Prologue: Zapatistas Serve Warning to the Paramilitaries

Self Defense is a Basic Human Right

By Subcomandante Marcos
Translated by The Narco News Bulletin

August 6, 2003

To the people of México:

To the peoples of the world:

Brothers and Sisters:

Some months ago we denounced the links and agreements that existed between the governments of Mexico and the Spanish State to repress the struggles of the Mexican indigenous peoples in exchange for the extradition of Basque citizens residing in our country. The massacre of Acteal, Chiapas, in December 1997, and the illegal and illegitimate deportations of Basque citizens by the Mexican government in the late 1990s thus sealed the model of globalization in the form that power promotes it.

In recent days the so-called “government of change” of Mr. Fox has continued this shameful link by detaining arbitrarily and expelling Basques accused of criminal acts by the Spanish State from México. The Basques deported were tortured first by the Mexican police and, later, upon their arrival in Spain, by the Civil guard, as has been documented in the case of Mr. José Miguel Etxeandia Meabe, without a word from the supposed human rights “prosecutor” Baltasar Garzón. The case of Mr. Lorenzo Llona Olalde, currently held prisoner in Mexico City, is the height of arbitrariness, as he is accused of crimes perpetrated in times during which he was not even inside Iberian territory, and, additionally, his is a nationalized Mexican citizen.

Some days ago, various Basque citizens were detained and disappeared by the Mexican police, to later be presented under accusations of collaborating with the Basque political-military organization ETA. The evidence that the Mexican and Spanish governments offer to justify these detentions have the same solidity as those presented by Bush and Blair to justify the attack upon Iraq. That is to say, they are false.

Simultaneous to these arrests and expulsions, the activity of paramilitary bands in the Southeastern Mexican State of Chiapas, has increased, particularly in the region of the Chiapas highlands, in the municipalities of Chenalhó, Pantelhó and Cancuc. The Paramilitaries are found in feverous activity, speaking of imminent plans of aggression.

The paramilitaries have signaled as their priority targets of future attacks, the encampments of displaced families of San Pedro Polhó, the so-called “Campamento Ocho,” and Acteal. Some nights ago they met to get drunk and shoot guns in the air to back up their threats at the same time. The barracks of the Army and State Police located in this zone have been encased in concrete and song so that later they can say “we didn’t hear anything.”

Thus, the “ambiance” is today very similar to that which was lived in the days prior to the massacre of Acteal, Chenalhó, Chiapas, in which 45 men, women, and children, were assassinated cruelly by the paramilitaries.

The EZLN has already warned the bosses of those paramilitaries that this time they will not remain immune.

We call upon Civil Society in Mexico and the world to demand that the governments of Mexico and the Spanish State end this new threat to stain the soil of the Chiapas highlands with the blood of the innocent.

Democracy!

Freedom!

Justice!

For the Indigenous Revolutionary Clandestine Committee – General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation

For the Autonomous Councils of the Rebel Autonomous Zapatista Municipalities

Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos.
México, julio de 2003.

Go to next communiqué

Read All the Recent Zapatista Communiqués and analysis of them:

Marcos Ends Silence: “To The National and International Press”

Prologue: Zapatistas Serve Warning to the Paramilitaries

I. “Dawn in the Mountains of the Mexican Southeast”

II. Marcos to NGOs: Zapatistas Don’t Want Charity, but Respect

III. Old Antonio’s History of the Upholder of the Sky

IV. A Zapatista Plan for Reality

V. Education and Health in Autonomous Lands

VI. In Chiapas, Zapatistas Refine Democracy from Below

VII: Details on Zapatista Gathering, August 8-10, in Oventik

The Specter of Indigenous Mexico

Mexico’s “New Democracy” Has Not Yet Been Born

Zapatistas, Post-Mexican Elections, Make Their Move

Lea Ud. el Artículo en Español

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