Commemorating 32 years since their uprising, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) affirmed that it will continue building its autonomy and rebellion from “the commons,” despite the fact that for three decades corrupt governments have tried to weaken them.
From the Caracol of Oventic, “resistance and rebellion for humanity,” a militia member recalled that the Zapatistas had to take up arms because decades of marginalization, repression, and exploitation left them no other option. Today, the 32nd anniversary is a day of commemoration and celebration, but before it was marked by “sadness and farewells because it was a matter of killing or being killed for a just cause,” he recalled.
“Since then, we have undertaken a struggle for democracy, freedom, and justice for all,” he declared.
Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés added that this democracy, freedom, and justice for the people of Mexico “has not been achieved,” because “misery, injustice, inequality, repression, humiliation, and plunder” persist in the country.
He added that to this day there is no justice for the 1968 massacre, for the murders in Juárez, or for Ayotzinapa.
Moisés accused the governments of “continuing to deceive us,” not only the indigenous communities, but all sectors of the country, both rural and urban, with the false rhetoric of “the poor come first,” and because the reforms implemented in Mexico only benefit “the rich.” The Zapatista leader added that the communities must continue organizing from the ground up despite the harassment they have endured throughout these 32 years of resistance and rebellion, even defending themselves as they did at the beginning against any potential use of the Army.
“We will continue our peaceful political and ideological struggle because we do not want death, we want life,” he declared before hundreds of insurgents, militia members, and Zapatista support bases.
“We will continue this struggle, but with the shared vision we have discussed at length: the commons,” he added.
He explained that the vision of the commons, based on equality and collective action, goes against private property and individualism, which have caused fragmentation in communities.
Moisés accused current governments of promoting this division by distributing direct aid to citizens in order to perpetuate their hold on power, as the PRI and PAN parties did. He added that building “the commons” is a task envisioned for over 100 years, and only practice will reveal its true results.
“We already have the horizon, we have already found it, and that is truly for human life and for all other lives. It is the commons,” he noted.
Original article by Edgar H. Clemente, La Jornada, January 1st, 2026.
Translated by Schools for Chiapas.