THE PAIN AND THE RAGE

THE PAIN AND THE RAGE.

ZAPATISTA ARMY OF NATIONAL LIBERATION
MEXICO.

May 8^th, 2014.

To the compañeras and compañeros of the Sixth Declaration:

Compas:

  In fact the communiqué was already ready. Succinct, precise, clear, as communiqués should be. But… mmh… maybe later.

  Because now the meeting begins with the support base compañeras and compañeros from La Realidad.

  We listen to them.

  The tone and sentiment of their voice has been known for some time: the pain and the rage.

  So it occurs to me that a communiqué is not going to reflect that.

  Or not in all its extension.

  True, perhaps nor will a letter, but at least in these letters I can try even if it is a pale reflection.

  Because…

  The pain and the rage were what made us challenge everything and everyone 20 years ago.

  And the pain and the rage are what now make us lace up our boots again, put on our uniforms, holster up our pistols, and cover our faces.

  And now put on my old and tattered hat with 3 five-pointed red stars.

  The pain and the rage who have brought our steps to La Realidad.

  Some moments ago, after we explained that we had arrived to respond to the Junta de Buen Gobierno’s support petition, a support base compañero, teacher for the course “Freedom according to the Zapatistas,” had told us, in more or less words:

  “Of course we are telling you compañero subcomandante, were it that we are not Zapatistas a while ago we would have taken revenge and a massacre would have been done, because we have great anger at what they did to compañero Galeano. But well we are Zapatistas and it is not about revenge but about there being justice. So we await what you are going to tell us and we are going to do it like that.”

  Upon hearing it I felt envy and sorrow.

  Envy for those who had the privilege of having women and men, like Galeano and like this one who now talks, as teachers. Thousands of men and women from throughout the world had that fortune.

  And sorrow for those who will no longer have Galeano as a teacher.

  Compañero Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés has had to make a difficult decision. His decision is definitive and, if you ask me for my opinion (which nobody has done), unquestionable. He has decided to cancel for an indefinite time the meeting and exchange with the native peoples and their organizations in the Indigenous National Congress. And he has decided also to cancel the tribute that we prepared for our absent compañero Don Luis Villoro Toranzo, as well as cancel our participation in the Seminar “Ethics in the Face of Plunder,” which compas, intellectuals and artists from Mexico and the World, are organizing.

  What brought him to that decision? Well, the first results of the investigation, as well as the information which arrives to us, leave no room for doubt:

1.- It was an aggression planned in advance, militarily organized and carried out with malice, premeditation, and advantage. And it is an aggression inscribed in a climate created and encouraged from above.

2.- The leaderships of the so-called CIOAC-Histórica, the Green Environmentalist Party (Name with which the PRI governs in Chiapas), the National Action Party, and the Institutional Revolutionary Party are involved.

3.- At the least the Chiapas State Government is involved. The level of involvement of the federal government still needs to be determined.

  A women from the contras has come to tell that in itself it was planned and that in itself the plan was to “fuck over” Galeano.

  In sum: it is not about a community problem, were the sides confront each other fired up by the moment. It was something planned: first the provocation with the destruction of the school and the clinic, knowing that our compañeros did not have firearms and that they would go to defend what they humbly had brought up with their effort; then the positions that the aggressors took, foreseeing the path that they would follow from the Caracol to the school; and at the and the crossfire on our compañeros.

  In that ambush our compañeros were wounded by firearms.

  What happened with compañero Galeano is heart-rending: he did not fall in the ambush, 15 or 20 paramilitaries surrounded him (yes, they are, their tactics are those of paramilitaries); compa Galeano challenged them to fight hand to hand, without firearms; they clubbed him and he jumped from one side to another dodging the blows and disarming his opponents.

  Upon seeing that they could not fight him, they shot him and one bullet in the leg knocked him down. After that was the barbarity, they went above him, beat him and struck him with machetes. Another bullet in the chest made him moribund. They continued beating him. And upon seeing that he was still breathing, a coward gave him a shot in the head.

 He received three shots in cold blood. And the 3 when he was surrounded, unarmed, and without surrender. His body was dragged by his murderers about 80 meters and they left it tossed out.

  Compañero Galeano remained alone. His body thrown-out in the middle of what was before encampment territory, men and women from throughout the world who came to the so-called “encampment for peace” in La Realidad. And the compañeras, the Zapatista women from La Realidad were those who defied fear and went to pick up the body.

  Yes, there is a photo of compa Galeano. The image shows all the wounds and nourishes the pain and the rage, although listening to the stories does not require any backing. Of course I understand that the photo was able to hurt the susceptibility of the Spanish nationalist royalty, and that is why better to put a photo of a scene mounted with impudence, with a few wounded, and for the reporters, mobilized by the Chiapanecan government, to begin to sell the lie of a confrontation. “He who pays, commands.” Because there are classes, my dear. One thing is the Spanish monarchy, and another the “damn” rebel Indians who send you to the AMLO ranch only because there, some steps away, they are veiling the still bloody body of compa Galeano.

  The CIOAC-Histórica, its rival the CIOAC-Independiente, and other “peasant organizations” like the ORCAO, ORUGA, URPA, and others, live from provoking confrontations. They know that provoking problems in the communities where we have presence pleases the governments. And they tend to reward with projects, and thick wads of bills for the leaders, the wrongs which they do us.

  In the words of an official from Manuel Velasco’s government: “it suits us better for the Zapatistas to be occupied in artificially created problems, instead of them doing activities to which “güeros¹” from all over come.” That’s how he said it: “güeros.” Yes, it’s humorous that that’s how the servant of a “güero” expresses himself.

  Whenever the leaders of those “peasant organizations see their budgets wane for the debaucheries that are granted, they organize a problem and go to the government of Chiapas so that they pay them to “calm down.”

  This “modus vivendi” of leaders who do not even know the difference between “sand” and “gravel,” begin with the priista and misremembered “croquettes” Albores, was retaken with the lopezobradorista Juan Sabines, and is kept up with the self-titled green and environmentalist Manuel “el güero” Velasco.

  Wait one moment…

  Now a compa is talking. Crying, yes. But we all know that the tears are those of rage. With choppy words he says what everyone feels, we all feel: we do not want revenge, we want justice.

 One more interrupts: “compañero subcomandante insurgente, do not misunderstand our tears, they are not of sadness, they are of rebellion.”

  Now a report comes from a meeting of the leaders of the CIOAC-Histórica. The leaders say, textually, “with the EZLN it was not possibile to negotiate with money. But then once all those who appeared in the newspaper are detained, that they close some up for their 4 or 5 years, and then after the problem calms down it will be possible to negotiate with the government for their liberation.” One more adds: “or we can say that there was a death among ours and it now remains tied one dead on each side and for the Zapatistas to calm down. We invent that he died or we kill him ourselves and there the problem remains solved.”

  In short, the letter gets longer and I do not know if you are able to feel what we feel. In any case Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés has put me in charge of letting you know that…

  Wait…

  Now they are taking in the Zapatista assembly in La Realidad.

  We have gone out so that they agree among themselves on the response to a question which was asked of them: “The governments pursue the command of the EZLN, you know well because you were there when the betrayal in 1995. So, do you want us to be here to see about this problem and for there to be justice, or do you want us to go somewhere else? Because all of you can suffer now the direct persecution of the government and their police and military.”

  Now I listen to a young man. Some 15 years-old. They tell me that he is the son of Galeano. I go out and yes, although he is a young one, he is a Galeano in training. He says for us to stay, that they trust us for justice and for those who murdered his father to be found. And that they are willing for whatever it may be. The voices in that sense multiply. The compañeros talk. The compañeras talk and even the children leave their crying: the compañeras where those who reconnected the water, in spite of paramilitaries threatening them. “You are brave,” says a man, veteran of the war.

  For us to stay, that is the agreement.

  Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés gives an economic support to the widow.

  The assembly disperses. Although it is possible to see that the step of all is firm once again, and that there is another light in their look.

  Where was I? Ah, yes. Subcomandante Insurgent Moisés has put me in charge of informing you that the public activities in May and June have been cancelled for an indefinite time, as well as the courses for “Freedom according to the Zapatistas.” So there you see the issue of the cancelations and the rest.

  Wait…

  Now they tell us that the so-called “Acteal Model” begins to enliven itself above: “it was an intracommunal conflict over a sand bank.” Mmh… so the militarization continues, the hysteric uproar of the domesticated press, the simulations, the lies, the persecution. It is not uncalled for that the old man Chuayffet is there, now with diligent students in the government of Chiapas and in the “peasant” organizations.

  What follows we already know.

  But what I want is to take advantage of these lines to ask you:

   Pain and rage have been what has brought us up to here. If you are able to feel it too, where do they take you?

  Because we are here, in the reality. Where we always have been.

  And you?

Vale. Cheers and indignation.

From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.

Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos.

Mexico, May 2014. In the 20^th year since the beginning of the war against oblivion.

P.D. – Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés is conducting the investigations. He will be informing of the results, or he through mine.

Another P.D. – If they ask me to summarize my laborious walk in a few words they would be: our efforts are for peace, their efforts are for war.

Translated from Spanish by Henry Gales.

Click here for Spanish text.

¹ Translator’s Note: person with white skin, of any race or nationality.