By: Elio Henríquez
San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas
The Zapatista National Liberation Army (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, EZLN) published images of farewell events for the delegation that will leave on May 3 for Europe from a Mexican port in the ship called La Montaña (The Mountain).
“Visual fragments of the farewell for the Zapatista delegation in some indigenous Zapatista communities, on the banks of the Jataté, Tzaconejá and Colorado Rivers,”[1] in the mountains of the Mexican Southeast, the EZLN said in a short text titled “And meanwhile, in the Lacandón Jungle…”, signed by Subcomandante Galeano.
In the photographs we observe how indigenous EZLN support bases say goodbye to some of their compañeros and compañeras with backpacks on their shoulders and wearing facemasks in events held in recent days.
“We have to save the world,” “We send a greeting to the compañeros and compañeras who have pain, sadness and worry;” “To sow seeds of freedom;” “Cheer up compañeros;” “You don’t have to ask permission to struggle,” read some of the cardboard signs that they show during some of the acts.
In the images taken in the jungle and distributed via Enlace Zapatista, members of the rebel group are observed on horses or on rafts in the waters of the aforementioned rivers, as well as groups of people who participate in the farewell events, carrying cardboard signs and flags of the different European countries.
“Vale. Health and, ‘if you don’t go, I will take you in my heart, I will take you here in my singing,’” Galeano wrote.
He added: “SupGaleano cutting a rug to a slow-mo cumbia, carving the earth, loving it, defending it, dancing it (which is similar, but not the same). Living life! ‘To another continent on Planet Earth.’”
The maritime delegation that the EZLN will send to Europe is called the 421st Squadron (Escuadrón 421) and is made up of four women, two men and one non-binary person (unoa otroa), [2] according to what Galeano reported in a previous communiqué.
The EZLN estimates that the maritime delegation that will visit at least 30 European nations will arrive on the coasts of the old continent during the second half of next June.
“In this part of what we have called Journey For Life. Europe Chapter, the Zapatistas will meet with those who have invited us to chat about our mutual histories, pains, rages, achievements and failures,” Insurgent Subcomandante Moisés said in a previous communiqué.
[1] The Jataté, Tzaconejá and Colorado Rivers are all in the Canyons (Cañadas) region of the Lacandón Jungle east of the city of Ocosingo.
[2] The EZLN denotes non-binary people (in Spanish) by using both the feminine (a) and masculine (o) endings of nouns and adjectives when referring to non-binary people.
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Originally Published in Spanish by La Jornada on Sunday, April 25, 2021 and Re-Published with English interpretation by the Chiapas Support Committee
Chiapas Support Committee 