A JOURNAL OF TRANS-ETHNIC SPIRITUALITY
VOL.3, ISSUE 3
Reports from Chiapas (1)
Reports from Chiapas (2)
Cyber Sit-In Planned (3)
CHIAPAS MEDIA PROJECT
Letters to the Editor
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by Hazrat Inayat Khan and a message about the new Sufi
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Listed under date of January 21st, 1998 at
http://www.peak.org/~joshua/fzln/com1998.html
Letter from Marcos regarding
the global protests on January 12th
(attempted translation by PC93 from spanish)
ref: PC93 - http://www.infekt.com/c73/index.htm
mirror: - http://www.irdg.com/pc93/index.htm
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
January of 1998
Planet Earth.
Brothers and sisters:
With a bit of delay, but until here arrived the news concerning
your mobilizations in Mexico and in the world. Without
a recount of
what made us come here, of the 22nd of December of 1997
to the 13th
of January of 1998, there were mobilizations in 130 cities
of 27
countries of the 5 continents. Especially, the 12th of
January of
this year, many acts of different sizes were realized
in this
country and in different parts of the world, with an
identical
reclaim: halt the war of extermination, punishment of
those
responsible for the killing in Acteal, and implementation
of the
Accords of San Andres.
If this letter of response gets to you with something
of a little
lateness, it did not happen that way with our attitude.
That same
day 12 of January, to weigh the pain that we received
with the news
of the assassination of our companion Guadalupe Lopez
Mendez, there
arrived the strong echo of your mobilizations in the
capital of
Mexico, in different cities of the country, and in the
5
continents, and this confirmed for us that we did good
in bearing,
in resisting and in avoiding the provocations that to-day,
like
yesterday, have the olive green uniform.
I am told that in the mobilizations there was of all,
and not only
do I refer to that there were men, women, children and
old persons,
but that there were dances, songs, poetries, marches,
paintings,
shouts and much indignation. As well I say that there
was of all
because there were indigenous, women, youths, householders,
students, feminists, homosexuals, syndics, farmers, letter
carriers, committees of solidarity, intellectuals, artists,
without
papers, etc, etc that include all. People then, people
with and
without name. People of that which say. Ya Basta! and
write the
history that has value and counts. People that talk to
us, people
of that who listen to us, people of that which we now
write. People
like you, like us.
Far arrived your shouts, far and strong they listened,
without the
Will it would not have arrived. Over there above they
only listen
to the sound of money and of your assessors that, veiled
or openly,
call for our extermination.
But yes we do listen. For that we are refraining the vocation
of
bullfighters and here we are, capoteando artillery helicopters,
bomber airplanes, tanks of war and dogs of hunting (trained,
they
say, to detect the aroma of tobacco of vanilla; that
is why I am
entering now the maple).
Our interlocutor is not the Mexican government. That,
like we said,
no longer listen to. Our interlocutors are you all, the
thousands
and thousands of persons that in Mexico and in the world
want and
look for the end of a system of oppression that is nothing
less
than a war against humanity.
The thousands and thousands who, opposing the war in Chiapas,
oppose the deaths in Mexico and in the rest of the world;
that
demand the fulfillment of the accords of San Andres because
they
require a new inclusive politic and directed to the more
poor;
those that require the demilitarization and demand justice
in place
of bullets and soldiers.
Respective of you, our hope grows and makes us better
because we
knew to listen. And, said the Old Antonio, he who knows
to listen
is made big and gets that which his walking follows across
the
times, that far away comes, that multiplies in many and
other ways.
On the top of the mountains, mounted like we are, one
is able to
see very far. Over there, for example, we are able to
see that a
flag waves like it was the morning. The flag looks very
tall and
many are those that sustain it. "It is democracy", says
one to me.
"It is liberty", ventures another. "It is Justice", affirms
a
third. May be, I think. May be, the three things.
Or may be it is the dignity, the obstinate form of living
and
walking that in you and us converts into an addiction.
Over here things are each time more difficult. It is evident
that
the new "coordinator for the dialogue", Mr. Emilio Rabasa,
returns
to fulfill the work of sleep that yesterday Esteban Moctezuma
B.
(alias "Guajardo") carried out in 1995. In the meantime
he talks of
"solution of the conflict" (have you noted that in the
government
still no one talks of "peaceful solution of the conflict"),
the
soldiers refine details of operations, complete information,
detail
maps and distribution of effects.
On the part of the government we only await a new attack.
"The
definitive solution", say the court clerks of Power.
On the part of you we await that of always: an opportunity
of life
and the struggle to be better.
Now, in the middle of these hours of uncertainty and anguish,
we
are more sure that we will triumph, of that the pueblo
Indians
would be known and included respecting your difference,
of that the
democracy, the liberty and the justice would be for all.
May be
then we do not have the best of the worlds possible,
but we would
have the opportunity to construct it.
For here come histories and images of Zocalo of the City
of Mexico
the day 12 of January of 1988. Ones and others speak
to us of the
rage and indignation of all requiring justice, of the
incredulity
in front of the versions of the PGR concerning the massacre
of
Acteal, of the unprestigiousness of Mr. Zedillo. It was,
without a
doubt, one of the biggest and moving marches of the history
of our
country. Big was your motivation: the peace with justice
and
dignity. And big are as well the courage and the inconformity
of
all, big the wants of not staying unmoved before the
unjust deaths.
With respect to the mobilizations in the other 27 countries
of the
world, the Mexican government and that criminal organization
named
PRI, were greatly bothered with the "internationalization"
of the
conflict that those manifestations imply. It seems to
be that, what
they called scornfully "a war of Internet", has provoked
headaches
in embassies and consulates. Outlets, manifestations
in plazas and
streets, and thousands of letters requiring justice and
peace,
unveiled to the Mexican government and, inexplicably,
provoking
them to outbursts suddenly of "nationalism" and the rejection
of
all "foreign interference" that are not, of course, that
of the big
financial capital. The mobilizations that, exacting peace,
democracy, liberty and justice, that are given in those
5
continents are not for the government of Mexico no more
than
"isolated and small intents of intervention in the internal
matters
of the country". Why for the government of Mexico, is
the
extermination of indigenous that were carried through
an "internal
matter"? Did they think the same after the condemnation
of European
Parliament?
But we are of accord with you in that the struggle for
the peace
and for the humanity, is intercontinental. Because, how
was said
that great and uncomprehended internationalist that was
the Old
Antonio: The life without the others that are different
is vain and
is condemned to immobility. What does this have to do
with the
intercontinental struggle for the humanity and against
the
neo-liberalism? Good, to explain to you good I have to
tell you...
Of the early morning again, beneath the threatening airplane
the
sea intent on reading a book of poetry with the bitter
help of a
the end of a candle. I scrawled a letter for someone
that I do not
know in person, that perhaps speaks another language,
has another
culture, probably is from another country, is of another
color and,
is certain, has another history. The plane passes and
I am delayed,
a little to listen and much to give time to resolve the
problem of
writing a letter to others different. In that moment,
entering the
fog of the high mountain and unnoticed from the ocean,
comes the
Old Antonio to my side and, giving me some little knocks
on the
back, lights his cigarette and...
THE HISTORY OF THE OTHERS
"Told the oldest of the old ones that populated these
lands that
the bigger gods, those that birthed the world, they did
not think
to pair all. Or it was that they did not have the same
thought, but
that each one had their own thought and among them they
respected
them and listened to them. The oldest of the old ones
say that is
the way it was, because if it had not happened that way,
the world
would never have been born because in pure fighting the
first gods
would have passed the time, because distinct were their
thoughts
which they felt. Say the oldest of the old ones that
for that the
world came out with many colors and forms, much like
the thoughts
that were in the bigger gods, the first ones. Seven were
the bigger
gods, and seven the thoughts that each one had, and seven
times
seven are the forms and colors with those which visited
the world.
The Old Antonio tells me that he asked the oldest ones
that how the
first gods made it so that they were in agreement and
talk if it
was that their thoughts were so different which they
felt. The
older ones responded, says to me the Old Antonio, that
there was an
assembly of the seven gods together each with their seven
different
thoughts, and that in that assembly they came to agreement.
The Old Antonio says that the oldest of the old ones said
that that
assembly of the first gods, those which birthed the world,
happened
a long time before yesterday, that what they saw happened
in the
time in which there was no time. And they said in that
assembly
each one of the first gods said their word and all said:
"My
thought that I feel is different from that of the others".
And so
the gods kept quiet because they realized, when each
one said "the
others", they were talking of "others" different. After
being quiet
for a time, the first gods realized that they already
had a first
agreement and it was that there were "others" and that
those
"others" were different from that which one was. That
is how the
first agreement went in which the first gods came to
know the
difference and accept the existence of the other. And
what remedy
was left but that they were all gods, all first, and
they had to
accept that because there was not one who was more or
less the same
as the others, but that they were different and like
that they had
to walk.
After that first agreement followed the discussion, why
one thing
is known that there are others different and why another
very
different is to be respected. Like that they spent a
good time
talking and discussing how each one was different from
the others,
and it was not of import to them that they were delayed
in this
discussion because it was that there was no time yet.
Afterwards
all became quiet and each one spoke of his difference
and each
other of the gods that listened realized that, listening
and
getting to know the differences of the other, more and
better he
knew of his own self in what he had that was different.
So all
became very happy and gave themselves to dancing and
delayed much
but it was of no import because in that time there was
yet no time.
After the dance they had thrown the gods came to the
agreement that
it is good that there are others who are different and
that it is
that we must listen to them to know our own selves. And
soon after
this agreement they went to sleep because they were very
tired from
having danced so much. Of talking they were not tired
because for
that these gods, those who birthed the world, were very
good for
the talking, and that they were just now starting learning
to
listen".
I did not realize at what time the Old Antonio left. The
sea sleeps
already and of the end of the candle there is only left
a deformed
stain of paraffin. Up above the sky starts to dilute
its black in
the light of the morning...
That was the history which the Old Antonio told me when
I was
trying to write you this letter. And I believe that the
most
important that we have to tell you is that, that we listen
to each
other, that we get to know each other, that we respect
each other.
It can seem little at a distance, but we already see that
he who
gets to know the other, he who respects him and he who
listens to
him, produces things so tremendously transcendental like
a dance.
So that, to know each other, respect each other and listen
to each
other is that, in place of the display of 12 of January
of 1998
where we are invited to visit Europe to talk and listen
to the
world, we say that, as soon we will stop bullfighting
enemies (that
is not more than a form of some complicated dance), we
will study
the possibility of that one or various of the companeros
or
companeras travel to Europe, and where is, to get to
know, to
respect and to listen.
For to that which is referred is that a Commission of
Observation
of the Civil Society of the World travel to the mountains
of the
Mexican southeast on proximate dates, to observe the
violations of
the human rights, we say that the indigenous communities
in
disobedience greet the initiative of the Commission of
Observation
and will compromise to respect their job. We take advantage
of the
occasion to greet with respect the job of the independent
Mexican
bodies, defenders of the Human Rights, that have not
spared effort
nor dedication in attending to the indigenous communities,
in
weight of the governmental contempt, to the degree of
harassment,
that they have received in no few cases.
And now that we are talking of the actions in Mexico,
the Zocalo
capitalino not only dazzled us, as well it brought us
certainty and
a hope: the certainty of that in this country the people
are
infinitely better than those who say they govern it,
and the hope
of that all those people win that which until now has
been denied,
that is to say, the right to live with democracy, liberty
and
justice. This complete would be to live in peace.
Good, that is all for now. Know always that it is an honor
to see
you grow and become many. And this is something that
as well makes
us grow and widen.
Vale. Health and, after the promised flower, comes the
promised
dance (I hope).
>From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.
For the Indigenous Revolutionary Clandestine Committee
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
Mexico, January of 1998
P.S. INVITATION TO CONTINUE DANCING. - It appears that
the
manifestations of the day 12 were not enough. The Power
has covered
its ears with thick packs of money and arrogance, and
follows ahead
with its war. It is necessary to walk more, shout more,
move more.
For the rest, according to what is said the next 24 of
January you
will repeat your YA BASTA. Health for that and for that
which
follows.
P.S. WHAT SUPPORTS THE CONTEMPT WHICH PASSES - See how
the
government gives shows of understanding that which happens:
for the
secretary of Interior Chiapas is, again, a problem of
4
municipalities; and for the PGR the massacre of Acteal
is, now, a
product of the perverse vengeance of a resentful and
diabolical old
man that had the form, the time and the way to arm 60
paramilitaries with AK-47 and R-15, he trained them in
techniques
of command and planning, with tactical precision an operative
that,
it is certain, learned from his lectures about the war
of
extermination in Guatemala? Vietnam? Kurdistan?
P.S. WHAT TO ASSUME - It could be that the Procurator
General of
the Republic (PGR) is not deceiving everyone and that,
when he says
that one of the motives of the massacre of Acteal was
personal
vengeance, he refers to Mr. Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de
Leon and his
resentment against the rebelling indigenous communities
of Chiapas.
I say, it is a suppository.
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