This communiqué comes from the Working Group No Estamos Todxs. Marcelino Ruiz Gómez is part of the organization Vineketik in Resistance and has been a political prisoner fighting for his freedom for more than 12 years. The orginal article can be found in Spanish here.
Communiqué from the organization Vineketik in Resistance, words from our comrades in struggle in the midst of the Covid-19 Crisis
25/3/202
CERSS No 10
Comitan Chiapas Mexico
Communiqué from indigenous prisoners of the organization Vineketik in Resistance
Adherent of the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle of the EZLN
To the Zapatista Army of National Liberation
To National and International Civil Society
To the National Indigenous Congress (CIG)
To the National and International Media
To the People of Mexico and the World
Compañeros, compañeras, compañeroas, I’m sending you a combative greeting from my place of struggle and resistance.
In the midst of this humanitarian crisis, irresponsible capitalist rulers benefit from pandemics and new diseases year after year in their struggle to decimate the world population. With precautionary measures being taken and the media bombarding us, they ask us not to leave the house no matter if we are bricklayers, laborers, ice cream venders, peasants or craftsman. They say don’t leave the house in search of bread but surely we will die through malnutrition as indigenous children have done for centuries.
In our case, we have been kidnapped by the state and deprived of our freedom in this prison which is full of indigenous people as all prisons throughout Chiapas. In order to support our families who depend on us, we make handicrafts. We work mutually to support them. We work hard because the government does not give us soap or any other personal cleaning items. They have taken security measures so that our families can no longer come see us and our work and products can not be taken out. We are in crisis. We are concerned for our families because we support them with our handicrafts which they can not sell to survive. As human beings we are just surviving since the government made false allegations against us.
And in the midst of this crisis, the big capitalists are going to take advantage and benefit at the cost of the poorest. News reports show that the International Monetary Fund is prepared to give one billion dollars in loans to the poorest countries. Why? It’s nothing but slavery because the government is going to keep the money in their pockets and it will be the poor who pays more taxes than businessmen.
In this time of crisis, we organize ourselves, stand in solidarity and resist by continuing to show our outrage to the actions of bad governments.
Yours sincerely,
Marcelino Ruiz Gómez