BROTHERS AND SISTERS, COMPAÑERAS AND COMPAÑEROS OF THE COUNTRYSIDE AND THE CITY, OF MEXICO AND OF THE WORLD:

The National Indigenous Congress (CNI, its initials in Spanish), the Indigenous Government Council (CIG), the Civil Association “The time has come for the flourishing of the peoples” and the Zapatista National Liberation Army, address individuals, groups, collectives and organizations, peoples, barrios, tribes and nations that, in Mexico and in other countries that supported the initiative of attaining the registration of the CIG spokesperson, María de Jesús Patricio Martínez, as a candidate to the presidency of Mexico.

The hard and verifiable data that we have are:

The National Electoral Institute (INE) received 281,955 signatures; of those, 10,624 were captured on paper, not on the digital application. Of these, the vast majority corresponds to community assemblies. Under the INE’s own criteria, 94.5% of the signatures collected appear on the list of names. Helpers: Registered 14,117, active 5,704. With respect to the difference between registered and active, 8,413, in December 5,322 emails were sent to those who registered then as helpers but didn’t report any signatures, and 2, 137 answered back. Of those, 1,618 explained that they didn’t have an adequate cell phone, be it through the INE application or the cell phone camera. Average signatures per active assistant: 49.43 (data taken from the page of the sisters and brothers of Cryptopozol, who collected the information from November 3, 2017 until February 24 and 26, 2018, and can be consulted at https://criptopozol.github.io/avance_marichuy/

An approximate count (it’s not precise) of helpers by state is listed below.

Without state defined 4930

Aguascalientes 89

Baja California 251

Baja California Sur 69

Campeche 42

Chiapas 864

Chihuahua 188

Ciudad de México 3398

Coahuila 92

Colima 30

Durango 42

Estado de México 1070

Extranjero 105

Guanajuato 345

Guerrero 99

Hidalgo 179

Jalisco 1040

Michoacán 264

Morelos 274

Nayarit 63

Nuevo León 257

Oaxaca 242

Puebla 407

Querétaro 301

Quintana Roo 189

San Luis Potosí 197

Sinaloa 98

Sonora 149

Tabasco 48

Tamaulipas 69

Tlaxcala 94

Veracruz 367

Yucatán 151

Zacatecas 89

(Note: the final count does not coincide with registered helpers because, they tell us, some registered more than once, desperate because the INE did not respond to them in a timely manner and form).

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Compañeras and compañeros, sisters and brothers:

As is evident, we did not achieve getting the number of signatures necessary to register Marichuy as a candidate to the presidency.

The explanations and evaluations about this fact, we think, ought to be the product of a serious analysis and a profound evaluation.

Obtaining the sufficient number of signatures would have permitted us to take advantage of that space to continue making visible the original peoples, their pains and struggles, as well as pointing out the criminal character of the system, to make us an echo of the pains and rages that team throughout national territory, and to promote organization, self-management, resistance and rebellion.

We didn’t achieve it, but we must continue on our path looking for other ways, methods and modes, with ingenuity, creativity and audacity, in order to attain what we want.

Our bet was never to take power; it always was and will be for self-managed organization, autonomy, rebellion and resistance, for solidarity and mutual aid and for the construction of a world with democracy, freedom and justice for all.

The initiative to form the Indigenous Government Council and propose its spokesperson, Marichuy, as a candidate to the Presidency of the Republic, launched by the Nacional Indigenous Congress, has completed one more stage. The first stage consisted of the decision that the Fifth National Indigenous Congress made, on its 20th Anniversary in October 2016, to consult with all its peoples and communities about the initiative before delineating it. The second stage consisted of the CNI’s internal consultation about the initiative to form the CIG and name its spokesperson between the months of October and December 2016. The third stage culminated in the CIG’s Constitutive Assembly and the naming, by consensus of said Assembly, of María de Jesús Patricio Martínez as its spokesperson, in the month of May 2017. The fourth stage consisted of the collection of signatures in favor of our spokesperson Marichuy, a process that we just concluded.

Our walking continues. And the fundamental difference with the prior stages is that now we are more original peoples walking together, and, MOST IMPORTANTLY, we are now more persons, groups, collectives and organizations oriented to seeking solutions within ourselves that, we know, will never come from above. This stage was characterized by involving more people and sectors, beyond the original peoples and the CNI, in a peaceful and civilian struggle, inclusive, with a just cause, with a horizon of the radical transformation of the reality we all suffer, with legal methods, legitimate and honest, and that is something that no member of the institutional political class can say.

Faced with the indisputable fact that we did not get the number that, by law, is needed to continue with that stage, an analysis and evaluation is imposed that, as was the entire process, will be collective, participative, inclusive, honest and truthful.

Because of all that, and because of more things for which there are no words:

First: We sincerely thank all the persons who, in Mexico and other countries, gave their signatures. For us, each one of them is an embrace and an admonition to continue and to not languish. We greet each and every one of you, and in response, we reaffirm our commitment to not be discouraged.

Second: We especially thank those who, with or without the figure of “helpers,” understood the scope of our initiative, made it theirs, and pledged time, resources and work on the way to creating, growing and consolidating collective and community, to be in the best situation to confront the storm that we already suffer.

Third: The Civil Association “The time has come for the flourishing of the peoples,” as well as the National Indigenous Congress and those who form it, the Indigenous Government Council and the Zapatista National Liberation Army, have initiated, at an internal level, a serious analysis and evaluation of this stage that ends.

Fourth: We think that this analysis and evaluation does not correspond only to us. We consider that, since it became a collective effort that far exceeded the horizon of the original peoples, we must consolidate what was achieved and maintain its longing to construct another way of doing politics.

Therefore,

WE CALL ON

Individuals, groups, collectives, organizations, nations, tribes, peoples and communities of the countryside and the city, indigenous and non-indigenous, in Mexico and in other countries, that were committed to this process and confronted it with work, dedication and honesty:

To make an analysis and an evaluation, taking into account the objectives that the CNI and the CIG made public at their opportunity, and, above all, considering the objectives that you traced, and that you send it to us at the following electronic address:

valoraciones@congresonacionalindigena.org

We also tell you that, parallel to these analyses and evaluations, the Civil Association “For the Flourishing of the Peoples,” the National Indigenous Congress, the CIG and the Zapatista brothers and sisters, will invite a series of public and open activities for those who were involved in the process, to give follow up and continuation to this struggle that, we know is just beginning. Those who convene these activities will announce them in due time.

We also invite you to, on your own initiative and according to your own criteria, modes and times, realize activities for analysis and evaluation about what is happening in Mexico and the world, because, as the CIG and the spokesperson Marichuy said again and again, our horizon doesn’t end on July 1, 2018, nor is it limited just to Mexico.

The resistance, rebellion and determination to construct a world where many worlds fit is international and is not limited by the calendars or by the geographies of those above who exploit us, despise us, rob us and destroy us.

Mexico, March 2018

NEVER MORE A MEXICO WITHOUT US!

NEVER MORE A WORLD OF DEATH AND DESTRUCTION!

NATIONAL INDIGENOUS CONGRESS

INDIGENOUS GOVERNMENT COUNCIL

“THE TIME HAS COME FOR THE FLOURISHING OF THE PEOPLES,” A. C.

ZAPATISTA NATIONAL LIBERATION ARMY

En español:

http://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/2018/03/16/convocatoria-al-siguiente-paso-en-la-lucha/