To the embassy of the Mexican Republic and the Government of Mexico:
To the Australia Government:
To the Australian media:
To the civil, solidarity and political organizations in Australia:
To the people of Australia:

COMMUNIQUE FROM AREAS OF ZAPATISTA SUPPORT IN MELBOURNE-BRISBANE-SYDNEY-PERTH, AUSTRALIA:

CONCERNING THE DECEMBER 22 MASSACRE OF INDIGENOUS REBELS IN CHIAPAS, MEXICO AND THE REPRESSION AGAINST THE ZAPATISTAS

"I have an older sister who was shot in Acteal. She was pregnant. When she died, I personally saw how they opened her stomach to cut out the baby. They also shot my sister-in-law and took her body into the ravine. I am worried and very sad because my sister and sister-in-law died. They weren't doing anything. They were innocent. I also have other family members among the 45 who were killed. The killers are PRI-ista groups who were armed and all of them, the paramilitaries, got away."
- Woman survivor of Acteal

Out of the terrifying numbness that shrouds life in our country there was the Christmas news of a mass murder in Mexico, that occurred on December 22 in the village of Acteal in the municipality of Chenalho in the state of Chiapas. The slaughter of 9 men, 21 women, 14 children and 1 infant was carried out by paramilitary groups linked to the ruling party and the state, and took place over the course of five hours and state police 200 metres away refused to intervene. All the victims were members of the civil group called "Las Abejas" (the Bees), sympathetic to the Zapatistas, and part of the rebel autonomous municipality.

We know that the massacre did not come from nowhere but out of the government and military campaign of repression and counterinsurgency against the Zapatista movement.

We know that the massacre was foreshadowed by this campaign, everyone knew it was on the cards, many in Mexico and beyond tried to stop it before it happened but many more did not want to know, or worse only wanted to know after it had happened, to manage it, to appropriate it, to fetishize it as "news." Like a version of Garcia Marquez' Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Chiapas' Archbishop Ruiz said: "It was a massacre long-announced." Even in the days beforehand, it was made known to the state authorities that something was going to happen... even as it was happening.

In the following days and weeks it has been reported here that officials of the local government were arrested for the crime and that the Interior Minister has been sacked.

We know that the Chiapas state government made explicit deals to fund the paramilitaries, including economic resources of 4,600,000 pesos ($US 450,000) to the paramilitary called "Paz y Justicia" prior to the 1997 federal elections. This is part of the extensive political-military plans of the Mexican government to "create paramilitary groups, displace the population, destroy the support bases of the EZLN", which have now be circulated and exposed to the world. Part of this strategy is "to censure the media, control the organizations of the masses, secretly co-opt civil sectors."

We know that in the following days and weeks the genocidal and "dirty war" prosecuted against the indigenous communities in rebellion in Chiapas has been intensified.

We know that from January 1st, incursions by the army into Zapatista communities has taken place under the pretext of confiscation of weapons and in violation of the Law of Reconcilitation governing the dialogue of the government and the EZLN. No such moves have been made against the weapons held by paramilitaries. It must be concluded that the harassment is aimed solely against the Zapatistas. It has involved the killing of civilians, destruction of crops, houses and communal property, and displacement of yet more people. Civil disobedience led by women has repelled the army on a number of occassions. Nongovernment groups have been disrupted from assisting the victims and refugees. The main city in the are of conflict, San Cristobal de las Casas, has a heavy military presence. There are threatening rumours and communiques directed at the Catholic diocese, the nongovernment organizations, and the press.

We are only too aware that the present objective of the government is the annhilation of the Zapatista and rebel civilian base. This is the context of the Mexican government's promotion of violence within communities in order to intensify repression.

We consider this massacre was an extraordinary moment in a war of counterinsurgency against the Zapatista and other sympathetic, autonomous movements in Chiapas. Extraordinary because it became known and because of its arrogance. That phase of the conflict began after the Mexican army offensive against the Zapatista Army of National Liberation in February 1995. More people have died in this "dirty war" than in the initial uprising of the EZLN in January 1994. The EZLN has been in "dialogue" with the government since Jan. 1994. Prior to the 1994 uprising the Zapatista struggle was built in clandestinity by the indigenous communities of Chiapas over 10 years.

We are able to reiterate what has been found in the Zapatistas investigation of the massacre of Acteal:

The massacre of Acteal was a massacre and was realized with perfidy, premeditation, and opportunity.

The motive is political, military, social and economic. It is an attempt to annihilate the indigenous rebels.

The intellectual authors can be found very high up, in the state and federal governments.

The 41 who have been detained [on charges of carrying out the massacre] are minor pieces of the complicated and bloody war machine against the Indian villages of Mexico. And the elimination of these minor pieces does not affect the function of the machine, they will merely be replaced.

To implement the replacement and to avoid the repetition of Acteal 97, the federal government is sending once again thousands of soldiers to Indian lands and millions of dollars to state authorities which have discovered that a war, above all, a dirty war, is a lucrative business.

Consequently:
To the Mexican Ambassador and the Mexican government we say:

ONE. We are part of the support network of the Zapatista movement that wraps itself around the planet. We will be taking part in actions denouncing the massacre and the repression in Brisbane on January 9 and in Melbourne on January 11. And then at later dates. We are half a planet away from this indigenous resistance but we are in the same world.

TWO. That the new spectre haunts you, despite the "military" success or failure of the repression. It is the spectre from below, of Zapatismo. It is shown in the rebel collectivity, the possibility of autonomy, democracy, liberty, justice. It is a new governability.

THREE. There have been at least 90 protests in 50 cities and towns in 13 countries on 4 continents concerning the massacre and escalation in Chiapas (mainly in North American and Europe). These events have directly involved upwards of 10,000 people. These have been marches, demonstrations, vigils, occupations. There has been leafletting, "guerrilla" broadcasts (ie. occuaption of radio stations) and internet circulation. This refers to action outside of the de facto mass media and information blockade, and thus not "managed" by it.

FOUR. Honour the San Andreas Accords on Indigenous Rights and Culture

FIVE. Demilitarize the indigenous communities in Chiapas and elsewhere in Mexico. Disband the paramilitaries.

SIX. Allow an independent international investigation into the Chenalho massacre.

SEVEN. Fully disclose all the paramilitary groups involved in the massacre. Stop all state and federal funding, training and equipping of paramilitary groups, and put an end to their impunity.

To the civil, political and solidarity organizations of Australia and to the people of Australia we say:

ONE. Must there only be silence? Must there only be moments of debilitating, cruel spectacle to punctuate it? And is this not violence? Must there only be paralysis when we are asked to act? Must there only be guilt, denial, trauma when we fail to? Must there only be rage and frustration?

Can there be dignity? Or only "pacification"?

TWO. What has happened in Chiapas and what is happening parallels the logic of counterinsurgency in our region and even in our country: the "dirty war" on Bougainville, the massacres in East Timor, the criminalization of Aboriginal and ethnic communities and of young people...

The Zapatistas have always made their struggle in the indigenous communities part of a universal struggle for freedom, democracy and justice that takes many different forms.

In Mexico a lot of the militarization and paramilitarization has occurred under the pretext of the "war on drugs", most of the so-called "social spending" goes on roads and infrastructure for the military and oil and gas exploration and weapons to kill the Zapatistas.

The "managers" of killing, money, faded hopes, truth... they need people to carry out their crimes for them. The men in suits need the men in blood and uniforms.

THREE. For all those killed in this massacre (or any massacre), there are more that have died quietly or suddenly or invisibly. In Chiapas there have been reports of deaths at the hands of paramilitaries or economic blockade every week. Death like a blip on a computer screen. The massacre is not an aberration, it is a blitzkrieg.

FOUR. Please write letters, faxes, emails or phone the Mexican Ambassador and/or the Mexican president to demand:

the demilitarization of Chiapas by removing the army and disbanding of the paramilitary groups

the honouring of the San Andreas Accords on Indigenous Rights and Culture (a treaty signed between the government and the EZLN in 1996 and later reneged by the government)

an independent international investigation into the Chenalho massacre

compensation for the destruction of property of indigenous communities by the army, the paramilitaries and the police

Lic. Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon
Presidente de la Republica Mexicana
Domicilio Oficial de los Pinos
11850 Mexico DF MEXICO
fax. 0011-52-5-277-2376 or 0011-52-5-515-1794
email: webadmon@op.presidencia.gob.mx

Ambassador of Mexico in Australia
14 Perth Ave, Yaralumla ACT
fax. 06 273 1190
ph. 06 273 3963

Or send these to us are we'll pass them on.

FIVE. Please send humanitarian aid to the displaced communities (internal refugees) in Chiapas. Money can be sent to:

Caritas de San Cristobal de las Casas, A.C.
Account no. 055249 Cuerta Maestro (Master Account)
Banamex, branch no. 0386, San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico

SIX. Please circulate the information in this communique in your organization's newsletters, among your networks, or in other ways that you think will inform or interest people.

SEVEN. If you are going to Mexico or Chiapas, tread the tourist trail carefully, look at the great ruins of the Aztec and Maya carefully, they may weep blood.

To the Australian government we say:

ONE. The more you look greedily at NAFTA and free trade, remember Mexico: the real Mexico, struggling from below, posing the potentiality of democracy, justice, autonomy, a new type of revolution. Remember that the crisis in Asia, which threatens to become a complete unmanageability, reverberates a hundredfold the Mexican financial and economic crisis of 1994-95.

TWO. Press the Mexican government TO HALT THE ESCALATION OF THE MILITARY PRESSURE ON THE ZAPATISTAS: and thus, press for demilitarization of the indigenous communities, exposure and disbanding of the paramilitaries, and honouring of the San Andreas Accords.

Finally and above all, to the communities and organizations in resistance in Chiapas we say:

We express our sadness and mourning for those killed in the massacre of December 22, and for the compan~eros murdered before and since. We know the war is far from over. There are more and more people here in Australia that know about your struggle and are inspired by it. We have not forgotten. We have a long struggle ahead of us that is part of your struggle: to break the blockade of silence and misinformation, to dissolve the pall of numbness over our lives and conscience (that feeds the insanity and exhaustion of our "first world").

Say hi to any Australians in the peace camps or civil organizations from us!

Democracy! Liberty! Justice!

From the cities of the Antipodes

contact: Zapatistas Solidarity Collective (Melbourne):
email zap@xchange.anarki.net
post: PO Box 1006, Brunswick Mail Centre, Brunswick VIC 3056

Brisbane Zapatista Front
email: dainishi@thehub.com.au
PO Box 5208 West End, Bris Qld Australia 4101

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