>Compañeras and compañeros
>
>
>
> Today at 13:49, time zone of the
>southeastern combat zone, Comandante Felipe, of
>the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous
>Committee (Comité Clandestino Revolucionario
>Indígena – CCRI) of the Zapatista Army of
>National Liberation, inaugurated the First
>Encounter Between the Zapatistas and the Peoples
>of the World, with the presence of over one
>thousand people from 40 countries of the world
>and approximately 2,000 zapatistas from
>communities in the tzotzil region.
>
>
>
> “We sincerely hope that this first
>Encounter becomes, for us and for all the
>peoples of Mexico and the world, the beginning
>of a true path to exchange and share experiences
>in struggle and organization, in order to unite
>the struggles of all peoples before a common
>enemy, respecting each other independently of
>our ideas, ways, and methods,” said Comandante
>Felipe before hundreds of solidarity
>collectives, women’s groups, human rights
>organizations, student committees, neighborhood
>educational projects, groups of Mexicans and
>Chicanos from the US, young anarchists,
>“libertarios” and punks, experiments with
>autonomous resistance and peasant associations,
>among many more present at the Oventik Caracol.
>
>
>
> In an unprecedented event in the
>EZLN’s 13 years of public struggle, 232
>authorities from the various levels of the
>Zapatista Autonomous Municipalities in Rebelion
>(Municipios Autónomos Rebeldes Zapatistas –
>MAREZ) and the five Good Government Councils
>(civilian structures of the autonomous
>government in resistance) got together to launch
>the Encounter, during which they will share the
>construction of their autonomy in the areas of
>health, education, commerce, gender, land
>recovery, media, art, and culture. And they will
>listen to experiences in struggle and resistance
>against neoliberalism from other peoples of the
>world. Also present at the encounter was
>Teniente Coronel Insurgente Moisés, from the
>EZLN’s Intergalactic Commission.
>
>
>
> By 11:00 AM there were 1,042 people
>at the Oventik Caracol, from 40 countries in
>four continents. From America, there were
>collectives and individuals from 18 countries:
>Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile,
>Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, United States,
>Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay,
>Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
>
>
>
> From Europe there were compañeros
>and compañeras from 19 countries: Germany,
>Austria, Belgium, Catalonia, Denmark, Spain,
>Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Norway, Basque
>Countries, Poland, United Kingdom, Czech
>Republic, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and
>Ukraine. From Asia, there were people present
>from Israel, and from Oceania there were
>brothers and sisters from Australia and New
>Zealand.
>
>
>
> “Today we begin to listen to each
>other to see how we resist the bad governments
>and build alternatives for a world where those
>who command, do it by obeying,” said Oventik’s
>Good Government Council, in its role as the
>Encounter’s host.
>
>
>
> “This is our struggle, yours and
>ours, because everywhere there is poverty,
>misery, ignorance, marginalization, and
>exploitation. All the peoples of the world
>suffer these problems, that’s why we continue
>struggling to achieve the just demands of
>indigenous peoples,” said the autonomous
>authority.
>
>
>
> The Encounter inaugurated this
>afternoon with the topic Autonomy and
>Self-government. On the 31st there will be three
>workgroups: health, education, and women. On
>January 1, the topics will be communication, art
>and culture, commerce, and land defense, and,
>finally, on January 2 the encounter will close
>with a discussion on the preparations for the
>Intergalactic Encounter.
>
>
>
> At the time of this report, hundreds
>of men and women continue arriving from Mexico
>and many countries of the world.
>