Communities of the Popular Indigenous Council of Guerrero – Emiliano Zapata, members of the National Indigenous Congress, report that they will close their territory “to avoid a massacre by the narco-paramilitary groups, but it is also closed to any political party or government official, because they only come to mock us.” The original in Spanish can be found here.
To the Zapatista Army of National Liberation
To the National Indigenous Congress
To the Indigenous Governing Council
To the People of Guerrero
To the People of Mexico and the World
To the National and International Sixth
To the Networks of Resistance and Rebellion
To CIG Support Networks
To the Honest Media
Community territory. June 2019
The men, women, children, girls, grandfathers, grandmothers of the Popular Indigenous Council of Guerrero – Emiliano Zapata want to thank and send our greetings to all the individuals, collectives, organizations, networks of support and resistance as well as to all the people, nations and tribes of the National Indigenous Congress that have shown their solidarity in the face of the terror that is taking place in our community territory. For us, that support, those words and those actions, are a beam of light in the midst of darkness and horror. We know support exists today due to the work of our brothers and sisters.
Our brothers and sisters have walked with us since the establishment of the National Indigenous Congress, since the establishment of our community based justice and security systems and since the establishment of the Popular Indigenous Council of Guerrero – Emiliano Zapata. They have supported us since the beginning of Radio Zapata 94.1 FM, since the foundation of the Indigenous Governing Council and during the journey with our spokesperson Marichuy. All these organizational efforts, all these journeys, have been costly with moments of hunger and sleeplessness, and time spent without our families; but only through these means have we been able to walk collectively to make our struggles known.
As an indigenous organization we have gone directly to the state and federal governments to stop the narco-paramilitary war that groups have waged against our peoples. Our brothers José Lucio Bartolo Faustino, Modesto Verales Sebastián, Bartolo Hilario Morales and Isaías Xanteco Ahuejote have been cowardly murdered and viciously assassinated . Narco-paramilitary groups continue to murder in our community and continue to make death threats against members of the CIPOG-EZ; they have cut the lights in several towns and have set up checkpoints in the towns of Atzacoaloya, Jagüey, and Hueycantenango. A narco-paramilitary siege continues in our communities which directly causes food shortages, psychological terror, forced displacements, and selective murders. All three levels of government have turned their backs on us; the Mexican state has neglected us.
Today we publicly declare the Lower Mountain Community Territory (of Guerrero), made up of the CIPOG-EZ and CNI-CIG, as communities in resistance against narco-paramilitary terror. Our territory will be totally closed to avoid a massacre by narco-paramilitary groups. It will also be closed to any political party or government officials because they only come to mock us. Any communication should be made directly with our permanent assemblies presided over by the civil and agrarian authorities of the Popular Indigenous Council of Guerrero – Emiliano Zapata. We reiterate that our struggle is civil and peaceful, but we cannot resist the narco-paramilitary groups only with our will. From now on, we will put up the appropriate barricades where our men and women will protect our territory, because today we are taking our destiny and collective life back.
Sisters and brothers, we are making an urgent call from the heart of the struggle, to all towns, nations, tribes of the National Indigenous Congress, organizations, networks, collectives, and to honest and good-hearted men and women, to help us collect food supplies or necessary financial assistance to support our resistance. Our brothers and sisters of the CNI-CIG are collecting this humanitarian aid for us. We are also asking you to do whatever is necessary to break the narco-paramilitary siege in the absence of the Mexican state.
We are from the towns of Vicente Guerrero, José María Morelos and Pavón and from the same towns where General Emiliano Zapata Salazar rode, where you could hear “No están Solos!” (You are not alone!) echoing for the EZLN in February 1994. We are NaSavi, Me´pháá, Nahua, Ñamnkué towns where the Regional Coordinator of Communal Authorities started in 1995. We are the people who walked with the CNI to the center of the country in 2001 only to find political parties betray us. We are the people who started the CIPOG-EZ on April 10, 2008, where Radio Zapata was born in April 2015 and today we are the people who are in resistance against the narco-paramilitary siege.
We are the peoples of the Lower Mountain Region of Guerrero, integrated in the CIPOG-EZ, those who today are in resistance. We inform you all today that the CRAC-PC-PF are overwhelmed in their situation. Today we affirm that as towns and civil and agrarian authorities, our community territory decisions will be taken collectively by all people in resistance consistent with our forms of organization. We declare that we are not seeking a confrontation with anyone and that our struggle is for life. Our voice and decisions arise from our permanent assemblies and any dialogue with this community structure will be made known to all our brothers and sisters in Mexico and the world through the CIPOG-EZ, and the CNI-CIG.
We demand narco-paramilitary groups to cease-fire and to stop the war. We demand respect for our land and community territory, respect for community institutions that we have created and will continue to create during this process. Respecting our autonomy as peoples cannot be a pretext for the Mexican state to abandon our people and to allow more deaths and misery. The State must fulfill its obligations with respect and coordination with our organizational structures and our community authorities.
We govern ourselves. We have created our own community institutions and have built our community territories. We live off the land and we defend it because it gives us life. We know that death haunts us, but there is no life in being slaves to the narco-paramilitary. Sisters and brothers of Mexico and the world, there is no more time to defend life, we are facing war. Here below we defend life while up there they continue to impose capitalism which is death.
From the heart of the resistance of the community territory of the Lower Mountain of Guerrero, the Popular Indigenous Council of Guerrero – Emiliano Zapata (CIPOG-EZ): Municipal Commissioners, Communal and Ejidal “Comisariados” or agrarian authorities, Municipal Coordinators, Security Councils, Municipal Coordinators, Municipal Delegates and Assemblies of: Xicotlán, Tula Guerrero, Terrero 1, Ahuehuitic, Papaxtla, Rincón de Chautla, Zacapexco, Buena Vista, Xolotepec, Xulchuchuio, San Jerónimo Ahuixtla, El Jagüey, El Paraíso, Tepozonalco, Santa Rosa, Mexcaltepec 1. Regions: Costa Chica, Costa Montaña, Montaña Alta and Montaña Baja en Resistencia.
Justice for Bartolo Hilario Morales and Isaías Xanteco Ahuejote members of the CNI!
Justice for Lucio Bartolo Faustino and Modesto Verales Sebastián of CIPOG-EZ, CIG and CNI!
Justice for Gustavo Cruz Mendoza, indigenous communicator of CIPO-RFM assassinated!
Justice for Samir Flores Soberanes, indigenous communicator murdered by Amiltzingo!
Stop the counterinsurgency war against the EZLN!
Freedom to Fidencio Aldama of the Yaqui tribe!
No more CNI-CIG bloodshed!
Never again a Mexico without us!