[Transcription] EZLN Press Conference with the Free, Autonomous, Alternative, or Whatever-You-Call-It Media

Originally Posted In Enlace Zapatista

August 10, 2014, La Realidad Zapatista, Chiapas, Mexico

First part: the words of SubGaleano

Good morning Gotham City… whenever you finish taking pictures of the stage over there, we’re going to start the press conference over here.

Please take your seats so that we can start in a few minutes, and so that afterward you can take your departure. Please find your places compañeros, compañeras. Please sit down.

Good morning Gotham City (that is a greeting to a compañero who uses that as a twitter handle).

What you just saw a few moments ago is what in military terms is called a diversionary tactic, and in laymen’s terms is called magic. And what took just a few minutes to actually happen, took someone 20 years of work to make happen that way.[i]

We want to begin, taking advantage of the fact that we have the free, autonomous, alternative, or whatever-you-call-it media here, as well as compañeros from the national and international Sixth, by thanking you. And in order to thank you, I am going to tell you the story of a death.

This August 25 marks the 10-year anniversary of the death of Infantry Lieutenant Insurgente Eleazar. In 2004, really in 2003, he began to show signs of the kind of illness that only appears on Doctor House or stuff like that. It is called Guillain-Barré, and it consists of a gradual decline of all systems of the body until the patient dies. There is no cure, and the patient must be kept connected to life support.

When he began to get sick they took him to a hospital in Tuxtla Gutiérrez. They diagnosed him with this illness and told him that he should just go home, that it wasn’t that serious. But when I heard what he had I knew what they meant by those instructions. The doctors, when they saw that he was indigenous, knew he would not be able to pay for treatment. It’s really treatment for survival, not a cure.

#&*%^$*… let’s see if the milicianos can be moved into the shade, they’re going to be cooked alive out there, Lico…

The eye patch is so everybody thinks I have a glass eye, but I don’t. Me and my damned ideas, now I have to walk around with this thing on.

[Video] Conferencia de prensa del EZLN con Medios Libres

From Los Tejemedios

( Follow Los Tejemedios on Facebook)

La Realidad, Chiapas, Mexico

Words of Subcomandante Insurgent Galeano in the Free Media Conference on August 10, 2014, at the Caracol 1 of the Autonomous Municipality of San Pedro Michoacan, Chiapas, Mexico.

Palabras del Sub Comandante Insurgente Galeano en la Conferencia con los Medios Libres realizada el 10 de Agosto de 2014, en el Caracol 1, del Municipio Autónomo de San pedro Michoacán, Chiapas, México.

 

Solidaridad con Palestina, D.F. Mexico

From Más de 131 on YouTube

Manifestación en a ciudad de México en solidaridad con Palestina.
De la embajada de los estados unidos al hemiciclo a Juarez.

[Zapatista Call for Financial Support] A meeting in La Realidad a few days ago

 

[SCROLL TO BOTTOM OF PAGE FOR DONATION INFORMATION]

From Enlace Zapatista

June 2014.

For: The Sixth in Mexico and the world

Compañeras and compañeros of the Sixth in Mexico and the world:
Brothers and sisters of Mexico and the world:

I want to tell you about a meeting that we had in La Realidad a few days ago.

The Zapatista compañeras and compañeros of La Realidad say that the three levels of capitalist governments who destroyed their autonomous school, autonomous clinic, and the hose that brings water to the compañeras and compañeros wanted to destroy the Zapatista struggle then and there.

It should not be forgotten that when the first Aguascalientes was destroyed, the Zapatistas built five more.

It has not been forgotten that the humble houses of the autonomous authorities of the Autonomous Zapatista Municipality in Rebellion (MAREZ) of Tierra y Libertad in 1998 and the MAREZ autonomous headquarters of Ricardo Flores Magón in the caracol of Garrucha were destroyed by Roberto Albores “croquetas,” when he was governor of poor Chiapas—poor because of the bad governments.

But the MAREZ continue their path, and are even stronger now.

It should not be forgotten that we Zapatistas said: with or without the government, we will carry out our autonomy, our indigenous rights and culture.

WORDS OF THE GENERAL COMMAND OF THE EZLN, IN THE VOICE OF SUBCOMANDANTE INSURGENTE MOISÉS, IN HOMAGE TO COMPAÑERO GALEANO

Artist: Miguel Pachicano

FROM ENLACE ZAPATISTA

MAY 24, 2014 IN LA REALIDAD, CHIAPAS, MEXICOO

Compañera and compañero comandantes, compañera and compañero bases of support, militia, and insurgentes.

Compañeras and compañeros of the Sixth. Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening to all of you, wherever you may be.

Compañeras and compañeros, brothers and sisters:

Through my voice speaks the voice of the Zapatista Army for National Liberation.

Through my voice speaks the pain and rage of hundreds of thousands of indigenous people, men, women, children, and elders of the Zapatista Army for National Liberation.

We are here with the compañer@s of La Realidad, to support them with all of our dignified rage.

The compañeros and compañeras of the Sixth must understand something: the EZLN cannot involve itself in the affairs of the communities and the autonomous governments anytime it wants to. Because when we as the EZLN say “respect,” it isn’t just talk, it is our practice. The EZLN, as a force of the people, can only become involved in an issue in the Zapatista communities if the autonomous authorities request this. This is so because an army, of whatever kind, should always respect and serve the people, the civilians.

When we learned of the cowardly and cruel assassination of our compañero Galeano, we were filled with pain and rage. But we cannot just do whatever we want in response; rather, we must respect and obey what our people say is the road that we must follow, and what we as the EZLN should do.

The respect that we speak of, as the Zapatista Army for National Liberation, is how we interact with the Zapatista communities and autonomous authorities, and that is why we had to bear the rage and the pain that we felt.

Escuelita Students Report Back in Oakland

Mural in an Oventic school

Several folks living in the Bay Area, California, attended the Zapatista Escuelita, or Little School. Below is a report back given at Oakland’s Qilombo community center by the students. The students talked about some of their experiences from spending time in the caracoles, what they shared while they were in Chiapas and how the journey has shaped their ideas and efforts in building autonomy in the Bay Area.

Though the Little School was in December, the students deliberately waited several months to report back–in order to take time to reflect on their journey.

A brief history of Zapatismo is given at the beginning of the presentation and the QnA session at the end is included in this recording.

For more information, read the latest Zapatista communique here (in English here) and news regarding Galeano’s murder here.

Slideshow: Lxs Zapatistas no están solxs! (The Zapatistas Are Not Alone!)

Photos by Bay Area Intifada

(Scroll below slideshow for English translation.)

Como miembros de diversas comunidades autónomas y como estudiantes de La Escuelita Zapatista, nos reunimos hoy en el Consulado mexicano de San Francisco para demostrar nuestro dolor y digna rabia ante el asesinato del maestro Zapatista Galeano en la comunidad autónoma de La Realidad, Chiapas. Repartimos volantes con información sobre lo sucedido en La Realidad, y manifestamos nuestra rabia con gritos rebeldes y el ruido de las cacerolas. En respuesta al incremento de agresiones en contra de bases de apoyo Zapatistas en Chiapas, Mexico, como el pueblo digno y rebelde del área de la bahía nos hemos organizado a condenar en los términos mas fuertes, el escalamiento de los ataques en contra de nuestros compañeros y compañeras del sur.

 

El asesinato del querido maestro Galeano a manos de grupos paramilitares respaldados por el gobierno crea el imperativo de construir relaciones autónomas y liberatorias aquí en la área de la bahía. Como tales, representamos nuestra fuerza en los que están aquí pero también de los que faltan, para denunciar los gobiernos títeres de tanto Estados Unidos y Mexico por su impunidad y brutalidad cometida en contra de los pueblos indígenas del continente. Nos unimos a muchos otros quienes protestan en cuidades alrededor del mundo como parte de una Semana Global de Acción en solidaridad con los Zapatistas y recordando al compañero Galeano.

 

¡GALEANO VIVE!

 

(Scroll below slideshow for English translation.)

 

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ENGLISH TRANSLATION

 

As autonomous community members and students of the Zapatista Little School from around the Bay Area, we gather today at the Mexican Consulate in San Francisco to demonstrate our dignified pain and rage while denouncing the murder of Zapatista schoolteacher Galeano, in the autonomous community of La Realidad, Chiapas. (Read the Zapatista communique here.)  We distributed flyers with information about what happened in La Realidad, and we expressed our rage with our rebellious cries and the noise of our pots and pans. In response to the escalating aggression against Zapatista bases of support in Chiapas, Mexico, as the dignified and rebellious people of the Bay Area we have organized ourselves in order to condemn, in the strongest terms, continued attacks against our compañeros and compañeras in the south.

 

The death of endeared teacher, Galeano, at the hands of government-backed paramilitary groups creates the imperative to build autonomous and liberatory social relations here in the Bay Area. As such, we will show our force in numbers and expose both the U.S. and puppet government of Mexico for the impunity and brutality committed against the indigenous people of the continent. We do so joining the countlesss of others who are demonstrating in cities around the world as part of a Global Week of Action in solidarity with the Zapatistas and in rememberance of our fallen compañero Galeano. See here to read a denuncia coming out of the West Coast, signed onto by countless individuals and groups. See here for solidarity shown from Palestine.

 

¡GALEANO VIVE!

 

Palestinian activists condemn lethal attack on “Zapatista brothers and sisters”

This is the picture at the entrance of the Palestinian Consulate in Mexico. It features Emiliano Zapata and Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni. The arabic is translated to: Long live Zapata – hero of the Mexican revolution – 1915 Long live Abd al Kader al Husseini – hero of the Palestinian revolution – 1948

Originally Posted on Electronic Intifada

A group of Palestinian activists, writers and educators issued a statement last week condemning a lethal attack on a Zapatista community in Chiapas, southern Mexico.

The paramilitary attack on the village of La Realidad left one teacher dead, an autonomous school and clinic destroyed and fifteen Zapatista activists wounded, the statement says.

Sent to The Electronic Intifada, the statement draws an explicit parallel between Palestinian and Mexican indigenous struggles: “we understand that our brothers and sisters in Chiapas are struggling against a Nakba in a fight not just for themselves, but for all of humanity.”

The Nakba is the Palestinian catastrophe of 1948, which began when Zionist militias expelled some 750,000 Palestinians from their land.

Chiapas state is home to the Zapatistas (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional), a mostly indigenous Maya liberation movement that has enjoyed global grassroots support since it rose up against the Mexican government in 1994.

The movement became iconic within the global anti-capitalist movement of the late 1990s, with the masked image of spokesperson Subcomandante Marcos smoking his pipe becoming famous the world over.

As Jimmy Johnson and Linda Quiquivix reported for The Electronic Intifada last year, the Mexican state and Israel have worked together on security coordination at the level of police, prisons and technology. Mexico has also bought Israeli weaponry.

Israeli personnel were sent into Chiapas in response to the 1994 Zapatista uprising for the purpose of “providing training to Mexican military and police forces.”

Nakba

The statement characterizes the attack as “only the latest orchestration by the Mexican government at the service of neoliberalism, continuing the further theft of Mexico and the final expulsion of the country’s indigenous people from their land.”

It draws parallels to the European colonization of the Americas with the European Zionist colonization of Palestine, stating: “the world that began to be built on October 12, 1492 is the one that made possible May 15, 1948, and it has all been catastrophic for humanity.”

The Zapatistas are “a dignified threat to this new face of colonialism” and so “we call on all dignified Palestinian organizations, communities, collectives, and individuals in struggle to denounce these attacks against the Zapatistas as an attack on us all.”

The statement concludes by quoting words of solidarity that Subcomandante Marcos issued in 2009 during Israel’s brutal “Cast Lead” massacre in the Gaza Strip, which left over 1,400 Palestinians dead. FOR FULL STATEMENT

Bay Area Zapatista Solidarity Rally & Noise Demo // Acción en solidaridad con lxs Zapatistas

JUSTICE FOR GALEANO!

STOP THE WAR AGAINST THE ZAPATISTA COMMUNITIES! 

AN ATTACK ON THE ZAPATISTAS IS AN ATTACK ON US ALL!

Bay Area Solidarity Rally & Noise Demo (FB LINK)
THURSDAY MAY 22, 2014 
10:00am 
Mexican Consulate in San Francisco (532 Folsom St) 

Bring banners, drums and pots+pans! 

On May 2, 2014, in the Zapatista territory of La Realidad, Chiapas, Mexico, the group CIOAC-Histórica [with the participation of the Green Ecological Party and the National Action Party (PAN)], planned and executed a paramilitary attack on unarmed Zapatista civilians. An autonomous Zapatista school and clinic was destroyed, 15 people were ambushed and injured and Jose Luis Solis Lopez (Galeano), teacher at the Zapatista Little School, was murdered. The mainstream media is falsely reporting this attack on the Zapatistas as an intra-community confrontation, but in fact this attack is the result of a long-term counterinsurgency strategy promoted by the Mexican government.

more information:
http://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/
http://www.anattackonusall.org/

——————–

¡JUSTICIA PARA GALEANO!

¡ALTO A LA GUERRA CONTRA LAS COMUNIDADES ZAPATISTAS!

¡SI NOS TOCAN A UNX, NOS TOCAN A TODXS!

Acción en Solidaridad en el Area de la Bahía  (FB ENLACE)
JUEVES 22 de MAYO
10:00am
Consulado de México en San Francisco (532 Folsom St)

¡lleven pancartas, tambores y cacerolas!

Zapatista classroom Oventic. Galeano, a schoolteacher was killed after participating in the Zapatista Little School. Photo by Bay Area Intifada..

El 2 de mayo de 2014, en el territorio zapatista de La Realidad, Chiapas, México, el grupo CIOAC-Histórica [con la participación del Partido Verde Ecologista y el PAN] planeó y ejecutó un ataque paramilitar contra zapatistas civiles desarmados. Una escuela y clínica zapatista fue destruida, 15 personas fueron emboscadas y heridas y José Luis Solís López (Galeano), maestro de la Escuelita Zapatista, fue asesinado. Los medios dominantes están presentando el ataque contra los Zapatistas falsamente como un enfrentamiento intracomunitario, pero este ataque es el resultado de una estrategia contrainsurgente de largo plazo promovida por el gobierno mexicano.

más información:
http://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/
http://www.anattackonusall.org/

UPDATED WITH TRANSLATION: Communique: Fragmentos de la Realidad I

From Enlace Zapatista

From Enlace Zapatista

(See English translation below.)

Mayo del 2014.

Madrugada…  Deben ser como las 2 o las 3, vaya usted a saber.  Suena el silencio aquí en la realidad.  ¿Dije “suena el silencio”?  Pues sí, porque el silencio acá tiene su sonido propio, así como un aserrar de grillos, y luego otros al frente, más fuerte y en contra, otros siempre constantes, abajo.  No hay luz cerca.  Y ahora es la lluvia sumando su propio silencio.  De por sí ya es su tiempo de lluvia acá, pero no alcanza todavía para herir la tierra.  Apenas si la rasguña, como golpeando quedito.  Un arañazo aquí, algún charquito como no queriendo allá.  Como avisando.  Pero el sol, la calor, rápido lo repellan la tierra.  No es su tiempo del lodo.  No todavía.  Tiempo de sombra sí.  Bueno, de por sí siempre es su tiempo de sombra.  Donde quiera anda, no importa la hora.  Hasta cuando más fiero está el sol, por ahí anda la sombra, pegándose nomás a las paredes, árboles, piedras, gente.  Como si la luz más fuerza le diera.  Ah, pero en la noche… en la madrugada, ése es su mero tiempo de sombra.  Así como en el día te alivia, en la madrugada te despierta como diciéndote “tú dónde, tú qué”.  Y uno balbuceando las respuestas de la duerme-vela.  Hasta que ya claro puedes responder, responderte: “en la realidad”.

-*-

(…)

 – Pues la mera verdad no sabría decirte.  Se supone que en la ciudad su costumbre, como quien dice que su modo, es que, cuando hay un difunto en la familia, pues los demás de la familia y amistades la visitan a la familia para hacerle saber que la apoyan en su dolor.  Le dicen “dar el pésame”, creo.  Sí, eso mero, como decirles que no están solos.

(…)

 – Bueno, lo que yo he alcanzado a leer es que la mayoría de las alumnas y alumnos de la escuelita dijeron que se sentían como en familia, que los habían tratado como familia.  Bueno, algunos dijeron que mejor que en su familia.  O sea que como quien dice hay de familias a familias, por ejemplo en…