Flyer

I translated this myself. It’s a flyer from a march against “impunity”, one of the buzzwords used by opponents of the drug war: it refers to the regime’s free hand in declaring emergencies, detaining suspects, and carrying on like a police state. This march was organized by the Zapatistas and their fellow-travelers, sometimes known as The Other Countryside. The march was timed to coincide with a nationwide demonstration against the war. All the Zapatista villagers came down from their bases in the hills and converged on the city square in near-perfect silence. It made quite the spectacle and there was a lot of press coverage. 


Felipe Calderon’s war against narco-trafficers has been a total fracas, having for its result 40,000 dead, of which the majority were innocent youths, poor, children, workers, women, peasants, who had nothing to do with organized crime. Of these 40,000, how many were criminals? And the more than a thousand murdered children, were they also killers belonging to organized crime?


This so-called war has promised that drugs would not arrive in the neighborhoods and schools, but the statistics say otherwise: the violence and the consumption of drugs has increased. These facts prove the complicity between the 3 levels of government, the police, the military, and organized crime, as the true criminals continue enjoying their liberty, power, and fortunes while the sacrifice of the lives of millions of Mexicans continues to grow day by day, filling the streets with terror and drugs.

And mustn’t our northern neighbor have a stake in this war? Does the United States win with this “local” war? The answer is: yes, notwithstanding the economic gains and the monetary investment in arms, bases, hardware, (we don’t forget that the USA is the principal provider of all this to the two contesting sides: the authorities and the “criminals” - the war against organized crime is a two-way business for the North American military industry), that there is, as a result of this war, the destruction/depopulation and reconstrucion/reorganization that they favor.

The war of Calderon, in reality, is only a justification for the militarization of the streets and communities and the criminalization of the anti-capitalist social struggles. This war is against the people who cry: “Enough already with dispossession, exploitation, contempt and repression! For this, the adherents of the Other Countryside in all the country have decided to make a national silent march this 7th of May against the war of Calderon and against impunity.

No more blood!
We’ve fucking had it with capitalism!
Up with the Other Countryside!

The march ending up starting several hours late, I think because a very expensive wedding had been scheduled to take place in the square at that same time. The wedding went smoothly, as far as we saw. There was a big marimba ensemble in the square and about twenty bridesmaids. It was the other country.