Frayba).

_________________________________

Chiapas Support Committee/Comité de Apoyo a Chiapas

Email: cezmat@igc.org

www.chiapas-support.org

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Chiapas-Support-Committee-Oakland/86234490686

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Juan Vázquez Assassinated in Bachajón, Chiapas

Bachajón Ejido Owners Demand that Juan Vázquez Guzman’s Death Not Be Left Unpunished

Juan Vázquez

** The indigenous leader “and Other Campaign” adherent was assassinated Wednesday

** They warn that the struggle over the defense of land and the natural springs “will not diminish”

By: Hermann Bellinghausen, Envoy

San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, April 28, 2013

The San Sebastián Bachajón ejido owners, adherents to the Other Campaign of the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandón Jungle, in Chilón, Chiapas, demanded that the assassination of their compañero and representative Juan Vázquez Guzmán, which occurred Wednesday, “is not left in impunity” and warned that: “after the compañero’s death, the struggle will not diminish: we will continue forward, because we know well that his death was because of the defense of our Mother Earth because the mountains and the natural springs are masters of those who care for them.”

Directing themselves to the Good Government Junta of Los Altos and the National Indigenous Congress, to which the assassinated leader also belonged, the Tzeltal ejido owners relate that last April 24, at to o’clock “hour of God” (11 o’clock, “national time”) [1], Vázquez Guzmán “was resting in his house when a person came knocking on his door and he was riddled with six high-caliber bullet impacts, and the guy fled in a red pickup truck in the direction of Sitalá.”

In the communiqué “they make known” who Juan Vázquez was: “An active member of the ejido and of the Other Campaign adherents. We walked with him for seven years after the Sixth. On April 18, 2010, he was named Secretary General of the three centers of the ejido.”

On December 24, 2011, municipal and judicial police detained him without showing him an arrest warrant, when he was entering his house, and he was taken to prison number 16 in Ocosingo.” Hours later the then Commissioner Francisco Guzmán Guzmán arrived, “carrying a file in his hand and pointing to Compañero Juan as the leader against the neoliberal project but, thanks to the mobilizations of organizations and the intervention of human rights defenders, he was released at midnight and they returned him to his house without making him sign any release paper asking for pardon and forgiveness.”

On November 26 and 27, 2011, Vázquez Guzmán, “accompanied by Compañero Domingo García Gómez, he participated in a National Indigenous Congress workshop of dialogue and reflection at San Mateo del Mar (Oaxaca).” He was in charge of following up on the case of protective order (injunction) 274/2011 “against the Neoliberalism Project” and the accompaniment of the three political prisoners from his community

He maintained his participation in the political prison forums and the mobilizations for the freedom of the political prisoners in Chiapas, in particular of Alberto Patishtán, “and in all Mexico;” also in mobilizations for the defense of land, like the one on May 7, 2011 in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, and in the Tila and Mitzitón ejidos. He went to the country’s capital “in accompaniment of the liberation of the last five San Sebastián Bachajón political prisoners.” He also appeared in several video messages for distributing the community’s demands internationally.

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Originally Published in Spanish by La Jornada

Monday, April 29, 2013

En Español: http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2013/04/29/politica/020n1pol

 

 

 

Chiapas March for Alberto Patishtán’s Freedom

Tzotzils and Teachers March for Patishtán’s Freedom

  ** They ask the magistrates “not to continue staining his dignity”

** “Justicia in México is in reverse,” Las Abejas complaint

Thousands of indigenous marched through the streets of Tuxtla Gutiérrez. Photo: Moysés Zúñiga

By: Hermann Bellinghausen, Envoy

Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, April 19, 2013

In an indigenous pilgrimage that was also a very well attended political march, the capital of Chiapas became familiar with, live and amplified, the clamor for the freedom of professor Alberto Patishtán Gómez. In a significant gesture of solidarity, more than 8,000 teachers from the democratic block of Section 7 (Local 7) of the National Education Workers Union followed the march of some 6,000 pilgrims, the immense majority of them Tzotzils, and at every moment supported the demand for freedom for the one who is, certainly, the most well-known and respected Chiapas teacher in the world.

At the doors of the Federal Judiciary, which remained closed, the Catholic organization Pueblo Creyente stated: “Señor magistrates of the first collegiate tribunal of the twentieth circuit, don’t continue staining his dignity, his prestige, keeping our brother a prisoner. The decision that you make will remain written in the historic memory of the Mexican people. Don’t repeat the same action that Pilate did to Jesus, knowing that he is innocent you wash your hands and deliver a death sentence.”

The column of some 15,000 people, which paralyzed the center of the city for more than three hours, first arrived at the seat of the Federal Judicial Power, located on a closed street, which was entirely occupied with indigenous people to the sound of flutes, guitars and drums, carrying the crosses of all the Acteal dead. Men and women from Pantelhó, Huitiupán, Simojovel, Chenalhó, San Andrés, Zinacantán, Huixtán, Chamula, San Cristóbal de las Casas and of course El Bosque, where Patishtán is from, didn’t stop repeating his name during the whole march. Hundreds of small signs showed his face over red.

Waiting on Avenida Central, thousands of teachers, who also were marching against labor and education reforms, supported their demands. With unusual generosity they accepted going behind the indigenous. The megaphones in their respective discoveries were saying: “We recognize Patishtán as one of us, we recognize his innocence, and we add ourselves to his protest against the justice system.”

A few kilometers from here, in Navenchauc, along the old highway to Los Altos, the President of the Republic was launching the National Crusade Against Hunger dressed in his Zinacanteco attire, (a PRI ritual) the same as the state’s governor and his Brazilian invitee Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as an honorary witness. Did what they were shouting along Avenida Central in Tuxtla Gutiérrez reach them, although it was as a vibration?

“Today the federal and state governments (new Pharaohs, Herods and Pilates) have proposed crusade strategies against hunger. There is no truth in their words. We believe and we are convinced by facts that it is a crusade against the hungry,” the Tzotzils added in their discourse.

“Our indigenous and campesino peoples yes we are hungry, but with truth and justice for the Acteal case, hunger for the immediate and unconditional freedom of our brother Alberto, hunger for the respect and love of our Mother Earth, hunger for the fulfillment of the San Andrés Accords, hunger for peace for indigenous peoples; not for the crumbs that the government gives to quiet their conscience, to not see the truth, to eclipse and bury the State crime committed in Acteal.”

At its turn, the Civil Society Organization Las Abejas, whose presence was notorious, demonstrated in front of the Government Palace, a few blocks ahead, its repudiation “of the massive release of the Acteal paramilitary murderers.” In a severe tone, Las Abejas sustained: “Justice in Mexico is reversed. In what kind of language must we speak so that (the powers) understand?

In front of the Government Palace, Pueblo Creyente repeated its message to the Chiapas magistrates who, in a few days, will have to resolve the freedom of the multi-named teacher from El Bosque, who today completes 42 years of age, 12 of them in prison: “Before these realities of injustices that the indigenous live, profe Alberto was struggling from his town and accompanied the people for a just and dignified life. The federal, state and municipal governments didn’t like the profe’s humanitarian work, therefore they sought him out for the crime, and he is sentenced to more than 60 years in prison for a crime that he did not commit.” To conclude: “No more innocent prisoners. No to the government’s repression of the teachers.”

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Originally Published in Spanish by La Jornada

Saturday, April 20, 2013

En Español: http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2013/04/20/politica/012n1pol

Paramilitarism, Armed Groups and Community Self Defense

The CRAC-PC elects its community police in February 2013

[As this article explains, violence from organized crime and the Drug War in Mexico is rampant in a number of Mexican states. Some indigenous communities have policed themselves for some time, but more and more communities are now taking up their own armed self-defense due to the dramatic surge in violence. The governments fear this trend and are beginning to crack down on (arrest) some of the groups.CSC]

Paramilitarism, Armed Groups and Community Self-Defense

By: Gilberto López y Rivas

 For years, the country has suffered a social war whose cost in human lives is now around 100,000 dead, the majority poor and young, while society is a prisoner of uncertainty about the future of the families –surely mortgaged by the 70 million Mexicans living in poverty–, and by the desperation of establishing that the PRI “alternative” means –in fact– the gatopardismo [1] in which everything changes so that everything stays the same (or gets worse).

In this lapse, armed groups have usurped the monopoly on violence, which supposedly corresponds to the State, and devastate the streets, businesses, barrios, communities, regions, and even complete states, which are abandoned in the defenselessness and at the mercy of their criminal actions. At the same time, in territories where the Mexican State has put into practice counterinsurgency strategies or an irregular war, paramilitarism has been activated, with the acquiescence, support and complicity of the authorities and furtively linked to the armed forces, police institutions or intelligence organisms. When I was a member of the Commission for Dialogue and Pacification (Cocopa), and in my capacity as rotating president, I presented in 1998 to the Attorney General of the Republic –with the advice of the lawyer Digna Ochoa– a denunciation about the existence of paramilitary groups, one of which was responsible for the Acteal Massacre. At that opportunity, the same attorney general Jorge Madrazo Cuellar told the members of the Cocopa about the presence in Chiapas of at least 12 groups that are euphemistically called “groups of civilians presumably armed.” A special prosecutor for the case was created, the same one that disappeared without pain or glory, years later.

Since those years, I have reiterated that the state grants a fundamental element for a perfect analysis cabal of paramilitarism, and I have defined paramilitary groups as those that count on organization, equipment and military training, those to whom the State delegates the fulfillment of missions that the regular armed forces cannot openly carry out, without implicating that they recognize their existence as part of that monopoly of state violence. Paramilitary groups are illegal and have impunity because it is convenient to the State’s interests that way. The paramilitary consists, then, in the illegal and unpunished exercise of state violence and in the hiding of the origin of that violence. Historically, paramilitarism has been a phase of counterinsurgency that is applied when the power of the armed forces is not sufficient to annihilate insurgent groups, or when their discredit obliges the creation of a paramilitary arm, clandestinely tied to the military institution. A clear example of this type of grouping is the dreaded White Brigade (Brigada Blanca), a criminal extension of the State during the dirty war, whose commanders were Colonel Francisco Quiroz Hermosillo, Captain Luis de la Barreda Moreno and Miguel Nazar Haro.

Although paramilitarism is tightly linked to counterinsurgency strategies, it can occur that the State uses –by omission, passivity or corruption of its officials– the armed criminal groups for their own purposes of social control, criminalization or violent aggression on opponents, passing through this way of state articulation, to also be constituted into paramilitary groups. This could be the case of the so-called guardias blancas, which in many rural regions formed the gunmen or armed appendage of landholders and regional oligarchies, and that because of class loyalties, the State has tolerated and protected.

When the State does not fulfill the legal and constitutional responsibility of preserving the security of the citizens or administering justice and, to the contrary por, uses the Army, police contingents and the judicial apparatus as a means of control and political-territorial intervention with the population by way of a militarization of society and venal justice at all levels, the emergence of mechanisms of self-defense and community justice of a varied nature take place that fulfill the functions that the State illegally alienates or disrupts. Experiences like the Regional Coordinator of Community Authorities-Community Police (Coordinadora Regional de Autoridades Comunitarias-Policía Comunitaria, CRAC-PC), that which forms the defense of Cherán Municipality, Michoacán, the autonomous rebel zones protected by the EZLN and those emerged in other latitudes of the Mexican geography, articulated by the communities, which control and monitor them, without any relationship with the State but subject to internal regulations and principles like govern obeying, not only are legal and legitimate according to the Constitution and Convention 169 of the ILO, signed and ratified by Mexico, but rather constitute the only socio-political spaces where control has effectively been achieved over what’s called “organized crime.”

Therefore, greater conceptual rigor and institutional seriousness of organisms like the National Human Rights Commission would be hoped for before the natural proliferation of community self-defenses for supposedly “breaking the state of law,” when to all appearances it has been the State that systematically has violated it through the practices of forced disappearances, extrajudicial executions, torture, corruption-penetration by organized crime of all the spheres of public power and the total inability on the part of the authorities to guaranty public security and the administration of justice.

What is also grave is the State’s pretention of submitting organisms like the CRAC-PC to governmental control, through laws and regulations that subvert the mandate of the assembly, to make official what is a service and break the very essence of the normative community systems.

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Translator’s Note: [1] Gatopardismo refers to a political situation in which there is apparent political change, but in reality nothing really changes. It literally translates into the brown cat, referring to the African leopard.

Originally Published in Spanish by La Jornada

Translation: Chiapas Support Committee

March 29, 2013

En español: http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2013/03/29/opinion/015a2pol

October 2012 Resumen de noticias sobre los zapatistas

OCTUBRE DEL 2012 RESUMEN DE NOTICIAS SOBRE LOS ZAPATISTAS

En Chiapas

1. Las Abejas denuncian la reactivación de grupos paramilitares – Las Abejas de Acteal, una organización de la sociedad civil, denunció la reactivación del grupo paramilitar Mascara Roja en el municipio de Chenalhó. Ellos lo atribuyen al gran numero de paramilitares encarcelados por su participación en la masacre de Acteal que han sido liberados durante los últimos años. Las Abejas dicen que quienes han sido liberados se han reincorporado con quienes nunca fueron llevados a la justicia, y que ahora portan armas en las carreteras, en las montañas y en los senderos a las milpas de maíz y café. Las Abejas también dicen que hace un mes un priísta disparó a un zapatista en la espalda.  Además denuncian el resurgimiento de Paz y Justicia, el grupo paramilitar que esta atacando a dos comunidades zapatistas en la región del caracol de Roberto Barrios, cerca de Palenque.

2. Alberto Patishtan se recupera después de neurocirugía – El 3 de octubre, Alberto Patishtan fue transferido al Instituto de Neurología y neurocirugía Manuel Velasco Suárez en la Ciudad de México, donde le operaron el 8 de octubre para extirpar un tumor cerebral.  Se informó que la cirugía fue exitosa y que se está recuperando ahora en el hospital Vida Mejor en Tuxtla Gutiérrez.  Sus amigos informan que ha recuperado el 70% de su vista. Mientras tanto, la corte suprema de México aceptó el pedido del abogado de Patishtan de considerar si la corte tiene la jurisdicción de realizar una audiencia y dictar una decisión sobre la inocencia de Patishtan. Amnistía Internacional mandó una carta a la Corte a favor de Patishtan.

3. Sigue el asedio contra las comunidades Comandante Abel y Unión Hidalgo – La Junta de Buen Gobierno de Roberto Barrios denunció el asedio continuo por paramilitares de dos comunidades zapatistas, Comandante Abel y Unión Hidalgo. En un comunicado publicado el 30 de octubre por Enlace Zapatista, la junta describe cómo los paramilitares ya han distribuido las tierras que robaron de los Zapatistas el 6 de septiembre.  Han recogido y sacado toda la cosecha de maíz y frijol.  Dispararon al aire durante la noche y la policía esta patrullando el área para proteger a los paramilitares. La junta insinúa, describiendo algunas acciones, que la policía estatal está entrenando a los paramilitares quienes están realizando ejercicios de tipo militar. también declara que las actividades de la policía y los paramilitares están siendo coordinados bajo el mismo comando. Además, parece que quienes se quedaron atrás para proteger las casas y pertenencias de los zapatistas permanecen en las comunidades bajo asedio.

4. Detienen a zapatista en Zinacantan en represalia por entregar una invitación – En principios de octubre, la Junta de Buen Gobierno en el caracol de Oventik denunció que las autoridades de Jechvo (Zinacantan) han usado la violencia otra vez para cortar el suministro de agua a los zapatistas.  Uno de los zapatistas civiles, Mariano Gómez Pérez, pidió la ayuda de un juez autónomo y de la junta. El juez autónomo mandó una carta al agente del PRI, invitándolo a una reunión para discutir el problema. Cuando Gómez Pérez intentó entregar la invitación, el agente del PRI lo detuvo y lo llevó ante la asamblea comunitaria, la cual fabricó unos crimines en su contra y lo mandó al juez municipal en Zinacantan. El juez municipal dijo al agente del PRI que no debería aceptar la invitación.  Esta situación repite la del 2004, cuando las mismas autoridades, en ese entonces miembros del PRD, cortaron el suministro de agua a los zapatistas. Cuando los zapatistas de toda la región les trajeron agua en una muestra de solidaridad, los del PRD les abrieron fuego.

5. Seis zapatistas detenidos en Guadalupe Los Altos - El 12 de octubre, la Junta de Buen Gobierno de La Realidad denunció que seis bases de apoyo zapatistas de la comunidad Guadalupe Los Altos habían sido encarcelados durante 12 dias, y que sus familias estaban siendo amenazadas con expulsión.  Las autoridades comunitarias son parte de la organización CIOAC Oficial, y también miembros de los partidos PRD y PAN.  Parece ser que hay una historia larga de provocaciones relacionadas con la participación en cuanto a asuntos comunales, en particular la contribución económica para proyectos como  escuelas y carreteras.  La JBG sostiene que los zapatistas tienen sus propias escuelas, sin embargo tienen actualizadas sus cuotas para el beneficio de la comunidad, siempre y cuando no sean proyectos del mal gobierno.  Este es un punto común en los conflictos dentro de las comunidades divididas entre integrantes pro-partidos oficiales y bases de apoyo zapatistas.
Por otras partes de México

1. Continua investigación de la emboscada contra 2 agentes de la CIA – Las indagaciones continuan en el caso de lo que ahora se conoce como “intento de asesinato” contra dos agentes de la CIA y un marino mexicano, el 24 de agosto, cerca de Tres Marias.  El juez correspondiente extendíó el periodo de detención sin cargos (el llamado “arresto domiciliario”) a los 12 elementos de la Policía Federal por 40 dias más.  Además, otros dos agentes de la policía federal fueron arrestados en conexión con el caso.  Marisela Morales, Procuradora General de la República en México, se refirió al incidente como “intento de asesinato” una semana después del testimonio de los agentes de la CIA quienes lo denominaran como un “ataque directo”. Morales estableció que todos los agentes actualmente detenidos enfrentarán cargos oficiales en dos semanas más.

2.  Policías toman 3 normales rurales en Michoacán, 176 detenidos –  Policías federales y estatales tomaron las normales rurales de Tiripetio, Cherán y Arteaga,  Michoacán para acabar con las protestas estudiantiles. Detuvieron a 176 estudiantes que protestaban por la implementación de cursos obligatorios de inglés y computación. Protestas similares ocurrieron en normales rurales de otros Estados conforme el gobierno federal intenta severamente restringirlas y regularlas. Las normales rurales en México preparan estudiantes para enseñar en zonas rurales e indígenas. Muchos de estos estudiantes son indígenas. Las escuelas han enfrentado reducción de presupuestos, admisiones y de personal, al mismo tiempo que la educación superior en México se enfoca más y más en los intereses empresariales.

3. Urapicho organiza su policía comunitaria – Otra comunidad purépecha, Urapicho, vecina de Cherán, está construyendo su propia fuerza de seguridad ante la completa ausencia de protección policiaca del gobierno oficial . Urapicho difundió un video a través de YouTube enumerando los problemas que han enfrentado con el crimen organizado y los talamontes. Miembros enmascarados de la comunidad aparecen en el video hablando de las y los que han sido desaparecidos. Uno de ellos porta un sombrero con la imagen del Ché y un paliacate zapatista. El gobierno ha acordado enviar a la policía comunitaria a recibir entrenamiento en la academia estatal de policía. También ha incrementado los campamentos de policía en el área. Para las y los que participaron en la Marcha del color de la tierra en 2001, esta comunidad se localiza en el área general de Nurio. Puedes ver el video en:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=e851A-FoB_o

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Compilación mensual hecha por el Comité de Apoyo a Chiapas.

Nuestras principales fuentes de información son: La Jornada, Enlace Zapatista y el Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de las Casas (Frayba).

_________________________________

Chiapas Support Committee/Comité de Apoyo a Chiapas

P.O. Box  3421, Oakland, CA  94609

Email: cezmat@igc.org

www.chiapas-support.org

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Chiapas-Support-Committee-Oakland/86234490686

 

Celebration in Honor of the Zapatistas and All Indigenous Peoples

IN HONOR of JUAN CHAVEZ

DON JUAN

 By: Luis Hernández Navarro

On March 28, 2001, Juan Chávez Alonso, Don Juan to his brothers and compañeros, addressed the Mexican Congress along with the Zapatista commanders and two other indigenous delegates. Wearing a hat, his trusty jacket, Purépecha coat and work boots, he addressed the lawmakers in his wise, serene, slow and steady voice.

“We are the Indians who we are”, he said. “We are people, we are Indians. We want to continue to be the Indians who we are, we want to continue to be the people who we are, we want to continue speaking the language we speak, we want to continue thinking the way we think, we want to continue dreaming the dreams we dream, we want to continue loving the love we give; we want to be what we are now, we want our place now, we want our history now, we want our truth now”.

The deputies and senators gathered that day in San Lázaro looked as if they were listening, but they heard nothing. Days later, they agreed to a constitutional reform on indigenous rights and culture that breached the agreements reached between the Zapatistas and the federal government in February 1996.

For Don Juan, the breaching of the Accords of San Andrés was a betrayal of the Indian peoples by the Mexican State.  Again.  A similar disloyalty was the amendment of Article 27 of the Constitution, with which they opened up to the market land which was communal social property.

Don Juan was, until his death, on June 2, an older brother in the National Indigenous Congress (CNI), the most inclusive and representative Indian organization in the country. He was one of the most important moral authorities of the national indigenous movement; he spoke on their behalf in various forums and conferences, touring the country and travelling abroad.

Born in Nurío community in Michoacan, 71 years ago, married and the father of seven children, an agricultural technician, farmer and indigenous education specialist, he researched and reflected on his people, the Purepecha nation. He was a wise man. He spoke fluently and articulately in Spanish and purhé. He was always willing to listen and explain with great patience what was asked.

With his feet in the roots of his community and his gaze on the Zapatista horizon, Don Juan was a  powerful cultural translator between two worlds. Listening to him was an event. Both a community representative and a national leader, his talks were true dramatic experiences in which, when referring to the indigenous world, he was speaking at the same time of the history of the original peoples and of Mexico, while he made linguistic reflections, analysed legal concepts, deciphered the destruction of the environment by capitalist barbarism, explained agricultural issues and gave sharp moral judgments.

His lectures were a unique blend of personal experiences, the recovery of the unwritten history of the Indian peoples, and an analysis of the relations of class exploitation and ethnic oppression. Musician and poet, his speeches seemed at times to be the work of a lay preacher, a celebration of the word.

When, in September 2003 in Cancun, Korean farmer Lee Kyung Hae set fire to himself in protest against the destruction of campesino agriculture by the World Trade Organization, the CNI organized an emotional funeral.  They put two photos of Mr Lee in the auditorium, in which he was smiling, neatly dressed in a suit and tie, no sign of his despair. A cross of melted paraffin and burning candles, decorated with red rose petals, took the shape of his body. A rectangle of flowers and another of candles framed the altar. Three bowls of copal topped and scented the sacred icon with which they paid him tribute. Juan Chavez was one of two notable Indian who officiated at the ceremony. With a seniority and a solemnity which would have been the envy of the most able ministers of religion, the Purépecha prepared the way for the earth and the natural world to welcome the martyr.

Don Juan had direct experience of being a migrant worker on the other side of the border. ”With no way out, we are going, boys, children, grandchildren – he said – : from the age of 13 or 14 they are going to cross the international line. They go to death there in the desert, to the abuse of the Immigration Service of the United States. The young boys are going because there is no way out. And with their departure, their families and communities disintegrate. There is ethnocide, the cultural death of the people and the devastation of natural resources.”

Relentless critic of governments of all colours, he received threats, reprisals and attempted bribery.  He was never daunted. ”They, the governments – he asserted – have always tended to be those who took from the indigenous communities across Mexico and who gave to the chiefs, the rich and the powerful. Governments are directly responsible for the creation of conflicts between peoples, and are those who have historically taken the land from the Indians to give to the profiteers, to the ejidatarios who had no roots in the land and sold or rented it to large businesses and plunderers of this country.”

Zapatista until the last second of his life, Don Juan emphasised, again and again, the close relationship between the rebels in south-east Mexico and the national indigenous movement. “The EZLN and the CNI are now – he explained – a single national force. The armed word which has been heard since January 94 has been accepted, defended and respected by us, because, historically the supreme right of the people is to rebellion. The EZLN flies today the demands that for centuries our people have been denied by governments. The CNI made these demands their own…”

 Tireless sower of another future, Don Juan proposed: “Let us dream together and give birth to the seed of hope, because this is the time of the indigenous peoples, of democracy, freedom and justice”. With his death, the country has lost one of its greatest men: a man who worked as few have done to make possible the arrival of the hour of the Indian peoples.

 En español: http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2012/06/05/index.php?section=politica&article=019a1pol

English translation by the UK Zapatista Solidarity Network  for the:

International Zapatista Translation Service, a collaboration of the:

 Chiapas Support Committee, California

 Wellington Zapatista Support Group

UK Zapatista Solidarity Network