For over 500 years, we Indian peoples of Mexico have suffered marginalisation,
poverty, discrimination, exclusion and contempt for the cultural forms of our
social and communal life. All through this period, there has been an attempt to
convince us that our problems are the consequence of our cultural level. But now
we are aware of the real situation, that what we, the Indian peoples, are
subjected to, is a direct result of the fact that we have been excluded from
power, from the possibility of taking part in the national decisions which
concern the whole country - the regions, the municipalities and the communities
where we live. So this is not a problem created by our culture but by the
absence of a political power which acts for our people. However power is
divided, the Indians are always excluded.
The problem of the Indian peoples of Mexico will not be solved by the adoption
of economic and social programs or projects alone. The experience of the past
five centuries has clearly taught us that unless these programs rely on the
participation of the indigenous peoples working under their own authority, on
the basis of their own conceptions and equipped with sufficient power, they do
not offer a far-reaching and enduring solution to marginalisation and poverty.
Deprived of power, the partial and unarticulated programs that the government is
proposing have no positive effect.
Our historic experience is one of deprivation. We have been deprived of our
territories and resources, of our land, of our own forms of social organisation
and often of our language, clothes, celebrations and ceremonies. They wanted to
strip us of our roots and identity; they even want to strip us of the whole
future of our society, groups, and peoples. Throughout this painful process, all
right to participate in the political and national power structures has been
taken away from us. This despoilment is accompanied by imposition: the
imposition of authority of forms of organisation, of methods of exploiting and
working the land, on health care and education. We have had government programs
brutally imposed upon us, in a way that is both crushing and disrespectful of
our dignity.
No single solution to change our situation exists: society and the national
structure must be transformed, which implies our full participation in decision
making and the exercising of political power. We want to be masters of the
affairs that concern our communities and peoples, but also to participate in the
political, economic, social and cultural life of our regions, states and the
whole country.
The present political system and organisation of the state (centralised,
intolerant, authoritarian, normalised and refusing pluralism) must be replaced
by an autonomous state which makes it possible to respect pluralism and opens
the door to the Indian peoples' participation in the definition of a country for
everyone.
The autonomy that we demand is not a new system of exclusion. It subscribes to
the deep hope of the majority of Mexicans who want democracy, justice and
liberty. In fact autonomy is the Indian peoples' way of enabling accession to a
democratic life for the first time in modern history; it is also their
contribution to the construction of a more democratic, more just and more humane
national society. From this point of view, our fundamental claim for autonomy
identifies with the aspirations of all the Mexicans who are not Indian, towards
a new society.
Our fundamental project for autonomy does not exclude the regions or zones where
different cultures live together. For these regions, where different
socio-cultural groups live together, the possibility of living freely together
in unity, diversity, equality and mutual respect is proposed. This signifies
establishing multicultural and multi-ethnic regions.
Our project of autonomy has a national character: it does not deny or reject the
unity that the collective of Mexicans have constructed throughout their history.
We want to find a solution for all within a single Mexican nation. But we think
that the political, social and economic regime imposed by a restricted elite
weakens our national unity - it excludes the majority, misunderstands our roots,
marginalises the underprivileged and divides the people. Our project for
autonomy has nothing to do with separatism, which is for us, the Indian people,
a sterile idea. By autonomy we mean to feel and live as authentic Mexicans, an
active part of a living nation which is ours.
Our project for autonomy is also national in that its implementation will
contribute to making our country a great democratic society, more just and
prosperous for everyone; a Mexico than can be home to everyone. For as long as
the numerous Indian peoples remain excluded, there can not be democracy in
Mexico.
For the Indian peoples, autonomy is something profound. It is an age-old
aspiration which is part of the daily life of the communities, of their forms of
organisation and production, of time and resource utilisation, the practice of
our beliefs, our choice of authority and our method of respect and being
respected. Autonomy is the base of our system of life. Our fundamental plan is
aimed at transforming these practicalities and ways of life into constituent
elements of the political system of the country, which transforms a de facto
autonomy into a de jure autonomy.
But not an autonomy of life on a reservation! We do not want to become isolated
from the rest of the country, or see our realms of self-determination reduced,
whilst the government finds ways of further isolating or separating us from our
Mexican brothers who, like us, fight for democracy, justice and liberty. The
community is the base of autonomy but autonomy goes beyond in enforcing the
unification of the peoples governed by their own regional governments.
We have clear ideas about the inalienable objectives of our great plan for
autonomy. We want to establish specific regional governments which will regroup
autonomously at a municipal and community level; we want to create autonomous
regions where the civil, cultural, political and social rights of the people are
respected; we want autonomous regions where the people, represented by their
autonomous governments, are concerned with solving the multiple social and
economic problems of the communities and regions; by means of our own
representatives we want to take part in the political institutions of federal
entities, in which our autonomous regions must be located, and likewise in the
national and political representations; in short, we really want to participate,
by means of our own autonomous organs within Mexican society.
The autonomy plan has still not been defined in detail. Its concrete definition
must come about through the thoughts and commitment of the different peoples. We
know that in other countries, the Indian peoples who have attained autonomy have
established the kind of autonomy which suited them. This ``process of autonomy''
presupposes discussion and agreement. All the Indian people of Mexico must take
part in this discussion in order to establish a form of autonomy which will suit
us. We formally declare to Mexico that the process of autonomy has opened,
launching this vast debate that we want to fuel the whole country.
We have to discuss and analyse the rights and duties that will be included in
our autonomy, the method in which we intend to organise our autonomous
governments, the way of electing these regional authorities and the methods that
will be used to solve the problems of our people. At the same time we have to
have more in depth discussions to further accelerate the definition of the
territories and of the communities and municipalities that we want to bring
together in each specific territory.
The plan for autonomy does not have a place in the present legal system and
territorial organisation of the country. A new political and juridical system
has to be established to provide a place for civil rights and the autonomy of
the Indian nations.
Our constitution must be modified too. All the articles which overlook us
Indians or prevent our participation as peoples must be abolished. We must adopt
a constitution which fully recognises us as peoples and recognises our right to
satisfy our needs (in particular recognising our territories and lands) to live
in well-being and with dignity; to recognise our right to govern ourselves in
new forms at a national level, adopted democratically by everyone. A
constitution which not only acknowledges our autonomous governments (regional,
municipal and communal) as legitimate, but which also guarantees the necessary
resources for regional development defined and established by the people.
We the Indian peoples have offered our blood and sacrifices to the construction
of this nation in the course of its history. In the course of our heroic history
we found ourselves in the front line. Our brothers the Mayas of Chiapas now
offer themselves in the sacrifice to build democracy, justice and liberty in
Mexico. They have given the most dramatic example. But up and down the country,
silently from day to day, the Indian peoples carry the sacrifice of their dead
in the struggle for democracy, land and freedom.
[From International Viewpoint.]
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Chiapas
Get the Mexican federal army troops out of Chiapas or allow negotiations to take
place in Mexico City, said a Zapatista National Liberation Army indian spokesman
who refused to give his name. The presence of the military in the Chiapas
highlands, the Zapatista said, cancels the possibility to negotiate in
reasonable and secure conditions. According to the law passed by the Mexican
Congress approximately three weeks ago, negotiations should begin before April
10, or else the government would agains seek to enforce the warrents for the
arrest of suspected Zaptista leaders, which means that the federal army would
enter into the forest to search for them. The Zaptista official interviewed by
La Jornada Monday said that they are not afraid of this threat.
The Mexican movement in solidarity with the Chiapas indians wants people to
demand from the Mexican
government to accept that talks take place in Mexico City, or withdraw troops
from Chiapas, or both.
Members of the legislative Commission for Peace, or Cocopa, interviewed by La
Jornada Monday said that they plan to study whether to postpone the dateline
when the warrents for the arrest of Zapatista leaders would again come into
effect.
According to a journalista of La Jornada, several university studies show that
the towns proposed by the Cocopa to
host negotiations between the EZLN and the government would tend to favor the
government. In the concerned towns, indians are marginalized and ranchers have
the upper hand.
Approximately 300 indians demonstrated in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, to demand
respect for their right to land and support the Zapatista struggle in Mexico,
according to an article published by La Jornada Tuesday taken from an
AFP cable.
Source: PNEWS
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