“Six Months Without Justice for Samir” is a communique from the People’s Front in Defense of Land and Water, Morelos, Puebla, Tlaxcala from August 20, 2019.
6 MONTHS AFTER SAMIR’S MURDER, THOSE BELOW RESPECT HIM, THOSE ABOVE DESPISE HIM
It has been 6 months since Samir’s death and we continue to mourn and to be filled with rage. We can not get used to his absence because day after day his presence becomes more present in our hearts and path. The seed he left us is the seed of dignity and it grows in a variety of ways as our comrades take on and continue his struggle.
In these six months we have felt and seen great support and solidarity from compas within the country and other countries. Our pain and indignation is also theirs. Compas, we are very happy to see, listen and feel your support because we see a little piece of our brother Samir within you. In spite of Samir’s murder, the seeds of rebellious dignity continue to spread. We don’t feel alone and on the contrary you gives us strength to continue.
We want to thank the EZLN, CNI-CIG, support networks, towns, collectives and social and human rights organizations for embracing our pain, anger and for recognizing and vindicating our compañero by using his words and teachings. We are glad that Samir’s dignity and rebelliousness has spread as far as the four corners of the world.
Zapatista sisters and brothers, we are very happy that resistance and autonomy continue to grow in Zapatista lands and we want to tell you that you are the future of our people. We want to thank you especially for recognizing our brother Samir by honoring him for 15 years by naming “SAMIR FLORES VIVE” in this important process of expanding to new rebel territory.
But our joy is filled with indignation when we hear the declarations of the President of the Republic saying that the death of our brother “has nothing to do with the government.” Weeks before we had alerted Obrador of the difficult situation created by the the PIM conflict, warning him to be careful not to create more violence, but he did not listen. He ignored us and then he fanned the flames with insults in Cuautla when he announced the consultation, in the middle of a a popular outcry when he said “not like that.”
How dare López Obrador today say “compañero” to Samir, when yesterday he called him a “radical ultra-conservative leftist,” as he continues to belittle and snub his death? The country’s top leader does nothing to solve his murder by leaving it in the hands of a State Attorney’s Office that does not solve 99% of the homicides in Morelos. Then he dares to say that they do not have the budget to investigate so many deaths in Morelos and that it was only going to investigate the death of Samir and 2 other cases, but then doesn’t even do that!
Mr. President, we want to know what you mean when you say that we are responsible if the Morelos Integral Project becomes garbage. Is it a kind of threat that awaits us if we follow the path of dignity and continue to demand justice for our people? We do not want threats, we want dialogue, we are still waiting for your response to the invitation we gave you to come to Huexca.
We remind you that you came to power because the people of Mexico are fed up with injustice, with preferential treatment for the rich at the expense of the poor. You came to power because you promised to bring justice to the people, and as you said in 2014, “We don’t want that gas pipeline, we don’t want that thermoelectric plant, nor the mines.” If you tell us to assume responsibility for the PIM becoming garbage , we tell you: take responsibility for the promises you made to the people. Or what, are you just one of those who makes false promises not to impoverish the people?
Take responsibility as the country’s top leader and order the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) to act on Samir’s case and to create a Truth Commission on the Social Impacts of the PIM; take responsibility and punish the companies that unjustly accused, imprisoned and tortured us and tore apart our towns; take responsibility and cancel the contract with the Spanish companies Elecnor and Enagas which built a gas pipeline in a volcanic risk zone without prevention or following safety recommendations; take responsibility and cancel the thermoelectric plant because it was installed without previously agreeing on water disposal for its operation, nor asking for the opinion of the community of Huexca; take responsibility and punish the governments that ordered to spend millions of dollars to impose this project with the use of police and army; take responsibility and make an example by punishing those who violate the rights of indigenous peoples; take responsibility and respect the water of the ejidos of Ayala, the home of our general Emiliano Zapata and respect what the law says; the water goes to the countryside first and if there is enough, then for electricity generation. Take responsibility and don’t tell any more lies, don’t go back on your word.Because there are those from below who recognize the work of our brother Samir and have decided to name a 15-year organizational process, “Samir Flores Vive” and there are those who from above who call him militant and a threatening radical voice of the ultraconservative left. After his death they mocked us and Samir’s family by saying, “I hope one day his death will be solved” without lifting a finger to declare justice in our country and still dares to say that those who point to him as responsible for his death are conservative people. Does Mr. Obrador not critique himself at all?
That’s why we can’t believe him any more, because first he says one thing and then does the opposite. He says that in his government there will be no more repression, but the CFE accuses our comrades of moral damage to the thermos without any proof of it.
That is why we know that freedom and justice will be work done by us and not by your government. That is why we will continue to fight for respect for our mother earth, for water, for freedom and self-determination. We are moving forward in resistance and rebellion to break the siege of capital that seeks to drown us and kill the native peoples of Mexico and the world and to terminate their mega-projects and to get the money that killed King Midas.
Six months without justice for Samir from above, six months in which Samir’s flame became an active volcano from below and to the left.
SAMIR FLORES VIVE
LET’S BREAK THE CHAINS.
WE ADVANCE IN THE OFFENSIVE FOR THE DEFENSE OF MOTHER EARTH BY BUILDING AUTONOMY AND SELF-DETERMINATION
JUSTICE FOR SAMIR
CANCEL THE PIM
Original in Spanish: https://radiozapote.org/2019/08/20/seis-meses-sin-justicia-para-samir-comunicado-del-frente-de-pueblos-en-defensa-de-la-tierra-y-el-agua-morelos-puebla-tlaxcala/