By: Isaín Mandujano

TUXTLA GUTIÉRREZ, Chiapas (apro)

The Zapatista National Liberation Army (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, EZLN) set a date for the tour that it will take to Europe in order to extend processes of reflection and analysis about how different organized groups have dealt with the inequality derived from the capitalist economic and social system.

In an official communiqué sent from the heart of the mountains of the Mexican southeast, Insurgent Subcomandante Moisés said that, as they have explained at different times over the last 27 years, they have constructed independent (autonomous) alternatives to the Mexican State to access education, health, food, justice and government that represent their interests and respond to their needs.

Beginning Monday, April 26, EZLN representatives will begin the journey to various countries in Europe, starting with Spain, to learn about other experiences.

The delegation that will participate has begun a quarantine to guarantee that they are not carriers of Covid-19.

In his communiqué “Journey to Europe,” directed at the individuals, groups, collectives, organizations, movements, coordinators and Native peoples in Europe who await the EZLN’s visit, Moisés mentioned that last Saturday, April 10, the Zapatistas who make up part of the first group of delegates on the “Journey For Life, Europe Chapter,” got together in the “Comandanta Ramona Seedbed.”

This is, well, a “maritime delegation,” he pointed out.

After a small ceremony, according to the uses and customs of Native peoples, on Saturday, April 10, the delegation received the mandate of the Zapatista peoples to carry afar their rebel thought, in other words, the heart of the masked ones.

“Our delegates carry a big heart, not only to embrace those on the European continent who rebel and resist, but also for listening and learning from their histories, geographies, calendars and methods,” Moisés said.

He specified that 0n Monday, April 26, they will head for a port in the Mexican Republic. They will arrive no later than Friday the 30th and will board the ship baptized as “La Montaña” (“The Mountain”).

For two or three days and nights, they will stay on board the ship, and on May 3, Holy Cross Day, the ship will set sail for the European Coasts, on a trip that is supposed to take from six to eight weeks. They estimate that they will be in front of the European Coasts in the second half of June.

Prior to that departure, starting on Thursday, April 15, the EZLN support bases will carry out activities in the 12 Zapatista caracoles to say goodbye to the delegation that will travel by sea and air to the geography called “Europe.”

“This part of what we have called the ‘Journey For Life. Europe Chapter’, the Zapatista delegates will meet with those who have invited them to talk about their mutual histories, pains, rages, successes and failures.” So far, they have received and accepted invitations from: Germany, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Catalonia, Sardinia, Cyprus, Croatia, Denmark, Slovenia, Spanish State, Finland, France, Greece, Holland, Hungary, Italy, Luxemburg, Norway, Basque Country, Poland, Portugal, United Kingdom, Rumania, Russia, Serbia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and Ukraine.

Starting that day, Moisés pointed out, Insurgent Subcomandante Galeano will publish a series of texts in which he will chat those who make up the Zapatista maritime delegation, the work that they have carried out and some of the problems they have faced.

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Originally Published in Spanish by Proceso on April 13, 2021 and Re-Published with English interpretation by the Chiapas Support Committee