Subject: [zapatista email group] Marcos announces some changes

Originally published in Spanish by the CCRI-CG of the EZLN
and the Rebel Zapatista Autonomous Municipalities of Chiapas
Translated by irlandesa

July 19, 2003.
To the People of Mexico:
To the Peoples of the World:
Brothers and Sisters:
This is our word:
FIRST. - The globalization of power has demonstrated throughout the world that it has entered its most aggressive stage by making military war its primary weapon of domination. Nonetheless, the attack against the people of Iraq not only bore witness to globalization's true destructive nature, but it also provoked the greatest worldwide condemnation in the history of humanity. Despite the fallen statues, worldwide resistance and rebellion have been maintained and are growing. The zapatista rebellion is just one small part of the great demonstration of human dignity throughout the planet.
SECOND. - In our country, the Mexican political class (which includes all registered political parties and the three branches of the Union) betrayed the hope of millions of Mexicans, and of thousands of persons from other countries, of seeing the rights and culture of the Indian peoples of Mexico constitutionally recognized. A short time ago, Mexican politicians, completely distanced from reality, gave an excellent demonstration of their unlimited capacity for the ridiculous, by holding one of the most comical election campaigns in Mexican history. The high absenteeism in the July 6 elections was a popular reaction which they are still refusing to recognize.
THIRD. - In response to all of this, the EZLN has decided to completely suspend any contact with the Mexican federal government and the political parties, and the zapatista peoples have reaffirmed that resistance is their primary means of struggle. In both communiqués which were released by members of the CCRI-CG of the EZLN this January 1 in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, we zapatistas reiterated our status as rebels. We also announced that, despite the stupidity and blindness of Mexican politicians, the so-called "San Andres Accords on Indigenous Rights and Culture" (signed by the federal government and the EZLN on February 16, 1996 and expressed in the so-called "Cocopa Law") will be put into practice in rebel territories.
FOURTH. - On that occasion, we zapatistas also reiterated our right to express solidarity with the just struggles of the people of Mexico and of the world. This was in response to those who demanded that we limit ourselves to the indigenous issue in Mexico. We expressed our support, at the world level, for Venezuelan sovereignty, for the people of Iraq and for all those struggles in resistance against the power of money. We expressed our support in Mexico for those primarily indigenous brothers and sisters who are resisting throughout the country.
FIFTH. - Over these last few months, the indigenous zapatista peoples and rebels organized in the EZLN have prepared a series of changes, which have to do with their internal functioning and their relationship with national and international civil society, and they are ready to make them public.
SIXTH. - In order to announce and explain these changes, 30 zapatista Autonomous Municipalities have asked the CCRI-CG of the EZLN to have Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos carry out, in addition to his work as spokesperson of the EZLN, the duties of spokesperson for the Autonomous Municipalities, although just temporarily. In accordance with this, today and in the coming days, both documents will be made public, signed by Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos in the name of the CCRI-CG of the EZLN and of the Rebel Zapatista Autonomous Municipalities.
SEVENTH. - To those brothers and sisters, in Mexico and throughout the world, who have had relationships regarding projects or correspondence with the rebel zapatista Autonomous Municipalities, and to those, in Mexico and throughout the world, who have addressed the EZLN to request our word and/or participation in different international initiatives against the globalization of power, we are asking for your patience and understanding. Until such time as these changes are announced and have become operative, we shall not be able to give them the attention they deserve.
That is all...for now.
Democracy!
Liberty!
Justice!

By the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee - Comandancia General of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation.
By the Rebel Zapatista Autonomous Municipalities of Chiapas.
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
Mexico, July of 2003.