Compas,
The news published on the first days of this year, full of lies about the compas, would suggest that this is going to be a difficult year.
We have written the letter below with the idea of collecting as many signatures as possible.
As we believe the matter is urgent, we need to have the signatures on the 6th January, so that, on the morning of the 7th January, the text can be sent to all the 'news' media that each and every one of us can send it to, from wherever we may be. Of course, the first places we will send it to will be Enlace Zapatista and the Network against Repression.
Here is the text:
IN SOLIDARITY AND SUPPORT FOR THE EZLN, THE ZAPATISTA COMMUNITIES, AND THE OTHER CAMPAIGN IN MEXICO.
On the 1st January, slanderous information about the alleged links
between the EZLN and the kidnapping of the Mexican politician, Diego
Fernandez De Cevallos, from the National Action Party (PAN), began to
circulate. This information is based on a "communiqué" from a certain
'Guerrero Balam' in which he says that he has given five pieces of
evidence to support his claims, proving that the texts allegedly sent by
the kidnappers use words also used in Zapatista communiqués. He also
says that Fernandez de Cevallos did everything in his power, which was
great, to prevent the adoption of the Ley Cocopa, and thus the
fulfilling of the San Andrés Accords.
Guerrero Balam also implicates the Other Campaign, and more directly
the Network against Repression and for Solidarity, using the argument
that searching for their name on the Internet reveals reports written in
the same style.
This is not the first time that some media have tried to discredit
the Zapatistas, perhaps with the intention of paving the way for an
increase in counterinsurgency actions in the area, so that it is not
surprising that this alleged information has been treated with a lack of
rigour or discretion.
However, although this is not the first attempt, like previous
attempts this one is so crude that falls on its face; previously, for
example, in March 2010, the newspaper Reforma published a story, also
based on information from another supposed Zapatista, which revealed the
hidden face of Subcomandante Marcos. This proved in fact to be the
face, which has never been hidden, of an Italian solidarity worker
living in Chiapas.
That information came crashing down under its own weight. They are
now trying a new attack in the hope that this time it will be used to
enable a further escalation of attacks against the Zapatista
communities, while at the same time they continue to criminalize and
repress any form of protest , social struggle or non-conformity with the
bad practices which are operated with impunity by the Mexican
government, its institutions and henchmen.
From the brothers and sisters in solidarity in Europe and world, we
wish to say to our Zapatista compañeros that their dignified hard work,
every day, dating back from even before the 1st of January, 1994, a day
which enlightened us all, continues to encourage us in our lives and
our common struggle, both here and there, in our different countries and
in our work towards this new world we seek to build together. So they
can certainly be sure that THEY ARE NOT ALONE.
Please pay special attention to what might happen in the coming days and weeks.
NO TO LIES, MILITARISATION, PARAMILITARY ATTACKS, THE
CRIMINALISATION OF SOCIAL MOVEMENTS, THE VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS,
ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES, PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE, MURDERS, IMPUNITY, AND
FINALLY TO THE TERRORISM OF THE MEXICAN STATE!
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
THE ZAPATISTA COMMUNITIES LIVE!
THE EZLN LIVES!
THE OTHER CAMPAIGN LIVES!
The address for signatures is cedoz@cedoz.org