Silent march by the Zapatistas, 21 December 2012, San Cristóbal de Las Casas (@SIPAZ)
On 20 January, there was published the first part of a new message signed by Subcomandante Marcos entitled “Them and Us: The (lack of) Reason among those from Above.” The communique is written as a parody, from the perspective of those who speak “from above.” It asserts among other things that “We are those who command. We are the most powerful, although we be few in number. It does not matter to us what you do-think-hear-or say, just as long as you are deaf, mute, and stationary. We can impose a government onto somewhat intelligent people (although these are difficult to find in the political class), but we select one who cannot even pretend to know what is going on. Why? Because we can […]. We can use the police and the military apparatus to persecute and incarcerate various criminals, but these criminals are a vital part of our operations. In exchange we can choose to persecute you, beat you, arrest you, torture you, imprison you, and kill you.”
The powerful are said to affirm that “what truly is a danger, a veritable chaos, is when whoever makes herself into a collective, ground, band, race, or organization, and then come to learn how to say ‘yes’ and ‘no,’ and that these come to agreement among themselves. Because this ‘no’ has to do with those like us who command. And this ‘yes’… Well, this is a calamity; imagine that each person construct her own destiny, deciding what she will be and do. This would be like claiming that we are superfluous–that we are the ones who are left over, the ones who are not necessary, the ones who should be incarcerated, the ones who should disappear.”
It should be mentioned that the communique was released a few hours before the arrival of President Enrique Peña Nieto to Chiapas to present the National Crusade against Hunger in the Las Margaritas municipality. This crusade has as its budget close to 4 billion pesos, and it seeks to be deployed in some 400 municipalities with the highest indexes of social marginalization. Notably, Las Margaritas is one of the poorest municipalities in the country; it is considered to be a Zapatista bastion, being one of the cities that were taken peacefully by the EZLN on 21 December 2012.
For more information (in Spanish):
Comunicado Completo (Subcomandante Marcos, 20 de enero de 2013)
Emite ‘Marcos’ nuevo comunicado del EZLN (La Jornada, 20 de enero de 2013)
‘Marcos’ emite nuevo comunicado, a sólo horas de la visita de EPN (Aristegui Noticias, 21 de enero de 2013)
El subcomandante Marcos escribe “Ellos y nosotros… Las (sin) razones de arriba” (Proceso, 21 de enero de 2013)
Inicia Peña Nieto cruzada en contra del hambre en bastión zapatista (La Jornada, 21 de enero de 2013)
Arranca Peña mañana su programa antipobreza en territorio zapatista (Proceso, 20 de enero de 2013)
For more information from SIPAZ (in English):
Chiapas: Postscripts from Subcomandante Marcos to his “illustrated letter” (15 January 2013)
“Illustrated letter from the Subcomandante to his critics,” 8 January 2013 (15 January 2013)
Chiapas: a communique and two letters from the EZLN (8 January 2013)
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