Originally published in Spanish by the EZLN

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Translated by irlandesa

Zapatista Army of National Liberation

Mexico.

June 21, 2005.

To National and International Civil Society:

Se~ora, se~orita, se~or, young person, boy, girl:

This is not a letter of farewell. At times it is going to seem as if it

is, that it is a farewell, but it is not. It is a letter of explanation.

Well, that is what we shall attempt. This was originally going to go out

as a communique', but we have chosen this form because, for good or for bad,

when we have spoken with you we have almost always done so in this most

personal tone.

We are the men, women, children and old ones of the Zapatista Army of

National Liberation. Perhaps you remember us - we rose up in arms on

January 1, 1994, and ever since then we have kept up our war against the

forgetting, and we have resisted the war of extermination which the

different governments have waged, unsuccessfully, against us. We live in

the furthest corner of this country which is called Mexico. In that

corner which is called "Indian Peoples." Yes, like that, plural.

Because, for reasons we shall not give here, the plural is used in this

corner for everything: we suffer, we die, we fight, we resist.

Now, as you know quite well, it so happens that, ever since that dawn of

the beginning of '94, we have dedicated our struggle - first with fire

and then with the word - our efforts, our life and our death, exclusively

to the Indian peoples of Mexico for the recognition of their rights and

their culture. It was natural - we zapatistas are overwhelmingly

indigenous. Mayan indigenous, to be more precise. But, in addition, the

indigenous in this country - despite having been the foundation of this

Nation's great transformations - are still the social group which has

been the most attacked and the most exploited. If they have shown no

mercy against anyone with their military wars and the wars disguised as

"political", the wars of usurpation, of conquest, of annihilation, of

marginalization, of ignorance - it has been against the indigenous. The

war against us has been so intense and brutal that it has become routine

to think that the indigenous will only be able to escape from their

conditions of marginalization and poverty if they stop being

indigenous...or if they are dead. We have been fighting to not die and

to not cease being indigenous. We have fought to be - alive and

indigenous - part of this nation which has been lifted up over our backs.

The Nation for whom we have been the feet (almost always unshod) with

which it has walked in its decisive moments. The Nation for whom we have

been the arms and hands which have made the earth bear fruit and which

have erected the large buildings, edifices, churches and palaces that

those who have everything take such pride in. The Nation of which -

through word, look and manner, that is, through culture - we are the

root.

Are we raining insult upon injury? Perhaps it's because we are in June,

the sixth month of the year. Well, we just wanted to point out that the

beginning of our uprising was not just a "Here we are", shouted to a

Nation that was deaf and dumb because of the authoritarianism above. It

was also a "This is what we are and shall continue to be...but now with

dignity, with democracy, with justice, with liberty." You know this

quite well, because, among other things, you have been accompanying us

since then.

Unfortunately, after more than 7 years committed to that path, in April

of 2001, politicians from all the parties (primarily the PRI, PAN and

PRD) and the self-styled "three branches of the Union" (the presidency,

the congress and the courts) formed an alliance in order to deny the

Indian peoples of Mexico the constitutional recognition of their rights

and culture. And they did so without caring about the great national and

international movement which had arisen and joined together for that

purpose. The great majority, including the media, were in agreement that

that debt should be settled. But the politicians don't care about

anything that doesn't get them money, and they rejected the same proposal

that they had approved years before when the San Andre's Accords were

signed and the Cocopa drafted a proposal for constitutional reform. They

did so because they thought that, after a little time had passed,

everyone would forget. And perhaps many people forgot, but we did not.

We have memory, and it was they: the PRI, the PAN, the PRD, the President

of the Republic, the deputies and senators and the justices of the

Supreme Court of the Nation.

Yes, the Indian peoples continue today in the underbelly of this Nation,

and they continue to suffer the same racism they have for 500 years. It

doesn't matter what they are saying now, when they are preparing for the

elections (in other words, to secure positions that will make them

profits): they are not going to do anything for the good of the

majority, nor are they going to listen to anything that isn't money.

If we zapatistas pride ourselves on anything it's honoring the word, the

honest and principled word. All this time we have been telling you that

we will try the path of dialogue and negotiation in order to achieve our

demands. We told you that we would make great efforts in the peaceful

struggle. We told you that we would focus on the indigenous struggle.

And so it has been. We have not deceived you.

All the help which you have so generously contributed to this noble cause

and through those means has been for that and for nothing else. We have

used nothing for anything else. All the humanitarian help and aid which

we have received from Mexico and from throughout the world has been used

only for improving the living conditions of the zapatista indigenous

communities and in peaceful initiatives for the recognition of indigenous

rights and culture. Nothing of what was received has been used for the

acquisition of arms or for any war preparations. Not only because we

haven't needed it (the EZLN has maintained its military capacity intact

since 1994), but above all because it wouldn't have been honest to tell

you that your help was for one thing and to use it for another. Not one

centavo of the help received for peace with justice and dignity has been

used for war. We have not needed help for making war. For peace,

yes.

We have, of course, used our word to refer to (and in some cases to

express our solidarity with) other struggles in Mexico and the world, but

just that far. And many times, knowing that we could do more, we had to

contain ourselves, because our efforts - as we had told you - were

exclusively by and for the indigenous.

It has not been easy. Do you remember the March of the 1,111? The

Consulta of 5000 in 1999? The March of the Color of the Earth in 2001?

Well, imagine then what we felt when we saw and heard the injustices and

the hatred directed against campesinos, workers, students, teachers,

working persons, homosexuals and lesbians, young people, women, old ones,

children. Imagine what our heart felt.

We were touched by a pain, a fury, an indignation which we already knew

because it has been, and is, ours. But now we were touched by it in the

other.

And we heard the "we" which inspires us wanting to become larger, to make

itself more collective, more national. But no, we had said just the

indigenous, and we had to honor that. I believe it's because of our way

- in other words, that we would prefer to die before we would betray our

word.

Now we are consulting with our heart in order to see if we are going to

say and do something else. If the majority says yes, then we are going

to do everything possible to honor it. Everything, even dying if it's

necessary. We do not want to appear dramatic. We are only saying it in

order to make it clear how far we are willing to go.. In other words,

not "until they give us a position, an amount of money, a promise, a

candidacy."

Perhaps some may remember how, six months ago, we started with the "what

is missing is missing." Then fine, as is obvious, the hour has arrived

to decide whether we are going to proceed to find what is missing. Not

to find, to build. Yes, to build "something else."

In some of the communique's of the past few days, we let you know that we

have entered into an internal consulta. We shall soon have the results,

and we will inform you of them. Meanwhile then, we are taking the

opportunity to write you. We have always spoken to you with sincerity,

and also to those who are our heart and guardian, our Votan Zapata, the

zapatista communities, our collective command.

It will be a difficult and hard decision, just as our life and our

struggle have been. For four years we have been preparing the conditions

in order to present our peoples with doors and windows so that, when the

moment comes, everyone had all the ingredients in place for choosing which

window to peer through and which door to open. And that is our way. In

other words, the EZLN leadership does not lead, rather it seeks paths,

steps, company, direction, pace, destination. Several. And then they

present the peoples with those paths, and they analyze with them what

would happen if we follow one or the other course. Because, depending on

the path we travel, there are things which will be good and things which

will be bad. And then they - the zapatista communities - speak their

thoughts and decide, after discussing and by majority, where we are all

going. And then they give the order, and then the EZLN leadership has to

organize the work or prepare what is needed to walk that path. Of course

the EZLN leadership doesn't just look at what happens only to them, but

they have to be bound to the peoples and to touch their hearts and to

make themselves, as they say, the same thing. Then it becomes all our

gazes, all our ear, all our thoughts, all our heart. But what if, for

whatever reason, the leadership does not look, or hear, or think, or feel

like all of us. Or some parts aren't seen or something else isn't heard

or other thoughts aren't thought or felt. Well, then, that is why

everyone is consulted. That is why everyone is asked. That is why

agreement is taken among everyone. If the majority says no, then the

leadership has to seek another way, and to present another way to the

peoples in order to propose until we collectively reach a decision. In

other words, the people govern.

Now the collective which we are will make a decision. They are weighing

the pros and cons. They are carefully making the calculations, what is

lost and what is gained. And, seeing that there is not a little to be

lost, it will be decided whether it is worth it.

Perhaps, in some people's scales, there will be much weight given to what

we have achieved. Perhaps, in other people's scales, there will be more

weight given to the indignation and shame caused by seeing our earth and

skies destroyed by the stupid avarice of Power. In any event, we cannot

remain passive, just contemplating, as a gang of ruffians strips our

Patria of everything that gives it and everyone existence: dignity.

Ah, well, many turns now. We are writing you for what may be the last

time in order to give you back your promised word of support. It is not

little that we have achieved in the indigenous struggle, and that has

been - as we have told you in public and in private - because of your

help. We believe you can be proud, without any shame, of all the good

that we zapatistas, along with you, have built up to this point. And

know that it has been an honor, undeserved in any light, that people like

you have walked at our side.

Now we shall decide whether we are going to do something else, and we

will make the results public at the proper time. We are now making clear

- in order to end the speculations - that this "other thing" does not

entail any offensive military action on our part. We are not, on our

part, planning nor discussing reinitiating offensive military combat.

Ever since February-March of 1994 our entire military presence has been,

and is, defensive. The government should say whether, on its part, there

are any offensive war preparations, whether by the federal forces or by

their paramilitaries. And the PRI and the PRD should say if they are

planning any attack against us with the paramilitaries they are

supporting in Chiapas.

If it is the decision of the zapatista majority, those who have helped us

up to now in the exclusively indigenous struggle can, without any shame

or regret, distance themselves from the "other thing" to which Comandante

Tacho referred in the San Cristo'bal de Las Casas plaza in January of

2003, two and a half years ago. In addition, there is a communique'

which establishes, from here out, that release and which can be presented

in a job application, curriculum vitae, coffee klatch, editorial office,

roundtable, grandstand, forum, stage, book jacket, footnote, colloquium,

candidacy, book of regrets or newspaper column and which, in addition,

has the advantage of being able to be exhibited as defense evidence in

any court (don't laugh, there's a precedent: in 1994, some indigenous

detained by the bad government - and who weren't zapatistas - were

released by a judge, validating a letter from the CCRI-CG in which it

released those persons from what the EZLN had done. In other words, as

the lawyers say, "there is legal precedent").

But those who find in their heart an echo, even if it is small, of our

new word and who feel themselves called by the path, step, pace, company

and destination which we have chosen, may perhaps decide to renew their

help (or to participate directly)...knowing that it will be "another

thing". Like that, without tricks, without deceit, without hypocrisy,

without lies.

We thank the women. All the girls, teenagers, young women, se~oritas,

se~oras and old ones (and those who were changing from one to the other

of those calendars throughout these 12 years) who helped us, who

accompanied us and who, not a few times, made our pain and our steps

their own. To all of them, Mexicans and from other countries, who helped

us and who walked with us. In everything we did you were the huge

majority. Perhaps because we share along with you, although each in

their own way and place, discrimination, contempt...and death.

We thank the national indigenous movement, which did not sell itself for

government posts, for travel allowances, for the flattery that the

powerful classify as "fit for indigenous and animals." The one which

listened to our word and gave us theirs. The one which opened its heart,

its home, to us. The one which resisted and resists with dignity,

raising very high the color we are of the earth.

We thank the young men and women of Mexico and of the world. Those who

were boys, girls or teenagers that '94 and who nobly grew up without

holding back their eyes or their ears. Those who reached youth or,

despite the pages torn from the calendar, remained there, extending the

hand of their rebellion to our dark hand. Those who chose to come and

share days, weeks, months, years, our dignified poverty, our struggle,

our hope and our foolish endeavor.

We thank the homosexuals, lesbians, transsexuals, transgender persons and

"everyone in their own way." Those who shared with us their struggle for

respect for difference, knowing that it is not a defect to be hidden.

Those who demonstrated that courage has nothing to do with testosterone

and who, time and again, gave us some of the most beautiful lessons of

dignity and nobility we have received.

We thank the intellectuals, artists and scientists, from Mexico and the

world, who helped us in the struggle for the indigenous. Few movements

or organizations can pride themselves on having had the backing (always

critical, and we thank them for that) of so much intelligence, ingenuity

and creativity. You already know that we always listened to you with

respect and attention, even when we didn't share your points of view and

that something of the light you shone helped to illuminate our dark

paths.

We thank the honest workers of the press and the decent media who showed,

truthfully and to the entire world, what they saw and heard, and who

respected, without distorting, our voice and path. We extend you our

solidarity in these hard moments you are going through in the exercise of

your profession, where you are risking your lives, you are attacked and,

like us, you find no justice.

And, so that no one is missed, we thank everyone who, honestly and

sincerely, helped us.

I said, at the beginning of this letter, that it was not a farewell.

Well, it so happens that for some people it is. Although for others it

will be what is, in reality, a promise...Because what is missing can now

be seen...

Vale. Salud and, from heart to heart, thank you for everything.

In the name of all the zapatistas of the EZLN.

From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.

Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos

Mexico, in the sixth month of the year 2005.

PS - You can see now that we aren't thinking about playing football. Or

not

thinking only about that. Because some day we will play against the

Internazionale of Milan. We, or what is left of us.

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