Statement from Indigenous Prisoner in Struggle, Marcelino Ruiz Gómez, Marking 528 Years of Indigenous Resistance

Indigenous Tzotzil prisoner in struggle, Marcelino Ruiz Gómez, marks 528 years of Indigenous resistance

 

October 12, 2020

CERSS No. 10

Comitán, Chiapas, Mexico

To the Zapatista Army of National Liberation

To the National Indigenous Congress

To the Indigenous Governing Council

To the Networks of Resistance and Rebellion

To the Believers

To the Mass and Independent Media

To the People of Mexico and the World

This is a response to the call to mark 528 years of Indigenous resistance. More than 500 years of dispossession, invasion and genocide. What the invaders call conquest has now changed its name to development. It seeks to impose megaprojects of death and destruction in order to extract materials from our land, exploiting and assassinating those that live there.

Every piece of land is sacred for us. Every pine tree. Every gleaming oak. Every grain of sand on the beach. Every cloud in the dark forests. Every buzzing insect. They are all sacred and they carry the memory and experience of our people.

We form part of our mother earth and she forms part of us. The flowers in the fields, the bolom (jaguar), the kux kux (owl) and the deer are all our brothers. All living beings pertain to the same family.

Our creator is also their creator. Our mother earth is precious. To damage her is to treat our creator with grand contempt. The corrupt and murderous capitalist system of rulers and businessmen lacks the consciousness of a living being.

We are Mayan descendants, children of our people. From our trench of struggle, derived of our freedom, from behind these four walls, we carry on our dignified resistance and rebellion. Today’s date has symbolic value. We are raising our voice because we are outraged and we condemn the tricks of the government. That is why I have taken the decision today to carry out a fast, as a symbol of dignified resistance and rebellion.

To all the sisters and brothers, compañerxs, of dignified struggle and resistance, receive a combative salute.

Sincerely,

Marcelino Ruiz Gómez

Long Live the EZLN!

Long Live Samir!

Until We Are All Free!