EFEThe true purpose of the Mexican government's "senseless war" on drug cartels is to get people to accept "everyday horror" as something that "cannot be changed," the erstwhile guerrilla known as Subcomandante Marcos said Tuesday.
"No solution to the disaster of the National State is possible without changing the system responsible for the ruin and for the nightmare that inhabits the entire country," the spokesman for the Zapatista National Liberation Army, or EZLN, said in a letter to news outlets.
Though it still calls itself an army, the EZLN has not engaged in military operations since its initial January 1994 uprising in the southern state of Chiapas.
It is not the first time that Marcos, a former professor, has criticized the war on organized crime launched by Mexican President Felipe Calderon within days of taking office in December 2006.
While violence associated with that conflict has claimed 35,000 lives, Marcos says Mexico's chattering classes seem more interested in the 2012 presidential campaign than in the destruction of the country's social fabric.
The Zapatista spokesman also blasted purveyors of "junk theories" that see recent popular uprisings in the Middle East as "products of cell phones and (Internet) social networks, and not of organization, capacity for mobilization and power to bring people out."
Those theories, he said, express not just "crass ignorance" but "the unconfessed desire to achieve, without effort, their place in 'history'."
"'Tweet and you will win heaven' is their modern creed," Marcos said, going on to criticize those who believe that "liberty, justice and democracy can be had merely by marking a ballot."
"When these people pontificate that there is only one choice, the electoral route or the armed route, they ... demonstrate their lack of imagination and of knowledge of national and world history," Marcos said.
Turning back to the drug war, Marcos cited the "pain and rage" of prominent poet and journalist Javier Sicilia, whose son was found murdered last month along with six other young men in what appeared to be a gangland incident.
Sicilia, who last week brought tens of thousands of Mexicans into the streets to lead marches for peace, is mounting a sit-in in the main square of Cuernavaca - where his son was slain - to demand justice.
Authorities in the surrounding state of Morelos say they have identified the killers of Juan Francisco Sicilia and the other six victims, but no arrests have been made.
To read La Jornada link: Reconoce 'subcomandante Marcos' lucha de Javier Sicilia (Spanish), please enter here.
To read Subcomandante Marco's most recent letter to Luis Villoro,(Spanish) please enter here.
We need Subcomandante Marcos to make his voice heard more. We as Mexicans need to rise and not ask for a change...but demand change. We can not sit and wait till the government helps the people. Haven't we learned from history. Change will come when the people rise up. Look at the middle east. What would the great men of our country do? Would Zapata allow this injustice? Benito juarez, Pancho Villa, an so on. Those r our true heros. Not el Chapo, and all the other narcos out there. We Mexicans r a strong race. Of hardworking people. We have a interesting history. We r a proud people. It's just sad to see mi gente. Living in fear, depressed. We can do better. We deserve better.
ReplyDeleteMexicanos Undios
The hell with this anarchist, he has single handidly contributed more to the violence in modern day Mexico than all the other cartel leaders combined. As a result of his armed movement still being alive, and surving with impunity gave rise to present day civil unrest. All mexicans have a disregard for the state because of him. Especially cartel leaders.
ReplyDelete@ 1:14 is correct but Marcos' academic leftist crapola is irrelevant and obvious.
ReplyDeleteThe system has to be changed. You mean like remove corruption and impunity? Well, no shit sherlock. You will have to get in line to criticize Calderon. Everybody is doing that.
What is Marcos actually doing to help? Not talking about - doing.
El Subcomandante (is he ever gonna get promoted?!) has no credibility here in Mexico. His "Zero Campaign" in 2006 was nothing but a comical Quioxtic mockery of the system with no answers or solutions offered - only criticisms. So, Señor Subcomandante, why don't you do something useful like mobiize your Zapatista fighters and declare war against the cartels? No, you won't do it because it would be too much of an inconvenience to your sitting around in cafes sipping coffee and whining about the system and globalization. Go back to the jungle you poser.
ReplyDeleteMarcos is irrelevant to the struggles in Mexico. Questionable philosophy, tactics and morals. But by attaching Zapata's name, he somehow tries to gain credibility?
ReplyDeleteAnd yet the media lend him this credibility by giving him a voice.
There is no room in civil society for violence. But like the childhood bully, he and his compadres resort to violence when they can't effect change with their words.
Pathetic!
So now this MOFO is pontificating about the drug violence behind his mask? Why not use his power to launch his own hunt for criminals ? Oh! I get it, he prefers to give interviews while smoking that stupid pipe. I'm sure he thinks that makes him sound important... F**K this poser !
ReplyDelete@ 1:14 the state is responsible for what is happening right now. corruption reaches all the way up to the president. marcos is just someone who speaks for some of the indigenous. most mexicans have never respected the state because of its history of corruption going back decades long before Marcos.
ReplyDeleteMEXICO makes NIGERIA,SOMALIA,SUDAN,CONGO,Rowanda,--- Look good. What do they all have in common,sorry assed ignorant people,all trying to make money off of other countrys,all REFUSING to accept any responsibility for the state of affairs in their own country, JUST like peopl who refuse to be responsible for their own conduct.
ReplyDeleteI weep for Mexico and the good people who live there. I pray that my country does more to help. You are my neighbor and deserve better. God Bless
ReplyDelete