Marcos on responses to the 6th declaration
north america / mexico |
indigenous struggles |
press release
Friday July 29, 2005 22:49 by Marcos (trans irlandesa) - EZLN
A Penguin in the Selva Lacandona
Macos of the EZLN responds to some of the responses they have received to the text of the 6th declaration. He goes on to ask what impact all the international and national solidarity has had on the children who have grown up during the Zapatista rebellion
The famous Penguin
A Penguin in the Selva Lacandona
(The zapatista is just a little house, perhaps the smallest, on a
street called "Mexico," in a barrio called "Latin America," in a city
called the "World.")
You're not going to believe me, but there's a penguin in the Ezeta
Headquarters. You'll say "Hey, Sup, what's up? You already blew the
fuses with the Red Alert," but it's true. In fact, while I'm writing
this to you, he (the penguin) is right here next to me, eating the
same hard, stale bread (it has so much mold that it's just one degree
away from being penicillin), which, along with coffee, were my
rations for today. Yes, a penguin. But I'll tell you more about this
later, because first we must talk a bit about the Sixth Declaration.
We have carefully read some of your doubts, criticism, advice and
debates about what we posited in the Sixth. Not all of them, it's
true, but you can chalk that up, not to laziness, but to the rain and
mud that's lengthening the roads even more in the mountains of the
Mexican Southeast. Although there are many points, I'm only going to
refer to some of them in this text.
Some of the primary points of criticism refer to the so-called new
intercontinental, to the national Mexican nature of the Sixth, and,
along with this, to the proposal (it's still just that, a proposal)
of joining the indigenous struggle with that of other social sectors,
notably with workers in the countryside and the city. Others refer to
the definition of the anti-capitalist left and to the Sixth's dealing
with "old issues" or using "worn out" concepts. A few others warn of
dangers: the displacement of the indigenous issue by others and,
consequently, the Indian peoples being excluded as the subjects of
transformation. The vanguardism and centralism that could arise in
the politics of alliances with organizations of the left. The
replacement of social leadership by political leadership. That the
right would use zapatismo in order to strike a blow at López
Obrador, in other words, at the political center (I know that those
observations speak of AMLO's being on the left, but he says he's in
the center, so here we're going to take what he says, not what they
say about him). The majority of these observations are well intended,
and they seek to help, rightly warning of obstacles in the path, or
rightly providing opinions as to how the movement which the Sixth is
trying to arouse might grow.
Concerning cutting and pasting
I will leave aside those who are lamenting that the Red Alert
didn't end with the renewal of offensive combat by the EZLN. We are
sorry that we didn't fulfill your expectations of blood, death and
destruction. No way, we're sorry. Perhaps another time…We will also
leave aside the dishonest criticisms. Like those who edit the text of
the Sixth Declaration so that it says what they want it to say. This
is what Señor Victor M. Toledo did in his article "Overweening
Zapatismo. Sustainability, indigenous resistances and neoliberalism,"
published in the Mexican newspaper La Jornada (July 18, 2005). I
believe one can debate the aims and methods posited by the Sixth
Declaration without needing to be dishonest. Because Señor
Toledo, utilizing the "cut and paste" method, has edited the Sixth in
order to note that it lacks…what he cut. Toledo said: "It is
surprising that (the EZLN in the Sixth Declaration) decided to join
forces with campesinos, workers, laborers, students, women, young
people, homosexuals, lesbians, transsexuals, priests, nuns and social
activists, and that it does not make one single reference to the
thousands of indigenous communities devoted to the search for
sustainability."
Well, the parts which Señor Toledo edited out of the Sixth
stated the opposite. For example, in the part which recognizes the
existence of resistances and alternatives to neoliberalism in Mexico,
and in first place in the enumeration of them, it notes: "And so we
learned that there are indigenous, whose lands are far away from here
in Chiapas, and they are building their autonomy and defending their
culture and caring for the land, the forests, the water." Perhaps
Señor Toledo was expecting a detailed account of those
indigenous struggles, but that is one thing, and it's another very
different and dishonest thing to say that there was not one single
reference. In the account made by Señor Toledo of the efforts
of those with which the EZLN decided to join, he has cut out the
first social group to which the Sixth refers, which says, verbatim:
"And then, according to the agreement of the majority of those people
to whom we are going to listen, we will make a struggle with
everyone, with indigenous, workers, campesinos, etcetera." In
addition, the first point of the Sixth precisely states: "1. We are
going to continue to fight for the Indian peoples of Mexico, but now
no longer just for them nor just with them, but for all the exploited
and dispossessed of Mexico, with all of them and throughout the
country." And, at the end of the Sixth, it says "We are inviting all
indigenous, workers, campesinos…etcetera." In sum, I imagined there
might be, among those irritated by our criticisms of López
Obrador and the PRD, more serious, and honest, arguments for the
debate. Perhaps they might be presented some day. We'll wait, that is
our specialty.
Concerning we don't want you in this barrio
There are also those criticisms, although more hidden, that the
Sixth Declaration makes reference to some international issues and
the manner in which they are addressed. And so some people criticize
the fact that we refer to the blockade which the US government
maintains against the people of Cuba. "It's a very old issue," they
say. How old? As old as the blockade? Or as old as the resistance of
the Indian peoples of Mexico? What are the "modern" issues? Who can
honestly look at the world and pass over - "because it's an old
issue" - an attack against a people who are doing what all peoples
should do, that is, deciding their direction, path and destiny as a
nation ("defending national sovereignty" they say)? Who can ignore
the decades of resistance of an entire people against US arrogance?
Who, knowing that they can do something - even if it's but little -
to recognize that effort, would not do so? Who can ignore that that
people has to lift itself up each time after a natural catastrophe,
not only without the aid and loans enjoyed by other countries, but
also in the midst of a brutal and inhumane siege? Who can ignore the
US base of Guantánamo on Cuban territory, the laboratory of
torture which it has been turned into, the wound it represents in the
sovereignty of a Nation and say: "Go on, that's an old issue."
In any event, does it not seem natural that, in a movement which
is primarily indigenous like the zapatista, sympathy and admiration
would be evoked by what the indigenous in Ecuador and Bolivia are
doing? That they would feel solidarity with those who have no land
and are struggling in Brazil. That they would identify with the
"piqueteros" of Argentina, and they would salute the Mothers of the
Plaza de Mayo. That they would perceive similarities in experiences
and organization with the Mapuche of Chile and with the indigenous of
Colombia. That they would warn of the obvious in Venezuela, namely:
that the US government is doing everything possible to violate the
sovereignty of that country. That they would enthusiastically applaud
the great mobilizations in Uruguay in opposition to the imposition of
"macroeconomic stability."
The Sixth Declaration does not speak to the institutions of above,
good or bad. The Sixth is looking below. And it is seeing a reality
that is shared, at least since the conquests made by Spain and
Portugal of the lands which now share the name of "Latin America."
Perhaps this feeling of belonging to the "patria grande" which is
Latin America is "old," and it is "modern" to turn one's gaze and
aspirations to the "restless and brutal north." Perhaps, but if
anything is "old" in this corner of Mexico, of America and of the
World, it is the resistance of the Indian peoples.
Concerning we don't want you on this street
There are also (I shall note and summarize some of them) those
criticisms for trying to "nationalize and even internationalize" our
discourse and our struggle. The Sixth, they tell us, falls into that
nonsense. Therefore recommending that the EZLN remain in Chiapas,
that it strengthen the Good Government Juntas and that it confine
itself to the waterproof compartment that is their lot. That once
that project is consolidated, and once we have demonstrated that we
can "put into practice an alternative modernity to that of
neoliberalism in their own lands," then we can set forth on the
national, international and intergalactic arenas. In the face of
those arguments, we present our reality. We are not trying to compete
with anyone to see who is more anti-neoliberal or who has made more
advances in the resistance, but, with modesty, our level and
contributions are in the Good Government Juntas. You can come, speak
with the authorities or with the peoples, ignore the letters and
communiqués where we have explained this process and
investigate, first hand, what is happening here, the problems which
are confronted, how they are resolved. I do not know before whom we
have to demonstrate that all this is "putting into practice an
alternative modernity to that of neoliberalism in their own lands,"
and who is going to characterize us con palomita o tache, and then,
yes, allow us to come out and attempt to join our struggle with other
sectors.
Besides, we had the premonition that those criticisms would be
praise…if the Sixth had declared its unconditional support of the
political center represented by López Obrador. And if we were
to have said that "we are going to come out in order to join with
those citizens' networks in support of AMLO," there would be
enthusiasm, "yes," "of course you have to leave, you don't have to
stay shut away, it's time for zapatismo to abandon its hideout and
join its experiences with the masses devoted to the one-in-waiting."
Hmm…López Obrador. He just presented his "Alternative National
Project" to the citizens' networks. We are suspicious, and we don't
see anything more than plastic cosmetics (and which change according
to the audience) and a list of forgettable promises. Whatever,
perhaps someone might tell AMLO that he can't promise "the
fulfillment of the San Andrés Accords," because that means,
among other things, reforming the Constitution, and, if my memory
serves, that is the work of the Congress. In any event, the promise
should be made by a political party, noting that its candidates will
fulfill it if they are elected. The other way there would have to be
a proposal that the federal executive would govern above the other
branches or ignore them. Or a dictatorship. But it's not about that.
Or is it?
In the politics of above, the programs seek, during election
periods, to add as many people as they can. But by adding some,
others are subtracted. Then they decide to add the most and subtract
the least. AMLO has created, as a parallel structure to the PRD, the
"citizens' networks," and his objective is to add those who aren't
members of the PRD. AMLO has presented 6 persons for those citizens'
networks who are going to coordinate, at a national level, all those
non-PRD lopezobradoristas. Let's look at two of the "national
coordinators."
Socorro Díaz Palacios, Under Secretary of Civil Protection
in the Carlos Salinas de Gortari government. On January 3, 1994,
while the federales were perpetrating the Ocosingo market massacre,
he stated (I'm citing the Department of Government Press Bulletin):
"The violent groups which are acting in the state of Chiapas display
a mix of national as well as foreign interests and persons. They
demonstrate affinities with other violent factions which are
operating in Central American countries. Some indigenous have been
recruited, pressured by the chiefs of these groups, and they are also
undoubtedly being manipulated as regards their historic claims which
should continue being dealt with." And further on: " The Mexican
Army, for its part, will continue acting with great respect for the
rights of individuals and of peoples while giving a clear and
decisive response to the demand for order and security…blah, blah,
blah." In the days that followed, the Air Force bombarded the
indigenous communities south of San Cristóbal de Las Casas,
and the federal army detained, tortured and assassinated 3 indigenous
in the community of Morelia, at that time in the municipality of
Altamirano, Chiapas, Mexico.
Ricardo Monreal Ávila - In January of 1998, just a few days
after the Acteal massacre, the then PRI deputy and member of the
Permanent Commission of the Congress of the Union "commented that the
Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) is a paramilitary group,
the same as those who killed the 45 Tzotzil indigenous on December
22, 1997 in Chenalhó, Chiapas. 'Because everything that acts
like an Army without being one and arms itself as civilians is
paramilitary. They all must disarm, because they have all contributed
to this unnecessary, unjust and stupid violence which has had all
Mexicans in mourning,' he stated" ( "El Informador" of Guadalajara,
Jalisco. 3/1/98). Days later, after moving to the PRD because the PRI
didn't give him the candidacy for governor of Zacatecas, he was to
state (I am citing the note by Ciro Pérez and Andrea Becerril
in La Jornada, 1/7/98) that the Chenalhó episode (referring to
the Acteal massacre) was indeed planned, "but not by the one stated
by the white leader of the dark-skinned indigenous," he opined that
the EZLN's position regarding the massacre had to do with "securing
an preemptive justification for Marcos and for those interests he is
protecting," and he finished by warning that the EZ serves foreign
interests which seek "to obtain control of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec
region, its resources and its strategic location, an objective which
is suitably served by Marcos and the armies which are fighting for
the indigenous flag." Hmm…it sounds like, like…yes, Point 28 of
AMLO's program which reads, verbatim: "We will link the Pacific with
the Atlantic, in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, through the construction
of two commercial ports: one in Salina Cruz, Oaxaca, and the other in
Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, as well as container shipment railways and
the widening of the existing highway."
López Obrador has defined himself with those individuals.
He has added some, and, with them, he has subtracted, among others,
the "neozapatistas."
But, on another hand, why is there nothing in that program about
the political prisoners and disappeared in the dirty war of the 70s
and 80s? Nor about the punishment of former officials who enriched
themselves illicitly. Nor about serving justice in the cases of the
massacres of Acteal, El Bosque, Aguas Blancas, El Charco. I am afraid
that, as to justice, López Obrador is offering "wipe the slate
clean and start anew," which, paradoxically, is not new. Before
returning to the criticisms of the statements the Sixth Declaration
of the Selva Lacandona makes on Mexico, Latin America and the World,
allow me to tell you something:
That we are going to come out
We are going to come out. We are going to come out, and they had
better get used to the idea. We are going to come out, and I believe,
there are only 4 ways of stopping us.
One is with a preventative attack, so fashionable in this
neoliberal period. The predictable steps are: accusation of ties with
drug trafficking or with organized crime in general; invocations of
the rule of law and rubbish to that effect; an intense media
campaign; a double attack (against the communities and against the
General Command); damage control (that is, distributing money,
concessions and privileges among the "spokespersons of public
opinion"); the authorities call for calm; politicians state that the
most important thing is that the election takes place in peace and
with social tranquility; after a brief impasse, the candidates renew
their campaigns.
Another is taking us prisoners the moment we come out, or during
the course of the "other campaign." The steps? Clandestine meetings
among the leaders of the PRI, PAN and PRD in order to make agreements
(like in 2001, with the indigenous counter-reform); the Cocopa states
that dialogue has broken off; the Congress votes to overturn the Law
for Dialogue; the PGR activates the arrest warrants; an AFI commando
unit, with help from the federal army, takes the zapatista delegates
prisoner; simultaneously the federal army takes the rebel indigenous
communities "in order to prevent disorder and maintain the peace and
national stability;" damage control, etcetera.
Another is to kill us. Stages: a hired assassin is contracted; a
provocation is mounted; the crime is committed; the authorities
regret the incident and offer to investigate "to its fullest extent,
regardless of outcome…." Another alternative: "a regrettable accident
caused the death of the zapatista delegation which was on its way to
blah, blah, blah." In both: damage control, etcetera.
Another is to disappear us. I am referring to a forced
disappearance, as was applied to hundreds of political opponents in
the PRI "stability" period. It could be like this: the zapatista
delegates don't appear; the last time they were seen was blah, blah,
blah; the authorities offer to investigate; the hypothesis is
ventured of a problem of passion; the authorities state that they are
investigating all leads, and they are not discarding the possibility
that the zapatista delegation has taken advantage of their departure
to flee, with a quantity of bitter pozol, to a fiscal paradise;
INTERPOL is investigating in the Cayman Islands; damage control,
etcetera.
These are the initial problems which the Sixth could run up
against. We have been preparing for many years to confront those
possibilities. That is why the Red Alert has not been lifted for the
insurgent troops, just for the towns. And that is why one of the
communiqués pointed out that the EZLN could lose, through
jail, death or forced disappearance, part or all of their publicly
known leadership and continue fighting.
A Penguin in the Selva Lacandona II/II
(The zapatista is just a little house, perhaps the smallest, on a
street called "Mexico," in a barrio called "Latin America," in a city
called the "World.")
I was speaking to you about the critiques of the points made by
the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona concerning Mexico, Latin
America and the World. Well, in response, allow me some questions:
Concerning there's no place for you in this world
What happens, for example, when, more than a decade ago, a little
girl (let's say between 4 and 6 years old), indigenous and Mexican,
sees her father, her brothers, her uncles, her cousins or her
neighbors, taking up arms, a ton of pozol and a number of tostadas
and "going off to war?" What happens when some of them don't return?
What happens when that little girl grows up, and, instead of going
for firewood, she goes to school, and she learns to read and write
with the history of her people's struggle?
What happens when that girl reaches youth, after 12 years of
seeing, hearing and speaking with Mexicans, Basques, North Americans,
Italians, Spaniards, Catalans, French persons, Dutch, German, Swiss,
British, Finnish, Danish, Swedish, Greek, Russian, Japanese,
Australian, Filipino, Korean, Argentinean, Chilean, Canadian,
Venezuelan, Colombian, Ecuadorian, Guatemalan, Puerto Rican,
Dominican, Uruguayan, Brazilian, Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan,
Honduran, Bolivian and etceteras, and learns of what their countries,
their struggles, their worlds are like?
What happens when she sees those men and women sharing
deprivations, work, anguish and joys with her community?
What happens with that girl-then-adolescent-then-young-woman after
having seen and heard "the civil societies" for 12 years, bringing
not only projects, but also histories and experiences from diverse
parts of Mexico and the World? What happens when she sees and listens
to the electrical workers, working with Italians and Mexicans in the
installation of a turbine in order to provide a community with light?
What happens when she meets with young university students at the
height of the 1999-2000 strike? What happens when she discovers that
there are not just men and women in the world, but that there are
many paths and ways of attraction and love. What happens when she
sees young students at the sit-in at Amador Hernández? What
happens when she hears what campesinos from other parts of Mexico
have said? What happens when they tell her of Acteal and the
displaced in Los Altos of Chiapas?
What happens when she learns of the accords and advances of the
peoples and organizations of the National Indigenous Congress? What
happens when she finds out that the political parties ignored the
death of her people and decided to reject the San Andrés
Accords? What happens when they recount to her that the PRD
paramilitaries attacked a zapatista march &endash; peaceful and for
the purpose of carrying water to other indigenous &endash; and left
several compañeros with bullet wounds on just April 10? What
happens when she sees federal soldiers passing by every day with
their war tanks, their artillery vehicles, their rifles pointing at
her house? What happens when someone tells her that in a place called
Ciudad Juárez, young women like her are being kidnapped, raped
and murdered, and the authorities are not seeing that justice is
done?
What happens when she listens to her brothers and sisters, to her
parents, to her relatives, talking about when they went to the March
of the 1111 in 1997, to the Consulta of 5000 in 1999, when they talk
about what they saw and heard, about the families who welcomed them,
about what they are like as citizens, how they also are fighting, how
they won't give up either.
What happens when she sees, for example, Eduardo Galeano, Pablo
González Casanova, Adolfo Gilly, Alain Touraine, Neil Harvey,
in mud up to their knees, meeting together in a hut in La Realidad,
talking about neoliberalism. What happens when she listens to Daniel
Viglietti singing "A desalambrar" in a community? What happens when
she sees the play, "Zorro el zapato" which the French children from
Tameratong presented on zapatista lands? What happens when she sees
and hears José Saramago talking, talking to her? What happens
when she hears Oscar Chávez singing in Tzotzil? What happens
when she hears a Mapuche indigenous recounting her experience of
struggle and resistance in a country called Chile? What happens she
goes to a meeting where someone who says he is a "piquetero" recounts
how they are organizing and resisting in a country called Argentina?
What happens when she hears an indigenous from Colombia saying
that, in the midst of guerillas, paramilitaries, soldiers and US
military advisors, her compañeros are trying to build
themselves as the indigenous they are? What happens when she hears
the "citizen musicians" playing that very otherly music called "rock"
in a camp for the displaced? What happens when she knows that an
Italian football team called Internazionale de Milan are financially
helping the wounded and displaced of Zinacantán? What happens
when she sees a group of North American, German and British men and
women arrive with electronic appliances, and she listens to them
talking about what they are doing in their countries in order to do
away with injustice, while teaching her to assemble and use those
appliances, and later she's in front of the microphone saying: "You
are listening to Radio Insurgente, the voice of those without voice,
broadcasting from the mountains of the Mexican southeast, and we are
going to begin with a nice cumbia called 'La Suegra', and we're
advising the health workers that they should go to the Caracol to
pick up the vaccine."
What happens when she hears at the Good Government Junta that that
Catalan came from very far away to personally deliver what a
solidarity committee put together for aid for the resistance? What
happens when she sees a North American coming and going with the
coffee, honey and crafts (and the product of their sale), which are
made in the zapatista cooperatives, when she sees that they haven't
commanded any special attention despite the fact that they've been
making them for years without anyone paying them any notice? What
happens when she sees the Greeks bringing money for school materials
and then working along with the zapatista indigenous in the
construction? What happens when she sees a frentista arriving at the
Caracol and delivering a bus full of medicines, medical equipment,
hospital beds and even uniforms and shoes for the health workers,
while other young people from the FZLN are dividing up in order to
help in the community clinics?
What happens when she sees the people from "Schools for Chiapas"
arriving, departing and leaving, in effect, a school, a school bus,
pencils, notebooks, chalkboards? What happens when she sees Hindus,
Koreans, Japanese, Australians, Slovenes and Iranians arriving at the
language school in Oventik (which a "citizen" compañero has
kept functioning under heroic circumstances)? What happens when she
sees a person arriving in order to deliver a book to the Security
Committee with translations of the EZLN communiqués in Arab or
Japanese or Kurd and the royalties from their sales?
What happens when, for example, a girl grows up and reaches youth
in the zapatista resistance over 12 years in the mountains of the
Mexican Southeast?
I'm asking because, for example, there are two insurgentas doing
sentry duty here for the Red Alert in the EZLN headquarters. They
are, as the compas say, "one hundred percent indigenous and one
hundred percent Mexican." One is 18 and the other 16. Or, in other
words, in 1994, the one was 6 and the other was 4. There are dozens
like them in our mountain positions, hundreds in the militias,
thousands in organizational and community positions, tens of
thousands in the zapatista communities. The immediate commander of
the two doing sentry duty is an insurgent lieutenant, indigenous, 22
years old, in other words, 10 years old in 1994. The position is
under the command of an insurgent captain, also indigenous, who, as
it should be, likes literature very much and is 24 years old, that
is, 12 at the beginning of the uprising. And there are men and women
all over these lands who passed from childhood to youth to maturity
in the zapatista resistance.
Then I ask: What am I saying to you? That the world is wide and
far away? That only what happens to us is important? That what
happens in other parts of Mexico, of Latin America and of the world
doesn't interest us, that we shouldn't involve ourselves in the
national or international, and that we should shut ourselves away
(and deceive ourselves), thinking that we can achieve, by ourselves,
what our relatives died for? That we shouldn't pay any attention to
all the signs which are telling us that the only was we can survive
is by doing what we are going to do? That we should refuse the
listening and words of those who have never denied us either one?
That we should respect and help those same politicians who denied us
a dignified resolution of the war? That, before coming out, we have
to pass a test in order to see whether what we have constructed here
over the last 12 years of war is of sufficient merit?
We told you in the Sixth Declaration that new generations have
entered into the struggle. And they are not only new, they also have
other experiences, other histories. We did not tell you in the Sixth,
but I'm telling you now: they are better than us, the ones who
started the EZLN and began the uprising. They see further, their step
is more firm, they are more open, they are better prepared, they are
more intelligent, more determined, more aware.
What the Sixth presents is not an "imported" product, written by a
group of wise men in a sterile laboratory and then introduced into a
social group. The Sixth comes out of what we are now and of where we
are. That is why those first parts appeared, because what we are
proposing cannot be understood without understanding what our
experience and organization was before, that is, our history. And
when I say "our history" I am not speaking just of the EZLN, I am
also including all those men and women of Mexico, of Latin America
and of the World who have been with us…even if we have not seen them
and they are in their worlds, their struggles, their experiences,
their histories.
The zapatista struggle is a little hut, one more little house,
perhaps the most humble and simplest among those which are being
raised, with identical or greater hardships and efforts, in this
street which is called "Mexico." We who reside in this little house
identify with the band which peoples the entire barrio of below which
is called "Latin America," and we hope to contribute something to
making the great City which is called the "World" habitable. If this
is bad, attribute it to all those men and women who, struggling in
their houses, barrios, cities &endash; in their worlds &endash; took
a place among us. Not above, not below, but with us.
A Penguin in the Selva Lacandona
Alright, a promise is a promise. At the beginning of this document
I told you I was going to tell you about the penguin that's here, in
the mountains of the Mexican Southeast, so here goes.
It took place in one of the insurgent barracks, a little more than
a month ago, just before the Red Alert. I was on my way, heading
towards the position that was to be the headquarters of the
Comandancia General of the EZLN. I had to pick the insurgentes and
insurgentas up there, the ones who were going to make up my unit
during the Red Alert. The commander of the barracks, a Lieutenant
Colonel Insurgente, was finishing up the dismantling of the camp and
was making arrangements for moving the impedimenta. In order to
lighten the burden of the support bases who were providing supplies
for the insurgent troops, the soldiers in this unit had developed a
few subsistence measures of their own: a vegetable garden and a farm.
They decided they would take as many of the vegetables as they could,
and the rest would be left to the hand of god. As for the chickens,
hens and roosters, the alternative was to eat them or leave them.
"Better we eat them than the federales," the men and women (most of
them young people under the age of 20) who were maintaining that
position decided, not without reason. One by one, the animals ended
up in the pot and, from there to the soldiers' soup dishes. There
weren't very many animals either, so in a few days the poultry
population had been reduced to two or three specimens.
When only one remained, on the precise day of departure, what
happened happened…
The last chicken began walking upright, perhaps trying to be
mistaken for one of us and to pass unnoticed with that posture. I
don't know much about zoology, but it does not appear that the
anatomical makeup of chickens is made for walking upright, so, with
the swaying produced by the effort of keeping itself upright, the
chicken was teetering back and forth, without being able to come up
with a precise course. It was then that someone said "it looks like a
penguin." The incident provoked laughter which resulted in sympathy.
The chicken did, it's true, look like a penguin, it was only missing
the white bib. The fact is that the jokes ended up preventing the
"penguin" from meeting the same fate as its compañeros from
the farm.
The hour of departure arrived, and, while checking to be sure
nothing was left, they realized that the "penguin" was still there,
swaying from one side to another, but not returning to its natural
position. "Let's take it," I said, and everyone looked at me to see
if I were joking or serious. It was the insurgenta Toñita who
offered to take it. It began raining, and she put it in her lap,
under the heavy plastic cape which Toñita wore to protect her
weapon and her rucksack from the water. We began the march in the
rain.
The penguin arrived at the EZLN Headquarters and quickly adapted
to the routines of the insurgent Red Alert. It often joined (never
losing the posture of a penguin) the insurgents and insurgentas at
cell time, the hour of political study. The theme during those days
was the 13 zapatista demands, and the compañeros summed it up
under the title "Why We Are Struggling." Well, you're not going to
believe me, but when I went to the cell meeting, under the pretext of
looking for hot coffee, I saw that it was the penguin who was paying
the most attention. And, also, from time to time, it would peck at
someone who was sleeping in the middle of the political talk, as if
chiding him to pay attention.
There are no other animals in the barracks…I mean except for the
snakes, the "chibo" tarantulas, two field rats, the crickets, ants,
an indeterminate (but very large) number of mosquitoes and a cojolito
who came to sing, probably because it felt called by the music
&endash; cumbias, rancheras, corridos, songs of love, of spite
&endash; which emanated from the small radio which is used to hear
the morning news by Pascal Beltrán on Antena Radio and then
"Plaza Pública" by Miguel Ángel Granados Chapa on Radio
UNAM.
Well, I told you there weren't any other animals, so it would seem
normal that "penguin" would think that we were its kind and tend to
behave as if it were one more of us. We hadn't realized how far it
had gone until one afternoon when it refused to eat in the corner it
had been assigned, and it went over to the wooden table. Penguin made
a racket, more chicken-like than penguin-like, until we understood
that it wanted to eat with us. You should understand that Penguin's
new identity prevented the former chicken from flying the minimum
necessary for getting up on the bench, and so it was insurgenta Erika
who lifted it up and let it eat from her plate.
The insurgent captain in charge had told me that the chicken, I
mean penguin, did not like to be alone at night, perhaps because it
feared that the possums might confuse it with a chicken, and it
protested until someone took it to their tarp. It wasn't very long
before Erika and Toñita made it a white bib out of fabric
(they wanted to paint it [Penguin]with lime or house paint, but I
managed to dissuade them…I think), so that there would be no doubt
that it was a penguin, and no one would confuse it with a chicken.
You may be thinking that I am, or we are, delirious, but what I'm
telling you is true. Meanwhile, Penguin has become part of the
Comandancia General of the Ezeta, and perhaps those of you who come
to the preparatory meetings for the "Other Campaign" might see it
with your own eyes. It could also be expected that Penguin might be
the mascot for the EZLN football team when it faces, soon, the Milan
Internazionale. Someone might then perhaps take a picture for a
souvenir. Perhaps, after a while and looking at the image, a girl or
a boy might ask: "Mama, and who are those next to the Penguin?"
(sigh)
Do you know what? It occurs to me now that we are like Penguin,
trying very hard to be erect and to make ourselves a place in Mexico,
in Latin America, in the World. Just as the trip we are about to take
is not in our anatomy, we shall certainly go about swaying, unsteady
and stupidly, provoking laughter and jokes. Although perhaps, also
like Penguin, we might provoke some sympathy, and someone might,
generously, protect us and help us, walking with us, to do what every
man, woman or penguin should do, that is, to always try to be better
in the only way possible, by struggling.
Vale. Salud and an embrace from Penguin (?)
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
Mexico, July of 2005
Originally published in Spanish by the EZLN
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Translated by irlandesa
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Jump To Comment: 1 2EZLN Communiques: Meeting information and Penguin update
Originally published in Spanish by the EZLN
*************************************
Translated by irlandesa
[Two communiqués follow]
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Mexico.
August 2, 2005
To: Organizations, movements, groups, collectives and persons who support the Sixth Declaration
From: The Sixth Committee of the EZLN
Compañeras and compañeros:
I am writing in order to inform you as to how the preparations are going for “the other campaign,” or the national part of the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona.
Concerning Expressions of Support
According to the latest report, as of July 31, 2005, we have received 2 letters with critical comments concerning the Sixth, warning about risks and dangers, and one criticizing the fact that we criticized López Obrador. In addition, the following have expressed support and noted they will be participating in the meetings for preparations for “the other campaign” in Mexico:
30 political organizations which characterize themselves as being of the left
32 indigenous and Indian Peoples of Mexico organizations
47 social organizations of the left
210 non-governmental, artistic and cultural organizations, groups and collectives
636 women, men, old ones, boys and girls, individually or from families, streets, barrios, neighborhoods, communities
As we have announced, we will be beginning a series of working meetings with these organizations, collectives and persons. The first of these will be this Saturday, August 6, 2005, with Mexican political organizations of the left. Afterwards, Saturday, August 13, with indigenous organizations; Saturday, August 20, with social organizations; with NGOs and collectives on Saturday, August 27; Saturday, September 3, with individual persons and delegates from families, streets, communities, neighborhoods, barrios; and, September 10 with everyone who was unable to attend any of the previous meetings. We are telling those who are unable to make any of the working meetings not to be sad – we shall be informing them regularly as to what is happening and being agreed to in each one of the meetings.
Concerning Where the Meetings Are To Be Held
The compañeros, compañeras and zapatista support bases of the Tzeltal Selva region, gathered together in the Caracol of La Garrucha, have agreed to act as hosts for these working meetings in 6 different zapatista communities of that region. The zapatistas have been working on the minimal facilities for accommodation, food and work for those who have decided to walk with us.
Concerning How To Reach the Location of the First Meeting
In order to reach the first meeting – the one for political organizations – do the following: go to San Cristóbal de Las Casas; next, take the highway that goes to Comitán and Ocosingo; you will pass by a very large barracks and a federal army military instruction camp, and just a bit further there is a crossroads; the right takes you to Comitán, and you don’t want that, instead take the one to the left, towards Ocosingo. Continue on; you will pass through Huixtán, Oxchuc, Cuxuljá, and you will arrive at Ocosingo; there, take the beltway towards the Selva Lacandona. Leaving Ocosingo, continue on towards La Garrucha, leaving behind the barracks the federal army has in Tonina and the jail which the Chiapas government built on the outskirts of Ocosingo. Next you’ll pass by the Rio Jataté resort, and right there there’s a large sign which says that the federal government paved the San Quintín highway and “the government of change follows through.” Fine, then there’s another crossroads: the right goes to Altamirano, don’t take that, the left goes to San Quintín, that’s the one you want. Continue on, delirious with joy and astonished by what Fox has done for Chiapas, but not that much, because just near by the highway ends, and the dirt road begins (in other words, the government of change doesn’t follow through). Continue on happily, but now dustier or muddier, depending on whether it’s rained or not, wondering what was done with that money which they said was earmarked for Chiapas.
In a while, about an hour, you’ll reach a town called Carmen Pataté. There you’re going to see a banner which says: “Preparation Meetings for the Sexta. Information,” but it’s not there. Whatever you do, don’t get discouraged, because you can stop there to go to the bathroom, to stretch your legs and to let them know that you’ve just arrived, and a guide might even go up with you. Now, continue on once again until you reach the village called San Miguel, and there there’s going to be another banner which says “For the Sixth Meeting,” and an arrow pointing to your left. Then follow the arrow and then, further along, you’ll see another banner in another village which says “Here It Is.” And then it is there, and you’ll see a lot of hubbub, because you’ll certainly be arriving late and the others are already there, and they’ll all be looking at you with those “what time is this to arrive and we’ve been waiting for you for hours and we were just going to start without you” expressions on their faces. But don’t be frightened, and just act like “the tardy left is the more original” (or something that rhymes with “tardy”), and then the compañeros will make you comfortable, and you’ll see that all the zapatistas are very happy that you’ve arrived, and we’re going to make “joy”, or a dance, with cumbias and rancheras, in order to welcome you, and then we’re all going to get very serious and we’re going to begin the meeting.
Note: If you don’t find any of the banners with the words I’ve told you about, one of two things: either you totally took the wrong road, or we didn’t manage to put up the banners. Then, like everything of any value in life, it will be a “mystery.”
The estimated travel, or highway, times, are: from San Cristóbal to Ocosingo, about two hours, slowly, driving carefully because there are a lot of curves; from Ocosingo to Carmen Pataté , about one hour; from Carmen Pataté to right where the meeting is going to be, about less than one hour. Or about four hours from San Cristóbal de Las Casas.
Another thing: it’s likely that you could run into some convoy of federal army artillery vehicles along the road, making patrols (the ones that Fox says aren’t being carried out anymore), and the soldiers will be talking videos and pictures of you. So don’t forget to wave and fix your hair a bit, because of that “revolutionary elegance against reactionary bad taste” thing.
Vale. Salud and welcome everyone.
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.
By the Sixth Committee of the EZLN.
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
Mexico, August of 2005.
Concerning How the Recurring PS, A.C. of C.V. Unlimited & Co., Continuing To Be Into Informing, Testifies As to the Latest Events Regarding the Alleged Penguin Allegedly Located In Allegedly Zapatista Lands, in the Selva Lacandona, Chiapas (or Some Distance From Antarctica). - Alright, then, I’m informing you that, following a scientific “penguinological” analysis, it has been determined, to an acceptable degree of certainty, that Penguin was a little rooster in his previous life. And so it might be expected that he would exhibit behaviors which might lead to confusing him with a rooster. This has, in fact, already occurred. Here it is:
It so happened that, while we were moving our camp from one place to another, we stopped in one of the zapatista villages. Penguin had made the journey without getting tired and without one spot of mud. Although this was owing, of course, to the fact that he had made the entire trip in Erika’s rucksack. Well, once they got to the community, Toñita and Erika took a piece of cloth, the kind we use to clean weapons, and they made what I would characterize as a “first prototype” of Penguin’s bib. “It looks like an apron,” I told them, and, while Penguin was looking down, looking surprised, I added: “You have to make others, several, in case they get dirty.” “Like diapers,” Toñita said to Erika. Meanwhile, Penguin was getting accustomed to his bib, and he was walking around, from one side to the other, staggering.
I believe it’s only fair to tell you that there has been a marked improvement in Penguin’s lurching. Even though he continues to stumble, he now does so with more style, with a discreet charm of which we all approve with ill-disguised pride.
Fine, it so happened that Penguin ran into one of the roosters there. And what happened happened. I believe the other rooster didn’t realize that Penguin wasn’t a rooster, but a penguin. And so he challenged him with a lot of cock-a-doodle-doos and such. All the tradition of struggle of Penguin’s ancestors must have been boiling in his blood, and he responded by facing down the alleged aggressor.
Penguin’s upright stance is not the most suitable one for a cockfight, and so the other rooster charged him and pecked at him in the chest. Penguin fought just to stay on his feet (sometimes a gust of air is enough to knock him over), and so the peck sent him to the ground, leaving him spread out full length (which isn’t much, because Penguin is tiny).
The silence became so heavy you could have touched it and protected yourself from the rain with it. The other rooster withdrew, strutting, satisfied with his devastating victory over Penguin. We were speechless, agape, flabbergasted, “freaked out,” etceterados. And then Toñita and Erika went to help Penguin, to give him first aid and to console him with hugs and kisses. And then the rest of us went to give it to the impertinent rooster (even more than avenging Penguin, what we wanted was to throw him in a pot, because we’d been eating nothing but beans for a long time), when Penguin let out a cry (opinions are divided here: some say it was a karate yell, others say it was a penguin croak, and others say it was a “cock-a-doodle-doo,” some of us hold that we clearly heard him singing “Now you can see the horizon…”), that was the equivalent of “quiet, everyone!,” and everyone, in effect, including the aggressor rooster, was paralyzed. Making a ninja movement, Penguin got to his feet. There was as much amazement in all of us as there was mud in our boots. Penguin was unscathed. The bib (or apron) of fabric had acted as armor. Then Penguin charged the other rooster who, surprised and terrified, fled, not without first receiving a suitable amount of pecks. We all applauded Penguin (we didn’t lift him up on our shoulders, because he’s very small and he hardly fits on one shoulder), and that night he sat at the head of our table. And, even though he doesn’t use a spoon, he wolfed down a generous portion of rice and beans, while we slapped him on his back, congratulating him, and we raised our glasses of bitter pozol, toasting his health. The news has spread like wildfire throughout the mountains of the Mexican Southeast, and now it’s talked about in all the barracks, camps, villages, caracoles, Autonomous Municipalities and Good Government Juntas. And now I’m told that a corrido is being composed in his honor, and even a cumbia (Penguin, in fact, walks as if he’s dancing a cumbia). Well, that’s all for now. We shall continue to keep you informed. For the Zapatista System of Intergalactic Television: the Sup.
Intergalactic PS. - I forgot: as of July 31, in the International arena, messages of support, of encouragement and help have been received from political and social organizations, collectives and persons from Germany, Argentina, Austria, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Spain, the United States, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Martinique, the Basque Country, Sweden and Uruguay.
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Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Mexico.
August 3, 2005.
To all those who are going to be attending the preparation meetings for the “other campaign”:
Compañeros and compañeras:
In order to facilitate your arrival in those communities where the preparation meetings are to be held, we have asked for help from the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center, known by all the Chiapas indigenous as “Frayba.” These brothers and sisters from Frayba agreed to help us with this. And so if you - Señor, Señora, Señorita, young person, boy, girl, delegate from an organization or delegate for yourself - don’t know how to get there and don’t understand the instructions we give you, then don’t be sad: when you get to San Cristóbal, go to Frayba, and there they’ll tell you just where you have to go to get there. Or you can also speak to them on the telephone or email them. The information is:
Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center
Director: Blanca Isabel Martínez Bustos
Calle Brasil #14, Barrio Mexicanos, San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico.
Telephone numbers: 967-678-3548
967-678-7395
967-678-7396
Email address: bricos@frayba.org.mx
Another thing – they are informing me, and I’m informing you: abundant and even more abundant rain (although the sun does peek out sometimes); mud: a little bit too much; there’s no electricity; the sound equipment isn’t working; the music group is stuck; we’ve run out of tostadas; the beans have weevils and Penguin has the flu. In other words, everything is ready.
Vale. Salud and a map for reaching tomorrow.
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
Mexico, August of 2005.
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Mexico
August 9, 2005
To all those who endorse the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona:
Compañeros and compañeras:
Greetings. I am writing you - in the remote event that you did not swallow that story about how Salinas de Gortari, Roberto Madrazo, the Yunque and Martha Sahagún are behind us, and that we're criticizing the PRD and AMLO to play ball with the PRI and the right - in order to let you know that today is the second anniversary of the Caracoles and the Good Government Juntas. And, as of tomorrow, the Juntas' annual report will be at the disposal of all interested persons and organizations. And to remind everyone about the next preparation meeting of work and discussion for the "other campaign."
As we have already announced, those being convened now are the Indian Peoples of Mexico, Indigenous Organizations, and those organizations and groups which are helping and accompanying the indigenous in the struggle for their rights. Arrival will be this Friday, August 12, at the time you like and/or can. On Saturday, the 13th, in the morning, after we have a bit of breakfast, we will begin the meeting, and we'll continue all day, except, every so often, we'll have intermissions for eating and for those needs which are referred to as "biological." Departure will be on Sunday, August 14.
The location will be in the territory of La Garrucha Good Government Junta, in the zapatista community of Carmen Pataté, which is located on the road to San Quintín, about an hour from Ocosingo. The three banners will now be there which read "Preparation Meetings for the Sexta. Information," "To the Meeting for the Sexta," and "Here It Is." Already planted in our zapatista hearts, forever, is the obsession that reads "Welcome the Color We Are of the Earth."
We hope the people at Frayba don't think ill of us and that they will continue directing - with a little map or something like that - those who come (if, of course, anyone is still coming).
By the Sexta Committee of the EZLN
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
Mexico, August of 2005
PS Which Attempts To Justify the "Few Kilos More Weight" Thing - We were looking at the pictures and the captions, and I said: "It's just that in photographs and videos you look fatter than you are." The insurgenta Erika was looking at me, and with that very zapatista irony, she said: "Hey, Sup, good they didn't see what you were like before the Red Alert."…Didn't I tell you? These young people today just don't respect us…the…the…the "mature" young people.
PS With More Futile Arguments - Besides, it's the photographers and videographers' fault. I believe they're at the service of Salinas, Madrazo, the PRI and the right, because if they weren't, they would have warned me, and I could have sucked my belly in when the picture was taken, no?
PS Concerning Don't Tell Anyone - About wearing that sash (the belt where the cartridge clips are carried). If I were to take it off, a belly would appear that looked like it were 6 months pregnant.
Cynical PS - Fine, yes and so what? Chubby but pretty. Besides, modestly here, I still have the most beautiful legs in the world…well, neither you nor me: in Mexico…no? Then in the Mexican southeast?…Neither?, in Chiapas then?…in the Selva Lacandona?…hmmm, in the Tzeltal Selva?…in the barracks?…among those criticizing PRD and AMLO?…hmmm…in…hmmm…well, then, like I told you: chubby but pretty.
PS Which Sobs Disconsolately - You mean I'm not a "sex symbol" anymore? It's settled: now I can't even get my coffee hot.
PS Which Consoles Self - You know what? Not even mean faces and rotten oranges: bears are fat, I'm just fine.
PS To Whom it May Concern - Two little biographical files in order to help support the criticisms of those respective persons holding forth against the EZLN for "adventurism," "mistake," "bravura," and "bar fight."
José Manuel Gómez Espinoza. Mexican, indigenous and zapatista. El Paraíso Colonia. Municipality of Venustiano Carranza, Chiapas, Mexico. On April 10, 2004, he was 24 years old and a bachelor. On that day, he went to a zapatista demonstration in order to carry water to his compañeros in Zinacantán. The peaceful demonstration was attacked by PRD members and by municipal officials, also PRD, with firearms. He was one among dozens who were wounded. He is now 23 years old, and he has a bullet lodged in his head, in the part called "occipital." Today he's married, and every two months he has to travel to Tuxtla Gutierrez so they can check the projectile in his skull. The attackers are free, they are still in the PRD, some are municipal officials, and they have formed one of those citizens' networks in support of Andrés Manuel López Obrador. "The first indigenous network in support of AMLO," declared PRD leaders in Chiapas.
José Luis Solís López. Mexican, indigenous and zapatista. Community of La Realidad. "San Pedro de Michoacán" Rebel Zapatista Autonomous Municipality. Married, with 6 children, among them a two year old girl (her name is Xóchitl), who was just born when her father was kidnapped and held for 9 days in September of 2003. At that time, PRD members, headed by Miguel Ángel Vázquez Hernández (of the PRD CIOAC), and with the help of the municipal president of Las Margaritas, PRD Luis Escandón Hernández (who today is part of the state PRD leadership in Chiapas), detained him. They tied him up in the back of a truck, and they took him from one place to another, without eating and without even giving him a blanket. After he was released, he went back to his work. He's the driver for a truck belonging to the Good Government Junta of the Border Selva Region. The truck is used for transporting passengers and goods from zapatista communities. The truck is called "Kidnapped."
I do so testify.
The Sup (Now indeed holding his breath to try and recover his once eminent figure).
Originally published in Spanish by the EZLN
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Translated by irlandesa