Compañeros, compañeras:

A few moments ago we were watching and listening to the media and the way that they are handling the information about what is going on. We listened to the news anchors on TV Azteca imploring for order, for the army to come in and establish order and end what was happening there. We also heard the outrage of TV viewers who sent in letters saying that the anchors were idiots for asking the armed forces to step in.

Years ago here, in the Plaza of the Three Cultures, there was a massacre and the government at the time said the army had been attacked. And a long time passed before someone asked what the army was doing at a student rally. And now it doesn’t even occur to those communication media, including the radio, to ask what the armed forces — the police — were doing in San Salvador Atenco. And this alliance was happening between the PRD and PRI to get rid of some flower vendors because the mayor of Texcoco thinks they make the city ugly, because he wants to put in a commercial center, a Wal-Mart there in Texcoco, and the small businessmen bother him. Now the PRD, allied with the PRI at the state level and now also allied with the PAN at the federal level, is going to have to notice all this death.

As the Sixth Commission of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, an adherent organization to the Other Campaign, we are asking, respectfully soliciting the regional and sub-regional coordinators throughout the country to agree upon and carry out mobilizations in support of the Peoples’ Front in Defense of the Land beginning at 8:00 tomorrow morning, May 4, 2006.

As the Sixth Commission we declare ourselves on alert. The troops of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation have already been declared on red alert, and at that time the Caracoles and Zapatista Autonomous  Rebel Municipalities will be closed. From this moment on, the new chain of command is functioning in the Zapatista Army of National Liberation. No matter what happens to me, there are people here to make decisions. We don’t know about all of you, but today, we Zapatistas are Atenco.

We are going to be paying attention to your demands. We call for meetings by sector and region for you to think about and agree on these actions. As the Sixth commission we are canceling all our participation in programmed activities and waiting for word from the Peoples’ Front in Defense of the Land. If they need our presence there, then there we will be. If not, we will participate directly on one of the actions that you program for tomorrow beginning at 8:00 in the morning.

Blocking of highways, blocking of streets, passing out flyers, painting, whatever occurs to you that is civil and peaceful. Atenco cannot be along. We will not stop these actions and this situation until our compañeros and compañeras  of the Peoples’ Front in Defense of the Land indicate that we should.

We will not pay attention to any information that does not arrive from them. For us, those men and women who make up the Peoples’ Front in Defense of the Earth are the Other Campaign in those lands. We will respect their decisions. We will go wherever they tell us to go. They have been clear in their demands: the immediate release of those detained and the complete withdrawal of the government forces that are invading their lands.

This is our message, compañeros and compañeras. Not just for the Other Campaign in this other Mexico, in this other Mexico City that is rising up. It is our message for the Other Campaign throughout the country. From Chiapas, to Quintana Roo, to Yucatán, to Campeche, up to the two Baja Californias, Sinaloa, Chihuahua, Tamaulipas, Nuevo León. From the north to the south, east to west, let the Other Campaign resound in Atenco and let there be justice for the fallen. Thank you, compañeros, thank you, compañeras.