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http://www.zmag.org/chiapas1/ezback2.htm

                             The EZLN is back:
                          The November Communiques

                         A Letter to Ernesto Zedillo

                           by Subcomandante Marcos

                              November 2, 2000

     Zapatista Army of National Liberation.
     Mexico.
     November of 2000.

     To Senor Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon.

     Enroute to nowhere.
     Planet Earth.

     Senor Zedillo:

     Six years ago I wrote to you in the name of all zapatistas,
     welcoming the nightmare. Many now think we were right. Throughout
     this administration, your term of office has been a long nightmare
     for millions of Mexican men and women: assassinations, economic
     crises, massive impoverishment, the illicit and brutal enrichment
     of a few, the selling off of the national sovereignty, public
     insecurity, the strengthening of ties between the government and
     organized crime, corruption, irresponsibility, war...and bad jokes
     badly told.

     Throughout your administration you have striven to destroy the
     indigenous who rose up in defiance of everything that you
     represent. You strove to destroy them.

     When you came to power you were free to choose how to confront the
     zapatista uprising. What you chose and what you did is now
     history. In your role as Commander-in-Chief of the federal army -
     and with all the power given to the head of the Executive - you
     could have chosen the path of dialogue and negotiation. You could
     have given signals of de'tente. You could have carried out what
     you signed in San Andre's. You could have reached peace.

     You did not do so.

     You chose, rather, the double strategy of feigning a willingness
     to dialogue and of continuing the path of violence. In order to
     achieve that, you tried to repeat the history of the Chinameca
     betrayal (February 9, 1995), you squandered thousands of millions
     of pesos trying to buy the consciences of the rebels. You
     militarized the indigenous communities (and not just in Chiapas).
     You expelled international observers. You trained, equipped, armed
     and financed paramilitaries. You persecuted, jailed and summarily
     executed zapatistas (remember Unio'n Progreso, June 10, 1998) and
     non-zapatistas. You destroyed the social fabric of the chiapaneco
     countryside. And, following the slogan of your putative child, the
     Red Mask paramilitary group ("We will kill the zapatista seed"),
     you ordered the massacre of children and pregnant women in Acteal
     on December 22, 1997.

     We could understand why, being able to follow the path of
     dialogue, you opted to make war against us. It could have been
     because they sold you the idea that you could take us prisoners,
     that you could defeat us militarily, that you could achieve our
     surrender, that you could buy us, that you could deceive us, that
     you could make the Mexicans forget us and our struggle, that you
     could make people from other countries give up their solidarity
     with the indigenous cause. In short, that you could win the war
     against us. That we could understand.

     But, Se~or Zedillo, why Acteal?

     Why did you order the assassination of children?

     Why did you order your henchmen to finish pregnant women off with
     machetes who, wounded or terrified, were unable to escape the
     massacre?

     What, in fact, did you not do in order to finish off the
     zapatistas?

     But were they finished off? They slipped through your ambush of
     February 9, 1995. They rebelled once more against your failure to
     fulfill the San Andre's Accords. They escaped from your military
     siege as often as they wanted. They resisted your ferocious
     offensive, directed by the 'croquetas' Albores, against the
     Autonomous Municipalities. Over and over again they demonstrated
     with mobilizations that their demands had the support of millions
     of Mexicans. No, the zapatistas were not finished off.

     And not only were they not finished off. In addition, they spread
     throughout the world. Do you remember the times that you had to
     leave, surreptitiously, through emergency exits, events being held
     in other countries, while zapatista solidarity committees were
     protesting your Chiapas policies? Is there any ambassador or
     consul who has not reported to you with desperation the actions
     carried out by international zapatistas at Mexican government
     events and buildings abroad? How often was your foreign affairs
     service estranged because of the failure to carry out the San
     Andre's Accords, for the militarization of Chiapas and the lack of
     dialogue with the zapatistas? And, when you ordered the expulsion
     of hundreds of international observers, did solidarity actions
     throughout the world diminish?

     And what do you have to say to me about Mexico? Instead of
     remaining "limited to 4 chiapaneco municipalities," zapatismo
     spread to the 32 states of the federation. It became worker,
     campesino, indigenous, teacher, student, employee, driver,
     fisherman, rocker, painter, actor, writer, nun, priest, sportsman,
     housewife, neighbor, independent unionist, homosexual, lesbian,
     transsexual, soldier, sailor, small and medium-sized business
     owner, street vendor, handicapped person, retiree, pensioner,
     people.

     Such were these 6 years, Se~or Zedillo. Being able to choose
     between peace and war, you opted for war. The results of this
     election are obvious: you lost the war.

     You did everything you could to destroy us.

     We simply resisted.

     You are going into exile.

     We will still be here.

     Se~or Zedillo: You came to power through a crime which still
     continues unpunished. And your administration has been filled with
     unpunished crimes. In addition to carrying forward the
     privatization policies of your predecessor (and now open enemy),
     Salinas de Gortari, you disguised as law that other crime which is
     called FOBAPROA-IPAB, which involves not just poor Mexicans
     "rescuing" the rich and making them richer, but also causing that
     heavy burden to affect several future generations.

     For more than 70 million Mexicans, the country's purported
     economic solidity has meant poverty and unemployment. While you
     have been scrupulously attending to the invasion of foreign
     capital, medium and small businesses were disappearing in the
     national market. During your term of office, the borders which
     divide government and organized crime were erased, and the
     continuous scandals caused serious problems in the press: it was
     impossible to deduce which news stories belonged in the political
     section and which in the crime blotter: "suicides," former
     governors on the run, prosperous businessmen who were "only"
     tortured, police officers "specialized" in fighting organized
     crime taking over universities.

     Today, the same as your predecessor, you are leaving with those
     who worshipped you, served you, and who served themselves, having
     now become your worst enemies, prepared to pursue you. And so,
     Se~or Zedillo, you will know, beginning tomorrow, what it is to
     be pursued day and night. And it will not last for only 6 years.
     Because, beginning tomorrow, the line will be very long of those
     who want to make you pay for what you owe them and for insults.

     It is clear that we were right when, 6 years ago, the zapatistas
     told you welcome to the nightmare. But, now that you are going, is
     it over yet?

     Yes and no.

     Because, for us, the nightmare with you is ending today. Another
     could follow it, or the dawn could finally appear, we do not know,
     we shall do everything possible so that it will be the morning
     which flourishes. But for you, Se~or Zedillo, the nightmare will
     only continue... Vale.

     Salud, and it does not matter where you hide, there will be
     zapatistas there as well.

     From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast. Subcomandante
     Insurgente Marcos. Mexico, November of 2000.

     PS - By the way, before I forget: a year ago, in September of
     1999, you sent us an open letter through your Secretary of
     Government (and current candidate for the presidency of the PRI).
     I believe the letter was called "One More Step To the Abyss," "A
     More Ignominious Step," "A More Cynical Step", or something like
     that. In it, only 3 years late, your government was supposedly
     responding, with lies, to the conditions which we had set for the
     renewal of dialogue in September of 1996! The open letter was an
     attempt, more than deceiving us, of tricking national and
     international opinion. Something which it certainly did not
     achieve. Whatever it was, the lying letter told us we would be
     pleased with what was stated there, and it invited us to return to
     dialogue. It would be discourteous on our part to let it go
     without a response, especially now that you are leaving
     (finally!). Excuse the delay, but allow me to take advantage of
     these lines in order to respond. Our answer is: NO! You are
     welcome.