<nettime> ZAPATISTAS DONT SURRENDER AND THE CONSULTA GOES ON

[ricardo dominguez <rdom@thing.net>]

Date:          Fri, 02 Apr 1999 18:03:23 -0600
To:            (Recipient list suppressed)
From:          OFICINA DE CONTACTO PARA LA CONSULTA INTERNACIONAL <>
Subject:        ZAPATISTAS DONT SURRENDER AND THE CONSULTA GOES ON

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(ENGLISH VERSION:)

ZAPATISTA ARMY OF NATIONAL LIBERATION
MEXICO

March 30, 1999

To National and International Civil Society:
To the State, Special, Regional, and Municipal
Coordinators of the
Consulta:
To all the members of the brigades:

Brothers and Sisters:

Multiple, multiplied and multifaceted greetings.  Equally to the Caravans. 

I'm just writing you to not lose the custom, to wish you happy vacations
of Semana Santa, and to ask you to not despair about what comes after the
Consulta.  No, another stage of silence won't follow. Many words and many
meetings will follow.  Dialogues, then. 

It turns out that right now we are making sure that all the companeros and
companeras arrive safely to their respective villages, and, since they are
5,000, well, it's taking a while.  As soon as we've completed this matter,
we'll let you know with all solemnity, pomp, and circumstance.  So please
put up with us. 

Meanwhile I'll inform you that, up until the 21st of March, 1999, there
had been registered 2,635 brigades which bring together more than 28,000
brigade members.  What?  Does it surprise you that there are so many?  No?
What? What about this "there had been registered"?  If that means that
brigades can still be registered?  Yes, of course.  There are still stages
left of the Consulta and tasks that we must carry out, and for them we're
going to need the help of all those people who, like you, turn this
country upon its head, shake it up, and give it voice.  In brief, as soon
as we have the complete results of the Consulta of March 21st, we will
present to you a complete report of all that it has meant in terms of
mobilization, this party of the 21st of March, which, of course, has not
ended. 

So that you can rest these days, don't believe "doggie biscuit" Albores,
nor pay attention to his puppet shows.  Surely you'll find something
better on the playbill.  Don't take your eye off Kosovo, that film I've
already seen and the ending (if there is one) won't be at all pleasant. 
It's not with bombs that peace is constructed (nor with theatre). 

Vale.  Health, and how do you compute the enthusiasm of that March 21st? 

>From the mountains of Southeast Mexico. 

Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
Mexico, March 1999
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ZAPATISTA ARMY OF NATIONAL LIBERATION
MEXICO

March 31, 1999

TO THE NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL PRESS:

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Is anyone still there?  No?  You didn't really just notice Albores' little
number and leave for vacations?  Well, for your return I'm sending you a
communique (in which comes, exclusively and from the heart of the Lacandon
Jungle!, the true and sad tale of the 14 Zapatista "deserters" who in
reality are 16 according to the news media and of how Moctezuma Barragan
uses the money of Sedesol to support the campaign of Labastida!) and a
letter for dear Madame civil society. 

Well, we'll see each other.  Happy vacations, but avoid Kosovo and its
surroundings.  They say the climate there isn't very nice. 

Vale.  Health, and if you wish to know the true Zapatistas, the true
guerrilla camps and the true "heart of the Lacandon Jungle," (and not a
hot springs), make your request and we'll try to attend to you according
to our possibilities. 

>From the Mountains of Southeast Mexico. 


Subcomandante Insurgent Marcos
Mexico, March 1999

P.S.  FOR AZCARRAGA JEAN.- No way!  In the style of "WAG THE DOG"? And
what next?  Are you also going to send a helicopter to destroy schools and
discover foreigners with skimasks?  The new "Lois Lane" is Televisa's
alternate in face of Dolores de la Vega?  Yaaa!  I understand that you're
giving a little push to Albores and Labastida, but wasn't the right one
Don Miguel?  Or is he clearly staying in Veracruz? 

P.S. WITH A BIRTHDAY CAKE.- Congratulations, Lucha!  May you have a very
happy birthday.  Sincerely: everyone. 

P.S.  TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN.- They're beating up the PRD for its process
of internal selection, for having made it open?  For publicly airing its
errors and differences instead of choosing for assassination and hiding
itself? Because of instructions from veeeeery high up?  Because Kosovo is
very far away?  Why?  I say, it's just curiosity, I mean. 

OTHER P.S.- Salud Guerrerenses!  With the few that we are and the little
that we have we support you.  The struggle for democracy is there, here
and yonder. The Zapatistas are with you. 

*************
COMMUNIQUE OF THE CLANDESTINE REVOLUTIONARY INDIGENOUS
COMMITTEE-GENERAL
COMMAND OF THE ZAPATISTA ARMY OF NATIONAL LIBERATION.
MEXICO

March 30, 1999

To the People of Mexico:
To the Peoples and Governments of the World:
To the National and International Press:

Brothers and Sisters:

In several media of electronic communication and in some national written
press, there has appeared information about the supposed desertion of 14
members of the EZLN.  This, despite the fact that it is obviously a farce,
has provoked several people in national politics to take the opportunity
to display in the front row their ignorance and lack of intelligence. 

With the end of making clear to these people the trap into which they fell
and which permitted them to exhibit their clumsiness, the EZLN informs
them of what really happened: 

1.- Senor Alfredo Jimenez Cruz, who works in the municipal presidency of
Ocosingo and one of the providers of arms and equipment to the
paramilitary group MIRA in the canyons, received orders, originating from
Tuxtla Gutierrez, to prepare a sham surrender of the Zapatistas.  For this
act, in Tuxtla Gutierrez they said they had already prepared a group of
reporters to whom they would fly to the event to obscure the resounding
success of the Zapatista Consulta of March 21, 1999. 

2.- In coordination with the federal garrisons stationed in the Canyons
Zone, Senor Alfredo Jimenez Cruz went into the jungle in the night of the
28 of March, bringing uniforms similar to those used by the Zapatistas and
arms of various calibers.  In none of the checkpoints that the Federal
Army has established "to enforce the law of arms and explosives" was Senor
Jimenez Cruz detained or bothered. 

3.- At 1 a.m. of the 29 of March, Senor Alfredo Jimenez Cruz arrived, with
a 3-ton truck (property of the municipal council of Ocosingo), at the
Ejido La Trinidad, located in the Canyon Las Tazas, near the community of
Avellanal. 

4.- In that place were waiting for him 16 members of "MIRA" who pretended
to be "repented" Zapatistas.  All of them belong to the PRI and, since the
activation of the paramilitary groups in the Lacandon Jungle, have been
training under the tutelage of commanders of the Federal Army and been
receiving economic support from the Secretary of Social Development. Their
names are: Domitilo Hernandez Paniagua. Hector Hernandez Paniagua. Jesus
Hernandez Paniagua Jose Hernandez Paniagua. Jose Alvarez Lopez. Jesus
Alvarez Lopez. Francisco Alvarez Lopez. Alejandro Alvarez Lopez. Francisco
Alvarez Mendez. Vicente Perez Castellanos. Jose Perez Castellanos.
Heriberto Constantino Perez. Florentino Hernandez Mendez. Miguel Mendoza
Perez. Omar Perez Mendoza. Simon Lorenzo Hernandez. 5.- The same day the
29 of March, at 2 a.m., the paramilitaries disguised as Zapatistas left La
Trinidad heading towards the municipal head of Ocosingo. Armed and in
uniform, there was no federal checkpoint that stopped them or searched
them. 

6.- In the hours of the morning, they arrived at the place the state
authorities had prepared for the staging of the act: a hot springs on the
edge of the Jatate River, outside the city of Ocosingo.  What followed is
already known:  the farce of crossing the river, the reading of the text
(drawn up by Senor Alfredo Jimenez Cruz), the "delivery" of the arms, the
photos, the declarations. 

7.- The arms "delivered" to Albores will return to the paramilitary group
"MIRA" through the command of the federal army, and the "repented
Zapatistas" will receive, in exchange for acting in this theater, 20 head
of cattle and a heap of promises. 

All this we inform you of so that the press has the complete story and not
just the "act" of the hot springs. 

We hope that this information is given the same emphasis that was given to
the theater of the "desertion".  The paramilitaries (today supposedly
"deserter Zapatistas") are now in their community.  You can travel to
those places and ask the inhabitants and the inhabitants of the
neighboring communities about the "militancy" of those people.  There will
be found the truth. 

Above all that occurred, we want to repeat the following: 

First.- The money that supposedly is being invested in Chiapas is not to
improve the level of life of the indigenous peoples, it is to sustain the
campaign of counterinsurgency.  The economic projects do not even get to
the indigenous PRI-istas, because they are directed toward breaking the
unity of the Zapatistas.  Since the Zapatistas do not sell out and for the
PRI-istas there is nothing (because that's not news), it was decided to
disguise members of PRI as Zapatistas and make them participate in the
ridiculous operettas of Albores Guillen. 

Second.- It is the hope that, given the desperation of the PRI-istas to
obtain even a little bit of the great amount of money the Government of
Chiapas receives, other indigenous people will lend themselves to the
simulation of converting to Zapatismo in order to later "give themselves
up". Thus, there will be, surely, more "all paid" spectacles of the
theater company that inhabits the governmental palace in Tuxtla Gutierrez. 

Third.- It is lamentable that the federal and state governments, instead
of fulfilling the San Andres Accords and committing themselves to the path
of dialogue, opt instead for shams of this type and refuse to recognize
that their policy of war and lies was defeated in public opinion, as was
demonstrated by the Consulta of the 21 of March. 

Fourth.- The Zapatistas do not give up or deliver their arms, much less to
"doggie biscuit" Albores. 

DEMOCRACY!
LIBERTY!
JUSTICE!

>From the mountains of Southeast Mexico.


Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee-General Command of the
Zapatista Army of National Liberation.
Mexico, March 1999.
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