circulated by Erika Del Carmen Fuchs and Eugenia Gutiérrez
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**Please circulate widely** Favor de circular Dear, dear compañeras and compañeros… Some of you have known me for years, and know that I have been involved in the struggle for justice, dignity and so much more of the Zapatistas and others in Mexico and Latin America for some time. It is not for me that I send the below out, but once again to call attention to what is happening and hope we all take action to stop what is an impending war (or some would say continuation of one—a Low Intensity War, as it is often known) in Mexico. We are already seeing what is an alarming increase in state Militarization, Policing, Paramilitarization (trained and funded by the Mexican state—with help from neighbours to the North—yes, the US, but also Canada is complicit through the SPP and NAFTA), (Un)-Intelligence, harassment, threats and outright attacks against social activists, community members, and entire communities. This is not specific to Chiapas by any means. It is happening and has happened in Atenco, Oaxaca, Guerrero, Veracruz, other parts of Mexico. However, I call attention to what is happening with the Zapatistas because they have often been an inspiration to others with their autonomy—through their Aguascalientes and now Juntas de Buen Gobierno, and with the Other Campaign (a national effort to unite struggles and carry out a different way of doing politics). They have certainly been so for me and others I know. With the recent Zapatista Women’s Gathering with the Women of the World: Comandanta Ramona and the Zapatistas—many of us women from South and North were re-affirmed in this. I ask that you please read and circulate the following and keep an eye out for what is happening in Mexico and in our own backyard, since we are intimately connected, what with many Mexicans having to seek economic or social or political refuge here, even if only temporarily. You may also be interested to know that Canadian writer Naomi Klein (“The Shock Doctrine”/”No Logo”) was present at the International Colloquium/Conference mentioned in this article. She spoke at the table with Marcos, and other important intellectuals/activists, and wrote about this experience, as well as about the Zapatistas. See below for more info. Please feel free to email or call me and ask me about what is going on, and what can be done. And, of course, there is a lot of banda (people) that could talk to you about what is going on right now… Pueden también escribirme en español. Y claro, hay un chingo de banda mas que puede hablar con quien quiera sobre todo eso… Erika (erikasdream@yahoo.ca; caferamona@yahoo.com)
Subcomandante Marcos’ “Good Nose” (Sigue en Español) by Eugenia Gutiérrez What does war smell like? How much pain does its odour cause? Half a year has passed since close to fifty humanists from various countries met in the University of the Land in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas. They responded to a call of the Sixth Commission of the EZLN, the magazine Contrahistorias and the CIDECI, and they participated in a colloquium in memory of a great man: Andrés Aubry. When the colloquium was at the point of ending Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos spoke to say: “Those of us who have been at war know how to recognize the paths through which it is prepared and nears us. The signals of war in the horizon are clear. War, like fear, also has an odour. And now we begin to breathe its fetid odour in our lands” (December 16, 2007). By then, the Juntas de Buen Gobierno (“Councils of Good Governance”) (JBG) of the five Caracoles (“centres of local government/social/political activity") had been denouncing for months a rash of aggressions against communities where thousands of men and women from the Zapatista Grassroots Support live. The JBG had already informed us loud and clear that the Federal, State and local governments had intensified their battle to displace/evict Zapatistas from the territories that they had recouped in 1994, during those days in which so many died fighting. The denunciations of the JBG were continuous, close to forty in only 2007. However, this warning made from the peace of a colloquium turned out to be very disturbing. It was not a progressive intellectual warning us of what war is that spoke. It was a warrior who knows war who spoke. It was not an invitation for contemplating war wounds. He reached the depths and he sounded crude and profound, like when someone shows you an open and bloody wound. During 2007 there were three large gathering of the Zapatistas peoples with the peoples of Mexico and the world. Thousands of people of different countries could hear in the Caracoles the history of Zapatismo told by those who have written it. We know from them that now, with autonomy and despite the constant military pressure, the communities resisting in Chiapas have health projects that prioritize human dignity, and that in various places they have built general and specialized medical clinics, some conditioned to carry out surgeries or to transport patients in ambulances. We also know that the Zapatista youth have access to autonomous education projects that range from basic levels to high school, including the Cultural Centres of Autonomous Zapatista Technological Education (CCETAZ), and that the young will study sciences and humanities when they start up their university, which they have already planned. We know because they told us and because we saw it—that the consumption of alcohol is not permitted, in response to one of the women’s demands; that the Zapatista communities, without receiving a cent from any government, have transportation, grain storage warehouses, fair trade practices, bread, cattle, embroideries, and chicken cooperatives, workshops in herbal and traditional medicine, a sensibility that recognizes what is lacking, enthusiasm to achieve what is lacking, community radios, nurseries, vaccination and illness prevention campaigns, justice systems that seek to be just, autonomous cafeterias, communications offices, libraries. And, we know unequivocally that in Zapatista communities drugs are not being planted. A few days ago, close to two-hundred elements of the Federal Army and the State Police of Chiapas burst into communities of the La Garrucha Caracol, called “Resistance towards a New Dawn.” According to the denunciation made by the JBG "The Path towards the Future,” on Wednesday, June 8, 2008, there was a convoy made up of “2 big cars of soldiers and 3 small cars of soldiers and 2 cars of public security officers, 2 cars of municipal police and a tank and a car of the PGR” which sometime afterwards was joined by another convoy coming from Patihuitz. The inhabitants of the Caracol rejected them. The military took photos and video of them. They decided to surround the Caracol and went down the path that leads to the cornfields in order to head to the community of Hermenegildo Galeana. According to the JBG, the military had their faces painted for combat and they were guided by a municipal police officer from Ocosingo named Feliciano Román Ruiz. Halfway down the path they came across the civil population, men, women and children that rejected them with yelling. The soldiers responded: “We came here because we know that there is marijuana.” So the Zapatista people resorted to stones, slingshots, slings, machetes and all that they could find to reject them. When not able to pass, the military responded: “This time we will not pass, but we will return in 15 days and then we will pass whatever it takes.” Then they moved to the community of San Alejandro. On the way the soldiers “left the field of corn trampled on, that which is the only food for the people to live on.” The community of San Alejandro also rejected them with whatever they could, and the convoy opted to retire. In this Caracol various chapters of the life of the Other Campaign were written, since it was here that the first plenary meeting was held (September 2005) and where the tour of the Sixth Commission was initiated (January 2006). In addition, here is where the gathering “Comandanta Ramona and the Zapatistas” took place (December 2007). Today this Caracol lives threatened by a military incursion under the accusation that marijuana is on their lands. And it is not distrust that prevails, but memory: when the Aguascalientes (“Zapatista headquarters”) that gave accommodation to the National Democratic Convention in 1994 became emblematic, the government opted for destroying it and establishing on its remains an enormous base of military operations. The nearby community of Guadelupe Tepeyac was severely punished and got to know the pain of exile. The Mexican Federal Army knows how to crush the civil population—they specialize in doing this to the indigenous population. Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, President due to a tantrum, seems to have nailed a red tack on the name of “La Garrucha” in his map of places to repress, a map that now looks very red. Juan Sabines Guerrero, PRD governor of Chiapas, encouraged him and smiled. Son of the person responsible for the massacre of twelve indigenous people in Golonchán (June 1980), the current Sabines has governed a Chiapas where not only paramilitaries but also police have not stopped hurting the civil population in pathetically cowardly acts of violence: children tortured when they go to the river for water; parents and children imprisoned; lone campesinos beaten by a group or shot on the outskirts of a road; water cuts; beaten, humiliated women; families who see their cornfields being burnt; families who see their house being burnt; youth persecuted on paths or threatened in their own homes; power cuts; people of any age displaced at any moment. To know how war smells or to imagine how much pain it causes, we could speak with all of them. We could ask them. Perhaps they would respond, “it depends.” Sometimes war smells like the house that was lit on fire and its odour hurts so much—as much as the years that you lived in it and planned to live in it. Other times it smells like blood on your beaten face and its odour hurts you just as much as the kicks of various dozens of men against you alone. It depends. Maybe war smells like the husband that the police robbed from you and it hurts as much as the sentence that, without motive, has been imposed on him by a brutal judge. We would need to talk to them, ask them. Each testimony of state violence of the last two years has been presented with details by the JBG, documented by civil organizations, video-taped by brigadistas in solidarity with the people and even gathered in documentaries. The facts are there, at reach of the feelings of those who want to know them. While the Subcomandante Marcos stressed in San Cristóbal de las Casas that he could smell war, the community of La Garrucha was ready to receive thousands of women from dozens of countries. Six months later, the community of La Garrucha are ready to receive the Army of Felipe Calderón with all its violence. The couple who had planned to get married on June 20th, gets married. Well, in reality, they had the celebration, the food and the dance early because the wedding will be later. The women that have already started the new “Comandanta Ramona Clinic” meet in the upper level of this outstanding construction in order to continue taking their course on sexual and reproductive health. The autonomous cafeteria feeds those city eaters without stopping with a gas stove where the fogon (“wood burner”) is history. The girls dress in the thousands of colours of always and the boys do the pranks of usual. The elder woman who lives alone does not stop preparing corn breads. The generous auditorium that housed us does not change its physiognomy while in a corner of the people’s central stage the figure of an enormous guard that looks towards the entrance of the Caracol stands out—she withstands the sun and the rain and she is various compañeras in one: Emiliana Digna Ramona, the paper-mache gift doll turned over to the Gathering of Women in December of 2007, who danced without stopping. Everything points to the fact that this community, like any other Zapatista community, waits for the military offensive. And during this wait, the community continues to live. Like the Junta de Buen Gobierno well says in its communiqué of June 4: “We are what you already know brothers and sister of Mexico and of the world.” Caracol de La Garrucha, June 2008.
Information on the Zapatistas: http://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/ (Spanish) www.narconews.com (English, other languages) http://capise.org.mx/ (English/Spanish) http://otravancouver.resist.ca (English/Spanish) www.schoolsforchiapas.org (English/Spanish) www.radioinsurgente.org (Radio Programs in Spanish) www.elkilombo.org/ (English/Spanish)
Information on the International Colloquium on Andres Aubry & Naomi Klein’s Participation in it: www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine/trip-chiapas-2007
En ESPAÑOL
El olfato del Subcomandante Eugenia Gutiérrez ¿A qué huele la guerra? ¿Cuánto duele su olor? Ha pasado medio año desde que cerca de veinte humanistas de varios países se reunieron en la Universidad de la Tierra en San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas. Respondían a una convocatoria de la Comisión Sexta del EZLN, la revista Contrahistorias y el CIDECI y participaban en un coloquio en memoria de un gran hombre: Andrés Aubry. Cuando el coloquio estaba a punto de terminar tomó la palabra el Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos para decir: "Quienes hemos hecho la guerra sabemos reconocer los caminos por los que se prepara y acerca. Las señales de la guerra en el horizonte son claras. La guerra, como el miedo, también tiene olor. Y ahora se empieza ya a respirar su fétido olor en nuestras tierras" (16 de diciembre, 2007). Para entonces, las Juntas de Buen Gobierno (JBG) de los cinco Caracoles zapatistas llevaban meses denunciando un reguero de agresiones contra comunidades donde viven miles de hombres y mujeres Bases de Apoyo Zapatistas. Las JBG ya nos habían informado con claridad que los gobiernos federal, estatal y locales estaban recrudeciendo la batalla para despojar al zapatismo de los territorios que recuperó en 1994, durante aquellos días en que tantos murieron luchando. Las denuncias de las JBG eran continuas, cerca de cuarenta tan sólo para 2007. Sin embargo, la advertencia hecha desde la paz de un coloquio resultó estremecedora. No hablaba un intelectual progresista que advierte, honesto, lo que es la guerra. Hablaba el guerrero que lo sabe. Su voz no invitaba a contemplar cicatrices. Iba a lo más hondo y sonaba cruda y profunda, como cuando alguien te coloca sobre una herida para que la veas tal cual es: abierta y sangrante. Durante 2007 se llevaron a cabo tres grandes encuentros de pueblos zapatistas con pueblos de México y del mundo. Miles de personas de países diversos pudimos escuchar en los Caracoles la historia del zapatismo contada por quienes la han escrito. Sabemos desde entonces que ahora, en la autonomía y a pesar de la constante presión militar, las comunidades en resistencia de Chiapas tienen proyectos de salud que priorizan la dignidad humana y que en varios lugares se han construido clínicas de medicina general y de especialidades, acondicionadas algunas para realizar cirugías o transportar pacientes en ambulancias. Sabemos también que la juventud zapatista cuenta con proyectos de educación autónoma que abarcan desde nivel básico hasta bachillerato, incluidos los Centros Culturales de Educación Tecnológica Autónoma Zapatista (CCETAZ), o que las muchachas y los jóvenes estudiarán ciencias y humanidades cuando echen a andar su universidad, ésa que ya planean. Sabemos porque nos lo contaron y porque lo vimos que no está permitido el consumo de alcohol, en respuesta a una exigencia de las mujeres; que las comunidades zapatistas, sin recibir un centavo de ningún gobierno, cuentan con medios de transporte, bodegas de almacenamiento de granos, prácticas de comercio justo, cooperativas de pan, ganado, bordados y pollos, talleres de herbolaria y medicina tradicional, sensibilidad que reconoce lo que falta, entusiasmo para conseguirlo, radios comunitarias, viveros, campañas de vacunación y prevención de enfermedades, sistemas de impartición de justicia que buscan ser justos, comedores autónomos, oficinas de comunicación, bibliotecas. Y sabemos, como quien distingue el agua del fuego, que en las comunidades zapatistas no se siembra droga.
Hace unos días, cerca de doscientos elementos del ejército federal y la policía estatal de Chiapas irrumpieron en comunidades del Caracol de La Garrucha , llamado "Resistencia Hacia un Nuevo Amanecer". De acuerdo a la denuncia hecha por la JBG "El Camino del Futuro", el miércoles 4 de junio de 2008 llegó hasta las puertas del Caracol un convoy formado por "2 carros grandes de soldado y 3 carros chicos de soldado y 2 carros de seguridad pública, 2 carros de policía municipal y una tanqueta y un carro de PGR", al que poquito después se unió otro convoy proveniente de Patihuitz. Los habitantes del Caracol los rechazaron. Los militares les tomaron fotografías y video. Decidieron rodear el Caracol y anduvieron el camino que lleva a las milpas para dirigirse a la comunidad Hermenegildo Galeana. Según señala la JBG , los militares llevaban el rostro pintado para combate y los guiaba un policía municipal de Ocosingo llamado Feliciano Román Ruiz. A medio camino se toparon con la población civil, hombres, mujeres y niños que los rechazaron a gritos. Los soldados respondieron: "Venimos aquí porque sabemos que hay marihuana y vamos a pasar a huevos". Entonces el pueblo zapatista recurrió a piedras, resorteras, hondas, machetes y todo lo que encontró para rechazarlos. Al no poder pasar, los militares respondieron: "esta vez no vamos a pasar, pero regresamos en 15 días y eso sí a huevos vamos a pasar". Luego se movieron hasta la comunidad de San Alejandro. En su camino los soldados "dejaron pisoteado el sembradillo de maíz, que es único alimento del pueblo para vivir". La comunidad de San Alejandro también los rechazó con lo que pudo y el convoy optó por retirarse. En este Caracol se han redactado varias páginas de la Otra Campaña , pues fue aquí donde se realizó la primera reunión plenaria (septiembre 2005) y donde inició su recorrido la Comisión Sexta (enero 2006). Además, aquí se llevó a cabo el encuentro " La Comandanta Ramona y las Zapatistas" (diciembre 2007). Este Caracol vive hoy amenazado de incursión militar bajo la acusación de que en su tierra se siembra marihuana. Y no es desconfianza sino memoria: cuando el Aguascalientes que hospedó a la Convención Nacional Democrática en 1994 se volvió emblemático, el gobierno optó por destruirlo y establecer sobre sus restos una enorme base de operaciones militares. La comunidad cercana de Guadalupe Tepeyac fue severamente castigada y conoció el dolor del exilio. El ejército federal mexicano sabe aplastar a la población civil y se especializa en población indígena. Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, presidente por capricho, parece haber clavado una chincheta roja sobre el nombre " La Garrucha " en su mapa de lugares a reprimir, mapa que ya luce muy rojo. Juan Sabines Guerrero, gobernador perredista de Chiapas, lo anima y le sonríe. Hijo del responsable de la masacre de doce indígenas en Golonchán (junio de 1980), el Sabines actual ha gobernado un Chiapas donde no sólo paramilitares sino policías a su cargo no han dejado de lastimar a la población civil en actos de violencia patéticamente cobardes: niños torturados al ir por agua al río; padres e hijos encarcelados como quien caza una presa; campesinos solos golpeados en grupo o baleados a orillas de una carretera; cortes de agua; mujeres golpeadas, humilladas; familias que ven arder su milpa; familias que ven arder su casa; jóvenes perseguidos por veredas o espiados a la puerta de su hogar para clavarles un machete en el cráneo; cortes de luz; personas de cualquier edad desplazadas en cualquier momento. Para saber a qué huele la guerra o imaginar qué tanto duele podríamos hablar con todos ellos. Podríamos preguntarles a ellas. Quizá responderían "depende". A veces la guerra huele a la casa que te incendiaron y su olor duele tanto como los años que viviste o pensabas vivir en ella. Otras veces huele a sangre en tu rostro golpeado y su olor te duele igual que las patadas de varias decenas de hombres contra ti solito. Depende. Tal vez la guerra huele al marido que te robó la policía y duele tanto como la sentencia que, sin motivo, le ha impuesto un juez brutal. Habría que hablar con ellos, preguntarles a ellas. Cada testimonio de la violencia estatal de los dos últimos años ha sido presentado con detalle por las JBG, documentado por organismos civiles, videograbado por brigadistas solidarios e incluso recogido en documentales. Los hechos están allí, al alcance de los sentidos de quien quiera conocerlos. Cuando el Subcomandante Marcos subrayó en San Cristóbal de las Casas que podía olerse la guerra, la comunidad de La Garrucha estaba lista para recibir a miles de mujeres de decenas de países. Seis meses después, la comunidad de La Garrucha está lista para recibir al ejército de Felipe Calderón con toda su violencia. La pareja que tenía planeado casarse el 20 de junio, pues se casa. Bueno, en realidad adelanta la fiesta, la comida y el baile porque la boda será después. Las mujeres que ya echaron a andar la nueva "Clínica Comandanta Ramona" se reúnen en el piso superior de esta construcción sobresaliente para seguir tomando su curso de salud sexual y reproductiva. El comedor autónomo alimenta sin parar a los comensales citadinos con una cocina de gas donde el fogón es historia. Las niñas visten los mil colores de siempre y los niños hacen las diabluras de costumbre. La mujer anciana que vive sola no deja de preparar los panes de maíz. El auditorio generoso que nos ha alojado no cambia su fisonomía mientras en una esquina del templete central del pueblo sobresale la figura de una enorme vigilante que mira hacia la entrada del Caracol, que aguanta sol y lluvia y que es varias compañeras en una: Emiliana Digna Ramona, la muñeca regalo entregada al Encuentro de Mujeres en diciembre de 2007, la que bailaba sin parar. Todo indica que esta comunidad, como cualquier comunidad zapatista, espera la ofensiva militar. Y en esa espera, la comunidad sigue viviendo. Como bien dice la Junta de Buen Gobierno en su comunicado del 4 de junio: "Somos lo que ya saben hermanos y hermanas de México y del mundo".
Caracol de La Garrucha , junio 2008.
Información sobre l@s Zapatistas: http://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/ http://capise.org.mx/ http://otravancouver.resist.ca Información sobre Coloquio Internacional en Memoria a Andrés Aubry con Participación de Naomi Klein: |