CHRONOLOGICAL ACCOUNT OF THE ZAPATISTA MARCH AND THE FOUNDING CONGRESS OF THE FZLN
The indigenous Zapatista march to Mexico City to demand the constitutional recognition of Indigenous Rights and Culture, an end to the militarization of indigenous regions of the country, and to participate in the Founding Congress of the Zapatista Front, began on the night of September 8th in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas. The farewell ceremonies for the Zapatista delegation commenced with a march through the main streets of the city--most of which were blocked to traffic by sympathetic taxi drivers--by at least 15,000 ski-masked members or supporters of the EZLN who had gathered to bid farewell to the 1,111 participants in the Zapatista delegation, scheduled to arrive four days later in Mexico City.
"We are going to seek peace with justice and dignity", declared one of the 12 EZLN comandantes present at the ceremony, "but let it be clear that if there is no solution to the demands of the Mexican people, and the San Andres Accords are not fulfilled, then we will be prepared to shed more blood".
During the ceremony, the 12 EZLN commanders--Zebedeo, Emiliano, Carlos, Pedro, Lorenzo, German, Rosalia, Florentina, Yolanda, Rosa Maria, Hermelinda, and Patricia--handed over the representation of the Zapatista communities and leadership, symbolized by the Mexican flag and the flag of the EZLN, to Isaac, one of the Zapatista representatives entrusted with leading the "motorized march".
With respect to the Mexican flag, the comandantes said:
"This is our flag, and it is loved and respected by all the men, women, children, and elderly, the bases of support, and the combatants of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation...it is the symbol which represents all of us who inhabit our homeland called Mexico. This is our flag, and it represents our desire to live and to be taken into account as the Mexicans we are".
When handing over the Zapatista flag, they said:
"This is our banner of struggle and rebellion. The flag with a black background, a red five-pointed star, and the letters 'EZLN'. The flag of black and red, which are the symbols of the pain and rebel dignity against a bad government which tried to forget us for so many years. The flag with a five-pointed star, which symbolizes the struggle for humanity. This is the flag of the Zapatistas. In it, are the blood and the death of our people. But also in it is the struggle, and the hope for justice, liberty, and democracy which all Mexicans deserve".
The 1,111 delegates of the EZLN left San Cristobal shortly after midnight, and set course for Juchitan, in the state of Oaxaca, where they would spend the night of the 9th.
In Mexico City, meanwhile, government officials spent their time verbally "welcoming" the imminent arrival of the march, while authorities prepared a massive police and military operation for "security purposes" in preparation for the dramatic--but peaceful--entrance of the Zapatistas.
According to La Jornada, 20,000 police officers--as well as elite, specialized police units and armed plainclothes officials--were trained to take part in the operations, which began the previous week with helicopter surveillance flights over several areas of the Federal District, especially roadway entry points.
Such security measures also coincided with increased repression against activists of the Zapatista Front of National Liberation, set to hold its Founding Congress the day following the EZLN's arrival to Mexico City. One activist of the FZLN was kidnapped by security forces in Mexico City, beaten, and questioned about "armed Zapatista commando units" supposedly taking part in the march. Other incidents included a break-in at the FZLN offices in Mexico City, and reports by several militants of the organization that they were under constant surveillance.
The National Indigenous Congress (CNI), for its part, quickly condemned the security preparations, calling them a "provocation", since the events scheduled in Mexico City between civil society and indigenous groups, including the EZLN, would be of a peaceful nature. On September 8th, Melquiades Rosas, one of the spokespersons of the CNI, called on the government to halt its mobilizations of police forces and intelligence gathering units, and instead to focus on questions of "health and hygiene" for the marchers. Rosas also called on the governors of Chiapas, Oaxaca, Puebla, and Morelos to provide guarantees of free transit for the rebel caravan.
In the days when the Zapatista Army of National Liberation was made of just six people struggling to survive in the remote jungles of Chiapas, the Zapotec city of Juchitan was already making history, as the first city in Mexico to be governed by a left-wing opposition coalition.
In the late 1970s, following the failure of a local reformist government, a new movement was born in Juchitan, bringing together students, workers, and campesinos. Called the COCEI--the Student, Worker, and Campesino Coalition of the Isthmus--the coalition ruled Juchitan for the first time in 1981, in coalition with the Unified Socialist Party of Mexico. Although it was thrown out of office in a move closely resembling a military coup d'etat in 1983, the COCEI never faltered in its radical grassroots activism and the promotion of its indigenous identity, and came to power again in 1989. Today, the COCEI still runs Juchitan, and its history and grassroots strategies have long defined the model of new, left-wing social movements in Mexico.
Since 1994, the COCEI has never faltered from supporting the new Zapatista movement in Mexico; and the EZLN has always payed tribute to those who have done their part and shed their blood--now, or in the past--to bring greater freedom and democracy to Mexico.
So when the motorized caravan of 1,111 ski-masked, but unarmed, Zapatistas arrived in the rebel city of Juchitan, Oaxaca late on September 9th, each side received the other as heroes, and "unity" became the word of the day.
The EZLN was welcomed by thousands of Huaves, Chontales, Popolucas, Mixes, Nahuas, Zoques, Chinantecos, Mixtecos, and--of course--Zapotecos, all of whom swarmed into the Benito Juarez Plaza after sundown to dialogue with the Zapatistas.
During the concentration--which lasted nearly two hours--the historical leader of the COCEI, Leopoldo de Gyves, spoke to the 1,111 Zapatistas:
"We share with you the dream of rebuilding the Mexican Nation over the foundations of democracy and justice", he said, later adding that "we are aware of the proximity which exists between the Zapatista Army and the COCEI....Our organization has never renounced its commitment to the humble classes, nor has it ever renounced the struggle".
Then, to loud ovations, the members of the EZLN's Political Commission--those responsible for directing and coordinating the march--were introduced: Isaac, Obed, Carlos, Hugo, Omar, Karina, Claribel, and Braue.
Hugo read a message to the people of Juchitan from the CCRI-CG of the EZLN, and spoke at length of the necessity for unity:
"Unity is fundamental", he said. "Only with unity can we resist the bad government that wants to see us as small, wants to see us on our knees, and wants to see us destroyed and begging for handouts. The powerful do not want us to unite in order to be strong and to struggle to overcome our enemies".
"Only united", he added, "can we advance toward the construction among us all of a great Mexico in which the riches are distributed for the benefit of all Mexicans, and not only for a handful of millionaires, a handful of the powerful, a handful of parasites....Those of us in the EZLN will always seek unity, we sought it yesterday, we seek it today, and we will continue to seek it for the benefit of our country".
The Zapatista caravan left Juchitan on the morning of September 10th, and began a long drive to the state capital, Oaxaca. Before leaving, however, 500 people representing eight different indigenous groups in the region joined the caravan, intent on proving to the government that the 1,111 Zapatistas "are not alone".
260 kilometers and nearly 12 hours later, the 50+ vehicle caravan arrived in Oaxaca, where between 10 and 15,000 people had waited all afternoon and into the evening for a glimpse at the rebel women and men classified as "traitors" by the federal government.
The caravan was stopped numerous times on the outskirts of the city by crowds of people eager to hand food, water, and letters to the Zapatistas through open windows on the buses.
Once inside the city, the members of the caravan were given a reception that even the mainstream news media qualified as "triumphant". Even the city's mayor--a militant of the right-wing PAN party--welcomed the Zapatistas as "distinguished visitors".
After the members of the Political Commission were introduced, Isaac read a communique demanding the immediate withdrawal of all Mexican military personnel from indigenous communities across Mexico.
"We, the indigenous peoples, are poor, forgotten, tricked, and persecuted by the Army which is at the service of the government and the powerful who want to continue exercising their great power", he said. "They, the powerful, prefer to spend millions of pesos to maintain all their military equipment in our communities, instead of finding a solution to our demands, which are the cause of our rebellion and of our dignified resistance".
"For us, the militarization of the indigenous lands of Oaxaca, Guerrero, and Chiapas, as in all the regions of the nation, are signs of war", he added. "We ask ourselves, where are the signs of dialogue and of solutions to our demands, when the Mexican Federal Army has become an army of occupation which drives us off our lands in order to step in by force?"
"Where corn and beans are harvested," continued Isaac, "the army plants barracks, invasion, and prostitution, and is destroying entire families. Ever since the barracks entered our communities, we have not lived in peace, but rather under terror and threat".
"From this state of Oaxaca", he concluded, "we, the Zapatistas, ask national and international civil society to work together to pressure the government of Zedillo to withdraw the Army from our communities once and for all".
Around midnight, after the rally was over, the Zapatista delgates stopped to lay 5,000 flowers at the city's stone monument to Emiliano Zapata before retiring for a much-needed rest.
Meanwhile, thousands of indigenous peoples from across the country began to arrive in different spots along the route from Oaxaca to Mexico City in order to join the Zapatista caravan. 1,000 Triquis, from the Unified Movement of Triqui Struggle, for their part, joined the caravan as soon as it had arrived in Oaxaca.
In Guerrero, the Guerrero Council "500 Years of Indigenous Resistance" had led a march through the state capital, Chilpancingo, in the afternoon, and in the evening 1,000 of their members left for the city of Cuernavaca, Morelos, where they would join the Zapatista caravan into Tepoztlan the following day. A group of Mixtecos from the municipalities of Tlacoachistlahuaca, Xochistlahuaca, and Metlatonoc in Guerrero--all participating in the Popular Municipality in Rebellion of Rancho Nuevo Democracia--also left their homes on the 10th in order to join the rebel caravan in Morelos.
Simultaneously, a group of 80 members of the Union of Popular Independent Colonies of Irapuato, Guanajuato, left their state in order to arrive in Mexico City to show their support for the Zapatistas when they arrived, so as to "prove false all those who say that there are not sympathizers of the Chiapas indigenous movement in Guanajuato". Representatives of the Seri, Mayo, Yaqui, Guarojio, Pima, Kikapoo, and Papago peoples in the northwestern state of Sonora, meanwhile, also left for Mexico City on the 10th in order to join the Zapatista and indigenous demonstrations in Mexico City planned for September 12th.
When the motorized Zapatista March finally passed through Puebla and into the state of Morelos late on September 11th, the caravan was made up of more than 3,000 people occupying 111 buses and trucks. On the road, the caravan was estimated by the police to occupy 15 full kilometers of highway.
The only scheduled stop for the caravan on the route to Tepoztlan was in the town of Acatlan de Osorio, in the state of Puebla; nevertheless, the Zapatistas were greeted by hundreds of people lining the roads in nearly every community through which they passed.
When they arrived in Tepoztlan, it was well past midnight. The people of Tepoztlan, however--a rebel city with a long history of dignified resistance and rebellion--did not seem especially bothered by the long wait, and received the caravan with fireworks, celebrations, and (as always) plenty of music.
Meanwhile, the caravan continued to grow. More than 1,000 people joined the motorized march in Tepoztlan, as more contingents from Guerrero, Hidalgo, Aguascalientes, Yucatan, and Quintana Roo left their communities in order to arrive in Mexico City shortly after the arrival of the Zapatistas.
A group of 20 Tarahumaras from Chihuahua also left for Mexico City on September 11th, so as to be able to participate with the EZLN in the Second National Assembly of the National Indigenous Congress, and to denounce government intentions to construct "special reservations" near their lands in the northwestern mountains in order to "confine" groups of Tarahumaras, Tepehuanos, and Pimas.
When the caravan left Tepoztlan late in the morning of September 12th en route to its final destination, it was observed by federal highway police to be made up of no less than 158 vehicles.
At 11:40 a.m. on September 12th, exactly 3 years, 8 months, and 12 days after the CCRI-CG of the EZLN ordered its troops "to advance toward the capital of the country, overcoming the Mexican Federal Army", the Zapatistas arrived in Mexico City.
They followed the same route taken by Emiliano Zapata's troops during the original Zapatista occupation of the capital on November 24th, 1914, passing first through the rural southern zones of Milpa Alta and Tlahuac, and then into the Nativitas forest in the district of Xochimilco.
In Milpa Alta--the same district where Emiliano Zapata once maintained an armed presence and where his 'Plan de Ayala' was ratified--the caravan was received with tamales, atole, sandwiches, and coffee by the indigenous peoples and campesinos of the area, who affirmed their solidarity with the Zapatista movement and denounced the destruction of their lands and ejidos by the urban onslaught.
When they arrived in Xochimilco, the occupants of the 158-vehicle caravan were given their official welcome into the Federal District and the geographical, political, and economic center of Mexico.
The crowd of more than three thousand people in the Nativitas forest had been waiting since 8:00 a.m. for the arrival of the Zapatistas, who finally entered just before 2:00 in the afternoon. Representatives of nearly every major social organization and movement in Mexico City turned out to welcome the caravan, in a rare display of left-wing unity.
Since it would take hours just for everyone to get off the buses, and hours more to get everyone back on in order to drive to the Monument to the Children Heroes later in the afternoon for the march to the Zocalo, only the members of the Political Commission left their vehicles to address the crowds.
Speaking of the EZLN demand that the government honor the San Andres Accords on Indigenous Rights and Culture, Isaac said:
"The indigenous peoples have never renounced the idea of autonomy, but this does not mean the formation of another Mexico. The EZLN does not suggest this, nor does it suggest the fragmentation of the nation".
"The EZLN is Mexican", he continued, "and will continue to be Mexican, and will continue the struggle for all the demands of the indigenous and non-indigenous peoples until those demands are fulfilled....We have not surrendered, nor will we sell out".
"The struggle of the EZLN", added Companero Omar, "has awoken thousands and thousands of Mexicans, who have discovered that from their origin they have the right to be who they are, and to be respected as they are. We, who are the despised, know how to govern ourselves and to honor our laws".
After the welcoming ceremony in Xochimilco, the caravan left for the Monumento a los Ninos Heroes to begin a three-hour march to the Plaza of the Constitution--the Zocalo--of the capital city.
This final element of the Zapatista March was, by all accounts, spectacular. Tens of thousands of people lined the roads leading to the Zocalo in order to welcome the marchers, and to add their voices to those chanting "You are not alone!", "Long live the EZLN!".
Some spoke later of the magnitude of the reception for the rebels: "The people received them as if they were entering the capital as victorious heroes", said one keen observer of the march.
The march to the Zocalo was indeed one of the largest in recent memory--no small feat, considering the nearly 1,500 street demonstrations carried out each year in Mexico City. When the first contingent containing the Zapatista delegation arrived in the plaza, it was already after 8:00 in the evening. The Zocalo filled to capacity shortly thereafter--and yet the streets were still backed up with marchers well past the Monument of the Revolution, several kilometers away.
From 9:00 to 11:00 at night, the marchers continued to enter, overflowing the Zocalo with their presence and their demands: support for the San Andres Accords...and support for their Zapatista Army. Estimates of crowd size ranged from 75,000 to 200,000.
The keynote speaker during the subsequent rally in the Zocalo was 18-year old Claribel, of the EZLN's Political Commission. Her voice filled with anger and emotion, she read a message from the CCRI-CG of the EZLN:
"Today, September 12th, 1997, in the month of our nation, one-thousand one-hundred and eleven indigenous Zapatistas and thousands of indigenous peoples from across the country have arrived here, in front of the great federal government palace, in order to say our word....
"We have arrived here, and we are not alone. With us, at our side, come thousands of indigenous peoples from may parts of Mexico. Our voice, and theirs, is the same voice clamoring for justice, clamoring for freedom, and demanding democracy.
"The sisters and brothers of the National Indigenous Congress march together with the Zapatistas. We have walked together with one banner. The banner which says that no more, that never again shall there be a Mexico without us!
"Mexican women and men:
"We have come this far in order to demand that Mr. Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon honor his word. We demand that he honor that which he signed at the negotiating table in February of 1996. And we demand that he withdraw his soldiers from the indigenous communities in all of Mexico.
"If he is not going to honor his commitments, then we demand that he speak clearly to the people of Mexico. That he no longer trick them by speaking of peace. Because we are not prepared for them to forget us once again. We are not prepared for them to go on despising us. We are not prepared for them to go on tricking us. We are not prepared to return to that corner of abandonment and hopeless misery.
"If Zedillo has a word, then he should honor it and allow the law to recognize our rights as indigenous peoples. If Zedillo lacks such words of honor, then he should make war on us and fill with bullets that which he cannot fill with excuses.
"If he is not going to make war, then we demand that he withdraw the soldiers that have been placed in our communities....While the federal soldiers persecute us, who are Mexicans, those who govern are selling our country to foreign capital. National armies exist to defend the people, not to help with the sale of our national sovereignty.
"If Zedillo wants peace, then he must honor the word he gave to the indigenous peoples and return his soldiers to their barracks. If he wants war, then let the war come: we, the Zapatistas, know how to fight with honor and courage, because we have a very powerful weapon which the government lacks.
"This weapon is called dignity. With this weapon, no one, nothing, can defeat us.
"They can kill us or imprison us. But they can never defeat us. They will never make us surrender".
Following Claribel's speech, which received thunderous ovations, several members of the National Indigenous Congress and of other indigenous and social organizations spoke to the rally, and the event finally concluded around 11:00 p.m. The Zapatista delegation then left for a much needed rest in the El Molino housing development of the Francisco Villa Popular Front (FPFV), in the Iztapalapa district.
All in all, the entrance to Mexico City and the march to the Zocalo transpired smoothly and without major security incidents (although the press complained of rough treatment by the "civil society security cordons"); the "undercover" police, for their part, were more than obvious, and did not appear to create serious problems for the marchers.
Meanwhile, the Secretary of Defense, Enrique Cervantes Aguirre, announced ironically following the EZLN's arrival that the Zapatistas "are welcome" in Mexico City, and added his hopes that "everything transpires with normality".
The opening session of the Founding Congress of the Zapatista Front of National Liberation began on September 13th, in the historic 'Salon Los Angeles'. 3,107 people (not including the 1,111 EZLN representatives) registered as participants, guests, or observers, representing Civil Committees of Dialogue from 31 states of the Republic as well as national and international social and political organizations. Delegations of observers and guests arrived from as far away as France, Italy, Norway, Brazil, Belgium, Chile, and Spain, as well as from the United States and Canada.
While waiting for the arrival of the EZLN delegation, which would inaugurate the Congress and take part as an observer delegation, organizers of the event read greetings to the Congress from individuals and organizations all over the world--including messages from Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano, who affirmed that "since unity in unanimity is false fraternity, I wish you unity in diversity"; Danielle Mitterrand, the former First Lady of France, who said that "without faces, without personality, with only the force of your voice, you have all demonstrated that the word, its mutual comprehension, should be carried to negotiation and permit the organization of a society where everyone is welcome with full dignity"; and Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu Tum, who expressed her "confidence that the birth of the Zapatista Front of National Liberation as a political force will favor the peaceful path toward the search for solutions to today's problems".
Following the greetings, while the participants of the Congress were still waiting for the arrival of the EZLN for the official opening ceremony to begin, a message was also read from the Mayor-elect of Mexico City and historical leader of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), Cuauhtemoc Cardenas Solorzano.
Cardenas--who had met with the EZLN leadership several times in 1994, 1995, and 1996--was welcomed as a guest at the Congress, accompanied by former PRD legislator and COCOPA member Cesar Chavez, as well as by new PRD legislator and COCOPA member Gilberto Lopez y Rivas. He left around noon, however, due to the long wait for the arrival of the EZLN delegation.
In his message, which was read shortly before the EZLN's arrival, Cardenas saluted the organization of the Zapatista Front, and reaffirmed that his party, the PRD, will insist in the Chamber of Deputies that the San Andres Accords on Indigenous Rights and Culture be upheld. He added that as mayor of Mexico City, he will promote political, social, and cultural policies favoring the indigenous groups in the Federal District, and signalled that the FZLN and the Zapatista movement in general have a very important role to play in national politics.
The EZLN delegation finally arrived in the early afternoon, around 2pm. A "civilian security cordon" stretched from the doors of the Salon Los Angeles halfway through the Colonia Guerrero, in order to protect the Zapatista delegation and, as a perhaps unintended consequence, to seriously disrupt the work of reporters and photographers assigned to cover the event.
Once inside the dance hall, the Political Commission of the EZLN took center stage, and officially initiated the activities of the Founding Congress of the FZLN.
Carlos spoke first, apologizing for arriving late, as always. He was followed by Obed, who read a communique from Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos and the CCRI-CG of the EZLN, formally inaugurating the Congress and reiterating that, due to the conditions of continuing low-intensity war in the indigenous communities of Mexico and the government's continuing refusal to honor the agreements signed with the EZLN, the Zapatista Army can not yet--as some press reports have speculated--give up its arms to integrate itself into the Zapatista Front:
"20 months ago, on January 1st, 1996, and from the mountains of the southeast, came the call for the formation of this new organization. It was our response to the National Consultation for Peace and Democracy carried out in August of 1995.
"The Fourth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle, issued from behind Zapatista ski-masks and guns, called for the formation of a peaceful and civilian Zapatista organization.
"A new type of organization which will not struggle for power, but rather for a new type of relationship between the governed and those who govern. An organization that would promote the notion of 'leading by obeying' in all parts of the country.
"Today begins the Founding Congress of that which we called for in January of 1996.
"The Zapatistas of the EZLN are not in this founding congress as direct participants, but rather as observers. Many of you, many Mexicans, will ask why the Zapatistas are not inside the FZLN, why they are not within the organization whose formation they called for.
"Many ask yourselves why we have come only to observe your congress, and not to participate directly in it. Many ask why, in recent days, have we declared time and time again that the EZLN will not form a part of the FZLN and that we will be two sister organizations, but different.
"All this has an answer.
"The reason we are not here together with you as part of the FZLN is the bad government.
"It is the government that refuses to resolve our just demands. It is the government which obliges us to continue with hidden faces and guns in our hands. It is the government that denies to us all possibility of a peaceful, political, just, and dignified solution in order to continue struggling by different means.
"It is the government that keeps us separated. It is the government that wants to force us to surrender with declarations by its bureaucrats, saying that we are now going to transform ourselves into a political force, that there is no longer a war in the Mexican Southeast, and that the armed challenge of the Zapatistas no longer exists. It is the government that lies, saying that the Zapatistas gave up their weapons without having achieved anything, and entered into the institutional life of Mexican politics.
"This is not the case.
"We are not going to transform ourselves into a peaceful and civilian force. The war continues in the Mexican Southeast, and the Zapatistas are still armed and prepared for combat.
"The EZLN will continue challenging the Supreme Government with arms, with reason, and with history.
"This is the truth, frentista brothers and sisters. In our mountains, the black of pain and the red of the future painted by our banner continue to wave. And they will continue until our demands are satisfied and fulfilled, and until the armed struggle becomes an absurdity and an obstacle for the revolutionary transformation of our country.
"Therefore, the EZLN continues to be armed, continues to be clandestine, continues to be rebel, and continues living.
"But Zapatistas are not only in the EZLN. There are not just armed and clandestine Zapatistas. There are also peaceful and civilian Zapatistas. There are also Zapatistas in the FZLN, as well as in other areas.
"When we called for the formation of the FZLN, we thought that peace was near, and that our rebellion had to seek out new paths and forms of struggle in order to continue its determined walk. We thought that in a short time, we would be like you, and together with you. With the same rebellion facing up to the powerful, but without the necessity of arms. With the same dignity for tomorrow, but without our faces hidden by the black color of pain or by the red color of blood.
"But we were wrong, frentista brothers and sisters. Peace was not near. Peace is still far away. Before and now, the government used and uses the lie of a peace which it does not think of as more than surrender and punishment.
"But neither can we continue to hold you back or ask that you wait for us, ask that you not advance, that you not grow, that you do not make yourselves large, that you do not organize yourselves, until there is a just and dignified peace and the EZLN can share with you the present and the future.
"It will not be a military force which directs your civilian steps and puts them at risk. It should not, nor can it, be so.
"In the last 20 months, that which will now become the FZLN has grown across all of national territory.
"It brings together workers and campesinos, indigenous peoples, intellectuals, artists, church workers, teachers, professionals, students, housewives, squatters, small business owners, unemployed, elderly, children, youth, women, men, homosexuals, and lesbians.
"It has the rebels and the forgotten from across Mexicos and all the social sectors.
"This rebel organization which is the FZLN must go forward, must continue to grow, and must have its own face and make reason, dialogue, and tolerance its weapons. This organization has to stop being born.
"Even without those who convoked its formation one morning as it now is, as a hope.
"The time has come, frentista sisters and brothers. You must be born now, and begin to walk without us inside your body. Your country, called Mexico, needs you now, and you should fulfill the call which history makes to you.
"Many will be the tasks you must face. We only ask that you add one more: that of fighting for a just and dignified peace for the EZLN and for all of Mexico.
"For now, we can only walk at your side, knowing ourselves as brothers, but different. A day will come in which, seeing ourselves in the mirror, we will find that wound which still separates us to be erased, that wound which pains us with the "we" and the "you".
"That day will come, may no one doubt it. It will come, simply and surely because we are going to win. Because we are already making history and it will emerge as it should be: round.
"Because round is the earth we create, round is the struggle, and round is the life for which, dying, we will be born again together with you and together with those who, apart from you, are also struggling for a better Mexico.
"It is time once more for the Powerful to tremble: because the Zapatista Front of National Liberation is now born...."
Following the reading of the communique, greetings were given by the other members of the Political Commission of the EZLN, and a statement was read by Javier Elorriaga, of the National Organizing Commission of the FZLN, regarding the necessity to finally bring together the Zapatista Front "in order to continue struggling for the impossible...without asking anyone's permission".
The opening ceremony then ended with the singing of the National Anthem, after which civilian security cordons were formed once again by the participants of the Congress--undaunted by a raging thunderstorm and drenching rain--in order to escort the delegation of the Zapatista Army to their vehicles for their return to the housing units of El Molino.
In the evening, the participants of the Congress then divided up into fourteen different working groups, and spread out across the Federal District in order to begin the discussions regarding the future shape of the Zapatista Front.
On September 14th, the FZLN Congress continued with day-long work sessions in the 14 working groups divided geographically across the greater urban area. Each of the working groups consisted of between 100 and 400 participants, debating the issues raised in a "basic discussion document" given to the participants before the Congress began.
The document, written by the National Organizing Commission of the FZLN (made up of Javier Elorriaga and a number of EZLN officials), contained a synthesis of proposals drafted by the Civil Committees of Dialogue over the course of the summer regarding the future Principles, Program of Struggle, Plan of Action, Structure, and Statutes for the Zapatista Front.
Consensus was generally reached on the matter of Principles, with the only hot item being the affirmation that the FZLN would be "an organization which does not struggle to take power". The discussion around this point generally hinged on what kind of definition of power would be used in such a statement, and the general feeling in the working groups was that the prinicple of "not struggling to take power" implied the taking of State or institutional power, rather than a prohibition on the exercise of that power which lies in the people and society as a whole.
The proposals regarding a Program of Struggle and a Plan of Action--calling for the construction of a new type of political force based on the Zapatista ideals of democracy, justice, liberty, and independence, and a short-term action plan working toward the elaboration of a new, more just Constitution, a horizontal ("direct") democracy, the defense of the environment, and the rights of workers and campesinos, as well as the creation of strategic alliances with other social and political organizations, and the struggle to achieve a just and dignified peace in Mexico, including the constitutional recognition of the San Andres Accords on Indigenous Rights and Culture--also passed through the working groups without a great deal of debate or dissent.
Most of the debate which took place in the very rushed sessions of the working groups had to do with the issues of Structure and Statutes for the nascent organization, and in some cases general agreement on these issues was never reached.
With respect to the Statutes, the most heated point of discussion was that of membership (whether one can become a member on an individual basis, or only as part of a Civil Committee of Dialogue), and especially the notion of what is termed "double militancy"--whether a member of the FZLN can simultaneously be a member of another social or political organization. The latter issue was cause for very long and drawn-out discussions in the working groups, especially since there has traditionally been a common point of solidarity linking the poor and campesino bases of the PRD party to the Zapatista movement.
Many argued that the only prohibition should be on those members of political parties who currently hold, or aspire to hold, positions of institutional power or leadership posts within their organizations, while the militants of political parties should be allowed to join the FZLN.
Others, however, insisted that while the FZLN is not necessarily an "enemy" of the political parties, and certain elements of some political parties should not be considered "enemies" of the Zapatista movement (acknowledging that the FZLN does not, and cannot, hold a monopoly on civilian Zapatismo), the prohibition on double militancy with political parties must be upheld, for the following reasons: first, that the Zapatista Front exists specifically for those who do not find a place for themselves in existing organizations or parties; second, that since the FZLN does not believe in struggling to take State power, and all political parties do believe fundamentally in the struggle to take power, then it would be a contradiction in principles for a member of the FZLN to simultaneously be a militant of a political party; and third, that the prohibition on double-militancy simply bars dual membership--it does not, as some have tried to insinuate, bar the militants of the FZLN from taking part in elections if they so choose and voting for whomever they feel like voting for.
The other issue which caused heated debate was the question of Structure for the Zapatista Front. This debate circulated around four overarching proposals: a traditional pyramidal structure from the top-down; a pyramidal structure from the bottom-up (also diagramed as an inverted pyramid); a circular structure with multi-lateral movement (top-down, bottom-up, side-to-side, etc.); and a coordinated circular web-like structure without any single central coordinating body, and with all decisions made at the base level with local participation.
Debate on all of these issues was generally closed at 8pm (after nearly 12 hours of discussions), although some working groups continued debating well into the night.
When all the discussions were over, summaries of the discussions and of new proposals not included in the basic discussion document were turned over to the Organizing Committee of the Founding Congress in order to draft the ballot for the following day's voting session.
Meanwhile, as the discussions were going on in the working groups of the FZLN, the Second National Assembly of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) was inaugurated at the urban archeological site of Cuicuilco, and continued later in the National School of Anthropology and History (ENAH).
3,220 registered delegates representing more than 50 indigenous groups in Puebla, Mexico State, Michoacan, Chiapas, Hidalgo, Mexico City, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Campeche, Yucatan, Veracruz, Chihuahua, and Jalisco took part in the first day of events for the CNI assembly, as did the 1,111 members of the EZLN delegation, 631 international observers and 85 other invited guests.
In Cuicuilco, the inauguration began with a Huichol purification ceremony, followed by the introduction of the EZLN delegation and members of the Political Commission.
The members of the Political Commission then read a statement from the CCRI-CG of the EZLN greeting the CNI Assembly, demanding the fulfillment of the San Andres Accords, and speaking of the necessity for unity within the indigenous movement, both nationally and internationally:
"It is necessary for us to struggle together, to jointly demand our rights to life, to land, to respect, to autonomy, to free determination, and to be taken into account as peoples and as members of a nation with all the rights we deserve", they said.
Other than planning for the upcoming Second National Indigenous Congress, the main point on the agenda of the CNI Assembly, once it reconvened at 5:00 p.m. in the National School of Anthropology and History, was to clearly demand, once again, the demilitarization of the indigenous regions of the country and the fulfillment of the San Andres Accords on Indigenous Rights and Culture.
While the FZLN Congress reconvened in a plenary session on Monday, September 15th in order for the participants to vote on the proposals which had emerged from the previous day's working groups (a rather chaotic process which didn't actually begin until late in the afternoon, due to the fact that a number of proposals never made it onto the final ballot, and had to be added manually to each one by the participants themselves), the representatives of the Zapatista Army undertook a "dialogue with Civil Society"--which included not only a dialogue, but also a soccer match--at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
The EZLN contingent arrived at the UNAM shortly after noon, and was warmly welcomed by the 5,000 people--mostly students, but also professors, workers, and entire families--who had been patiently waiting for a number of hours simply to see the Zapatistas and to share stories and food.
This time, unlike all previous appearances of the EZLN delegation, the security cordons disappeared. Not "civil society", nor the Zapatista security itself, would place a barrier between the Zapatista women and men and those who had come for the single purpose of sharing conversation with them.
For more than three hours, and for the first time since the march to Mexico City began, the Zapatistas were engaged in an informal public event, with no agenda other than to talk, and listen, to whomever bothered to show up. They divided into about 20 groups, scattered across the the grassy area on the campus separating the administration tower from the central library and the Philosophy Department, and just talked. Some talked about how they first entered the EZLN, and thus learned to read and write; others talked about the struggle of women within the EZLN and the indigenous communities of Chiapas; and others simply chatted about the Metro service or the smog problems in Mexico City.
At 4:30 p.m., a spontaneous soccer match broke out between nearly 50 students of the UNAM, and a number of Zapatistas. The sides were easy enough to distinguish--the members of the home team looked like typical grunge UNAM students, and the members of the visiting team were all wearing ski masks. And although the students on the field vastly outnumbered the Zapatistas, they couldn't -- or didn't have the heart to -- win the game ("how do you score a goal on a Zapatista?", asked one student).
After just one hour of playing time, the EZLN delegation was declared the winner of the match with the shattering score of 12-2.
Meanwhile, a short distance away, the Second National Assembly of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) concluded its second and final day of work sessions with a declaration convoking the Second National Indigenous Congress to begin in Mexico City on October 9th, culminating in a march to the Zocalo on October 12th.
The CNI further demanded that the government honor the treaties and agreements it has signed, specifically the San Andres Accords on Indigenous Rights and Culture, and Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization, dealing with the collective rights of indigenous peoples. It further called on President Zedillo--as Commander-in-Chief of the Mexican Armed Forces--to stop the militarization of indigenous communities, release indigenous political prisoners, and halt the persecution of indigenous community leaders.
The 3,220 delegates also demanded the immediate cancellation of tourist-oriented economic development projects on indigenous lands and historical sites, such as those planned across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, as well as billionaire Carlos Slim's mega-mall project slated to be built at the Ceremonial Center of Cuicuilco in Mexico City.
Finally, the CNI criticized the work of political parties, who they said always operated in order to take advantage of indigenous communities, only to ignore them once in office. "We want them to see us as complete and capable human beings; we want respect from the parties, for them to see us as a new political actor in states, municipalities, and communities, and for them to stop seeing us as 'incapable' people that should only be affiliates", said Mixe lawyer and CNI leader Adelfo Regino.
The final session of the Founding Congress of the Zapatista Front of National Liberation began late (as usual) in the morning of September 16th. The delegates, while still waiting to be told the results of the previous day's balloting, realized the necessity for some kind of interim commission responsible for applying the immediate and short-term results of the Congress; and so proceeded to elect, in "open assembly", two representatives per state (this was later reduced to one representative and one substitute) to serve on an National Interim Liason Commission.
In the early afternoon, the first results of the balloting were announced; but since only 16 hours had passed since the voting had concluded the previous day--and there were 1,383 ballots to count, each with 140 questions regarding 56 proposals--only 30% of the ballots had been counted. Thus, the delegates were only given general 'tendencies' of the results up until that point, and unfortunately had to leave the Congress without full knowledge of the decisions they had made for the future of the organization.
[For the full results of the FZLN Congress, see Part II of this News Update, which will be issued in a few days' time.]
The 1,111 member EZLN delegation arrived to the closing session of the Congress around 2:00 in the afternoon, to yet another thunderous ovation. The Political Commission again proceeded to take center stage, and Isaac was the first to speak, seizing the opportunity to condemn the publication of a pamphlet which had appeared in Tepoztlan and Mexico City in previous days during Zapatista events. The flier, signed by the non-existant "Leftist Armed Forces"--a supposed coalition between the EZLN and the EPR--said that business leaders would be kidnapped or harmed if they did not pay a voluntary 300,000 peso "cooperation" to the armed group, in order to secure "protection" from harm.
Isaac insisted that the pamphlet was entirely false, and that the EZLN has never had any kind of relationship with the EPR; and neither has it ever used extorsion or the threat of terror as a tactic.
(The following week, two people in Mexico City who had no contact with either the EZLN or the EPR were arrested on extorsion charges and accused of being the real authors of the pamphlets.)
Isaac's message was followed by a communique of the CCRI-CG of the EZLN, signed by Mayor Insurgente Moises, and read by Companera Noemi, criticizing the government's appropriation of the names and struggles of national heroes such as Hidalgo, Morelos, and Guerrero on September 16th (Mexican Independence Day), and calling on the newborn FZLN to be prepared for what lies ahead: "struggle and struggle, with a little bit of rest and a breath, and then back to the road of struggle".
Following the closing of the FZLN Congress, the delegates followed the EZLN representatives to the Tlatelolco Plaza (The Plaza of Three Cultures), for a public Zapatista festival with music and dance.
Tlatelolco is well-known not only for being the site where Cuauhtemoc fell while directing the last indigenous resistance against Hernan Cortes during the Conquest, but also for being the site of the most infamous massacre carried out by the PRI-Government in Mexico; on this day, however, the memories of the terror of 1968 were overcome by the festive present and the dreams for the future.
Families in the housing projects surrounding the square plaza and archeological ruins hung Mexican flags and banners in support of the EZLN from their balconies; several two-story high cardboard figurines of Subcomandante Marcos, Emiliano Zapata, and Che Guevara also appeared on the sides of the apartments to add to the decorations.
Meanwhile, the Zapatistas were given the order to relax discipline; the security cordons disappeared yet again; and "Civil Society" danced with the protagonists of the Chiapas rebellion. After the ceremony was over, Jose Gil Olmos, a reporter from La Jornada, reported overhearing someone say: "Who would have thought, that in this plaza where the last indigenous people died facing the Conquest, here, where the students also died, that now masked rebels would be dancing? What will happen next?"
In the case of the EZLN, what happened next was that the music and the dancing continued. After leaving Tlatelolco and arriving once again in the housing unit of El Molino in Iztapalapa, the Zapatistas extended an open invitation to all of "civil society" to visit them once again.
El Molino itself is astonishing; located in the middle of a proletarian district and still in the process of construction by the Francisco Villa Popular Front (FPFV), the five-story brick buildings are adorned on the sides with images of Zapata, Villa, Che Guevara, and even Lenin, and easily housed the 1,111 members of the Zapatista delegation.
Outside, as the evening progressed and curious visitors began to arrive to see where the companeros were staying, the two buildings which contained the actual rooms used by the Zapatistas were cordoned off, so they could freely relax (and even take off their ski-masks) if they wanted to, without being forced to interact with an inquisitive civil society.
Meanwhile, some of the EZLN delegation ventured below for a basketball tournament (to which civil society was not invited, since the court was in the "closed" area) that lasted at least four hours; and others passed into the "open" area, already adorned with a stage for a sort of "open-mike" concert.
Coffee and tea was served by the FPFV, the Unified Workers Central (CUT), and the Asamblea de Barrios; and a random assortment of singers, poets, and actors began to take the stage to entertain the Zapatistas.
All patience has its limits, however, and at 11:00 p.m. a Zapatista group asked the self-designated master of ceremonies if they could perform a piece. The truth is, if just one of the Zapatista groups which performed that night recorded a CD, they could probably finance the entire movement just from the sales. From behind ski-masks and bandanas, the Zapatistas sang cumbias, nortenas, boleros, popular music such as "La del mono colorado", and old ballads, including "Cartas marcadas" (widely rumored to be the favorite song of Subcomandante Marcos). Original songs were also played to the audience, and poems were read by the Zapatista poets.
Shortly after midnight, a Zapatista named Robertico got up on stage, and tried out the electric keybord. Used to an accordian, he swore he had never used an electric piano before, and spent ten minutes apologizing for any errors he might happen to make with the instrument; and then asked for permission to sing a cumbia he was working on, for his public debut performance.
When he finished the piece, to wild applause, he again apologized for any errors with the keyboard, again mentioned that he had never played anything in public before....and asked if the audience wanted him to get down, or to play another song.
"Another!", shouted the crowds; and no matter how visibly annoyed the master of cermonies became, he was helpless--and simply could not take Robertico off the stage for the next three hours.
Braving the mid-afternoon thunderstorms of September 17th, thousands gathered again in the Tlatelolco plaza under pouring rain to bid farewell to the Zapatistas.
And the Zapatistas bid farewell to the city, giving thanks to all of those who had welcomed them as sisters and brothers.
"Four years ago", said one member of the Political Commission of the EZLN, "we knew we had sisters and brothers in this city who were concerned for us. But today, we know it with even more certainty. More than the distance which exists between your houses and our communities, there is something which brings us together, something that today is much stronger. What unites us is the knowledge that our strength lies in our unity. We are united by the struggle for another homeland, one in which all of you and all of us have a place...."
The members of the Political Commission also read a communique signed by Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos, in which the CCRI-CG of the EZLN acknowledged that it had learned yet another lesson from Mexican civil society:
"This great march for a Mexico for all Mexicos was converted into a message, and into many messages. This march was undertaken as if each step were a letter for someone, a message for each person.
"This march had many steps, and many are the messages for many people. Each will know how to read the message destined for them, and will think of how to respond.
"We, the Zapatistas, received more than a message. The Zapatistas received a lesson. The teachers of this history lesson are the workers of the countryside and of the city, the indigenous peoples, the social and political organizations, the children, the youth, the elderly, the gays and lesbians, and all Mexican men and women.
"The students are again, as in 1994, the Zapatistas. We re-learned that we are a part of a Mexico in which there are many Mexicos. We re-learned that the most important thing to do is to talk and to listen to the many Mexicos which exist in our country. We re-learned that we are not alone, and that we cannot act as if we were alone. We re-learned that we have to unite ourselves with all the Mexicos in order to construct the nation we all need and that we all deserve.
"A better nation. A nation with democracy, liberty, and justice for all Mexicans.
"Brothers and sisters of civil society:
"Since January of 1994, we have listened to your voice and we have felt your closeness and your support.
"We continue struggling to make arms useless. We continue searching for peaceful and civilian paths. We will not allow ourselves to be defeated by that which obliges us to take up arms.
"The government and its party say that they are legal, while they carry out violent actions, murder, imprison, and persecute. They say that we are illegal, but we have undertaken civil and peaceful actions.
"And we will do everything possible so that these civil and peaceful actions, and not war, will be that which constructs peace for the Mexican people...."
In the evening following the rally, the EZLN delegation returned to El Molino, where the Zapatistas danced and sang some more, packed their bags, said goodbye, and gave thanks once again to their generous hosts.
Early in the morning of September 18th, the original 36-vehicle Zapatista Caravan left Mexico City and began the return trip to Chiapas. Behind them, however, followed a new member of the caravan--a large truck filled with the 20 metric tons of donations, gifts, and food received by the EZLN delegation during their stay in the capital.
Although there was a minor traffic accident outside of Amozoc, Puebla involving three buses in the caravan--which resulted in a few broken windows, a broken leg, three broken noses, and many bruises--the caravan arrived intact in the city of Juchitan, Oaxaca at 10:00 p.m.
From there, the caravan continued through the night until arriving in San Cristobal de las Casas at 5:00 a.m. on September 19th, where they were welcomed home by an early morning crowd of 7,000 (according to official police estimates). After four hours of rest (and breakfast), the 7,000 marched with the 1,111 down the Pan-American Highway and into the center of the town, where they were greeted by more crowds and several comandantes representing the CCRI-CG of the EZLN.
On September 20th, the 1,111 Zapatistas were making their way back from San Cristobal to their own regions and communities; and by the next day, the parties and celebrations had already begun in the jungle and in the highlands. In La Realidad, 2,000 people gathered from all the surrounding villages to honor the 300 representatives of the southern jungle region who had returned at last.
The festivities lasted two days, and even brought the comandantes out to dance to the rhythms of the jungle cumbia. It was a true Zapatista fiesta, for Zapatista bases of support who had left their families and communities, and returned only after having made their voices heard, once again, in the center of the Mexican Nation.
*SPECIAL ZAPATISMO NEWS UPDATE* THE ZAPATISTA MARCH AND THE FOUNDING CONGRESS OF THE FZLN Part 1 of 2 October 9, 1997 A service of the Zapatista Front of National Liberation. Please redistribute. More information regarding the FZLN and the Zapatista struggle in Mexico can be found at: http://www.peak.org/~joshua/fzln (English) http://spin.com.mx/~floresu/FZLN (Spanish) This and previous news updates can also be found at: http://www.peak.org/~joshua/fzln/news.html Please send comments to: joshua@peak.org