Via Campesina solidarity with Zapatistas following attack on teacher

Declaration of Solidarity with the Zapatistas and the Latin American
Coordination of Peasant Organizations and North America Region of La
Via Campesina International

By La Via Campesina International
Censored News

We are dismayed and outraged, but also firm in solidarity and
struggle; we stand against the assault that ended the life of the teacher Galeano, a brother and comrade Zapatista in La Realidad, Chiapas.

 …Because we know that these attacks against the Zapatistas, like all
previous attacks, are a product of the bad government, businessmen and
imperialism, seeking to eliminate those who struggle for freedom and
justice, to silence those who are planting hope. And because hope
grows and multiplies experiences and struggles all over the world,
confronting capitalism which has proven itself many times over to be
the cause of injustice, violence and death.

 Faced with the loss of Galeano, we express our solidarity, and our
embrace amidst such pain, but also the conviction that at the hand of
our struggles, peoples’ struggles, justice will arrive and flourish.
We also express our solidarity with the wounded, with the targeted
community, with families and comrades, and we tell you now that you
are not alone, that we are not alone, we are together in the struggle
all over the world.

As we denounced a few months ago, violence against the poor, against
indigenous and peasant brothers and sisters, only pertains to the
selfish logic of empire, capital and their governments. To perpetuate
this logic, is to betray our class, betraying our own people, workers,
ourselves. It does not matter under which organization or in whose
name these kinds of violent acts occur, they only serve the plans of
the enemy, who continues to indulge his own ambition and greed.
Therefore we denounce this act of murder, the aggressions and damage
done to the community, to the schoolhouse, and we also reject the
false stories and lies that attempt to cover up the assault, which
speak of confrontations and internal disputes within the community as
the source and cause of the murder, as if it were a justification of
these acts. There is no justification.

Therefore we strongly condemn these acts, for which we assign primary
responsibility to the Mexican State and Government of Chiapas and its
counterinsurgency campaign, we also attribute responsibility to the
paramilitary and the organizations which are explicitly interested and
act to divide, to kill and destroy for bribes and rewards they receive
from the “higher-ups”.

From the Latin American and international indigenous peasant movement
with our eyes and hearts we are with you, and we feel you are with us.

Globalize the struggle, globalize solidarity and globalize hope!

For Land and sovereignty of our peoples,
America struggles!

Latin American Coordination of Peasant Organizations (CLOC)

North America Region of La Via Campesina International