Article written by Jen Lawhorne

The EZLN announced on Tuesday, July 11^th the lifting of the Red Alert that it issued June 19th. The alert, initially provoking alarm in the national press and among activists, was afterwards explained as a protective measure taken to hold an internal consultation. The EZLN later announced wide agreement among its base communities to begin a new campaign formed of leftist groups from Mexico and abroad.

After putting the world on its toes with a series of communiqués in June, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) announced on July 11 the lifting of the red alert in indigenous Zapatista communities. The new communiqué announced that as of July 15, the caracoles of La Realidad, Roberto Barrios, La Garrucha, Oventic and Morelia would reopen with the Good Governing councils once again carrying out their duties.

The July 11 communiqué also announced a number of changes in the functioning of the caracoles. While those serving on the Good Government Councils will continue to be named by the autonomous councils of each region, those serving on the Vigilance Commission of each caracol will now be members of Zapatista support bases. The Vigilance Commissions of the caracoles serve to monitor the coming and going of visitors, who seek advice or solutions to problems, or to work with and support the Zapatista communities. Besides these two groups, there will now be a Commission of Information in each caracol that will attend to those who come for information about the Zapatista movement and its history.

The communiqué ended by inviting national and international civil society to once again take up their projects and labors in the caracoles, with the Good Government Councils, and in all Zapatista Rebel Autonomous Municipalities and territories, as “all will be welcome.”

During the reopening of all EZLN communities on July 15, a festive climate colored the Zapatista caracol of Oventic, just north of San Cristóbal de las Casas. Dozens of cars and trucks lined the highway near Oventic, with people milling around the outside gates. Inside the community, hundreds of indigenous people were spread out through its vast fields as the brightly painted, mural-covered buildings of the caracol came back to life after a three-week closure. An intense game of basketball was closely watched as live music boomed with lush, emerald hills in the background guarding the celebration.

The governing body of the caracol, the Good Government Council, was in session. It politely refused to answer questions from an inquiring reporter and other requests from an individual visiting with a response to the EZLN proposal for a new Mexican left.

Fernando Magaña said he traveled from the Yucatán peninsula representing indigenous communities who were interested in engaging with the Zapatistas.

“The people I know in the Yucatán want to know more details,” he said. “The EZLN presented us with a viable and concrete alternative on how to do another politic in Mexico. We see a lot of opportunity in this aspect.”

As to why the junta could not respond to his requests, Magaña said, “(The Good Government Council) told me they didn’t have a lot of information at hand and that we should wait for more communiqués.”

Earlier in mid-June, the EZLN issued a series of four communiqués sounding off in a strong admonition that the Zapatista movement for indigenous rights was not dead. It also lambasted the political system of Mexico and thanked EZLN supporters for years of work. In its red alert, the EZLN decided to shut down its public operations for a period of internal consultation to seek a new step in its struggle.

Julio César Ortega from the Center for Political Analysis and Social and Economic Investigations (CAPISE) in San Cristóbal said the red alert provoked alarm and restlessness in civil society. “The first two communiqués sounded a little grave,” he said. “But the third communiqué gave a complete turn. The red alert acted as a consultation period for the Zapatista bases and was always a defensive and not an offensive move.”

Some people decided to wait and speculate as the Zapatistas held their consultation. Some speculated the EZLN was going to put down its arms and form a political party with Subcomandante Marcos, the EZLN spokesperson, as its head.

Others chose to act. In an action on June 30 in Mexico City, a band of activists painted a 40-meter wide red Zapatista star on the national plaza as a message of support for the EZLN. The group, Direct Action Laboratory, said the red alert was not just for Chiapas but also for the entire country of Mexico.

Abigail, of DAL, explained why it was a national red alert. "In the city of Juarez, there have been almost 400 deaths, along the entire border there have been 70 narco-executions, to settle debts, for political deals... along the southern border we are seeing a rise in the military forces. The government is adding more police without warning. The situation is getting worse.”

"The red alert should be a national one because we are witnessing this rise in militarization as well as living in this level of extreme violence that is for the most part organized and supported by the government," she continued.

After apparently not reading any of the communiqués, Mexican President Vicente Fox was quoted in the Mexican leftist daily La Jornada as saying that he was at the orders of Marcos. He said he would welcome the disarming of the EZLN and their involvement in the political process of Mexico.

On June 28, the EZLN announced that it had finished consulting with its bases. “The results were that more than 98 percent approved the new step, and less than 2 percent decided not to support the proposal,” the communiqué stated, while adding that a Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle would soon be circulated.

Although doubt remains that the EZLN received 98 percent support from its bases, the declaration was given to the Mexican people in three parts. It assured that the EZLN will continue the armed struggle while maintaining its offensive cease-fire. The first part gives an eloquent explanation of how the Zapatistas see themselves and the progress of their struggle since the previous declaration in July of 1998.

For the past four years, the EZLN has been carrying out its quest for autonomy despite the government’s failure to change the nation’s constitution in accordance to the San Andrés Accords. These negotiations recognize Zapatista demands for indigenous rights and culture that include land, food, education, housing, health services, democracy, justice, peace and autonomy. Although the government commission set up to negotiate with the EZLN primarily agreed to the San Andrés Accords, the national government ultimately passed a watered down version that failed to concretely address Zapatista demands.

“And so the EZLN has resisted 12 years of war, of military, political, ideological and economic attacks, of siege, of harassment, of persecution, and they have not vanquished us. We have not sold out nor surrendered, and we have made progress. More compañeros from many places have entered into the struggle so that, instead of making us weaker after so many years, we have become stronger,” reads the first part of the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle.

The second section, issued a day later on June 30, is a strong indictment of capitalism and the Mexican government’s involvement in neoliberal politics. “…Capitalism means that there a few who have great wealth, but they did not win a prize, or find a treasure, or inherit it from a parent. They obtained that wealth, rather, by exploiting the work of the many,” it states. “And neoliberalism is the idea that capitalism is free to dominate the entire world, and so tough, you have to resign yourself and conform and not make a fuss, in other words, not rebel.”

“And then what happens is that, with the people’s economy being totally screwed in the countryside as well as in the city, then many Mexican men and women have to leave their Patria, the Mexican lands, and go to seek work in another country, the United States. And they do not treat them well there, instead they exploit them, persecute them and treat them with contempt and even kill them,” it continues.

The third part of the declaration puts forth a proposal to the Mexican people “to go about building, along with those people who, like us, are humble and simple, a national program of struggle, but a program which will be clearly of the left, or anti-capitalist, or anti-neoliberal, or for justice, democracy and liberty for the Mexican people.”

The EZLN hopes to bring together all different sectors of Mexican struggle to construct a new Mexican left free of corrupt party politics. They are opening themselves up to suggestions and proposals from different peoples and movements by sending EZLN delegations to where ever they are invited. The EZLN also plans to hold an international encounter in Chiapas during some time in December or January.

“We are inviting all indigenous workers, campesinos, teachers, students, housewives, neighbors, small businesspersons, small shop owners, micro-business persons, pensioners, handicapped persons, religious men and women, scientists, artists, intellectuals, young persons, women, old persons, homosexuals and lesbians, boys and girls to participate, whether individually or collectively, directly with the Zapatistas in the national campaign for building another way of doing politics, for a program of national struggle of the left, and for a new Constitution,” the declaration says.

In its usual transparent manner, following communiqués announced the establishment of an EZLN committee that would fulfill the work of the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle. They explicitly state that they do not plan to craft this new left themselves but that it will involve the input from all people interested in engaging in a new left. They also announce a schedule for meeting with people in Chiapas to further discuss issues.

Cesar from CAPISE said, “CAPISE believes it’s a viable and clear proposal. This is a proposal that they’ve been putting out since 1994. The sixth declaration is meant to reactivate this idea. It could be that it’s nothing new and it’s the same initiative. The proposal offers us an exit to this difficult situation we are living in Mexico. Everything depends on the reaction of civil society.”