Zapatistas
Beat Army
(No, Not in the Rose
Bowl)
Peaceful New Year's Eve
Occupation Succeeds
January 1, 2001
Narco News 2001
The Narco News
Bulletin: narconews.com
"The Name
of Our Country is América" - Simón Bolívar
Army Chased from Base
Zapatistas
Cut Electric Power, Toppled Antennas
Soldiers
Ordered to Withdraw Near Oventik
Plus,
the latest EZLN Communiqués
The
Associated Press reporter wisely remained
anonymous.
The New Year's Eve reported stated:
SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico (AP)
- President Vicente Fox ordered the closure of a second military
base outside an Indian community in troubled Chiapas state Sunday,
only hours after villagers marched onto the base and demanded
the troops leave.
The surprise closure was the latest of
a series of gestures by Fox to meet conditions set by the Zapatista
rebels to restart peace talks....
In
fact, there had been no plan by Fox
or his government to close the base yesterday.
It was the Zapatistas who took the initiative.
And they did a bit more than march.
Upon entering the base, the Indigenous
communities of the Chiapas highlands, most of them Tzotzil Indians,
cut the electric power to the base and toppled two parabolic
antennas, thus cutting off its communications.
This was widely reported in the Mexican
press. But Associated Press instead gave Fox the credit, calling
it "the latest of a series of gestures by Fox."
True, Fox deserves credit for the army's
wise withdrawl once its communications and power had been cut
by the peaceful citizen occupation. His predecessor, Ernesto
Zedillo, might have ordered another massacre instead.
But it bothers us, at Narco News, how
the US press corps never seems to want to admit that people fight
for their own freedom, that justice is not given, it is taken.
Fox simply reacted to what the people
had already done.
This military base at Jolnachoj, near
the Zapatista base community of Oventik, has been subject of
our reports before. It was from there, in 1995 and 1996, that
the Mexican military occupied the highlands using the pretext
of marijuana eradication against the drug-and-alcohol-free indigenous
communities.
And it was in that same neighborhood that
a Mexican Army Colonel got caught holding the bag.
OVENTIC SAKAMCH'EN DE LOS POBRES,
SAN ANDRÉS LARRAINZAR, CHIAPAS, MEXICO:
The Colonel and his troops were not smiling when the cameras
surprised them. Not at all.
They were caught chest high in marijuana
plants on this May 9, 1996.
A federal soldier approached the videographer
who had arrived with nearby townspeople, placing his hand over
the camera's lens. All of this was preserved on video.
A public relations disaster was underway.
Colonel Ernesto Lerín told his
troops to back off the group of reporters. He suddenly offered
a big smile and announced: "This is exclusively a campaign
by the Seventh Military Command against narco-trafficking,"
were his first words. "Exclusively!"
Well then why was the soldier trying to
block the photographer from documenting this supposed public
service?
Colonel Lerín showed great imagination
under fire: "How good that you are here!" he beamed,
smiling like a politician. "Comrades of the press: tell
all the news," he says, touching the leaves of a meter-high
marijuana plant. "This is the reality. Truly, in
the state of Chiapas, and above all in this area, and in the
Canyons region, yes, there exists marijuana!"
The Colonel and his troops ought to know.
They had controlled these hills since January. When they arrived
they said they were looking for marijuana, accusing the Zapatistas,
who have many bases of support in this highlands region, of planting
and harvesting the drug. But they had no success: four months
of searches by thousands of soldiers, and this was only the second
garden "discovered" in the region.... (to
read the full report, click here)
We
look forward to reading about more
"gestures" by Fox in AP reports as the indigenous communities
of Chiapas take back their lands, one base at a time.
And when the Zapatista Command fulfills
its seven-year promise and advances
on Mexico City in February, Narco News will be there, reporting
on the immediate history of our América.
Meanwhile, because the Zapatistas speak
best when they speak for themselves, we publish translations
of the latest communiqués by the Chiapas rebels.
Recent
Zapatista Communiqués
#1
CCRI Communique Dec 20, Nothing has changed, paramilitaries remain
intact 3 years after Acteal massacre
#2
CCRI Communique Dec 20, Zapatistas displaced by paramilitaries
in Chilo'n
#3
Subcommandante Marcos on Amador Hernandez troop withdrawal, Dec
22
#4
CCRI Communique Dec 22, Victory to Zapatistas of Amador Hernandez
& Call for international mobilization to achieve withdrawal
of army from 6 positions, release of Zapatista prisoners, constitutional
recognition of San Andres Accords
Translations Provided
by Chiapas Link:
#1
Communiqué from the Clandestine
Revolutionary Indigenous Committee - General Command of the Zapatista
Army of National Liberation.
Mexico.
December 20, 2000.
To the People of Mexico:
To the Peoples and Governments of the World:
Brothers and Sisters:
On this December 22 it will have been
3 years since the Acteal killings.
On that day, 3 years ago, 45 children,
women, men and old ones, all indigenous, were massacred by a
paramilitary group of Ernesto Zedillo's government.
Those intellectually responsible for this
crime against humanity continue to go unpunished. The dirty
war that made it possible continues. The counterinsurgency doctrine
that inspired it continues still. The paramilitary structure
that carried it out remains untouched. The military protection
of the assassins continues.
Despite what the lavish government publicity
campaign says, nothing has changed. There is nothing in place
in Chiapas that would ensure that Acteal will not be repeated.
For Acteal to be finally put in our country's
past, it is necessary for the truly guilty ones to be punished,
it is necessary for the warlike viewpoint to be finally abandoned
and for there to be a serious commitment to the political path.
It is necessary that the paramilitary groups be dismantled,
it is necessary for the foundations of dialogue to be set through
the signals which were demanded.
The EZLN is calling on political, social
and non-governmental organizations, on intellectuals and artists,
on religious men and women, on all honest persons in Mexico and
the world, to mobilize in demanding an end to the policies which
made Acteal possible and the fulfillment of the 3 signals which
were demanded for the renewal of dialogue.
Democracy!
Liberty!
Justice!
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast,
By the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous
Committee
- General Command of the Zapatista Army of National
Liberation.
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos.
Mexico
December of 2000.
******************************************************
#2
Communiqué from the Clandestine
Revolutionary Indigenous Committee - General Command of the Zapatista
Army of National Liberation.
Mexico.
December 20, 2000.
To the People of Mexico:
To the Peoples and Governments of the World:
Brothers and Sisters:
First. - Today, December 20, 2000, in
the indigenous community of Santa Fe El Duraznal, municipality
of Chilón, Chiapas, nine Zapatista support base families
had to displace to the mountains. An undetermined number of
PRI militants - among whom were some paramilitaries - arrived
in that community at around 6 PM intending to repeat the Acteal
killings. They forced Zapatista men, women, children and old
ones to withdraw to the mountains, abandoning their few belongings.
The nine Zapatista families are still living out in the open,
while the village continues to be in the power of the paramilitaries.
Second. - Up to this moment, the government
has done nothing to control the paramilitaries, who have moved,
now, from threats to actions. With acts such as this, the Chiapas
PRI is reaffirming its decision to continue resorting to violence
in order to make up for their lack of legitimacy.
Third. - Neither dialogue nor peace will
be a reality in Chiapas as long as the paramilitary groups remain
uncontrolled. The attitude of patient waiting and peaceful resistance
that the Zapatista support bases have maintained must be respected.
Democracy!
Liberty!
Justice!
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast,
By the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous
Committee
- General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation.
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos.
Mexico
December of 2000.
***************************************************************
#3
Zapatista Army of National Liberation.
Mexico.
December 22, 2000.
TO the National and International Press:
Ladies and Gentlemen:
The communiqué is off concerning
the recent troop withdrawal.
While, when the soldiers arrived, they
did so furtively, they are now withdrawing with a great public
show. If peace does, in fact, arrive, it does not matter to
us that that they present as Zapatistas those who are not (the
ones from Aric), and the ones who waged the dirty war (the military)
as great promoters of peace. It is the syndrome of the chameleon,
who navigates according to how the media winds are blowing.
Vale. Salud, and may the end of the year
also be the end of despair.
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast,
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos.
Mexico
December of 2000.
P.S. - Durito says he is going to change
his name. It will no longer be "Don Durito of the Lacandona,"
but "Durito dot com." He says he's riding the wave
of "business excellence" now.
Dialectic (or Self-Contradictory) P.S.
Where Durito says always no, none of that "dot com,"
"nor excellence," nor "business." He said
that during times of travel, what is needed is a sailor. La Mar
agrees. I'm looking for seasickness pills.
*****************************************************
#4
Communiqué from the Clandestine
Revolutionary
Indigenous Committee - General Command of the Zapatista Army
of National Liberation,
Mexico.
December 22, 2000.
To the People of Mexico:
To the Peoples and Governments of the
World:
Brothers and Sisters:
Today, during the morning, the federal
Army withdrew from the position that it had been maintaining
in the community of Amador Hernández since August of 1999.
On the same day, Señor Vicente Fox announced the abolition
of the expropriation decree, declared by Zedillo's government,
which stripped the indigenous of Amador Hernández of their
lands in order to build a military base there.
Since the first day that the federal soldiers
illegally and illegitimately occupied indigenous lands in Amador
Hernández,
Zapatista support bases from there and from neighboring towns
have been maintaining a sit-in in front of the military camp,
demanding their withdrawal.
Zapatista men, women, children and old
ones protested every day, never abandoning their demands. Without
regard to the cold, the heat, hunger, illness and exhaustion,
the Zapatistas confronted federal authoritarianism with no arms
other than their dignity, their rebellion, their ingenuity and
their creativity. Thinking that the Zapatistas would end up
growing tired of protesting, resign themselves to seeing their
lands occupied and return to their houses, the soldiers used
all the resources they had in order to discourage the protest.
It was in vain. Every morning they found out that the Zapatistas
were still there.
It was here, in Amador Hernández,
where the Zapatista air force saw its first action. In order
to counter the deafening noise with which the soldiers tried
to silence their protests, the Zapatistas "bombarded"
the federal barracks with hundreds of little airplanes.
The Zapatista support bases demonstrated
their ingenuity and creativity in peaceful resistance in other
ways as well. Dozens of men and women from Mexico and from the
world accompanied them in their resistance for various time periods.
Without any motivation other than that
of demonstrating their dissent against an injustice, people mobilized,
from various parts of Mexico and the world, in support of the
demand for the withdrawal of the federal army from the invaded
lands. Along with the Zapatista indigenous, these persons shared
hunger, the cold or heat, sleeplessness and exhaustion, but also
conviction for a just cause.
Now that the soldiers have today finally
withdrawn from that position, we should recognize those Zapatista
indigenous men and women who stayed firm and dignified, as well
as those who accompanied them personally, or with mobilizations
in this peaceful resistance, for more than a year.
The victory represented by the army's
withdrawal from this place belongs to the zapatista indigenous
and to national and international civil society, who never left
them by themselves.
In another matter, this withdrawal from
one of the seven positions, demanded by the EZLN, is a good signal,
and a first and important step on the path to the renewal of
dialogue. Still remaining are the other 6 positions, the release
of the prisoners and the constitutional recognition of indigenous
rights and culture.
Vicente Fox's government has nothing to
fear. As persons close to them, and who know us, will most certainly
tell them, we Zapatistas do keep our word. If the three signals
which were demanded are carried out, there will be dialogue.
The EZLN will respond in kind to a serious and real willingness
for dialogue and peace.
Finally, we are calling on national and
international civil society to mobilize and, as the military
withdrawal from Amador Hernández was achieved, to achieve
the other 6 positions, the release of the Zapatista prisoners
and the constitutional recognition of indigenous rights and culture.
Democracy!
Liberty!
Justice!
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast,
By the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous
Committee
- General Command of the Zapatista Army of National
Liberation.
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos.
Mexico
December of 2000.
On to Mexico City!