Posted by rdom on January 14, 1998 at 15:14:56:
January 9, 1998
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Here is a letter for the protagonists of January 12th. We're still here and
"nothing's new", we're still being chased in this new extermination campaign
which began with Acteal and now disguises itself as "indiscriminate
disarmament".
It doesn't fail to amaze us how immobile the federal Legislative and
Judicial powers are before the actions of an Army General, Jose Gomez
Salazar, who has decided to carry out a coup de'etat. Over and above the
laws of the Union of the Congress, he constitutes himself as judge, pursues
Zapatistas and metes out blame and punishment to whomever he believes to be
responsible. While he continues to violate the law for dialogue, the
Cocopa doesn't get it (and takes things with great c-a-a-a-lm), and the
new governor of the system repeats that same style of using many words to
say nothing, which is so like the PRI politicians.
As for the rest, it's understandable why they haven't yet managed to disarm
the paramilitaries. All the soldiers are too busy trying to disarm us.
Anyway, it's a habit, the government says one thing, and the Army does another.
Vale. Health and may the new massacre promised by "Peace and Justice" not
take the "institutions of the Republic" by surprise.
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos (Alias Speedy Gonzalez).
Mexico, January of 1998
P.S. WHICH ADDS ITSELF TO THE IMPROMPTU SIDEWALK INTERVIEWS
The EZLN agrees with the call made by the Justice Secretary to a so-called
Sebastian Guillen so that he contribute to the efforts for peace in Chiapas.
Yes, he should contribute (where ever he is), and we think he should
discuss it accompanied by some nice stuffed crabs, or some grilled steak a
la tampiquena.
P.S.S. WHICH PROVIDES TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE TO THE DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY- We
are seriously considering adding ourselves to the demand for "indiscriminate
disarmament". I mean, so that the paramilitaries can be disarmed, because
all the little soldiers are hell-bent on disarming us. If there are any left
over, it would be good to send them to "Peace and Justice". They say they
need a haircut and their kitchen appliances fixed. The ones from the "Red Mask"
don't want a haircut (for obvious reasons) but they need their teeth fixed.
The ones from "MIRA" clamor for sex education classes and the "Chinchulines"
demand candies and little toys.
Don't send us any barbers or dentists. Better yet (and so said General
Morelos) send us a few little bombs because we are very bored by so many
airplanes, helicopters and tanks.
Anyway they look at it, they will never finish us nor will they shut us up.
Yepa, yepa, yepa! Andale, andale! Yepa, yepa, yepa!
By the way, when Zedillo finishes arranging his cabinet for the year 2000,
tell him that Rojas' employee, the deputy Samuel Sanchez (the commander of
the group of criminals called "Peace and Justice") has already warned he
will bloody his territory. Please let general Gomez Salazar know that the
story about the EZLN and it's "goal" has already been used in 1994 and again
in 1995. He should think up something new, no?
P.S. ANOTHER ONE- The sea says that beyond us joining the march on the 12th,
we should tell you that you should hurry up and catch us because we began to
march since the beginning of this year and we have a speedy pace.
P.S. WHICH RETURNS TO THE MANIA OF TELLING STORIES AT DAWN.- The Sup Speedy
Gonzalez searches for Rosita, excuse me, the sea, or Rosita, anyway, it's
the same thing, to tell her the story of...the story of the lime with an
identity crisis.
There was once a lime who was in anguish. "I am neither lemon nor orange",
it told itself and worried a great deal as it hung from the tree. And it
looked and looked at the oranges on the tree and the lemons too, and was
still anguished because it belonged nowhere. Then Saul and Andulio arrived
and cut the lime off the tree and began to play soccer with it as the ball.
"I am cured!" yelled the ex-lime as Andulio dribbled to Saul and kicked it
towards the enemy goal, which was of course, the chicken coop.
The yell of "go-o-o-o-al" awakened a little pig who, thinking it was a chick,
slept on a roost of the chicken coop. Tan-tan.
(Moral of the story: the closet has more than one door).
Rosita ignored Speedy, and only said "that story is sillier than the other
one". Oh well.
P.S. THE COLLABORATOR. In order to collaborate with the coup d'etat which
the general Jose Gomez Salazar acts out in the Mexican Southeast, we send
now another list of those involved (foreigners, no less) directly in the
armed movement of the transgressors of the law. As proof of their
participation we offer the books they wrote, found in some of the camps of
"those who will not conform":
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, William Shakespeare, Euripides, Socrates (via
Plato), and Homer.
Investigate them!
Once again. El Sup.
(Yepa, yepa, yepa! Andale, andale, andale! Yepa, yepa, yepa!)
Part 2
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Mexico. January of 1998.
To national and international society:
Brothers and Sisters
The Zapatista Army of National Liberation salutes the national and global
mobilization which demands justice and an end to the war in Mexico, which
took place on January 12th. We salute all those who demonstrate in Mexico
and on the five continents as they mobilize against the massacre of Acteal,
the re-initiation of the persecution of the Zapatistas in the mountains of
the Mexican Southeast, and of the government's failure to fulfill the San
Andres Agreements.
Men, women, children, and elderly, of all social classes, of all races, of
diverse languages, of different nations all over the world, have joined
their voices to say Ya Basta! To the extermination of the Indian peoples of
Mexico.
The best thoughts of Mexico and of the world have mobilized in order to
demand a peaceful solution to indigenous demands, to demand justice for the
genocide of Acteal, and to stop the persecution of the Zapatistas.
January 12th is a day of celebration for us, a day of encounter.
On this day we remember and salute the fact that we have found one another.
Our aspirations are the same: democracy, liberty and justice for everyone.
Our paths are different, but within us is the same commitment to a life
enlightened and accompanied by those three fundamental demands.
This January 12th, while in Mexico and different parts of the world justice
and respect for indigenous Mexicans is demanded, the government continues
with its strategy of lies, treason and assassinations.
On these days, the ambassadors of the government are stationed throughout
the world to sell lies and hide massacres. But at this point, it is a secret
to no one that on December 22nd the Mexican government ordered the
assassination of 45 children, women and men in the indigenous community of
Acteal. Death squads, armed and trained and directed by the government
attacked a group of indigenous people, killed the wounded, opened the
wombs of pregnant women, and annihilated everything they found in their path.
For those dead children, for those women who were dismembered like animals,
for those men who were assassinated we ask for justice. All of us are clear
and in agreement about this demand, in Mexico and in the world. Justice for
the dead, punishment for the true assassins.
Nevertheless, the Justice Ministry of the Republic does all it can to hide
what has happened, to distract public attention, to make injustice the crown
placed upon the tombs of the dead of Acteal.
Acteal is symbolic of a form of government: the form which plays at peace
and makes war; the form which pretends to dialogue as it prepares reason;
the form which promises a peaceful solution and assassinates the innocent.
The government planned the massacre. The government prepared and equipped
the assassins. The government arrived later in order to erase the evidence.
The government bends over backwards now to present the massacre as a minor
conflict, the product of internal conflicts and a "war among the poor" to
which it is extraneous. But since two years ago, the Mexican federal
government began a counterinsurgency strategy to arm, train and direct
paramilitary bands with the goal of having them confront Zapatista support bases.
Acteal is the symbol of a war of extermination, the true government
response to the just demands of the indigenous peoples of Mexico.
The "extermination of the Zapatista bases" is the slogan of the criminal
bands of the government. Their actions have provoked the displacement of
thousands of indigenous families, Zapatistas and non-Zapatistas from their
communities. These refugees are to surrender to hunger and death, with the
complicity of the government who first persecutes and assassinates them, and
then offers them humanitari
an aid with the singular goal of whitewashing its image in the exterior.
To the global demands for justice the government responds as though nothing
had happened. The massacre remains behind and becomes, through the magic of
the government lie, one more act of inter-family violence, bureaucrats are
fired and replaced by others who will guarantee the impunity of those who
have been removed. And the Mexican government complains that after having
ordered them persecuted and killed, the indigenous rebels behave with dignity
and do not accept the alms with which they seek to buy their silence, their
pardon, and their oblivion.
But Acteal is also the symbol of the struggle of two efforts; that of the
government who seeks the victory of amnesia and impunity; and that of civil
society which seeks true justice and refuses to forget the worst crime of
the past 30 years. And the struggle for memory and justice is the struggle
for a peace with dignity.
You are united with us in this struggle.
Massacres, persecutions, lies, and simulations will not replace a true solution.
Peace and justice will not come from the government.
They will come from civil society, from its initiatives, from its mobilizations.
To civil society, to you, we speak today.
To your demand for justice we add our voice.
To your demand for an end to the war and the persecution we add our voice.
To your demand for a peace with justice we add our voice.
And together with all of you we demand the fulfillment of the San Andres
Agreements
The Zapatista Army of National Liberation salutes the mobilizations of this
January 12th which are occurring in Mexico and other parts of the world.
Together with you, we demand...
Democracy!
Liberty!
Justice!
From the mountains of the Mexican southeast.
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
Indigenous Revolutionary Clandestine Committee General
Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Translated by: Cecilia Rodriguez, NCDLJ