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CounterPunch
January
11, 2003
CounterPunch's
Zapatista Archive
The Zapatistas to Invade Spain!
by SUBCOMANDANTE MARCOS,
et al.
translation by LESLIE
LÓPEZ
CounterPunch will be running a regular
archive of letters, documents and kindred Zapatista-related materials.
Leslie Lopez of Santa Cruz is translating such documents, many
of them hitherto untranslated into English, and is generously
making them available for readers of the CounterPunch site. --AC/JSC
Timeline
November 25. Subcomandante Marcos sends
a communiqués to Spanish rocker Angel Luis Lara, alias
"El Ruso," to be read at the inauguration of an Aguascalientes
of Madrid. (Aguascalientes is the name the zapatistas use for
their convention sites, after the original zapatista convention
towards the Revolutionary Constitution of 1917.) In this letter,
published in Mexico's La Jornada, he harshly criticizes
Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzón, the president of Spain,
the Spanish king Juan Carlos and ex-president Felipe González.
He reproaches the Spanish State for outlawing the independent
Basque party Batasuna.
The communiqué sparks fiery reactions
of criticism and support. Many intellectuals, including Carlos
Monsivais and Marcos Roitman, express their disagreement with
the tone of Marcos' letter and urge the rebel leader to reconsider.
December 6. Judge Baltasar Garzón
responds with a letter published in the Mexican newspaper El
Universal. He questions Marcos' perspective on the conflict with
the armed Basque organization Euskadita Askatasuna (ETA) en el
País Vasco. He challenges the rebel leader to take of
his mask and engage with him in a "face to face" debate.
December 8. In Chiapas, large groups
of foreigners speaking poor Spanish are observed taking pictures
and ground measurements by indigenous residents of the Montes
Azules biosphere. The foreigners were traveling in several processions
of at least 22 military jeeps with US plates and flying the stars
and stripes.
December 9. Subcomandante Marcos sends
another series of communiqués to La Jornada. In
one, he tells Garzón that he accepts his challenge, and
proposes the Canary Island of Lanzarote as the place for the
debate. At the same time, as a condition for the debate, he states
that there must be a parallel event, a conference on the situation
in the Basque Country. He proposes that in order to make that
possible, the ETA declare a truce of 177 days, starting on the
24th of December. He says that if he loses, he will let Garzón
unmask him, once; but that if he wins, Garzón must supply
the zapatistas with legal counsel in their struggle for the recognition
of indigenous rights and culture.
December 11. The Nobel Prize Winner for
Literature José Saramago supports Marcos' initiative.
"I imagine that Garzón won't care to come to Lanzarote,"
declared the writer, and added that "it remains to be seen
whether the ETA courage to take this giant step towards peace."
December 12. The independent political
party Batasuna accepts the EZLN's proposal for dialogue, and
thanks Subcomandante Marcos for "his interest, solidarity
and support of the Basque cause."
December 14. Former Bishop of Chiapas
Samuel Ruiz García makes public statements in support
of the zapatista communiqués; he contradicts Baltasar
Garzón, saying the documents clearly show the EZLN's rejection
of violence.
December 14. A confidential military
document is intercepted by NGO's in Chiapas, where a multi-jurisdictional
eviction of indigenous communities living in the Montes Azules
biosphere reserve is being planned. In an analytical section
of the document, planners reason that the timing is good because,
among other factors, the EZLN is currently "very weak,"
and that due to the poor reception of Marcos' Aguascalientes
letter, international reaction to the eviction would be minor.
The communities named on the eviction list all pertain either
to the civil zapatista support base, or the independent progressive
organization ARIC (Rural Association of Collective Interest).
None of the communities in the region which belong to paramilitary
organizations or the dominant political party are on the list.
December 11-17. Federal and state troops
begin to gather and move along the southern border of Montes
Azules and throughout the Comitán-Margaritas region.
December 18. Baltasar Garzón,
in a press conference, postpones answering the EZLN's proposal
and states that it is not sufficient to ask for an "opportunistic
truce" from the ETA, which is tantamount to condoning their
violence in the long run. He says, however, that he will answer,
if only for "courtesy's sake."
December 20. A group of 57 academics,
journalists, writers and political leaders from Spain and other
countries sign "The Manifesto for the Word." They take
up the zapatista call to "give the word a chance:"
they declare that they will begin the process in Madrid right
away, on December 22, with a "Civil Forum for the Word"
and say they will join the conference on the Basque conflict
this coming April 22.
****************************************
(La Jornada, November 25, 2002)
October 12, 2002.
ZAPATISTA ARMY OF NATIONAL LIBERATION.
MEXICO.
For: Angel Luis Lara, alias El Ruso.
From: Sup Marcos.
Ruso, brother: First of all, a hug. Second,
a piece of advice: I think you'd do well to change your pseudonym;
the Chechnyans might get confused and then, that's right, good-bye
Aguascalientes and good-bye to one of the best rockers of our
day.
The date (October 12) on which I begin
to write these lines is not accidental (nothing is accidental
among the zapatistas), nor is this absurd bridge which, today,
I attempt to extend to where you are working to prepare the inauguration
of the Aguascalientes in Madrid.
I'm sure it will all go very well for
you and that the absence of that imbecile Aznar (the only thing
he's lacking, as his name indicates, is to actually bray) ["asno"
means "ass" in Spanish] and of that constipated little
king Juan Carlos will go unnoticed, even in the magazine ¡Hola!
But tell all the men and women working
with you in that heroic project that they should not be shy.
A magazine called Rebeldía is about to come out
(deported, no doubt), which will certainly have a "society"
page where you can insert a review that leaves the princess'
wedding in the category of "children's parties."
Besides, the aforementioned magazine
Rebeldía will surely be consistent with its principles
and the first thing it will do is rebel against spelling rules,
so don't invest too much in the advertising insert. By the way,
if it includes photos it will be more expensive (unless it's
porn) and the price, I am sorry to inform you, is not in euros
but marks since they prefer a strong currency ["marcos"
is Spanish for "marks"].
So no sniveling if royalty do not attend.
Instead, I think, there will be plenty of men, women, children
and elderly people, not just from the Iberian Peninsula, but
from there above all. If they are there, everything will be a
success. But I should warn you that the police always come on
the heels of success. Because the underdogs are just supposed
to cry and resign themselves, as established in I don't know
what number proclamation that the crown emitted I don't know
when; and to the rhythm of the Civil Guard's garrotes, everyone
marches from their Aguascalientes to jail, or to the cemetery,
which is the place that Spanish "democracy" has set
aside for Iberian rebels.
Well do I know that those who attend
the rebel party signified by an Aguascalientes will not be just
from the Spanish state, but they will be the majority.
Transatlantic Canoes
We can't come, since we're planning to
invade Europe shortly and, as you can imagine, everyone here
already has their baggage ready (well, if you can call two bundles
of chips, a plate of rancid beans, two bottles of non-transgenic
pozol and chile to taste, "baggage"); however, nobody
has a lifesaver handy.
The best-prepared among us have packed
some pills for seasickness and ask, innocently, if there will
be "bathroom breaks."
But the worst is yet to come: it turns
out I can't convince them that we're not going to get very far
with cayucos (canoes made from hollow tree trunks).
Of course we mustn't leave out the small
detail that Chiapas does not have an Atlantic seaport and that,
since we can't afford to pay the passage fee for the Panama Canal,
we'll have to go all the way around the Pacific, by the Philippines,
India and Africa till we get to the Canary Islands.
Because it would be in bad taste to arrive
by land. We'd have to go through Mongolia, what's left of the
USSR--where we'd have to be careful to say that we're on our
way to see the "Russian" (Ruso) and that they'll have
to work it out--Eastern Europe, passing through France to stock
up on the "Chateau Neuf Du Pape, harvest of '69," (I'm
even making puns with wines), head through Italy and stuff ourselves
with pasta, and then cross the Pyrenees. We're not daunted by
the long walk, but so much exertion is hard on the uniform.
While the enthusiasm builds among the
crew to-be--almost as much as the vomit (as a matter of fact,
I see one compa puking and I ask him why he's throwing up if
we haven't even embarked yet. "I'm in training," he
says to me with that inexorable logic that reigns in the mountains
of the Mexican Southeast).
Where was I? Oh yes! That we're not going
to be able to go to the Aguascalientes inaguration because we're
"in training," as the compa said, for the expedition.
Of course, you shouldn't tell anyone
that we're going to invade the Iberian Peninsula (stopping first
in Lanzarote, where we'll have a cup of coffee with Saramago
and Pilar), because you know how the monarchy is, they get so
nervous so easily, and then go away on vacation with the princesses
and the jesters (I'm referring to Felipillo González and
Pepillo Aznar, who, as I said before, carries his penitence in
his name).
Moreover, speaking badly of the monarchy
could cost you; at the very least, they'll evict you from the
premises, because of course you've gone and built the Aguascalientes
in an "okupás"[squatters'] locale, since the
seat should pertain to people of dignity, and nobody doubts that
there is more nobility in any okupás house than in El
Escorial [a famous castle in Spain; "escorial" also
means dumping-ground].
Damn! Now I've gone and messed with royalty
again and I shouldn't, because when one messes with a garbage
can one ends up smelling like shit, and you can't get rid of
that odor, not even with those bottles of adulterated perfume
they sell in El Corte Inglés [a market in Mexico City
where name brand knock-offs are sold cheap].
So, say yes to piracy but no to dispersion;
back to this monologue which has the great advantage that you
can't say peep, like when you are face to face with the meritorious
Civil Guard which, if you permit me, is neither civil nor guard.
But everyone knows that the world of power is full of incoherencies.
What? I'm off on another tangent? You're
right, fuck, it's just that the mere perspective of missing the
warmed-up Galician soup that you'll be ladling out because you
don't have a cent left over for anything else, makes me, shall
we say, restless.
Conquistadores and neoliberals
I was saying that the date of this letter
is not accidental, that if I begin this document the 12th of
October to salute the Aguascalientes project, there's a reason.
In some sectors there is the erroneous
idea that the situation of the Indian peoples of Mexico is due
to the Spanish conquest. And it's not that Hernán Cortés
and the rest of those ruffians in armor and cassock that accompanied
him were benevolent, but that, compared to the current governing
neoliberals, they are a bunch of charitable nuns.
From the men and women of dignified Spain
we have only received words of fraternity, unconditional solidarity,
attentive ears, and hands that help, that greet, that embrace.
So excuse me, Father Hidalgo, but the
zapatistas now cry: "Down with the neoliberals! Up with
the gachupines!"
I imagine that somewhere around there
is a Catalonian band that plays ranchera music badly, but in
work there's no one who beats their rhythm. And those from Galicia
should come, and those from Asturias, from Cantabria, from Andalucía,
from Murcia, from Extremadura, from Valencia, from Aragón,
from La Rioja, from Castilla y León, from Castilla-La
Mancha, from Navarra, from the Baleares Islands, from the Canary
Islands and from Madrid. To all of them, a great hug from us,
and there's enough for everyone. Because with so many brothers
and sisters, and all of them so great, our arms have grown from
the strength of the affection we have for them.
What? That I've left out the Basque Country?
No, I want to ask you to let me make a special mention of these
brothers and sisters.
Well do I know that that grotesque clown
who calls himself Judge Garzón, hand-holder of the Spanish
political class--which is as ridiculous as the court, but without
its discreet charm (how has the duchess been? Just fine, Baron,
I don't miss that jester Felipillo at all because Pepillo is
just as funny. By the way, you should zip up your fly, Baron,
you don't want to catch a cold, which is the only thing you could
catch in the court, etc.)--is carrying out real State terrorism
which no honest man or woman could see without becoming indignant.
Yes, Garzón the clown [in
English] has declared the political struggle of the Basque Country
illegal. After making a fool of himself with that idiotic story
about nabbing Pinochet (the only thing he did was give him a
paid vacation), he shows his true fascist vocation by denying
the Basque people the right to struggle politically for a legitimate
cause.
And I don't say this just because. But
because here we have seen many Basque brothers and sisters. They
were in the peace camps. They did not come to tell us what to
do, nor did they teach us to make bombs or plan assaults.
Because here the only bombs are Chiapan,
which, as opposed to those of the Yucatan, never rhyme.
And here comes Olivio to ask me if I
will give him some of the chocolates with nuts that they gave
me because, it is rumored, I am veeeery sick. And he recites
a bomb of a poem for me.
"Okay," I say to him, noticing
that the chocolates are already moldy. And Olivio deepens his
voice as he recites: "Bomba, bomba: en el patio de mi casa
hay una mata de naranjo, qué chula está tu hermana."
["Bomb, bomb, in my yard there's an orange tree, and your
sister sure is cute."]
I'm not offended so much by the part
about my sister, but rather by the lack of rhyme; nonetheless,
I give Olivio the chocolates...but in the head, because I throw
them at him while I chase him till I get tired, which is to say,
a few steps.
What's more, here the only assaults are
on good musical taste, like when I grab a guitar and entone,
in my unmatchable baritone voice, the one that goes, "every
time I get drunk, I swear something happens, I go straight to
see you and I get the wrong hammock."
Manu Chao is sure to give me a contract
if he hears me. Of course, as long as I don't have to pay for
the two guitar strings that broke when, in a hand-to-hand combat
with the insurgents I was singing that one about the Schizophrenic
Cow. Or was it the Crazy Cow? Well, if Manu is out that way,
give him a hand and just tell him that we'll forgive him the
strings when we see each other in the next station which, as
everyone knows, is called "Hope."
And if Manu doesn't give me a contract,
then I'll go with Amparo's group. Even though it might have to
change its name, and instead of "Amparonoia" she'll
call it "Amparofobia," since my critics are globalizing
as well [in Spanish anti-globalization activists are called "globalifóbicos"].
Anywayto be terrorists the main
thing we're lacking is the calling, not the means.
But, okay, so brothers and sisters of
the Basque Country have been here, and they have behaved with
dignity, which is how Basques behave.
And I don't know if Fermin Muguruza is
there, but I remember that once he was here, and they asked him
where was he from, and he said "Basque," and they asked
again, "French Basque" or "Spanish Basque,"
and Fermín didn't even miss a beat when he answered, "Basque
from the Basque Country."
And I was looking for something to say
in Basque to send my regards to the brothers and sisters of that
country, and I didn't find much, but I don't know if my dictionary
is any good because I looked up the word 'dignity' in Basque,
and the Zapatista dictionary says "Euskal Herria."
Ask them if I am right, or if I should try again.
Finally, that which neither Garzón
nor his epigones know is that sometimes dignity changes into
a puff fish, and woe be unto whoever tries to crush it.
Festival of rebellion
So I've said before that Aguascalientes
should be a festival of rebellion, something which doesn't please
any of the political parties.
"They are frauds," interrupted
Durito.
"Butwait Durito, I haven't even
started talking about the Mexican political parties."
"I am not talking about those frauds,
either, but rather about porn web pages."
"But Durito, we don't have Internet
in the jungle."
"We don't have it? Sounds like the
European Union. I have it. With some imagination and a little
gum and duct tape I was able to convert one of my antennae
into a powerful satellite modem."
"And could you let us know, postmodern
knight errant, why the porno web pages are a fraud?"
"Well, because there's not a single
one of beetlesnot even beetles with those little "dental
floss" panties, or whatever they call themmuch less
naked beetles."
"Panties?"
"Of course! Fuck! Aren't you writing
to Spanish specialists?" asks Durito as he adjusts his beret.
"Panty?" I repeat, trying to
avoid the unavoidable, which is that Durito horn in on what I'm
writing, a task for which he has more than enough hands and impertinence.
"Let's see, hmm, hmm," murmured
Durito as he climbs up on my shoulder.
"Russian? Are you writing to Putin?
I wouldn't recommend it, he might hit you with a worse gas than
the ones that you let loose when you eat too many beans.
I protest: "Look, Durito, let's
not start revealing intimacies, because I have a letter here
that the Pentagon sent you asking for your formula for the development
of ultratoxic gases."
"Ah, but I turned them down. Because
my gas, like my love, can neither be bought nor sold, but is
something I give freely, without concern for whether the recipients
deserve it or not," says Durito with an exquisite Andalucian
accent.
After a pause, he adds:
"And what is your theme for today,
chaval?"
"And nothing, tío, except
rebellion and an Aguascalientes that they are going to open in
the Madrids," I answer, infected by the flamenco beat spreading
through the air.
"Madrid? Which Madrid? The Madrid
of Aznar and the Civil Guard? Or the irreverent Madrid?
"The irreverent one, of course.
Although it wouldn't surprise me if Aznar wanted to stick his
nose in."
"Magnificent!" Durito applauds,
and dances in a way that might bring Garcia Lorca back to life
to compose his unknown and unpublished Ode to the Epileptic Beetle.
When he finishes his dance, Durito delivers
his orders:
"Write! I'm going to dictate my
speech to you."
"But Durito, you are not on the
program. Come on, you haven't even been invited."
"I know, the Russians don't like
me. But I don't care. Come on, write! The title is 'Rebellion
and Chairs.'"
"'Chairs?'" Durito, I hope
you're not going to come up with another one of your
"Quiet! The idea comes from a little
piece that Saramago and I wrote toward the end of the last century
called 'Chair'."
"Saramago? You mean the writer José
Saramago? - I ask perplexed.
"Of course! Is there another one?
Well, so what happened was, we drank so much that day that we
ended up falling off the reiterated chair, and from the floor,
I tell him, with all the lucidity and perspective of those on
the bottom, Pepe, that little wine kicks worse than that mule
Aznar--and he didn't say anything because he was looking for
his eyeglasses."
"And then I told him: something
is coming to me, hurry Jose, ideas are like chorizo with French
beans, if you're not careful, someone else comes by and eats
them."
Saramago finally found his eyeglasses,
and then together we gave from to that story, in the late eighties,
if I'm not mistaken. Of course it is credited in his name only;
we beetles struggle quite a bit with authorship rights.
I want to curtail Durito's anecdotes
and I urge him: "OK, I've got the title, now what?"
"Well, it's about how the attitude
human beings have about chairs defines them politically. The
Revolutionary (capital R) scorns ordinary chairs and says to
others and himself: 'I don't have time to sit down, the heavy
mission commended to me by History (capital H) prevents me from
distracting myself with nonsense.' He goes like this through
life until he runs into the chair of Power, throws off whomever
is sitting on the chair with one shot, sits down and frowns,
as if he were constipated, and says to others and himself: 'History
(capital H) has been fulfilled. Everything, absolutely everything,
makes sense now. I am sitting on the Chair (capital C) and I
am the culmination of the times.' There he remains until another
Revolutionary (capital R) comes by, throws him off and history
(small h) repeats itself.
The rebel (small r), on the other hand,
when he sees an ordinary chair, analyzes it carefully, then goes
and puts another chair next to it, and another and another, and
soon, it looks like a gathering because more rebels (small r)
have come, and then the coffee, tobacco and the word begin to
circulate and mix, and then, precisely when everyone starts to
feel comfortable, they get antsy, as though they had worms in
the cauliflower, and they don't know if it's from the coffee
or the tobacco or the word, but everyone gets up and keeps on
going the way they were going. And so on until they find another
ordinary chair and history repeats itself.
There is only one variation, when the
rebel runs into the Seat of Power (capital S, capital P), looks
at it carefully, analyzes it, but instead of sitting there he
goes and gets a fingernail file and, with heroic patience, he
begins sawing at the legs until they are so fragile that they
break when someone sits down, which happens almost immediately.
The End."
"The end? But Durito..."
"No, no, never mind. I already know
it's too dry and theory should be velvety, but my style is metatheory.
Maybe I'll be accused of being an anarchist, but my speech is
worth something as a humble homage to the Spanish anarchists
of old. There are quiet heroes, and they don't shine less for
it."
Durito leaves, though I'm sure he'd rather
come.
OK, enough with the puns. What was I
saying when that armor-plated impertinence interrupted me?
Ah! I was saying how Aguascalientes is
a festival of rebellion.
And so, my dear Chechnyan, what is rebellion?
It could be enough for you to just take
a look around at all the men and women who lent a hand in building
that Aguascalientes, and at those who will attend its inauguration
(not the closing assembly, because that will surely be done by
the police) for you to get a definition, but since this is a
letter, I should try to do it with words which, no matter how
eloquent they might be, will never be as decisive as gazes.
And so it was that, looking for some
text that might work, I found a book that Javier Elorriaga lent
me.
The little book is called New Ethiopia,
and it's by a Basque poet named Bernardo Atxaga. In it there
is a poem called "Butterfly Reggae," that talks about
butterflies who fly out over the sea and have no place to rest
because the sea has no islands or rocks.
Well, I hope don Bernardo will forgive
me if the synthesis is not as graceful as his reggae, but it
helps me say what I want to you:
Rebellion is like that butterfly who
flies out towards that sea without islands nor rocks.
It knows that there will be no resting
place and yet it does not waver in its flight.
And no, neither the butterfly nor rebellion
are foolish or suicidal; the thing is, they know that they'll
have a resting place, that out there is a huge old island that
no satellite has ever detected.
And that big island is a sister rebellion
which will set out just when the butterfly, that is, the flying
rebellion, starts to falter.
Then the flying rebellion, that is, the
sea butterfly, will become part of that emergent island, and
will be the landing point for another butterfly already beginning
its determined flight towards the sea.
This would be no more than a mere curiosity
in biology books, but as I don't know who said, the flutter of
a butterfly wing is often the origin of the greatest hurricanes.
With its flight, the flying rebellion,
that is, the butterfly, is saying NO!
No to logic.
No to prudence.
No to immobility.
No to conformism.
And nothing, absolutely nothing, will
be as wonderful as seeing the audacity of that flight, appreciating
the challenge it represents, feeling how it starts to agitate
the wind and seeing how, with those drafts, it is not the leaves
of the trees that tremble, but the legs of the powerful who until
then naively thought that butterflies died if they flew out over
the sea.
Yes, my appreciable Muskovite, it is
well known that butterflies, like rebellion, are catching.
And there are butterflies, like rebellions,
of all colors.
There are blue ones, who paint themselves
that color so that the sky and the sea fight over them.
And there are yellow ones, so that the
sun embraces them.
There are red ones, color of rebel blood.
There are brown ones, who thus take the
color of the earth with them over the waves.
There are green ones, which is how hope
tends to paint itself.
And all are skin, skin which shines no
matter the color it is painted.
And there are flights of all colors.
And there are times that butterflies
from all over gather and then there is a rainbow.
And the task of butterflies, as any respectable
encyclopedia will tell you, is to bring the rainbow down closer
so children can learn to fly.
And, speaking of butterflies and rebellions,
it occurs to me that, when you are all in the circus, or in the
trial, facing that clown Garzón, and you are asked what
you were doing in Aguascalientes, you can answer: flying.
Even though they send you flying, deported
to Chechnya, the laughter will be heard all the way to the mountains
of the Mexican Southeast.
And a laugh, my brother, is as welcome
as music.
And speaking of music, as far as I know
the dance of the crab has become fashionable in the governments
of Mexico, Spain, Italy and France and consists, in broad strokes,
of moving the hips and the arms counterclockwise.
And now that we're on hands of the clock,
if you see Manuel Vázquez Montalbán give him a
squeeze from us.
Tell him that I've already learned that
Fox asked him if he knew why Marcos and the zapatistas were so
silent, and he answered, they're not silent; the problem is you're
not listening.
By the way, tell him that Spanish sausage
is not like diamonds, in other words, not eternal, and the ones
he sent were finished long ago, and that if he doesn't kick down,
say with about 5 kilos, we are going to take him and Pepe Carvalho
as hostages.
No, actually, better not. Because they'll
mistake us for terrorists and Bush, hand in hand with the UN,
will sic another "humanitarian" war on us. Maybe he
should send the sausage, and in exchange I'll send him the recipe
for Marco's Special which, for good reason, His Majesty's chef
(ha!) has asked me for to no avail.
OK, I'm signing off now. Don't hesitate
to let me know what jail they put you in. I mean, for when we're
out that way.
No, don't even think that it will be
to set you free, but so we can make sure that you're well locked
up, because all of you are totally crazy. Imagine, wanting to
inaugurate an Aguascalientes in Madrid. Next you'll be wanting
to create an autonomous municipality in prison.
Oh, and we won't be able to send you
cigarettes. But chips and pozol we can do, which are as dignified
as you are.
Vale. Salud, if it's about reigning,
then let rebellion reign. From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos.
Mexico, October, 2002.
P.S. Eva asks whether in the Spanish
State (that's how she said it) they have VCRs because she wants
to take her collection of Pedro Infante movies. I told her that
you have a different system over there. She asked me: "What
do you mean they have a different system? You mean they don't
have a neoliberal government there?" I didn't answer her,
but now I say to her: "Comandanta Eva: What else could there
be?"
Another P.S.
Don't go thinking that I don't know that
rebels from Italy, France, Greece, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark,
Sweden, England, Ireland, Portugal, Belgium, Holland and etc.
are also going to be there at the Aguascalientes. Saludos to
all of them and tell them that, if they don't behave we're going...to
invade them too. We are going to globalize moldy chips and rancid
pozol. And then we'll see how the number of global-phobes increases
geometrically.
Vale again.
The Sup in training for the crossing,
that is, puking the moldy chocolates with nuts that El Olivio
left on the ground.
***********************************************
December 6, 2002
El Universal
Baltasar Garzón Real.
Judge Magistrate (Central Instruction
Trial Number 5, National Audience).
C/. García Gutiérrez 1 28.004.
Madrid - España.
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos:
I'm not going to argue with you about
you calling me a "grotesque clown." I prefer to see
my name openly associated with democracy as a clown than to hide
it behind false rebellion, violence, lies, ignorance, lack of
ethics and scruples, and other characteristics that you, ever
more clearly, represent.
How dare you insult with impunity the
Spanish people, who together have suffered the terrorist blemish
for more than 30 years? Has no one told you that 853 people have
been murdered with car bombs, pistols, machine guns, grenade
launchers, etcetera, in the back, treacherously, or by a bullet
in the neck? How can you not know of the dozens of children murdered,
of the more than 4,000 people mutilated and wounded, of the citizens
who lost their belongings and their freedom? What would you tell
those who today, December 3, 2002, have once again begun to suffer
the claw of the terrorists in Santander?
Where in your letter are words, just
a few words for those victims of terrorism? They are nowhere,
because you (in your repressive fundamentalism, full of authoritarianism
and arrogance) ooze hatred toward those victims, and towards
all of us who are not like, or do not think like you.
With initiatives like the sectarian letter
that you've written, the only thing you're attempting is to be
heard or ready by those who are already convinced and who feed
each other, as you do, the viruses of violence, hatred and intolerance.
That is no way to make a State, nor Democracy, nor form a country,
nor conquer the hearts of citizens. The only thing you achieve
is to plant the evil of a political position that is deformed
and dead from its inception, as well as to betray those you claim
to defend, and who deserve the utmost respect. With attitudes
like that, you will even lose those who follow the mirage of
the future that you have offered them. The indigenous cause is
gravely threatened by the attitudes of extreme intolerance that
you have adopted.
You speak of rebellion! Look, the rebellion
that I understand is the one that is waged day by day, struggling
from within the State of Law, within Democracy and for democracy;
applying the principle of equality under the law, of the presumption
of innocence and an independent justice. This is the rebellion
practiced by many women and men who are searching for a better
and different world. Among all of us we try to consolidate a
system of guarantees that gives us cohesion as a diverse people
and that forms our backbone as a multi-national State.
Perhaps you don't know (or your friends
haven't informed you well, or you haven't heard or read all the
news or text that you ought) but the true heroes that live in
the Basque Country and the true rebels are not the terrorists
that you defend, but their victims, the men and women who try
to defend a democratic option or consolidate the institutions
or develop a free pulpit; or work without fear of suffering extortion
and persecution. Those whom you euphemistically call "Basque
rebels," are beings submissively linked to the strategy
of the most demented and unjust violence that exists in Europe.
No señor Marcos, in Spain ideas
are not made illegal; no one is persecuted for their thoughts,
beliefs, or disagreements. It seems as though you and others
like you, who build your discourse on out-dated and repudiated
Francoism, can't stand the face that that stage has been passed
in Spain; that freedom, control of power and State of Law exist
here; and that in Spain terrorism is persecuted in keeping with
the law, from the law, and with all the guarantees and controls
established by juridic regulation. And I assure you that this
regulation is one of the most rigorous in the world. Here there
is a Constitutional Tribunal, and a European Tribunal of Human
Rights, and there is also responsibility on the part of judges
and all citizens. Here everyone has a place, including those
who wish to separate and not be here, but, and this is the difference,
via non-violence, through political struggle. If you do not understand
this, you are not aware of what you way. So you should not speak
of "rebellion" of those who kill, kidnap or wound innocents
selectively or systematically; or those who massacre whole sectors
of the population. Those are called criminals against humanity
and should be persecuted, investigated and judged.
You have offended those who have participated
actively in the construction of the Spanish Democracy: the King
of Spain and the presidents of the government, Felipe González
and José María Aznar, among others. The vile insults
you have used do not touch them; they degrade you. We all have
defects, but you should not gratuitously disrespect those who,
in Spain, have participated or participate in the historic scene,
always respecting those who differ in thought and action; any
of them or those who, in my country show their faces, do more
than you do for your "movement." Your reference to
the Pinochet case is equally pathetic, and demonstrates a scorn
that radiates, in the most absolutely base manner possible, towards
the victims. There can be no doubt: you have joined the wrong
team: just because they sing of your "deeds, doesn't mean
that terrorists and those like you who support them are more
right than those who criticize them. You speak of dignity and
rebellion but I believe you are mistaken as to the meaning of
those words if you apply them to murderers and those responsible
for terrorism, and, at the same time, you strip yourself of the
dignity and rebellion you could have and that some of us, erroneously,
attributed to you.
I confess that for me, señor Marcos,
you represented something different: a kind of ray of coherence.
Now I announce my grave error. I had put you in a category you
do not deserve. You are nothing more than a ship gone adrift.
When at the beginning, at the front of your "Army,"
you had the sympathy of many (including mine), you had the chance
to bring the indigenous cause into a good harbor, but you took
the wrong way and now we know why. You don't need to take off
your mask to have unmasked yourself: you simply do not believe
in the essential rights of man nor in democracy, nor even in
the civil rights of your own people.
I am not, as you have said, a "fascist"
nor a "State terrorist." I have never taken up a weapon
in my life (except to hunt a partridge now and then). I am in
essence a pacifist. I take care to apply the law and to abide
by it strictly and without fail, in a Social Democratic State,
and one of Law, which is my duty as a professional of the law
and in that lies my responsibility. For 22 years I have performed
a public service; 14 of them I have spent combating, with the
weapons of Law, drug-trafficking, organized crime, corruption,
terrorism, and crimes of State and of humanity. In this long
battle I have committed errors, but unlike you I have shown my
face and signed my name, and taken responsibility for my mistakes.
You, on the other hand, take shelter behind a fortunate vantage
point that turns you into a strange, exotic being, a specter
behind a mask and a ridiculous pipe. I generally do not give
advice, but here is some: get rid of the costume and come out
of your hiding place, show that you are a leader, show your face,
face Mexican society, defend your ideas under equal conditions,
say goodbye to weapons, set your men free, do not kidnap or sully
Democracy. From "gachupin to gachupin," (because I
have no doubt that you have "gachupin" blood in your
veins) and with the utmost respect and admiration for Mexico,
country of my bosom, to which Spaniards as well as Basques are
so indebted, I challenge you whenever you want and wherever you
want, to speak, face to face, without masks or costumes, of terrorism,
of rebellion, of dignity, of struggle, of insurgency, of politics,
of justice, of all those values that function to build a country
and a democracy and to defend the rights of those who have the
least.
"Today is always ever," said
Antonio Machado. I harbor the tenuous hope that you recover the
reason you seem to have lost and that democratic bse that, perhaps
at one time, you had.
Fdo. Baltasar Garzón Real .
Judge-magistrate.
December 3, 2002.
*********************************
La Jornada December 9, 2002
ZAPATISTA ARMY OF NATIONAL LIBERATION
MEXICO.
December 7, 2002.
To Mr. Fernando Baltasar Garzón
Real, judge-magistrate of the Central Instruction Trial Number
5, National Audience c/. García Gutiérrez 1 28.004,
Madrid España.
Mr. Baltasar Garzón:
I read the letter you addressed to me,
dated December 3 of the current year and published the 6th of
the same month in the Mexican newspaper El Universal. In it,
along with allowing yourself to insult me with all kinds of name-calling,
you challenge me to a debate in the time and place of my choice.
I hereby respond that I accept the challenge
and (as the laws of errant knighthood require), since I am the
challenged knight, it falls to me to set the conditions for the
encounter.
These are the conditions:
FIRST. The debate will be held in the
Canary Islands, specifically on what is known as Lanzarote Island,
between April 3rd and 10th, of 2003.
SECOND. Mister Fernando Baltasar Garzón
Real must obtain necessary and sufficient guarantees and safe-passages,
from the Spanish as well as from the Mexican governments, such
that the challenged knight and six of his shield- bearers might
attend the contest and return safely to their hearths. The costs
of transportation and lodgings of Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
and his procession will be covered by the EZLN; that's what canoes,
tortilla chips, beans and pozol are for; moreover, to spend the
night, knights errant (or navigator) need no more roof than the
dignified Canary sky.
THIRD. In the same place as the debate,
to be held parallel to the event but not simultaneously, an encounter
will be held among all the political, social and cultural actors
in the Basque situation who wish to attend. The theme of the
encounter will be "The Basque Country: Pathways."
FOURTH. Mr. Fernando Baltasar Garzón
Real must attend, speak and listen at said encounter. Moreover
he must make an effort to convince the Spanish government to
contribute, through detente measures, to create a productive
environment for the event, and to exhort that it send a high-level
delegation to the encounter, though it does not need to have
decision-making power, as they will only be asked to listen and
speak.
FIFTH. Sir Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
must attend said encounter, but only to listen, since the subject
is something that only pertains to the sovereignty of the Basque
people.
Moreover, Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
must address the Basque organization Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (better
known by its initials, ETA) asking it for a unilateral truce
of 177 days, a period in which the ETA must not realize any offensive
military action. The ETA truce should begin December 24th, 2002.
By the same token, Subcomandante Insurgente
Marcos must address the Basque political and social organizations,
and the Basque people in general, inviting them to organize and
follow through with the abovementioned encounter.
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos will
also address Spanish and Basque civil society, asking them to
mobilize under the campaign "Give the word a chance,"
whose objective is to put pressure on the Spanish government
and the ETA so that they will create, throughout the Iberian
Peninsula, conditions adequate for the encounter.
SIXTH. The winner of the debate will
be named by a jury formed of seven people, all of them of the
Spanish State. Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos cedes the privilege
of naming four of the jury members, and the design of who will
preside the jury, and, in case of a tie due to abstention, who
will cast the deciding vote to determine the victor of the joust,
to Mr. Fernando Baltasar Garzón Real. The other three
members of the jury will be invited by the EZLN.
SEVENTH. If Mr. Fernando Baltasar Garzón
Real vanquishes Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos in a fair fight,
he has the right to unmask him once, in front of whoever wants
to come. Moreover, Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos will publicly
beg his pardon and will submit to the action of Spanish justice
so they can torture him (exactly as they torture the Basques
when they are arrested) and respond to the accusations which
abound in Mr. Garzón Real's letter, dated April (sic)
3, 2002.
If, to the contrary, Mr. Fernando Baltasar
Garzón Real is the vanquished party in a fair fight, he
commits to give legal counsel to the EZLN in regard to the charges
that, as a last peaceful recourse of the zapatistas and before
international legal institutions, will be pressed to demand recognition
of indigenous rights and culture, which, violating international
law and common sense, were rejected by the three powers of the
Mexican government.
Moreover, if it is possible and if he
so desires it, he will legally represent the EZLN before said
international institutions ONLY in matters that pertain to the
demand for legal recognition of our rights and culture.
This will be so since charges will also
be pressed in regard to crimes against humanity by Mr. Ernesto
Zedillo Ponce de León, the party responsible for the Acteal
massacre (perpetrated in the mountains of the Mexican Southeast
in December, 1997) where 45 indigenous children, women men and
elderly people were executed. As will be recalled, Mr. Zedillo
was recently rewarded by Mr. José María Aznar,
chief of the Spanish government, for his participation in the
massacre.
Similar charges will also be pressed
against the chiefs of the Spanish government who, during the
presidency of Mr. Zedillo in Mexico, were his accomplices in
this and other aggressions against the Mexican Indian peoples.
These conditions are non-negotiable;
Mr. Fernando Baltasar Garzón Real must respond, within
a reasonable time frame, as to whether he accepts them. However,
the details of the debate will be agreed upon by the sponsoring
teams of the challenger and the challenged.
Mr. Fernando Baltasar Garzón Real:
as you will see in the copies of the letters attached, I have
already begun the task of fulfilling my part.
From gachupín to gachupín,
since a quart of Spanish blood runs in my veins, I hope that
you understand and that you remain willing to follow through
with the debate to which you challenge me.
You have the opportunity to choose: you
may put your knowledge and your skills at the service of a just
and noble cause (and at the same time demonstrate that international
justice doesn't just exist to approve wars and cover up criminals),
or to continue where you are, caressed by those who are on top
at the cost of the blood and pain of those below.
Vale. Salud and I hope all of this works
to give the word a chance.
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos. December, 2002.
PS. Please know, your honor, that all
the insults you lavish upon me in your letter leave me practically
i-m-m-o-v-a-b-l-e. The thing that hurt, way bad, is that bit
about the "ridiculous pipe." So I'm making a new one
which, as you'll see, will create quite a furor when I appear
with it in la Gran Vía and in las Ramblas. By the way,
is smoking allowed in front of la Cibeles?
ANOTHER PS. The part about the "ship
gone adrift" actually does worry me. Does that mean that
the coasts that I spy from here are not those of the Island El
Hierro (considered the edge of the world until the discovery
of America), after all, but are in fact the Java Islands? I'd
been saying, when we passed by Krakatoa, that, for a change and
to honor the "zapatista" thing, we had chosen the longest
road. Sigh.
**********************************
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
December 7, 2002.
To the Basque leftist (abertzales) political,
social and cultural organizations. Basque Country.
From Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos.
Mexico.
Brothers and sisters:
I write to you in the name of the children,
elderly, women and men of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation
of Mexico and I greet you all with respect and admiration.
I believe I am not mistaken is supposing
that you are well aware of the polemic that has developed in
the wake of the zapatista letter read in the Aguascalientes of
Madrid at the end of November of this year.
As you will see in the letter I attach
here, I have accepted the challenge to debate by Judge Baltasar
Garzón. Since I am the challenged party it falls to me
to establish the conditions, and I have let him know that one
will be that a parallel event must be held along with the debate:
an encounter among all the political and cultural forces implicated
in the Basque Country situation who are willing to participate.
I have also written to the ETA, asking it to declare a unilateral
truce for 177 days as of December 24 of this year, in order to
create conditions that would make the said encounter possible.
So, that is a dense synthesis. You will
be able to see more details in the mentioned letters. But I write
specifically to you for various reasons.
Besides inviting you to participate in
the encounter, I am writing you to ask you to join the petition
I am making to the ETA, since you have the moral authority and
prestige that I lack to do so.
I also ask that you, with your inclusionary
approach and your tolerance, gather as much force as possible
to organize and carry out the event. I ask this of you because,
historically, the left has always demonstrated that it is better
organized than the right. The subjects, rhythms and so on of
the encounter should be matters decided on by all the forces
who wish to give the word a chance.
Well do I know that, unlike the parliamentary
Mexican left, you actually have an alternative political project,
not just for the struggle for Basque sovereignty but for the
construction of a more just, more democratic and freer system,
that is, a more human one. This is why I turn to you, to your
experience, to your decision to struggle, to your heroism and
to the moral authority which, I have no doubt, you have constructed
within the noble Basque people. Nor do I doubt that there are
as yet unknown pathways to conquer Basque sovereignty.
Nor do I doubt that those paths are currently
closed due to the terror which is encouraged by both sides.
This is why I ask you to speak and to
listen, that you speak among yourselves and listen to each other.
Not that you renounce your convictions and your projects, but
that you make them known in a space which you should struggle
for, along with all honest men and women.
I ask that you struggle to make this
space a reality. No one has anything to lose (except us, the
zapatistas, but that's our specialty) and there is much to be
gained.
I ask that you dedicate your best efforts
to giving the word a chance.
Another thing (yes, I know I'm way beyond
importunate, but ye are noble), I ask that, even though everything
is against it and nothing comes out the way we would have wanted
it, you in whatever way possible open that space and convoke
all those which wish, to speak and listen to what everyone has
to say and to hear.
Vale. Salud, and I know this is sounding
like a slogan of a movement without any one home, but the word
must be given a chance.
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos.
Mexico, December, 2002.
*************************************
Zapatista Army of National Liberation,
Mexico
December 7, 2002
To Spanish and Basque Civil Society.
Iberian Peninsula, Planet Earth.
From Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
Mexico
Ladies, gentlemen and children:
I write to you in the name of the elderly,
women, children and men of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation,
of Mexico, to greet you.
Recently, a letter of ours, read at Madrid's
Aguascalientes, opened up a polemic and a condemnation of us,
because the missive was ambiguous in terms of the actions of
the Basque organization ETA. Although at the beginning of the
letter it was pointed out that "nothing is accidental with
the zapatistas," and that we were clearly referring to political
rather than armed struggle of the Basque people, the lack of
an explicit condemnation of terrorism was interpreted as the
EZLN's support of the ETA and its actions.
I should tell you that the ambiguity
was purposeful, as was the overall tone of the letter. We seek
to provoke the hispanic temperament of a man and thus launch
a noble and honest initiative which, in the part that concerns
us, represents the last chance to achieve a peaceful, dignified
solution to our demands which are, as everyone knows, the recognition
of indigenous rights and culture.
As you know, we do not practice terrorism,
and on repeated occasions, in written and spoken declarations,
we have condemned terror, regardless of its source. And if this
time we did not make it explicit it was for reasons that now
can be clearly seen.
To the families of the victims of the ETA and the Spanish State,
among whom there are more than a few sympathizers with our cause,
our sincere apologies if with that ambiguity we were disrespectful
of your pain. We wish with all our heart that you understand
us and that someday you might forgive us for what we are responsible
for.
We are also sorry that your suffering
has been manipulated by the Spanish government to distract and
hide its criminal ineptness in the ecological catastrophe that
has descended upon the noble people of Galicia, which has demonstrated
its ability to organize and resolve its problem while those who
govern stroll through the social pages of Madrid's newspapers.
As you know, Judge Fernando Baltasar
Garzón Real has challenged me to a public debate on various
subjects. We have decided to accept the debate and to establish,
as one of the conditions, that there be an encounter among those
interested in and affected by the Basque situation, so that they
can speak and listen to each other, without bombs, gunshots and
arrest warrants. The theme of the conference is "The Basque
Country: Pathways."
In order to make this conference possible,
I have sent a letter to the Basque organization ETA, to ask that
it declare a unilateral truce of 177 days (beginning December
24th of this year) thereby creating an environment in which the
encounter can take place.
We think that something should be done
to change the criminal logic that is currently being imposed
on the entire planet. We think that terror can be fought with
terror, but it cannot be overcome; that legal arguments serve
to justify torture, disappearances, murders, but they do not
put an end to those who, with ideological or religious arguments,
justify the death of others.
In the world today we are presented with
a final choice, which, like all final choices, is a trap. We
are obligated to choose between one terror and another, and to
criticize one supposes support of the other. In this case, we
are obliged to choose between the terrorism of the ETA and the
terrorism of the Spanish State, and if we define ourselves as
apart from one we are accomplices of the other. You and we know
that the alternative is not one of these things or the other,
but one which is constructed--a new path, and a new world.
It would be beautifully just and instructive
if, in the middle of a polarized world where death and destruction
only vary in their arguments and their irrationalities (where
to condemn the punitive actions of Bush is equivalent to supporting
the fundamentalist insanity of Bin Laden), it were in the Iberian
Peninsula where a space is opened to give the word a chance.
It would be marvelous if it were Iberian
dignity that told the entire world that it is possible, and necessary,
to give the word a chance.
For all of these reasons, we are convoking
you to mobilize throughout the region, on hispanic soil, to demand
that of the Spanish government and the ETA: a chance for the
word.
Vale. Salud and, if not now, when?, the
word must be given a chance.
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast. Subcomandante Insurgente
Marcos
Mexico, December 2002.
********************************
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
December 7, 2002.
To the Basque political-military organization
Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA). Basque Country.
From: Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos.
Mexico.
Madams and sirs:
I write to you in the name of the children,
elderly, women and men of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation
of Mexico.
As you might know, recently, in a letter
read in Spanish territory, we referred to the struggle of the
Basque people for their sovereignty. Although the text clearly
referred to the Basque political struggle rather than the military
one, the words were purposefully ambiguous in regard to the actions
of your organization, ETA.
The objective of the ambiguity was to
provoke what we have provoked. We are aware that we put at risk
the moral capital that we zapatistas have conquered throughout
the world, particularly in the Iberian Peninsula, but it was
necessary...then.
You and we know very well that the EZLN
has not carried out, nor will it carry out, a single military
action against civilians. You also know that we condemn those
kinds of attacks, which tend to take the largest number of their
victims among people who don't even know what is going on.
There have been more than a few civilian
victims of your actions. Among them are people who sympathized
with our cause and who, like the rest of those civilian victims,
died with the anguish of not knowing why.
We consider the struggle of the Basque
people for their sovereignty a just and legitimate one, but neither
that noble cause, nor any other, justifies the sacrifice of civilian
lives. Not only does it not produce any political gain whatsoever,
and even if it did produce it, the human cost is unpayable. We
condemn military actions that harm civilians. And we condemn
them equally, whether they come from the ETA or from the Spanish
State, from Al Qaeda or George W. Bush, from Israelis or Palestinians,
or from anyone who, under any name or acronym, whether or not
they produce ideological, religious or State reasons, take their
toll of victims among children, women, elderly and men who have
nothing to do with the matter.
I know, too, that in the Spanish government's
list of dead and wounded, the thousands of Basques who have been
executed, tortured and disappeared by State forces are not included.
However, I am not writing you to compare lists of the dead. In
that regard we come out ahead, since there have been millions
of indigenous Mexicans who have fallen since the Spanish conquest.
And we do not put our dead out to compete with anyone.
No, it is not to speak of what has happened
in the past that I address you now.
A few days ago, the Spanish judge Fernando
Baltasar Garzón Real challenged me to a debate. I have
answered him in the affirmative and I have established as one
condition among others, that an encounter be held among all the
political, social and cultural forces implicated or interested
in the Basque Country's situation, so that they can speak and
hear about Basque pathways.
To this same end, in the name of all
of my compañeros and compañeras, I ask that you
decree a unilateral truce for a period of 177 days, beginning
in the first hour of the 24th of December of 2002. I also ask
that you publicly commit to not carrying out a single offensive
military operation during that period, thus contributing to create
an environment in which that conference can be held, that is,
to give the word a chance.
It would be good if Euskadi Ta Askatasuna
sent one or several delegates to speak and be heard, not to negotiate
or sign anything, to the encounter "The Basque Country:
Pathways." I know that you would run risks, but if you are
willing to die or be taken prisoners in the military actions
you engage in, I don't see why you wouldn't be willing to suffer
the same fate in political action.
That is what I am asking of younot
that you surrender, not that you abandon your weapons or your
convictions. I only ask that you give the word a chance and thus
honor the great risk that the zapatistas have risked and will
again. In case you do not accept, I offer myself personally as
a good victim in your next attack. You can accuse me of being
a "collaborationist" with the Spanish State (which
will be something of a paradox, since the Spanish authorities
accuse me of being an "apologist for terrorism"). The
argument will be the least of the matter. There will be no reproaches
or reprisals on our part, since at least I will know why I die.
I await your response.
Vale. Salud and a chance for the word.
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos.
México, December, 2002.
******************************
Zapatista Army of National Liberation,
Mexico
December 7, 2002
To all the political, social, cultural
and religious forces of the Basque Country, regardless of your
ideology.
From Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos.
Ladies, gentlemen and children:
I write to you in the name of the Zapatista
Army of National Liberation to invite you to join and make yours
the mobilization "A CHANCE FOR THE WORD" which will
attempt to get the ETA and the Spanish government to create an
environment in which the encounter "The Basque Country:
Pathways" can occur.
This encounter would be held on Lanzarote
Island, in the Canary Islands, April 3-7 of 2003 and has no motive
other than trying to change the war-mongering logic that is sweeping
the world.
We also invite you to make that encounter
your own, that you organize and participate in it, in the time
and manner that you consider appropriate.
The encounter is supposed to be one of
the conditions that we established for entering the debate to
which Judge Baltasar Garzón challenged us, but, if it
does not happen or some misfortune or contretemps should impede
the celebration of the joust, we respectfully ask that you carry
out the encounter anyway, in the place and time most convenient
for you.
I won't go on here so as not to repeat
what has already been said in the letters I am attaching.
We are sure that this initiative, if
it is successful, will become a ray of hope for all the peoples
of the earth.
Again, our saludo, our respect and our
admiration.
Vale. Salud and don't you think it's
worth it to give the word a chance?
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos.
Mexico, December, 2002.
*************************************************
La Jornada, December 15, 2002
Response to the invitation by Subcomandante
Insurgente Marcos
We write to you in the name of thousands
and thousands of Basque citizens, men and women who, following
the suspension of the political organization Batasuna by Judge
Baltasar Garzón in the four Basque provinces under Spanish
administration, have been left stripped of their most basic civil
and political rights, such as the right of political organization,
the right of free demonstration, the right of assembly, and even
the right of free expression. This illegalization is added, moreover,
to a list of previous illegalizations--of the newspaper and the
radio station Egin; of the magazine Ardi Beltza;
of the pro-amnesty movement, on two occasions; of the youth movement,
on three occasions; as well as the criminalization of Basque
schools, of the adult literacy association, of the civil disobedience
movement, and of dissident popular sectors in general...
We have not the slightest doubt, that
this judicial act which outlaws Batasuna as of 2003, and the
Law of Political Parties in the Spanish Parliament--whose objective
has been publicly recognized by the president of the Spanish
government himself, José María Aznar--that this
is a response to the international climate fostered by the supposed
anti-terrorist initiative by the US president Bush, after the
September 11 attacks in 2001 in the United States. It is not
that September 11 began anything new, but those attacks have
played into imperialist plans to accelerate aggression, which
is designed to create a new international order, based on the
domination by the powerful of the weak, of neoliberal uni-thought
where the left and stateless nations have no place.
Nor has the Basque case been the only
example of this kind of anti-democratic political action in the
world. It is clear that the Israeli head of state Sharon has
stepped up his aggression against the Palestinian people. The
Russian president Putin has done the same in Chechnya. The actions
of President Uribe, in Colombia, is similar, where guerrilla
movements have become terrorist movements. And let us not even
mention the announced attack of Iraq, of the past military aggression
against Afghanistan. And there are many more examples that could
be given from throughout the world.
But such action is not just directed
at national liberation movements of oppressed peoples. Right
here in the European Union, the movement against globalization
and neoliberalism is also suffering from a clear criminalization
policy, as demonstrated by the arrest and jailing of numerous
Italian militants by order of the Berlusconi government.
In other words, all those who oppose
the uni-thought and the established neoliberal order, in defense
of their identity as a people or of their class condition, are
systematically persecuted throughout the world. Political, military,
cultural, economic, ecological and gender aggression, including
violence, is legitimated by States, and the self-defense of those
attacked, violent or not, is persecuted. Just as we said in Genova
at the counter-summit of the G8, eight cannot impose their globalizing
project by force of arms on 6 billion inhabitants.
The aspiration of all the peoples of
the planet, to live in peace under a just social order where
wealth is not the patrimony of only a few and where the force
of imposition does not rule, but rather reason, solidarity among
peoples and persons, had never been so ferociously repressed
and silenced by the centers of military, economic and media power.
As Che Guevara said, imposition, oppression and the philosophy
of plundering the weak, are what fuel the philosophy of war.
Put a halt to social injustice and the dominion of the powerful
and we will establish a firm foundation for peace.
Our people has never been a bellicose
people, but it has been a rebel people: rebel against oppression,
rebel against injustice, rebel against imposition. Euskal Herria
wants peace, a solid, stable and lasting peace, without interventions
or impositions by the States that dominate and divide us in two,
brothers of the north and the south, torn apart by political
interests and the vicissitudes of an historic process of configuration
of the ruling classes in emergent European capitalism.
We want peaceful coexistence with Spain
and France in the framework of equality and mutual respect; we
want to live in solidarity with the Spanish and French people
and with all the peoples of Europe and the world, and we yearn,
finally, to have a new state of social relations, where war,
violence and oppression are nothing more than a bad memory for
humankind.
Despite what has been said about us in
the media all over the world, Batasuna has never justified nor
encouraged recourse to armed struggle, not in Euskal Herria nor
outside our country, but it does believe that while democratic
and just conditions to resolve conflicts do not exist, here and
in the rest of the world, there will always be a part of the
oppressed who will resort to the use of political violence as
a means of action. This is why we refuse to condemn it politically,
because the condemnation does not resolve the underlying political
problem, and our responsibility and obligation as a political
force of the left is precisely to look for solutions to the problems
of this world; because another world is possible; if it is a
socialist one, even better.
For all of these reasons, we thank Subcomandante
Insurgente Marcos and the EZLN for their interest, solidarity
and support of the Basque cause, and it is reciprocated, since
from Euskal Herria we follow the just struggle of the EZLN, and
many of us Basques have participated in the international zapatista
march or in support brigades, like those organized by the Basque
internationalist group Askapena.
We are also betting everything on dialogue
and agreement among all the parties as a method of resolving
the conflict and of national construction and social change.
We are creating the political conditions for a political transition
without violence. In said process, ETA granted a truce which
lasted for 20 months to support this Basque process supported
by the social, union, institutional and political majority in
Euskal Herria. However, the government of Madrid, instead of
taking advantage of the situation, just like the British government
did in the Irish case, set about dynamiting it. Aznar was the
primary responsible party in the explosion of that political
process that was supposed to be the definitive political resolution
of the problem. The objective of the government of Madrid is
not peace, it is the liquidation of the process of Basque sovereignty,
even though this may be exercised non-violently and democratically.
But social processes, and the Basque
emancipatory process are not an exception; Batasuna is looking
for democratic formulas of resolution based on the recognition
of the right to free determination of our people in all of its
territory, because that is the scenario that the majority of
Basque people want. We Basques want to take up the word under
democratic conditions and we want everyone to respect that decision,
independent of the results. We are conscious that Basque society
is plural, and we want to construct a country for every one of
the Basque citizens, without exclusions, a country of everyone
and for everyone, a country which recognizes all the rights of
everyone and all its citizens in all of Basque territory--all
rights, from self-determination to the right to live, and all
the other civil, political, economic and cultural rights in between.
This scenario should guarantee equality
of opportunity for all political projects. We, with humility
and with a lot of work, will contribute a project for an independent
and socialist Euskal Herria.
In conclusion, we greet you and we are
willing to participate in any serious political initiative with
a democratic base that has as its objective the creation of the
necessary political conditions for everyone, with the objective
of guaranteeing that Basque men and women may freely and democratically
decide the future of Euskal Herria. Un saludo fraternal y revolucionario.
Long live the solidarity of the oppressed
peoples!
Gora herria!
Euskal Herria, December12, 2002.
*********************************
La Jornada, December 21, 2002
December 20, 2002
Manifesto for the word
Recently, the Zapatista Army of National
Liberation has publicized a proposal for mobilization in our
country to give the word a chance and to build, this coming April,
an encounter for conversation and debate on the so-called Basque
conflict.
Via several documents, addressed to civil
society as well as various organizations and people, the Zapatista
Army of National Liberation once again indicates its unmistakable
commitment to dialogue, as well as its desire to contribute humbly
to unblock the closed mindedness and intransigence that impede
the constitution of a political framework that would propitiate
the resolution of the so-called Basque conflict via the word.
The undersigned have heard the call of
the Zapatista Army of National Liberation and we make it our
own, convinced that the word and dialogue are the key and the
most important factors in the resolution of conflicts and the
follow-through of peace, freedom and democracy for everyone.
In the last few years, the men, women,
children and elderly people of the Zapatista Army of National
Liberation have been an example of dignity and ethics for all
of us. Their decided struggle for the recognition of the rights
and culture of the indigenous people of Mexico has been a mirror
that has reflected the men and women across the planet who defend
and hoisted the desire and the need for another possible world,
one that is more just and more human.
In these times in which we live we observe
with concern the imposition of a logic of permanent world war
waged by the powerful throughout the entire world. The imposition
of this logic is radically undermining any real possibility of
the real democratic exercise of dissidence and is taking shape
as a dangerous and generalized reduction of citizenship and liberties.
The undersigned of this manifesto work,
in one way or another, with the word. The word is our tool and
our clay, our instrument and our music. The word brings us joy
and sorrow, it lulls us to sleep and wakes us up, it greets and
takes its leave of us. The word unites and separates us, it condemns
and absolves us. The word constitutes us and differentiates us
as the human beings that we are among other species. But the
word cannot exist freely and truly in a world of imposed silence,
a world of fear, a world in which we are systematically condemned
to an irresponsible and unjust "with us or with them."
The undersigned of this manifesto wholeheartedly
unite with the Zapatista Army of National Liberation's proposal
and we ask that all of those who have been felt its appeal that
you listen and give the word a chance, using it and taking care
of it, making it public, shouting it to the five winds.
We take up the word so that others will
take it up as well, so that it is multiplied and we are multiplied,
let us make it ours so that they can never take it away from
us again, so that it may be, as of now and forever, the only
weapon.
The undersigned of this manifesto reiterate
our support of the proposal by the Zapatista Army of National
Liberation and we make it our own. In so doing, we call on civil
society of all of the Spanish State to make it equally its own
and to participate in the Civic Forum for the Word, which will
begin December 22 at 11:00 a.m. in the Instituto Cardenal Cisneros
of Madrid.
Let us begin, let us walk with the word,
let us travel the path of dialogue to speak and hear each other.
Let's give the word a chance.
Spanish State, Europe, Planet Earth.
December 2002.
Signed by 57 artists, intellectuals,
and political personalities, including:
Ignacio Ramonet, director of Le Monde
Diplomatique;
writer and journalist Manuel Vázquez Montalbán;
musician Manu Chao,
musician Pedro Guerra;
journalist Pilar del Río;
director of Radio France International, Ramón Chao;
professor and writer Marcos Roitman,
various council members and leaders of Izquierda Unida, including
militant Jaime Pastor,
philosopher Javier Sádaba, of the Universidad Complutense;
académicos de la Universidad de Barcelona, including Joan
Martínez Alier, of the Ecological Economy program;
Amparo Sánchez, member of the musical group Amparanoia;
film director Pedro Pérez Rosado,
Madrid city council member Inés Sabanés,
deputies of the Autonomous Community of Madrid Angel Pérez
Martínez and Dolores Ruano;
and Hans Modrow, representative of the European Parliament.
Leslie López lives in Santa Cruz, California. She can be
reached at: leslilo@yahoo.com.mx
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