Chiapas: EZLN renders homage to the philosopher Luis Villoro Toranzo and the Zapatista teacher Galeano

(@La Jornada)

On Saturday 2 May in the Oventik caracol in the Chiapas highlands, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) rendered homage to the philosopher Luis Villoro Toranzo, who died on 5 March 2014, and to José Luis Solís López, the teacher “Galeano,” who was murdered on 2 May 2014 by members of the CIOAC-Historical.

Present at the event were relatives and close friends of Don Luis, including the intellectual Adolfo Gilly, his comrade Fernanda Navarro, his son Juan Villoro, and members of the Zapatista General Command, including Comandante Guillermo, who presided over the ceremony, as well Comandante David, who read a message from Pablo González Casanova, and the Subcomandantes Insurgentes Moisés and Galeano.

Those who spoke stressed the academic accomplishments of Luis Villoro and his relationship with the Zapatista movement, and they shared memories of him, including living anecdotes.  It should be stressed that Sup Galeano in his comments revealed that Don Luis, having uttered the words “I wish to become a Zapatista,” requested to join the movement.  He was assigned armed work.  The ashes of the fallen thinker were distributed under a tree in Caracol II in Oventik, thus expressing the philosopher’s profound connection to the movement.

In a parallel sense, relatives and friends of the Zapatista teacher Galeano also attended, including his comrade Luz, his daughter Lizbeth, his son Mariano, and comrades Selena and Manolo, from Nueva Victoria, where Galeano had lived.  Subcomandante Insurgente Galeano read some notes rom the personal diary kept by José Luis Solís López in which he relates how he and his family joined the Zapatista movement, participated in the guerrilla struggle, and speaks of his personal relationships with commanders such as Subcomandante Insurgente Pedro, who died during the takeover of Las Margaritas on 1 January 1994.  Sup Galeano, who changed his name from Subcomandante Marcos to give life once again to the murdered comrade Galeano, revealed that the nom de guerre was in fact not inspired by the radical journalist Eduardo Galeano, as some media had claimed, but rather had to do with the historical struggle of the guerrilla fighter Hermenegildo Galeana, who was associated with José María Morelos during the Independence War of Mexico.

The homage, which emphasized the continuing struggle of keeping alive the efforts of murdered comrades, closed with the words of Sup Moisés, calling on those in attendance to organize themselves to construct alternatives to the capitalist system.

For more information (in Spanish):

Palabras de la Comandancia General del EZLN en el homenaje a los compañeros Luis Villoro Toranzo y al Maestro Zapatista Galeano (Enlace Zapatista, 2 de mayo de 2015)

Homenaje a Luis Villoro Toranzo y al maestro zapatista Galeano (Radio Zapatista, 3 de mayo de 2015)

El filósofo y el maestro zapatistas (SubVersiones, 4 de mayo de 2015)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: EZLN pays tribute to murdered Support-base and announces organizational changes (10 June 2014)

Chiapas: EZLN communiqué “Pain and rage” (May 18, 2014)

Chiapas: Attacks on EZLN support bases leave one dead and 15 injured among Zapatistas (16 May 2014)

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Chiapas: Denunciation of military harassment of the Zapatista Good-Government Council in La Realidad

Homage to Galeano, La Realidad.  May 2014 (@SIPAZ)

In a communiqué released on 12 March, the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (CDHFBC) denounced harassment by the Mexican Army against the Zapatista Good-Government Council of La Realidad, where a new school and clinic were recently inaugurated.  It should be recalled that on 2 May 2014, members of the Independent Historical Center of Agricultural Workers and Campesinos (CIOAC-H) attacked support-bases of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), leading to the death of José Luis Solís López, “Galeano.”  The attack also caused the destruction of the installations that have just been rebuilt.

The CDHFBC reported that members of the Civil Observation Brigades (BriCO), made up of activists in solidarity who find themselves in the community, have reported “incursions using convoys of trucks, Hummers, Jeeps, and other motorized equipment containing between 4 and 30 Mexican soldiers each.  There have also been continuous overflights by planes and helicopters that capture images and film the BriCO members, the EZLN support bases, and the JBG offices.  Since July 2014, these actions have been on the rise, both in terms of total number of soldiers involved, as well as in the frequency of events.”

For this reason, the CDHFBC expressed its concern, “given that these constitute acts of provocation and assault that violate the rights to autonomy and self-determination as stipulated in the Mexican Constitution, the UN Declaration on Indigenous Rights, Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization (ILO), and the San Andrés Sacamchem de los Pobres Accords.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Boletín: Ejército mexicano hostiga a la Junta de Buen Gobierno Zapatista de La Realidad (CDHFBC, 12 de marzo de 2015)

Denuncian zapatistas incursión militar en una junta de buen gobierno(Proceso, 12 de marzo de 2015)

Denuncian bases de apoyo zapatistas hostigamiento del Ejército Mexicano (Chiapas Paralelo, 13 de marzo de 2015)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: new communiques from the EZLN (21 March 2015)

Chiapas: EZLN requests support for the reconstruction of the autonomous school and clinic in La Realidad (13 June 2014)

Chiapas: EZLN pays tribute to murdered Support-base and announces organizational changes (10 June 2014)

Chiapas: new communiques from the EZLN

Homage to Galeano, La Realidad, August 2014 (@SIPAZ archive)

In a communique published on 4 March entitled “On the Bulletin Board,” the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) announced a series of activities it has programmed for the remainder of 2015.  On 2 May, there will in the Oventik caracol be held an homage to Luis Villoro Toranzo  and the Zapatista support-base José Luis Solís López (Galeano), who was murdered in May 2014 in La Realidad, Las Margaritas municipality.  The EZLN announced the event as having special guests, including the relatives of Villoro Toranzo and of the 43 disappeared students from Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, as well as members of the Sixth International.  It also noted that, from 3 to 9 May, the seminar on “Critical Thought in light of the Capitalist Hidra” will be hosted at CIDECI-Unitierra in San Cristóbal de Las Casas.

The news also announces the second “grade” of the Zapatista Escuelita (31 July-2 August), the anniversary of the caracoles on 8-9 August, and the third level of the Escuelita in November and December 2015.

The EZLN added that, from 5 March onwards, being the anniversary of the death of Villoro Toranzo, there will be “many words regarding critical thinking, beginning with the report on the inauguration of the School and Clinic in La Realidad.”  Starting on 5 March, indeed, three more communiques appeared, entitled “Thank You I, II, III.”

For more information (in Spanish):

EN EL TABLÓN DE AVISOS. El Conserje (Comunicado del EZLN, 4 de marzo de 2015)

El EZLN realizará un homenaje a Luis Villoro y al zapatista José Luis Solís(La Jornada, 4 de marzo de 2015)

‘Toda la clase política vive de la actuación’, dice el líder del EZLN (CNN México, 5 de marzo de 2015)

Gracias I, Gracias II y Gracias III (Comunicados del EZLN, marzo de 2015)

La vida de un zapatista vale más que la casa blanca de Peña: EZLN (La Jornada, 9 de marzo de 2015)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: threats against families sympathizing with the EZLN (29 December 2014)

Chiapas: EZLN requests support for the reconstruction of the autonomous school and clinic in La Realidad (13 June 2014)

Chiapas: EZLN pays tribute to murdered Support-base and announces organizational changes (10 June 2014)

Chiapas: EZLN requests support for the reconstruction of the autonomous school and clinic in La Realidad

Zapatista Women (@SIPAZ)

Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés, spokesperson of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), reported that at a meeting was held with “Zapatista comrades from La Realidad” who agreed to ask to “the comrades of the Sixth Declaration in Mexico and the world” to organize and try to get some money for the purchase of construction materials with which a new autonomous school and clinic could be built in the caracol.

The Zapatista facilities were destroyed last May 2 by members of the Historical Independent Center of Agricultural Workers and Campesinos (CIOAC-H), who also assaulted several Zapatista support bases, and killed the Zapatista support base José Luis Solis Lopez (“Galeano”).

The total cost for the building, which will be a two-story building both for the school and the clinic, is 200,209 pesos. Apart from building materials, “health equipment, the thermometer, baumanometer, auriscope, etc., and also the medicine are needed.”

Subcomandante Moisés concluded: “Well compas of the Sixth, that is what I wanted to tell you. You see if you are able to gather any money together”.

In response to the request made by the EZLN, individuals and organizations in Mexico and the world have organized the “Global Campaign for the reconstruction of the school and clinic in La Realidad, Chiapas, Mexico”, in order to collect the necessary funds.

For more information (in Spanish):

Una reunión en La Realidad zapatista hace unos pocos días. Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés (Enlace Civil, 8 de junio de 2014)

Circular informativa Campaña mundial para la reconstrucción de la esculea y clínica de La Realidad, chiapas, México (Enlace Civil, 8 de junio de 2014)

Pide EZLN 200 mil pesos para obras en La Realidad (El Universal, 8 de junio de 2014)

EZLN llama a La Otra Campaña a reunir 200 mil pesos para construir escuela y clínica en La Realidad (SDP Noticias, 8 de junio de 2014)

“Con ley o sin ley” practicaremos autonomía en derechos y cultura: EZLN (La Jornada, 9 de junio de 2014)

EZLN reconstruirán escuela y clínica en La Realidad, pide solidaridad de adherentes (Chiapas Paralelo, 9 de junio de 2014)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: EZLN announces dates for the exchanges between Zapatistas and indigenous peoples of the CNI (June 12, 2014)

Chiapas: EZLN announces upcoming activities (June 10, 2014)

Chiapas: EZLN pays tribute to murdered Support-base and announces organizational changes (June 10, 2014)

Chiapas: indigenous organizations and communities also affected by “counterinsurgency and war of extermination” express their solidarity with the EZLN

La Realidad (@SIPAZ)

On May 24, in La Realidad, Chiapas and in many parts of Mexico and the world, a tribute to the Zapatista support base José Luis Solís López, alias “Galeano,” will be performed. Galeano was killed in La Realidad on 2 May. For several weeks, statements and actions of solidarity have been organized.

This past week, Chol and Tsotsil organizations and communities of the Northern Zone and of the Highlands regions of Chiapas have joined the protests. The United People in Defense of Electrical Energy (PUDEE), adherent to the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle, in the Northern Region, proclaimed in a statement that “We are all Galeano,” and that: “It is the same way and strategy that was used in the Northern region of Chiapas with the low-intensity warfare, which was operated through [the paramilitary group] Peace and Justice. There are still witnesses, survivors and victims’ families in the communities, that were victims of this counterinsurgency and extermination warfare. This strategy was designed in the 94 Plan of Campaign for Chiapas, and implemented by the Mexican government after the armed uprising of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) in 1994. Such a strategy resulted in dozens of forced disappearances, murders, forced displacement, sexual violence and massacres; all crimes against humanity that remain unpunished. (…) This is why we condemn the violence in autonomous regions nowadays. “

Also from the Northern zone, members of the Committee for the Defense of Indigenous Freedom (Xinich) stressed that “We understand these events as an attack against our organized people and against all the indigenous peoples that are struggling for freedom and peace. Furthermore, these actions are performed in order to plunder the wealth that runs through the veins of our mother land and our natural resources. We have protected and taken care of what has belonged to our people for millennia.”

From the Highlands of Chiapas, on May 22, the Las Abejas Civil Society held a day of prayer and fasting in the framework of the monthly commemoration of the massacre of Acteal. In a statement, it denounced ‘the paramilitary aggression against our Zapatista brothers and sisters and the killing of Galeano. It is very clear that this is the product of the dirty war or counterinsurgency war in Chiapas, designed since 1994. We already know the speeches or rather the lies of the the bad governments: when their paramilitaries massacre women and children, they say that “they were confrontations” due to “inter-community conflicts.” And when these liars and criminals are politically challenged and pressured by international men and women, once again they make a speech or a lie to try to convince, saying that the government “condemns the regrettable facts and will apply the full weight of the law against those responsible “etc”.’

For more information (in Spanish):

Comunidades choles y tzotziles se suman a protestas por agresiones al EZLN (21 de mayo de 2014)

Comunicado de la Sociedad Civil Las Abejas: También sentimos dolor y rabia por el ataque paramilitar a nuestros hermanos bases de apoyo del EZLN (22 de mayo de 2014)

Comunicado del Comité de Defensa de la Libertad Indígena y X’inich (20 de mayo de 2014)

Comunicado del PUDEE (18 de mayo de 2014)

New analytical articles on the aggression in La Realidad

La agresión de la CIOAC en La Realidad se suma a casos de hostilidad antizapatista (La Jornada, 18 de mayo de 2014)

El gobierno federal apoyó en 2010 a un hombre arrestado por asesinar a zapatista (La Jornada, 20 de mayo de 2014)

Chiapas: la Cioac-H y sus paramilitares (Luis Hernández Navarro, La Jornada, 20 de mayo de 2014)

For more information of SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: EZLN announces homage to Zapatista murdered in La Realidad and announces primary results of investigation on the case (May 18, 2014)

Chiapas: EZLN communiqué “Pain and rage” (May 18, 2014)

Chiapas: Attacks on EZLN support bases leave one dead and 15 injured among Zapatistas (16 May 2014)

Chiapas: EZLN announces homage to Zapatista murdered in La Realidad and announces primary results of investigation on the case

José Luis Solís López (Galeano). Photo @EZLN

In “Fragment of Reality I,” Subcomandante Moisés announces a planned homage to the EZLN support base José Luis Solís López (Galeano) who was murdered on 2 May by members of the Historical Independent Center of Agricultural Workers and Campesinos in the La Realidad ejido.

“The idea is that we will arrive to La Realidad on Friday 23 May to render homage to comrade Galeano on Saturday 24 May, and then on 25 May everyone will return to their homes,” noted Subcomandante Moisés in the note.

The homage is open to all those who would like to attend, according to the message, particularly independent and alternative media that adhere to the Sixth Declaration, given that “the General Command of the EZLN might give a press-conference.”

On 24 May, there will be celebrated homages in all the Zapatista caracoles, and it is proposed that this be done in other locations “according to the desires and time of each and everyone.”

In the same communique, Subcomandante Moisés shares some of the primary findings of the investigation being carried out by the EZLN into the murder of Galeano: a young female Zapatista support-base in La Realidad relates the conversation she had with a CIOAC-H member on 10 May, when the Cioaquista recognizes having been Galeano’s executor: “I was the one who killed him.  I shot him in the head and he died.”  In the same way, the Cioaquista threatens that more Zapatistas will die: “Those who we will take into our hands are Raúl, el Jorge y el René.  We will take them into our hands and kill him the way we killed [Galeano].”  He warns that Caracol I, headquarters of the “Towards Hope” Good-Government Council, will be taken: “Enjoy your caracol.  Walk through all its parts, because we will take it very soon, and the Caracol will soon be for us.  Out of pleasure I will go there as my home when it is ours, because very soon we will take it.”

Subcomandante Moisés took this information with caution and doubts the truth of the claims made by the Cioaquista.  “We do not know if it is he who killed [Galeano] or whether he is only being macho and trying to intimidate a lady.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Fragmentos de La Realidad I (Enlace Zapatista, 13 de mayo de 2014)

Anuncia Subcomandante Marcos homenaje a maestro asesinado (Proceso, 13 de mayo de 2014)

EZLN rendirá homenaje a Galeano, zapatista asesinado en La Realidad(Chiapas Paralelo, 14 de mayo de 2014)

Caracoles zapatistas rendirán homenaje a ‘Galeano’ el 24 de mayo (La Jornada, 14 de mayo de 2014)

Denuncia EZLN amenazas y anuncia homenaje a zapatista asesinado en La Realidad (Grupo Fórmula, 14 de mayo de 2014)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: Chiapas Peace Network repudiates attack on EZLN support bases (18 May 2014)

Chiapas: EZLN communique “Pain and Rage” (18 May 2014)

Chiapas: Attacks on EZLN support bases leave one dead and 15 injured among Zapatistas (16 May 2014)

National/International: End of solidarity week “If the Zapatistas are harmed, all are harmed” (3 March 2014)