EZLN

“ Just as we discovered a weapon in words after the combat in January of 1994, now we did it with silence. While the government offered everyone threats, death, and destruction, we were able to learn from ourselves, teach ourselves, and teach another form of struggle, and teach that with reason, truth and history, one could fight and win...through silence.
While the government handed out bribes and lied with economic supports to buy loyalties and break convictions, the Zapatistas made out of our dignified rejection of the powerful's charity, a wall which protected us and made us stronger. ”

“ Silence, dignity and resistance were our strengths and our best weapons. With them, we fought and defeated an enemy who is powerful, but whose cause lacks reason and justice. From our experience and from the long and shining history of indigenous struggle which we inherited from our ancestors, the first inhabitants of these lands, we picked up these weapons again and converted our silences into soldiers, our dignity into light, and our walls into resistance. ”

“ The time has now passed in which the war of the powerful has spoken, may it speak no more. It is now the time for peace to speak, the peace which we all deserve and need, the peace with justice and dignity. ”

“ No legislation which tries to shrink the Indian peoples by limiting their rights to the community level, thus promoting their fragmentation and their dispersal which will make their annihilation possible, can ensure peace and the inclusion in the Nation of the very first Mexicans. Any reform which tries to break the bonds of historical and cultural solidarity which exist among the indigenous peoples, is condemned to failure and is, simply, an injustice and an historical denial. ”

“ From the dead spoke our dead, the dead accused, the dead shouted, and in death they lived again. Our dead will die no more. These dead of ours, always ours, and of all those who struggle.
We saw dozens of our people confront thousands of modern weapons with hand and nail, we saw them taken prisoner, we saw them rise up with dignity and resist with dignity. ”

“ Mexico's indigenous peoples, and not just the Zapatistas, were represented at San Andrés. The accords are signed with all the indigenous peoples, and not just with the Zapatistas. For us, and for millions of indigenous and non-indigenous Mexicans, a law which does not fulfill the San Andrés Accords is only a pretense, a door to war, and a precedent for indigenous rebellions which, in the future, will come to collect payment on the bill which history so regularly presents to lies. ”

“ We call on the deputies and senators of the Republic from all the registered political parties, and on the independent congressional members, to legislate for the benefit of all Mexicans. That they govern by obeying. That they carry out their duty supporting peace and not war. Making the separation of powers effective, that they oblige the federal Executive to stop the war of extermination which it is carrying out against the indigenous populations of Mexico. ”

“ Reason has always been a weapon of resistance in front of the stupidity which now, but not for much longer, seems so overwhelming and omnipotent. Whether or not we Zapatistas are present, peace with justice and dignity is a right which honest Mexicans, indigenous or not, will continue to struggle for. ”

“ Mediation in the negotiation of a conflict is essential, without it it is not possible for dialogue to exist between two opposing sides. By destroying the National Intermediation Commission with their war, the government destroyed the only bridge that existed for dialogue. ”

“ Today, with the indigenous heart which is the dignified root of the Mexican nation, and having listened long enough to the voice of death which comes in the government's war, we call on the People of Mexico and on the men and women of the entire planet to unite their steps and their efforts with us in this stage of the struggle for liberty, democracy, and justice, through this... ”

“ From the money the powerful received applause, gold, and the order to eliminate those who speak mountains. "Let those who must die, die, thousands if necessary, but get rid of this problem," so spoke the money to the ear of he who says he governs. We saw that this proposal broke with that which had already been agreed, with our right to govern, and to govern ourselves as part of this Nation.
We saw that this proposal wants to break us into pieces, wants to take away our history, wants to erase our memory, and wants to forget the will of all the Indian peoples who joined together at San Andrés. ”

“ After a long struggle for democracy, led by the opposition political parties, there is, in the chambers of Deputies and Senators, a new relationship of forces which hampers the injustices inherent in presidentialism and points, with hope, to a true separation and independence of the powers of the Union. ”

“ Dialogue and negotiation will have relevance, viability, and effectiveness when, in addition to having mediation to count on, confidence and credibility are restored. Meanwhile, it can only be a farce in which we are not inclined to participate. We are not going to enter into dialogue for that. We will enter into it to seek peaceful solutions, not to gain time betting on political swindles. We cannot be accomplices in a sham. ”

“ A constitutional reform in matters of indigenous rights and culture should not be unilateral, it should incorporate the San Andrés Accords and in that way recognize the fundamental nature of the Indian people's demands: autonomy, territoriality, Indian peoples, normative regulations. ”

“ While the government baited with corrupt wealth and imposed hunger in order to force surrender and to conquer, the Zapatistas made our hunger into food, and our poverty into the wealth of dignity that we deserved and were entitled to. ”

“ The indigenous nature of the EZLN has been reinforced, and it continues to be an important driving force in the struggle for the rights of the Indian peoples. The indigenous peoples are national actors today, and their destinies and their platforms form part of the national discussion. The word of the first inhabitants of these lands now holds a special place in public opinion. The "indigenous" is no longer tourism or artisanry, but rather the struggle against poverty and for dignity. ”

“ We Zapatistas have extended a bridge to other social and political organizations, and to thousands of persons without a political party, and we have received respect from all of them, and we have corresponded with them all. And we have also, together with others, extended bridges to the entire world and we have contributed to the creation (alongside men and women of the 5 continents) of a great network which struggles through peaceful means against neoliberalism, and resists by fighting for a new and better world. ”

“ We saw the powerful refuse to honor its own word and send to the legislature a proposal for a law that does not resolve the demands of the very first of these lands, which distances peace, and which disappoints hopes for a just solution that would end the war. ”

“ The so-called "Cocopa law" is built on the foundation of what was produced by the Indian peoples from below, it recognizes a problem and sets the bases for its solution. It reflects another way of doing politics, that which aspires to make itself democratic. ”

“ To the workers, campesinos, teachers, students, housewives, neighbors, small business owners, small shopkeepers and businessmen, retired persons, disabled, priests and nuns, young people, women, elderly, homosexuals and lesbians, boys and girls, to, individually or collectively, participate directly with the Zapatistas in the promotion, support, and realization of this consultation, as one more step towards peace with justice and dignity. ”

“ It responds to a national demand for peace. It unites social sectors and allows them to continue forward in the agenda of the great national problems. For all of the above, today we reaffirm that we support the legal initiative drawn up by the Commission on Concordance and Pacification, and we demand that it be elevated to the constitutional level.
IV. - Dialogue and Negotiation, Possible Only if Real. Concerning dialogue and negotiation, we say that they have three great enemies which must be defeated so that they can be built on a path that is viable, effective and credible. ”

“ V. We Resist, We Continue Brothers and sisters: The EZLN as an organization has managed to survive one of the fiercest offensives which has been unleashed against it. Its military capacity is preserved intact, it has expanded its social base, and it has been strengthened politically by demonstrating the justice of its demands. ”