María de Jesús Patricio Martínez shows proof of registration upon leaving the INE. Photo José Antonio López

By: Claudia Herrera Beltrán

María de Jesús Patricio Martínez, Marichuy, spokesperson for the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) and the Indigenous Government Council (CIG), presented her intention to be an independent candidate to the Presidency of the Republic with a call to “organize those pains and rages” of the peoples.

Upon delivering her documentation at the National Electoral Institute (INE, its initials in Spanish) announced that she would not receive “one single peso” of public money, given that her campaign will be done with collective support.

Surrounded with dozens of followers, she complained that the requisites for those who want to contend as independents next year are designed to place obstacles in the way of indigenous communities’ participation and she mentioned as an example that the HSBC Bank didn’t want to open an account for them and they had to go to another institution.

“They put a lot of obstacles in the way of us achieving this first step. They wanted to treat us top down, like those who rule up there above; like this structure is only designed for that, not for the people below, not for the working people, much less for the indigenous communities.”

She marked her distance with respect to other candidacies. “Our proposal is different, it’s collective.”

She insisted that the end purpose is to organize, for the purpose of “finishing with this capitalist, patriarchal, racist, classist system, because of what we are living in our own flesh.

“Thus we must organize all those pains that are happening to our peoples. We have to organize all those rages. That is our message. It’s necessary to organize those pains and rages. That’s the only way we’ll be able to continue forward.”

She offered that as a woman, as a mother and as a worker she would also struggle against the machismo and the patriarchal system predominant in the country.

Protected by officials of her government in her visit to the INE, she pointed out that in order to contend she first had to get the permission of the inhabitants of her state and promise that, if she achieves it, she will not use public money.

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Originally Published in Spanish by La Jornada

Sunday, October 8, 2017

http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2017/10/08/politica/003n2pol

Redacted and Re-Published with English interpretation by the Chiapas Support Committee