Sub-Commander Marcos’ letter to the people of the U.S.

Posted by pleaseexplain on April 10th, 2007

I’m a Zapatista at heart. This an old letter(1995), but it’s interesting and might be more correct and close to the truth than one realizes. Have a look.

September 13, 1995

The U.S. government has been wrong more than once in regards to its foreign policy. When this has occurred it is due to the fact it is making a mistake as to the man it ought to be backing up. History is not lacking in this type of examples. In the first half of this decade, the U.S. government made a mistake backing Carlos Salinas de Gortari. It made a mistake signing a NAFTA which lacked a majority support from the North American people and which meant an order of summary execution against the Mexican Indigenous people.

On the dawn of 1994 we rose up in arms. We rose up not seeking power, not responding to a foreign order. We rose up to say “here we are.” The Mexican government, our government, had forgotten us and was ready to perpetrate a genocyde without bullets or bombs, it was ready to annihilate us with the quiet death of sickness, of misery, of oblivion. The U.S. government became the accomplice of the Mexican government in this genocide.

With the signing of NAFTA, the U.S. government acted as guarantor of and gave its blessing to the murder of millions of mexicans. Did the people of the U.S. know this? Did it know that its government was signing accords of massive extermination in Mexico? Did the people of the U.S. know that his government was backing a criminal? That man is gone. We remained. Our demands had not been solved and our arms kept saying “here we are” to the new government, to the people of Mexico, to the people and governnments of the world. We waited patiently for the new government to listen to us and pay attention to us. But, within the dark circles of U.S.power someone decided that we, the insurgent Indigenous people of the Mexican South East, were the worst threat to the United States of America. From the darkness came the order: Finish them up!

They put a price on our brown skin, on our culture, on our word, because, above all they put a price on our uprising. The U.S. government decided, once more, to back a man, someone who continues with the politics of deceit of his predecessor, someone who denies the people of Mexico democracy, freedom and justice. Millions of dollars were lent to that man and his government. Without the approval of the American people, an enormous loan, without precedent in history, was granted to the Mexican government. Not to improve the living conditions of the people, not for the democratization of the country’s poltical life, not for the economic reactivation promoting factories and productive projects. This money is for speculation, for corruption, for simulation, for the anihilation of a group of rebels, Indians for the most part, poorly armed, poorly nourished, ill equipped, but very dignified, very rebellious, and very human.

So much money to finance deceit can onnly be explained by fear. But, what does the U.S. government fear?Truth? That the North American people realize that their money is hlping to back the oldest dictatorship in the modern world? That the Nort American peopple realize that their taxes pay for the persecution and death of the Mexican Indian population? What is the North American people afraid of? Ought the people of North America fear our wooden rifles, our bare feet, our exhausted bodies, our language, our culture? Ought the North American people fear our scream in demand of democracy,liberty, and justice? Aren’t these three truths the foundation which brought forth the birth of the United States of America? Aren’t democracy, libertu, and justice rights that belong to all human beings?

How many millions of dollars justify that one may deny, to any human being, anywhere in the world, his right to be free in the thoughts that bring about words and actions, free to give and receive that which he justly deserves, to freely elect those who govern him and enforce the collective goals? Should the North American people on the other hand fear money, modern weapons,the sophysitcated technology of drug-trafficking? Should the North American people fear the complicity between drug-trafficking and governnments? Should the North American people fear the consequences of the single party dictatorship in Mexico? Should it fear the violence that the lack of freedom, democracy and justice usually brings about irrevocably?

Today, the American government, which for decades prided itself in promoting democracy in the world is the main support of a dictatorship which, born at the beginning of the XXth Century, pretends to end this century with the same lie, governing against the will oof the Mexican people. Sooner or later, in spite of the support of the U.S. government, in spite of the millions of dollars, in spite of the tons of lies, the dictatorship that darkens the Mexican sky will be erased. The people of Mexico will find the ways to achieve the democracy,liberty and justice that is their historical right.

Americans: The attacks againnst the Mexican nation brought about by political U.S. personalities have been big and numerous. In their analysis they point out the awkwardness and corruption of the Mexican government (an awkwardness and corruption which have increased and are maintained under the shadow of the U.S. government’s support) and they identify them with an entire people who take shelter under the Mexican flag. They are wrong.

Mexico is not a government. Mexico is a nation which aspires to be sovereign and independent, and in order to be that must liberate itself from a dictatorship and raise on its soil the universal flag of democracy, liberty and justice. Fomenting racism, fear and insecurity, the great personalities of U.S. politics offer economic support to the Mexican government so that it controls by violent means the discontent against the economic situation. They offer to multiply the absurd walls with which they pretend to put a stop to the search for life which drives millions of Mexicans to cross the northern border.

The best wall against massive immigration to the U.S. is a free, just, and democratic regime in Mexicoo. If Mexiicans could find in their own land what now is denied them, they would not be forced to look for work in other countries. By supporting the dictatorship of the state party system in Mexico, whatever the name of the man or the party, the North American people are supporting an uncertain and anguishing future. By supporting the people of Mexico in their aspirations for democracy, liberty and justice, the North American people honor their history…and their human condition.

Today, in 1995 and after 20 years and tens of thousands of dead and wounded, the American government recognizes that it made a mistake getting involved in the Vietnam war. Today, in 1995, the U.S. government has begun to get involved in the Mexican government’s dirty war against the Zapatista population. War material support, military advisors, undercover actions, electronic espionage, financing, diplomaticc support, activities of the CIA. Little by little, the U.S. government is beginning to get involved in an unequal war condemned to failure for those who are carrying it on, the Mexican government. Today, in 1995 and 20 years before 2015, it is possible to stop and not to repeat the error of other years. It is not necessary to wait until 2015 for the U.S. government to recognize that it was an error to get involved in the war against the Mexican people.

It is time for the people of the U.S. to keep its historical compromise with respect to its neighbor to the South. To no longer make a mistake as to which man to support. To support not a man but a peoople, the Mexican people in its struggle for democracy, liberty and justice. History will signal, implacable, on which side were the people and the government of the U.S. On the side of dictatorship, of a man, of reactionarism, or on the side of democracy, of a people, of progress.

Health and long life to the people of the United States of America

From the Mexican South East
Subcommander Insurgent Marcos
Mexico, September 13, 1995
(20 years before…)

Originally appeared in “La Jornada” (10-7-95)