Zapatistas: Government Kidnapped Defenders Against Highway Destruction

To the Nation­al and Inter­na­tion­al Sixth

To the Peo­ples of the World

Today once again, our broth­ers and sis­ters of the Ñatho Indige­nous Com­mu­ni­ty of San Fran­cis­co Xochicuaut­la have defend­ed their ter­ri­to­ry against the destruc­tion and vora­cious ambi­tion of those above who want to impose their high­way project at any cost and in vio­la­tion of Mex­i­can and inter­na­tion­al law.

Not con­tent with hav­ing laid waste to the forests, the bad gov­ern­ments of Enrique Peña Nieto and Eru­viel Ávi­la Vil­le­gas have kid­napped our sis­ters Feli­pa Gutiér­rez Petra (67 years old), Rosa Saave­dra Men­doza (54 years old), and Fran­cis­ca Reyes Flo­res (28 years old), and our broth­ers Arman­do Gar­cía Salazar (50 years old), Venan­cio Hernán­dez Ramírez (57 years old), Domin­go Hernán­dez Ramírez (57 years old), Mauri­cio Reyes Flo­res (28 years old) and Jerón­i­mo Flo­res Arceli­no (73 years old).

We warn those above, in case they have for­got­ten, that as peo­ples and com­mu­ni­ties who have walked a long jour­ney of resis­tance in defense of what we are, what we were, and what we will be, we will not tire of plant­i­ng rebel­lion where they cut the flow­ers, oaks, and firs; we will not tire of build­ing resis­tance where they impose the machin­ery of destruc­tion.

The roots of Xochicuaut­la and the oth­er orig­i­nary peo­ples and indige­nous com­mu­ni­ties reach deep into our hills and coun­try­sides, far deep­er than their high­ways, and they are far stronger than attempts to uproot us from this Mex­i­co that today cries for its young peo­ple, mur­dered and dis­ap­peared by the Bad Gov­ern­ment.

This gov­ern­ment, which is not sati­at­ed by fill­ing the pris­ons with rebel­lious men, women, chil­dren, and elder­ly, has again tak­en by force the free­dom of indige­nous broth­ers and sis­ters. They have done this to our Yaqui broth­ers and our Nahua broth­ers from the vol­cano region, and to so many oth­ers whose pain we also share. To all of these broth­ers and sis­ters we want to say that we walk in the same strug­gle, as peo­ples and com­mu­ni­ties who call our­selves the Nation­al Indige­nous Con­gress.

And to the deaf ears of the bad gov­ern­ments, we say that we know they are scared. They demon­strat­ed this with the 500 riot cops and police heli­copters they brought today to Xochicuaut­la, where next Decem­ber we as indige­nous peo­ples and com­mu­ni­ties will con­verge to share our rebel­lion, our strug­gle, and our seeds of resis­tance.

Their pain is our pain, their rage is our rage!

Novem­ber 3, 2014.

Nev­er Again a Mex­i­co With­out Us

Nation­al Indige­nous Con­gress

Indige­nous Rev­o­lu­tion­ary Clan­des­tine Committee—General Com­mand of the Zap­atista Army for Nation­al Lib­er­a­tion.