Communiqué from the Indigenous Revolutionary Clandestine Committee -
General Command of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (CCRI-CG of the EZLN)
Mexico
September 22, 2007.
To: the People of Mexico
To: Adherents to the Sixth Declaration and the Other Campaign.
Brothers and Sisters:
Compañeros and Compañeras:
The EZLN communicates the following reflections which have been made and the decisions which have been taken:
I. - REFLECTIONS
Chiapas. - At this time, the state government of Chiapas and the federal government (of the PRD-PRI and the PAN respectively) carry forward a campaign against the Zapatista communities. “Official” evictions, paramilitary attacks, invasions sponsored by officials,
persecutions and threats, are again part of the atmosphere of indigenous communities, the Zapatistas, who have been dedicated to constructing their own destiny and improving
their living conditions, always without losing their indigenous identity.
As in the worst times of the PRI, that of Absalón Castellanos and “Croquetas” Albores Guillén, the PRD government of Chiapas attacks the poor and needy, and woos and benefits the powerful. As with any government of the right, the government of Juan Sabines in Chiapas
continues forward with repression and plunder, but now with the banner of the Left and the double endorsement of the two “presidencies” that our country suffers: that of Felipe Calderón (of the PAN), and that of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (of the PRD and, above all, of himself). Different than on other occasions, these aggressions have counted on the silence of voices that before rose up to protest and demand justice, and are quiet now, perhaps so that it is not remembered that they applauded AMLO’s support to Juan Sabines and his recent call to support the PRD’s candidates for municipal presidencies and the local Congress.
Thus is fulfilled that which we have been saying for three years: there above there are no principals or convictions. There are, on the other hand, ambitions and conveniences. And it is fulfilled as we said: the institutional Left is no more than the shameful right, a right with educated endorsement.
The same crime has a differentiated judgment: if the PAN does the repression, then one must mobilize and stop fascism; if the PRD does the same thing, then one must lose memory, be quiet, make ridiculous juggling, or applaud. In Chiapas there is an authentic leap backwards
in government policy, but it does not bear the coat of arms of the confessional right, but that of the “modern” and “legitimate” Left.
We will do what we know how to do: Resist! It’s not important that we are alone. It is not the first time and, before we become a coffee house fashion, we already were.
Mexico. - Many are the aspects on which one must reflect, opine and take a position. This will be in another place and form. For now we only say that what is determining for our country is not in the alleged “neo independence”of the legislative power with respect to the communications media. There above politics is the art of simulation and the real agendas of organized crime (that is to say, of the rulers) are not demonstrated in the declarations of the politicians.
What we want to say now has to do with the double effort, civil and peaceful, in which we are currently pledged as Zapatistas: the Encuentro of the Indian Peoples of America and the Other Campaign.
The first represents an unprecedented event. Outside of the official national and international circles, delegates and representatives of the original peoples of the American continent will meet to know each other directly, to see and listen to each other. In other words to begin to respect each other. That the meeting will be carried out in the besieged territory of the Yaqui tribe, in the Mexican state of Sonora, symbolizes our permanent struggle for becoming visible and giving ourselves the voice and ear that they deny us above. On October 11-14, in Vícam, Sonora, Mexico, the Indian peoples will be represented that, by our dark blood, have added to the Zapatista color.
In what is referred to as the Other Campaign, it represents for us the only serious effort to construct a national movement from below and to the Left.
It calls attention to the fact that those who before criticized this effort, now use the same words that we used to refer to the political class, to the need for listening and organizing from below.
As a signal of our commitment with those who are now our compañeros and compañeras, besides realizing meetings in our territory so that we know each other more, regularly one or more EZLN delegations travel and visit the places where it is struggling to know them more.
Thus we made a first tour through the entire country, and now that we are making a rough draft of a national program of struggle, where is the feeling and thought of those who form the Other Campaign, we have realized a second visit to the North of Mexico.
As we have done on other occasions, each time that we go outside of our territory to visit other parts of our country, the EZLN has directed itself to the existing political-military organizations to ask them respectfully not to carry out actions that could place in danger the life and liberty of our delegates in their civilian and peaceful work. In all cases, we have received the attention and
respect of said revolutionary organizations, and on some occasions our political initiatives have had their sympathy.
They are organizations with which we have differences of conception, of structure, of method, of analysis, of history, but which we recognize and respect. Their existence and persistence, like ours, is due to the grave living conditions that our people suffer and to the lack of spaces of participation and struggle in politics. Currently, one of these revolutionary organizations, the Ejército Popular Revolucionario (Popular Revolutionary Army), or EPR, sustains a political-military campaign to demand the presentation alive of two of its compañeros of struggle.
The demand for presentation of these disappeared is not only legitimate, it is also a current denunciation of the dirty war which the amorous lover of the military uniform, Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, is reediting.
As Zapatistas, we think that we cannot ask the EPR to permit our delegation to tour the territory where they have presence or influence, to declare a truce and suspend the campaign that it maintains with the just and legitimate demand for the presentation of their disappeared.
On the other hand. The nervous stupidity that those in charge of the official repression suffer, has been sharpened with the recent actions of the EPR so that one would be able to think that,
notwithstanding the command of the Revolutionary Popular Army. Generously, should it accede to a truce so that our delegation could fulfill its work, the military government of Felipe Calderón would be able to mount an attack and later seek to adjudicate the EPR’s authorship arguing nonexistent disputes.
A short time ago a government official said that the disappearances denounced by the EPR were not carried out by the government, but by another revolutionary organization. But it is known that the government detained them and has them. Therefore, the government has
to present them alive.
II. - DECISIONS.
Compañeros and Compañeras:
Due to all of the above, which we have tried to synthesize as much as possible, we have decided the following:
First. - The EZLN’s Sixth Commission suspends the Other Campaign’s second stage tour to the states and regions of the country’s center and south. It had been announced for the months of October, November and December, 2007. Instead, we will carry out civil and peaceful actions in defense of Zapatista communities.
Second. - The EZLN will fulfill its promise that, as part of the organizing commission, it assumed for the realization of the Encuentro of the Indian Peoples of America. A delegation of the Zapatista Command will travel expressly to be present in the Yaqui tribe’s territory, in Vícam, Sonora, Mexico, on the days of the 11-14 of October, to participate in that important meeting, key to the future struggle of the original peoples of our continent.
Liberty and Justice for Atenco!
Liberty and Justice for Oaxaca!
For the Indigenous Revolutionary Clandestine Committee-General
Command of the Zapatista National Liberation Army.
The EZLN’s Sixth Commission
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
Mexico, September 2007.
Translation: Chiapas Support Committee
cezmat@igc.org
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