Gilberto López y Rivas
The National Indigenous Congress and its Indigenous Council of Government (CNI-CIG) issued a call to commemorate, this October 12, the 531 years since the beginning of the resistance and rebellion of the indigenous peoples and communities against what has been described as the “greatest genocide in the history of humanity, against the conquest, against the dispossession of our lands and territories, against the extermination of our institutions, languages, culture and traditions… against the death that global capitalism produced and continues to produce”. In addition, this date marks the 27th anniversary of the founding of the National Indigenous Congress as the space of struggle and unity of the native peoples of Mexico, within the framework of the San Andres dialogue between the government of the Republic and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN).
The call constitutes an emphatic denunciation of the character of the current government as a protector and guarantor of big capital, which, through militarization and complicity with organized crime and paramilitarism, seeks to implement its mega-projects of death, such as the Mayan Train, the Inter-Oceanic Corridor, the Morelos Integral Project and the International Airport of Santa Lucia, “which, based on colonialism, patriarchy, homogenization, […] hatred and fear, seek to order and reorder our territory.”
As unequivocal and overwhelming signs of this war against the peoples, we point out the siege against the Zapatista peoples and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, massacres such as that of Acteal, the executions and forced disappearances of members of the Indigenous and Popular Council of Guerrero-Emiliano Zapata and the Nahua community of Ostula, as well as the disappearance of the 43 young people of Ayotzinapa, along with the growing and continuous violence against women, and the assassination of land defenders, as in the case of Samir Flores Soberanes,
It is in this socio-political context, compounded also by the conflicts and inter-oligarchic contradictions brought about by next year’s anticipated electoral process, that the CNI-CIG makes a call to the peoples of Mexico and the world who resist against death and oblivion, to the social, civil and political organizations, and to the women and men of good heart, to raise their voices against the war in Mexico and the world, especially against the war against the Zapatista peoples and the originary peoples of the country, calling for a global action against this war, a national and international day of dislocated actions, to celebrate the third anniversary of the seizure of the building of the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples by the Otomí indigenous community, and a central mobilization in the heart of Mexico City on October 12, according to their times, ways, calendars and geographies.
This call shows the analytical-conceptual level and the organizational-representative capacity achieved by the National Indigenous Congress-Indigenous Council of Government during these 27 years of resistance.
The ethical congruence demonstrated and recognized by the electoral authorities in obtaining citizen signatures in support of the candidacy of its spokesperson Marichuy, in 2018; the legal defense and political support to communities and defenders of the land and territories; its active and committed presence in the resistance of the peoples throughout the national geography against the recolonization and complete occupation of the territories, as a recognized and honest interlocutor; its permanent accompaniment of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation; its defense of the Zapatista autonomous governments and the autonomous processes of commanding by obeying in various regions of the country, make the CNI-CIG, along with the EZLN and its environment of solidarity, a bastion of anti-capitalist, anti-patriarchal, anti-racist struggle, from below and to the left, which, unyielding, does not tire, does not give up and keeps alive the flame of rebellion and struggle for life, of everything for everyone, nothing for us, and the hope for a better world.
Original text published in La Jornada on September 29th, 2023. https://www.jornada.com.mx/2023/09/29/opinion/018a1pol
English translation by Schools for Chiapas.