Letter to Civil Society about the Red Alert
Originally published in
Spanish by the EZLN
************************************
Translated by irlandesa
Zapatista
Army of National Liberation
To
National and International Civil Society:
Señora, señorita, señor, young person, boy, girl:
This
is not a letter of farewell. At times it is going to seem as if it is, that it
is a farewell, but it is not. It is a letter of explanation. Well, that is what
we shall attempt. This was originally going to go out as a communiqué, but we
have chosen this form because, for good or for bad, when we have spoken with
you we have almost always done so in this most personal tone.
We
are the men, women, children and old ones of the Zapatista Army of National
Liberation. Perhaps you remember us - we rose up in arms on January 1, 1994,
and ever since then we have kept up our war against the forgetting, and we have
resisted the war of extermination which the different governments have waged,
unsuccessfully, against us. We live in the furthest corner of this country
which is called
Now,
as you know quite well, it so happens that, ever since that dawn of the
beginning of '94, we have dedicated our struggle - first with fire and then
with the word - our efforts, our life and our death, exclusively to the Indian
peoples of Mexico for the recognition of their rights and their culture. It was
natural - we Zapatistas are overwhelmingly indigenous. Mayan
indigenous, to be more precise. But, in addition, the indigenous in this
country - despite having been the foundation of this Nation's great
transformations - are still the social group which has been the most attacked
and the most exploited. If they have shown no mercy against anyone with their
military wars and the wars disguised as "political", the wars of
usurpation, of conquest, of annihilation, of marginalization, of ignorance - it
has been against the indigenous. The war against us has been so intense and
brutal that it has become routine to think that the indigenous will only be
able to escape from their conditions of marginalization and poverty if they
stop being indigenous...or if they are dead. We have been fighting to not die
and to not cease being indigenous. We have fought to be - alive and indigenous
- part of this nation which has been lifted up over our backs. The Nation for whom we have been the feet (almost always unshod)
with which it has walked in its decisive moments. The Nation for whom we
have been the arms and hands which have made the earth bear fruit and which
have erected the large buildings, edifices, churches and palaces that those who
have everything take such pride in. The Nation of which -
through word, look and manner, that is, through culture - we are the root.
Are
we raining insult upon injury? Perhaps it's because we are in June, the sixth
month of the year. Well, we just wanted to point out that the beginning of our
uprising was not just a "Here we are", shouted to a Nation that was
deaf and dumb because of the authoritarianism above. It was also a "This
is what we are and shall continue to be...but now with dignity, with democracy,
with justice, with liberty." You know this quite well, because, among
other things, you have been accompanying us since then.
Unfortunately,
after more than 7 years committed to that path, in April of 2001, politicians
from all the parties (primarily the PRI, PAN and PRD) and the self-styled
"three branches of the Union" (the presidency, the congress and the
courts) formed an alliance in order to deny the Indian peoples of Mexico the constitutional
recognition of their rights and culture. And they did so without caring about
the great national and international movement which had arisen and joined
together for that purpose. The great majority, including the media, were in
agreement that that debt should be settled. But the politicians don't care
about anything that doesn't get them money, and they rejected the same proposal
that they had approved years before when the San Andrés Accords were signed and
the Cocopa drafted a proposal for constitutional
reform. They
did so because they thought that, after a little time
had passed, everyone would forget. And perhaps many people forgot, but we did
not. We have memory, and it was they: the PRI, the PAN, the PRD, the President
of the Republic, the deputies and senators and the justices of the Supreme
Court of the Nation.
Yes,
the Indian peoples continue today in the underbelly of this Nation, and they
continue to suffer the same racism they have for 500 years. It doesn't matter
what they are saying now, when they are preparing for the elections (in other
words, to secure positions that will make them profits): they are not going to
do anything for the good of the majority, nor are they going to listen to
anything that isn't money.
If
we Zapatistas pride ourselves on anything it's honoring the word, the honest
and principled word. All this time we have been telling you that we will try
the path of dialogue and negotiation in order to achieve our demands. We told
you that we would make great efforts in the peaceful struggle. We told you that
we would focus on the indigenous struggle. And so it has been. We have not
deceived you.
All
the help which you have so generously contributed to this noble cause and
through those means has been for that and for nothing else. We have used
nothing for anything else. All the humanitarian help and aid
which we have received from
We
have, of course, used our word to refer to (and in some cases to express our
solidarity with) other struggles in
It
has not been easy. Do you remember the March of the 1,111? The
Consulta of
5000 in 1999? The March of the Color of the Earth in
2001? Well, imagine then what we felt when we saw and heard the
injustices and the hatred directed against campesinos, workers, students,
teachers, working persons, homosexuals and lesbians, young people, women, old
ones, children. Imagine what our heart felt.
We
were touched by a pain, a fury, an indignation which we already knew because it
has been, and is, ours. But now we were touched by it in the other. And we
heard the "we" which inspires us wanting to become larger, to make itself more collective, more national. But no, we had said
just the indigenous, and we had to honor that. I believe it's because of our
way - in other words, that we would prefer to die before we would betray our
word.
Now
we are consulting with our heart in order to see if we are going to say and do
something else. If the majority says yes, then we are going to do everything
possible to honor it. Everything, even dying if it's
necessary. We do not want to appear dramatic. We are only saying it in
order to make it clear how far we are willing to go. In other
words, not "until they give us a position, an amount of money, a promise,
a candidacy."
Perhaps
some may remember how, six months ago, we started with the "what is
missing is missing." Then fine, as is obvious, the hour has arrived to
decide whether we are going to proceed to find what is missing. Not to find, to
build. Yes, to build "something else."
In
some of the communiqués of the past few days, we let you know that we have
entered into an internal consulta.
We shall soon have the results, and we will inform you of them. Meanwhile then,
we are taking the opportunity to write you. We have always spoken to you with
sincerity, and also to those who are our heart and guardian, our Votan Zapata, the Zapatista communities, our collective
command.
It
will be a difficult and hard decision, just as our life and our struggle have
been. For four years we have been preparing the conditions in order to present
our peoples with doors and windows so that, when the moment comes, everyone had
all the ingredients in place for choosing which window to peer through and
which door to open. And that is our way. In other words, the EZLN leadership
does not lead, rather it seeks paths, steps, company,
direction, pace, destination. Several. And then they
present the peoples with those paths, and they analyze with them what would
happen if we follow one or the other course. Because, depending on the path we
travel, there are things which will be good and things which will be bad. And
then they - the Zapatista communities - speak their thoughts and decide, after
discussing and by majority, where we are all going. And then they give the
order, and then the EZLN leadership has to organize the work or prepare what is
needed to walk that path. Of course the EZLN leadership doesn't just look at
what happens only to them, but they have to be bound to the peoples and to
touch their hearts and to make themselves, as they say, the same thing. Then it
becomes all our gazes, all our ears, all our thoughts, all our hearts. But what
if, for whatever reason, the leadership does not look, or hear, or think, or
feel like all of us. Or some parts aren't seen or something else isn't heard or
other thoughts aren't thought or felt. Well, then, that is why everyone is
consulted. That is why everyone is asked. That is why agreement is taken among
everyone. If the majority says no, then the leadership has to seek another way,
and to present another way to the peoples in order to propose until we
collectively reach a decision. In other words, the people govern.
Now
the collective which we are will make a decision. They
are weighing the pros and cons. They are carefully making the calculations,
what is lost and what is gained. And, seeing that there is not a little to be
lost, it will be decided whether it is worth it.
Perhaps,
in some people's scales, there will be much weight given to what we have
achieved. Perhaps, in other people's scales, there will be more weight given to
the indignation and shame caused by seeing our earth and skies destroyed by the
stupid avarice of Power. In any event, we cannot remain passive, just
contemplating, as a gang of ruffians strips our Patria of everything that gives
it and everyone existence: dignity.
Ah,
well, many turns now. We are writing you for what may
be the last time in order to give you back your promised word of support. It is
not little that we have achieved in the indigenous struggle, and that has been
- as we have told you in public and in private - because of your help. We
believe you can be proud, without any shame, of all the good that we Zapatistas,
along with you, have built up to this point. And know that it has been an
honor, undeserved in any light, that people like you have walked at our side.
Now
we shall decide whether we are going to do something else, and we will make the
results public at the proper time. We are now making clear - in order to end
the speculations - that this "other thing" does not entail any
offensive military action on our part. We are not, on our part, planning nor
discussing reinitiating offensive military combat. Ever since February-March of
1994 our entire military presence has been, and is, defensive. The government
should say whether, on its part, there are any offensive war preparations,
whether by the federal forces or by their paramilitaries. And the PRI and the
PRD should say if they are planning any attack against us with the
paramilitaries they are supporting in
If
it is the decision of the Zapatista majority, those who have helped us up to
now in the exclusively indigenous struggle can, without any shame or regret,
distance themselves from the "other thing" to which Comandante Tacho referred in the
But
those who find in their heart an echo, even if it is small, of our new word and
who feel themselves called by the path, step, pace, company and destination
which we have chosen, may perhaps decide to renew their help (or to participate
directly)...knowing that it will be "another thing". Like that,
without tricks, without deceit, without hypocrisy, without lies.
We
thank the women. All the girls, teenagers, young women, señoritas, señoras and old ones (and those
who were changing from one to the other of those calendars throughout these 12
years) who helped us, who accompanied us and who, not a few times, made our
pain and our steps their own. To all of them, Mexicans and from other
countries, who helped us and who walked with us. In
everything we did you were the huge majority. Perhaps because
we share along with you, although each in their own way and place,
discrimination, contempt...and death.
We
thank the national indigenous movement, which did not sell itself for
government posts, for travel allowances, for the flattery that the powerful
classify as "fit for indigenous and animals." The
one which listened to our word and gave us theirs. The
one which opened its heart, its home, to us. The one which resisted and resists
with dignity, raising very high the color we are of the earth.
We
thank the young men and women of
We
thank the homosexuals, lesbians, transsexuals, transgender persons and
"everyone in their own way." Those who shared with
us their struggle for respect for difference, knowing that it is not a defect
to be hidden. Those who demonstrated that courage has nothing to do with
testosterone and who, time and again, gave us some of the most beautiful
lessons of dignity and nobility we have received.
We
thank the intellectuals, artists and scientists, from
We
thank the honest workers of the press and the decent media who showed,
truthfully and to the entire world, what they saw and heard, and who respected,
without distorting, our voice and path. We extend you our solidarity in these
hard moments you are going through in the exercise of your profession, where
you are risking your lives, you are attacked and, like us, you find no justice.
And,
so that no one is missed, we thank everyone who, honestly and sincerely, helped
us.
I
said, at the beginning of this letter, that it was not a farewell. Well, it so
happens that for some people it is. Although for others it will be what is, in reality, a promise... Because what
is missing can now be seen...
Vale. Salud and, from heart to heart,
thank you for everything.
In the name of all the Zapatistas of the EZLN.
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.
Subcomandante Insurgente
Marcos
PS
- You can see now that we aren't thinking about playing football. Or not thinking only about
that. Because some day we will play against the Internazionale of Milan. We,
or what is left of us.