Zapatistas in Morelia 'Destroying the Monster and Strengthening the Movement'

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Zapatistas of Morelia greet Marichuy with their left fists raised on a rainy day in Chiapas  

WORDS OF MARÍA DE JESÚS PATRICIO MARTÍNEZ IN THE ZAPATISTA CARACOL OF MORELIA ON OCTOBER 15, 2017

"We must destroy this monster and we must do it all together .. We have to shake hands with everyone, everyone who feels that it’s important to have a dignified life, a life that we have to transmit to all those who come after us."

Posted on October 17, 2017 by Chiapas Support Committee https://chiapas-support.org/2017/10/17/words-of-marichuy-in-morelia-chiapas/

Well, we already listened to our council member compañeras that make up the Indigenous Government Council and before beginning (my talk) I want to report that as of right now we have 141 council members that are already making up the Indigenous Government Council; they are from 35 indigenous peoples from 62 regions of the country, out of the 93 that we had thought council members could come from, then we’re still walking, still organizing the different indigenous peoples to complete that large Indigenous Government Council.

Also, brothers and sisters, I am thankful to this organization for receiving us beautifully. On my way here I was looking at the hills, the rivers, the trees and I said: “it’s so good that they have not been contaminated here, that they have not permitted cutting trees here, and that you are organizing here.” And we see the work you have done and we want to promote that work in the different regions of the country, the ways of the indigenous peoples, their forms, their style, each one who we have to organize in order to take care of what our ancestors have left us, what they fought over for years and that they have wanted to take away from them.

It has cost some places deaths, incarcerations, disappeared, repressions, but nevertheless, I believe that all of us in the National Indigenous Congress know what awaits us and we’re going to continue moving ahead, and only with the organization of all indigenous peoples can we demonstrate to the power, to capitalism, that we can definitely take it away, that we can pull it out by the roots, because that is what is wanting to dispossess us of our riches, that is what is making us fight among ourselves to take advantage of our riches, that is what is thinking about how to remove us from our communities and be left with those riches that the communities have.

And we said: “we are not going to permit it,” but we can’t do it alone, so we think that we are going to go out to walk and tour this Mexico and that we are going to invite all our brothers of the city, all our brothers from civil society, all our brothers that are also struggling out there, so that together we will join hands and be able to get rid of this system that wants to destroy us, principally our peoples, our communities, our inhabitants. They are imposing programs on us, and those programs only bring division on the interior, bring death to our lands, bring contamination to our waters, and therefore we are no longer in agreement as indigenous peoples who are inside of the National Indigenous Congress.

And we want to walk together with all our brothers from the different peoples of Mexico; we must shake each other’s hand now to be able to defend ourselves, as Comandanta Miriam said. We have to f eel that trust with our brothers that are here and that together we will expose that great monster that wants to destroy us and that monster is not only in Mexico, it’s all over the world. Therefore we have to shake hands, get to know each other and struggle together; we must think about how to take care of our children, all the women and men, and we have to take care of that land jointly that our grandparents left us.

We must destroy this monster and we must do it all together, organized, and I think that if we all join hands, we will be able to do it, brothers. Yes, we can do it! And we have to trust that our voice will be heard, that our organization is going to look beyond, and then the powerful are going to tremble when they see all the original peoples of this country, who are the indigenous peoples, united and organized and defending this country that is ours, because we were here first and we must recuperate that, and we have to re-organize it to our way, because we already saw that how it is organized now doesn’t work, it brings u s death, it brings us destruction, it brings us division and brings us disputes. We have to shake hands with everyone, everyone who feels that it’s important to have a dignified life, a life that we have to transmit to all those who come after us.

We must achieve that, brothers, on this walk, indigenous peoples together, communities together, brothers together that are in the city, in civil society that is also thinking now about how to articulate these forces and together we are going to win.

Long live the National Indigenous Congress!

Long live the indigenous peoples of Mexico!

Long live the indigenous peoples of the world!

Thank you, brothers!

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Originally Published in Spanish by ACTIVIDADES DEL CIG Y SU VOCERA

Monday, October 16, 2017

https://actividadesdelcigysuvocera.blogspot.mx/2017/10/discurso-de-maria-de-jesus-patricio.html

Re-Published with English interpretation by the Chiapas Support Committee