Chiapas: EZLN Announces Creation of New Caracoles, Autonomous Municipalities, Centers of Autonomous Resistance and Rebellion and Various Other Initiatives

EZLN New Caracol at CIDECI Unitierra

In a statement published on August 17th, Subcomandante Moises, on behalf of the General Command of the Indigenous Revolutionary Clandestine Committee (CG-CCRI in its Spanish acronym) of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN in its Spanish acronym), announced that, in accordance with what was stated by the National Indigenous Congress (CNI in its Spanish acronym), of “going on the offensive and extending the word and action of resistance and rebellion”, the EZLN decided to “break the fence” forming new Caracoles (autonomous regions that will now be 12) and more autonomous Zapatista rebel municipalities in new areas of southeastern Mexico. He also reported on the creation of Centers of Autonomous Resistance and Zapatista Rebellion (CRAREZ in its Spanish acronym), which in most cases “will also be the headquarters of Caracoles, Good Government Councils and Zapatista Rebel Autonomous Municipalities (MAREZ in its Spanish acronym)”.

He stressed that, “who thought that with their counterinsurgency policy of alms, he would divide Zapatismo and buy the loyalty of non-Zapatistas, encouraging confrontation and discouragement, gave the reasons that were needed to convince those brothers and sisters that it is necessary to defend the earth and nature.”

He invited “the Sixth, the Networks, the CNI and the honest people to come and, together with the Zapatista peoples, participate in the construction of the CRAREZ, be it obtaining materials and economic support, be it hammering, cutting, loading, orienting and living with us or in the way and manner that they see that suits them.”

He also summoned a Forum in defense of territory and Mother Earth be held in a Zapatista Caracol on dates to be defined in October “to meet and know the work we have committed to, share problems, difficulties, blows, headaches, but also the seeds that serve to harvest better from the struggle.”

He called the Sixth and the Networks “to begin the analysis and discussion for the formation of an International Network of Resistance and Rebellion, Polo, Nucleus, Federation, Confederation, or whatever it is called, based on the independence and autonomy of those who form it, explicitly renouncing to hegemonize and homogenize, in which mutual solidarity and support are unconditional, share the good and bad experiences of each other’s struggle, and work on the dissemination of the stories from below and to the left.” He announced that “bilateral meetings with groups, collectives and organizations that are working in their geographies” will be convened.

He said that they will invite “THOSE WHO MAKE ART, SCIENCE AND CRITICAL THOUGHT THEIR VOCATION AND LIFE” “to festivals, meetings, seedbeds, parties, exchanges, or whatever those sharings are going to be called”; that they will convene “meetings of relatives of murdered, disappeared and imprisoned, as well as organizations, groups and collectives that accompany [them in] their pain, their anger and their search for truth and justice”, that “a new meeting of Women who fight, in the times, places and modalities that they decide” will be held, possibly “a meeting of otroas” as well as a “meeting of groups, collectives and organizations defending Human Rights, in the form and modality they decide.”

Given this announcement, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador declared that “yesterday there was a Zapatista statement, saying that they were going to expand, that they will create more autonomous municipalities. Welcome. Because this means working for the benefit of communities and peoples.” “More actions, less talk, that is, theory and practice, thought and action. That is what we are sponsoring and we recommend, respectfully”, he said.

In previous days and through three communiqués, Subcomandante Galeano presented a political analysis of the current moment. He stated among other things that, “it rains everywhere and on everyone. At least here below. Perhaps some, just begin to feel the cold drops stinging their body; but for others, and not only for native peoples, it rains on the wet: pillage, robbery, threats, persecution, jail, disappearance, rape, blows, death … and, yes, sometimes alms.” He stressed that “up there they declare that everything is going well, and down here that everything is going wrong, and that it is going to get worse” and that in the present it is sought to cancel “any criticism, pointing out, observation that have as a basis a rigorous and documented analysis.”

He also warned that, “a world economic crisis is coming” recognizing that “anyone who would have stayed (Meade, Anaya, El Bronco or Miss Xerox) would have had to face that “adverse global environment” (this is what Think Tanks of big capital say) and get defeated and look guilty. And everyone would have done and would be doing what the current government does: lie and cover up.” “They would have started celebrating themselves; they would have solemnly declared that a new cycle of hope, work and bonanza began for the territory that is south of the Rio Grande and west of Guatemala and Belize: they would have distributed the same alms although with another name; they would have taken care more than a few things they had promised in the campaign; they would have blamed resentment and envy, the criticisms made of them; would have made calls to unity and patriotism, would have prostrated the same before the designs, bravado and insults of the foreman who, in the troubled and brutal north, drools; and they would have attributed their mistakes to the “adverse international environment,” “he said.

The statement addressed among other issues: the treatment of migrants; the “manner and servile tone and crawling in front of the US government”; “The defeat of secularism”; “The impulse and acceleration of megaprojects and the destruction of territories of the original peoples”; and finally “the encouragement of individualism and the confrontation with the community with the delivery of support [programmes] such as Sowing Life.”

For more information in Spanish:

Enter el telonero (EZLN, 10 de agosto de 2019)

“Reaparecen los pueblos zapatistas para desafiar muro en el Istmo”, anuncia EZLN (El Universal, 10 de agosto de 2019)

Obertura: La realidad como enemiga. (EZLN, 11 de agosto de 2019)

Arriba declaran que todo va bien y aquí abajo todo va mal, acusa EZLN (La Jornada, 11 de agosto de 2019)

“Allá arriba declaran que todo va bien, y acá abajo que todo va mal, y que se va a poner peor”: EZLN ante las problemáticas en México (Desinformémonos, 12 de agosto de 2019)

Adagio-Allegro Molto en mi menor: Una realidad posible. (tomado del Cuaderno de Apuntes del Gato-Perro) (EZLN, 13 de agosto de 2019)

El subcomandante Galeano acusa a AMLO de “mentir” y “maquillar” la realidad financiera de México (Proceso, 15 de agosto de 2019)

Rompimos el cerco (CCRI-CG del EZLN, 17 de agosto de 2019)

EZLN crea siete nuevos Caracoles (La Jornada, 18 de agosto de 2019)

El EZLN anuncia 11 “Caracoles” y 16 municipios rebeldes nuevos; AMLO le responde: “Bienvenidos…” (Sin Embrago, 19 de agosto de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ: