Another Year of Struggle and Resistance: Statement from Indigenous Prisoner in Struggle Marcelino Ruiz Gómez

Statement from Indigenous prisoner in struggle, Marcelino Ruiz Gómez, calling for continued resistance in defense of Mother Earth.

Comitán, Chiapas, México

CERSS No. 10

Organization Vineketik en Resistencia, adherents of the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle of the EZLN

To the Zapatista Army of National Liberation

To the National and International Civil Society

To the National and International Sixth

To the National Indigenous Congress

To the Indigenous Governing Council

To the Media

To the Believers

To the Independent Organizations

To the People of Mexico and the World

Compañeras and compañeros, brothers and sisters, receive a combative salute from our place of struggle and resistance.

Another year of struggle for life, and another year of resistance, for those of us committed to the struggle against injustice, dispossession, exception and destruction of Indigenous peoples and Mother Earth.

The corrupt rulers have dedicated themselves to plunder, leaving death and destruction in their wake. That monster called capitalism, managed by big businessmen, is like an abyss that cannot be filled, exploiting and killing our Mother Earth, the earth where we live and of which we are part.

Rulers have made laws at their convenience, creating a corrupt system which they manipulate in their favor.

We, Indigenous and non-Indigenous campesinos, brothers and sisters, who have a conscience grounded in our cosmology, we resist destruction and we defend life. We defend our Mother Earth because we are part of her.

The system and the state call those who resist with dignity, rebels and criminals. Some of those who have resisted have been subjected to forced disappearances and assassinations. Others like us have been thrown into prisons based on prefabricated crimes. These are only some of the weapons the governments use to intimidate and instill fear in Indigenous peoples.

That is why this year, 2021, we must raise our voices, voices that come from our conscience. Together we will defend our Mother Earth with justice and freedom.

Long live Zapata!

Long live Samir!

Until we are all free!

Sincerely,

Marcelino Ruiz Gómez