Marichuy with Galeano at the Roundtable discussion “Looks, Listens, Words: prohibited thinking?”

Subcomandante Galeano, before Marcos, of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, EZLN), defended Marichuy’s campaign that did not meet the number of signatures necessary for run as a candidate to the Presidency, but she did obtain that 94 percent of the signatures that she presented (281, 955) were validated by the INE, which contrasted with the irregularities with which Jaime Rodríguez Calderón, “El Bronco,” and Margarita Zavala Gómez del Campo presented… and are still on the July 1 electoral ballot for.

What Marichuy did, said the EZLN subcomandante, was to exhibit and undress the electoral political system as one that rewards the cheater and punished the just.

By the Editorial Staff / Sin Embargo

Mexico City, April 17 (SinEmbargo)

Subcomandante Marcos, now Galeano, of the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN), accompanied the presidential aspirant María de Jesús Patricio, better known as Marichuy, exhibited, during a roundtable discussion, Mexico’s electoral system upon indicating that despite the irregularities that other independent candidates committed, they will be on the ballot.

Within the framework of the First Session of the Roundtable discussion “Looks, listens, words: prohibited thinking?” the subcomandante asserted that if their candidate achieved anything it was undressing the electoral system that awarded candidacies to Jaime Rodríguez “El Bronco” and Margarita Zavala, because their irregularities are on the ballot thanks to the decision of the Nacional Electoral Institute (INE, its initials in Spanish) and because the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Power of the Federation (TEPJF), which he accused are at the service “of the political team of Enrique Peña Nieto to elect his successor.”

“Marichuy didn’t falsify any signature, however others like ‘El Bronco’ did falsify them, and they rewarded them with the candidacy. Those that violated all the laws remained […] What Marichuy did was to exhibit and undress the electoral political system in Mexico,” Galeano said.

At the gathering held in the city of San Cristóbal de las Casas, in the state of Chiapas, the political leader of the EZLN affirmed that if Marichuy was left out of the contest it was because she didn’t reach the necessary signatures, which she did obtain legally, different than the other candidates.

“After it was demonstrated that there is no decency in the electoral process, Marichuy was left out.”

Subcomandante Galeano criticized the “left” of Andrés Manuel López Obrador that is drunk celebrating a victory it still doesn’t have” and has not realized from where the fraud is coming without having a plan “B.”

He also reacted to the voices that point to the Zapatista movement as an instrument of the former President of Mexico, Carlos Salinas de Gortari, and against those that opined that the vote for Marichuy would divide the vote of the left.

“It was already demonstrated that we are not part of the power’s mafia, that Salinas doesn’t manage us, in this case he mishandled us. We are romantics and dreamers, what movement can do that, I don’t know, that the direction, the initiatives and the imagination come from its people, in those who make it up, there were people that tabled, obstructed passage, knocking on doors,” he said.

“If we are a creation of Salinismo, why didn’t the unnamable bad guy move his people to collect signatures, why didn’t he use his influence so that they legally put you on (the ballot) like they illegally put ‘El Bronco’ on,” Galeano added.

“If it’s all a play to divide the vote, why didn’t the system move to achieve registration? The truth is that there is no place for Marichuy, there is no place for the original peoples,” he concluded.

Marichuy didn’t gather the necessary number of signatures to run for president, but 94 percent of the signatures that she presented (281, 955) were validated versus other independent candidates that even received fines because of irregularities.

Gathering the 866,593 signatures (1 percent of the average number of registered voters in each state) that independent candidates need to enter the presidential race turned out to be problematic for the CNI.

Throughout its campaign on behalf of the candidacy of “Marichuy,” the Congress argued that the mechanism for collecting signatures discriminates strongly against the indigenous communities, which constitute the core of its support base.

Signatures are provided through an application of the National Electoral Institute, but many who live in indigenous communities don’t possess mobile phones, much less devices that are connected to the Internet. In Mexico, Internet users represent only 60 percent of the population, according to data from the World Bank.

Not being on the ballot is not the end. The Movement that María de Jesús Patricio represents, the first indigenous woman that attempted to present herself as a candidate to the Presidency of Mexico, backed by the Zapatista National Liberation Army, has not stopped.

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Originally Published in Spanish by Sin Embargo

Tuesday, April 17, 2018

http://www.sinembargo.mx/17-04-2018/3408604

Re-Published with English interpretation by the Chiapas Support Committee