WORLD WORLDWIDE UK News Journal Update - (en) UK, AFED, organise magazine: ZAPATISMO IS UNDER ATTACK: CALL FOR INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 Once again, Chiapas has found itself under siege. Over the past few years,

attacks against the Zapatistas have been nearly constant, whether it be from the
paramilitaries, the federal government or the armchair analysts that support
them. Once again, the Zapatistas call for international solidarity from their
friends and comrades in the international community. We can only support them in
their struggle against capital and the state. Here we present our translation of
a statement published in Camino al Andar by Raúl Romero. ¡Zapata Vive! ¡La Lucha
Sigue! ---- In celebration of their 25th anniversary, between 31 December 2018
and 1 January 2019, the EZLN sent a clear and powerful message from the Caracol
de La Realidad, in Zapatista Chiapas. After thousands of Zapatista militiamen and
women marched, demonstrating their discipline and coordination, Subcomandante
Moisés gave a speech that resonated as far as the national palace. In addition to
ratifying the anti-capitalist position and the commitment to the autonomy of the
Zapatista communities, the insurgent spokesperson also reiterated their rejection
of the mega-projects and their willingness to defend their territories: "We will
not permit any project that destroys human life and causes the death of our
Mother Earth, because behind all of this are the interests of the big national
and transnational capitalists."

The response didn't wait long: in the days that followed, social networks were
filled with messages of hate, lies, calumnies and insults against the Zapatistas.
Dozens of anonymous accounts and some public figures sympathetic with the
government, took part in the onslaught, with Twitter at the centre of the
dispute. The matrix of the anti-Zapatista social media campaign was based on
questioning "where the Zapatistas were in the past", intending to erase a long
history of political initiatives, of confrontations with power, of resistance and
rebellion. Basically, they were trying to make them look like accomplices of
previous governments: a tendency from the official narrative against the critical
sectors.

We say this clearly to refresh our memory: if anyone derailed the neoliberal
integration project promoted by Salinas de Gortari, it was the Zapatistas and the
indigenous peoples who came out and defend their lands and national territory.
They were the ones who put their bodies and blood on the line to defend this country.

The social media attacks levelled against the Zapatistas has been a constant in
this sexenio ("six years"). "Influencers" and "bots" recycled old lies, like
those that claimed the EZLN was a creation of Salinas. They also dusted off the
supposed illness of leaders or the hypothetical rupture between members of the
General Command. The rumour of possible meetings with the federal government, or
Zapatista support for candidates of different parties and in different states,
were among the other confounding fabrications spread online. In their repertoire
of hoaxes, and totally nonsensical ones at that, they claimed that the British
Crown had financed the Zapatistas. Slander and disinformation are weapons of the
counterinsurgency: if you repeat a lie a thousand times, it will be converted
into the truth.

Alongside the media attacks, the current federal government has also carried out
espionage, surveillance and harassment against the Zapatistas and their
solidarity networks. Since April 2019, the Zapatistas reported that their
territories were being surrounded by the presence of the "military, police,
paramilitary, spies, surveillers and informants. Military planes and helicopters
are reappearing, along with artillery vehicles." The information leaked by the
Guacamaya collective revealed some of the reports that the SEDENA had produced,
or commissioned from other agencies, about the Zapatistas and their networks in
Mexico and abroad. The coordination of different state ministries, in mapping the
organizations and people allied to Zapatismo in other countries, was also revealed.

In addition to the media attacks and military espionage, there have also been
physical attacks against the Zapatista communities. The war waged against the
communities in resistance by paramilitary and narco-paramilitary groups continues
as it has since 1994, although with varying intensity. The burning of schools and
coffee warehouses, the kidnapping of our comrades, the beatings, threats,
invasions and other aggressions, are what the Zapatista communities are facing in
some of their territories. Let's give a brief recap:

1.April 2019. The Regional Organisation of Coffee Growers attacked Zapatista
support bases in the Moisés Gandhi community.
2. 26 February 2020. Comrades of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI), were
violated, repressed and kidnapped by paramilitary groups called the
"CHINCHULINES" and "ORCAO".
3. 22 August 2020. Members of the ORCAO sacked and burned a Zapatista coffee
warehouse located in the Commercial Centre "Nuevo Amanecer del Arcoíris en el
crucero de Cuxulja".
4. 8 November 2020. A comrade of the Zapatista support base was kidnapped from
the community of San Isidro, in Moisés Gandhi, and tortured by the paramilitary
organization ORCAO.
5. 18 January 2021. Members of the ORCAO attacked the Moisés Gandhi community, in
the Lucio Cabañas Autonomous Municipality, with gunfire. "There were around 170
shots by high-calibre and 80 shots by low-calibre weapons."
6. 20 January 2021. We recorded new aggressions by ORCAO against Moisés Gandhi.
7. 21 January 2021. The Good Governance Council reported that at least 20 members
of the ORCAO attacked the houses of Zapatista support bases with firearms.[4]
8. 11 September 2021. Members of the ORCAO kidnapped two autonomous authorities
of the Good Governance Council of Patria Nueva, Chiapas.
9. 9 June 2022. Nuevo San Gregorio, in the Lucio Cabañas Zapatista Rebel
Autonomous Municipality Municipio, in Chiapas, Mexico (offical municipality of
Huixtán) and the Good Governance Council "Nuevo Amanecer en Resistance por la
Vida y la Humanidad", of Caracol 10 "Floreciendo la Semilla Rebelde"; suffered
attacks that put the lives, security and personal integrity of 6 Zapatista
families at risk. Human rights observers received death threats.

All of these attacks have been denounced and documented by the Zapatistas
themselves, by human rights organisations and by solidarity networks. The
complicity of the local governments and the use of public resources in these
attacks, has even been pointed out. The above, added to the growth of criminal
cartels in Chiapas and political disputes - among other factors - led the
Zapatistas to warn in September 2021 that Chiapas was on the brink of Civil War.

Recently, since 22 May 2023, the attacks have intensified. Once again, the ORCAO
paramilitary organisation has attacked Zapatista support bases in the Moisés
Gandhi autonomous community with high-calibre weapons. Comrade Gilberto López
Sántiz was seriously wounded. The National Indigenous Congress reported that he
was suffering: "a wound that perforated the diaphragm, made three holes in the
large intestine, then in the stomach and finally in the spleen, which means that
the comrade is in a serious condition; a situation that is complicated by the
insufficient medical attention he has received, as he urgently requires intensive
care without having been admitted or transferred to where he can receive the
necessary attention". These attacks have lasted for several days.

The three levels of government, municipal, state and federal, are all responsible
for these attacks. They have continued supplying the ORCAO with public resources
and have guaranteed it impunity to continue its attacks.

Independent social organisations must urgently intervene to stop these attacks
immediately. The demands are clear and have been clarified by the National
Indigenous Congress:

1. Comrade Gilberto López Sántiz must be given immediate and adequate medical
attention.
2. The armed attack against the Moisés Gandhi community must be stopped and their
autonomous territory must be respected.
3. The material and intellectual authors of the paramilitary attacks must be
punished.
4. The armed groups that wage an active and intensifying war against the
Zapatista communities must be dismantled.
The war against the Zapatista communities is intensifying. We beg for solidarity
from all over the world: stop the aggression against the Zapatista autonomous
communities.

[1]See:
https://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/2020/02/27/pronunciamiento-ante-el-secuestro-de-miembros-del-cni-en-chilon-chiapas-por-su-participacion-en-las-jornadas-samir-somos-todas-y-todos/

[2]See:
https://frayba.org.mx/index.php/nuevas-agresiones-armadas-de-la-orcao-la-comunidad-moises-gandhi

[3]See:
https://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/2020/11/10/los-zapatistas-denuncian-el-secuestro-de-un-base-de-apoyo-por-paramilitares-de-la-orcao/

[4]See:
https://frayba.org.mx/index.php/nuevas-agresiones-armadas-de-la-orcao-la-comunidad-moises-gandhi

[5]See: https://frayba.org.mx/220511_au06

https://organisemagazine.org.uk/zapatismo-is-under-attack-call-for-international-solidarity-international/
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