On October 11, 1996, Comandante Ramona arrived from the Lacandon Jungle at the founding meeting of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) in the auditorium of the Congress Center at the Mexico City Medical Center. Waiting for her—excited and determined—were 600 delegates from dozens of the country’s indigenous peoples.
After many trials and tribulations, the artisan weaver arrived in very poor health.
The federal government refused to allow the Zapatistas to leave Chiapas, and—worse still—to do so while wearing balaclavas. In fact, some spokespeople for President Ernesto Zedillo suggested carrying out deterrent military actions against the insurgents if they insisted on traveling outside the state, and others threatened to arrest anyone who dared to set foot on the border with Oaxaca or Tabasco.
Upon arriving at the CNI event, Ramona, a representative of the EZLN, was welcomed to the podium with a bouquet of red roses by an honor guard—appointed by the assembly—composed of 22 governors and leading figures from the Purépecha, Wixaritari, Hñahñú, Ñuú Savi, Nahua, and Tutunakuj peoples. Copal was burned at the four cardinal points, and honors were paid to the flag and the national anthem.
The artisan presented Major Félix Serdán of the Jaramillo faction (to whom the Zapatistas had honorarily conferred his rank) with the National Flag she had brought with her as a precious treasure from the mountains of the Southeast. “This,” said the heroic fighter, “is so that we never forget that our homeland is Mexico and so that everyone hears that there will never be a Mexico without us.”
In the political statement with which the CNI concluded its proceedings, the network called for the building of a new homeland, “that homeland that has never truly been one, because it sought to exist without us.”
And it warned: “We are rising up; we stand ready for struggle. We are determined to go all the way—even to the death. But we do not bring drums of war; rather, we bring banners of peace. We want to unite with all men and women who, by recognizing us, recognize their own roots.
“We will not surrender our autonomy. By defending it, we will defend that of all neighborhoods, all towns, all groups, and communities that, like us, also want the freedom to decide their own destiny; and together with them, we will build the country that has been unable to achieve its greatness—the country that a small, voracious group continues to plunge into ignominy, misery, and violence.”
A day later, on October 12, led by the female commander, thousands of people marched along Paseo de la Reforma to the Zócalo. One of the most celebrated slogans was: “You said no it couldn’t be? We’re here to say we don’t agree!. Ramona is right here indeed!”
Once in the plaza, the rebel spokesperson said: “Today we have come all the way here, to the heart of this country called Mexico, to share a few words from us, the Zapatistas, with all Mexicans. Our voice as Zapatistas is very small, but its footprint is large; it travels far and touches many hearts. We have come here to shout, together with everyone, ‘No more!’—never again a Mexico without us. That is what we want: a Mexico where we all have a dignified place.” And she called for a great national dialogue. That same day, 3,000 people took to the streets of Rome, Italy, in support of the EZLN, Cuba, and the Kurdish people.
The CNI announced the emergence of a new movement, born of the convergence of Zapatismo with a broad constellation of organizations and groups that had been fighting since before 1994 for the recognition of the rights of indigenous peoples. The San Andrés Dialogues, signed on February 16, 1996, and the National Indigenous Forum held in San Cristóbal from January 3 to 8, 1996, marked the starting point for the construction of this national network.
Among them were leaders from the agrarian struggle alongside others from the ethnopolitical movement, and still others from the economic and productive rights movement. What they had in common was their independence from the state and from political parties. They were part of a generation of indigenous leaders who came of age in the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s (originally with predominantly agrarian and peasant identities) and who emerged into the public eye in the wake of the Zapatista uprising, alongside traditional community authorities, asserting their identity as indigenous people.
They placed the recognition of their peoples and a new relationship with the state at the center of their agenda.
The profound nature of that encounter (which endures to this day) was expressed with complete clarity by the Purépecha leader Juan Chávez in his opening address at the second CNI assembly: “The EZLN and the CNI,” he stated, “are now a single national force.” The armed call that has been heard since January 1994 is accepted, defended, and respected by us, based on the historical principle of the peoples’ supreme right to rebellion. Today, the EZLN champions the demands that our peoples have seen denied by governments for centuries. The CNI endorses these demands…”
Much has changed for indigenous peoples over the past 30 years. Laws have been passed in their name without recognizing their right to territory and to direct political representation. Organized crime and mining companies are threatening their territories on a scale never seen before. To survive, millions of them work as day laborers in agricultural fields where they are subjected to savage exploitation. Political actors have appropriated their culture and turned it into a New Age spectacle to seek legitimacy. The legislature has been filled with fake representatives who speak on their behalf.
Yet, despite everything, the resistance endures, and their reconstitution as peoples continues to move forward. Despite the time that has passed since its inception, the founding pact that gave birth to the CNI remains intact and fuels its commitment to emancipation. Three decades after they were spoken, Commander Ramona’s words at the Medical Center and the Zócalo continue to resonate in every corner of the country.
Original text by Luis Hernández Navarro published in La Jornada on September 1st, 2026.
Translation by Schools for Chiapas.