FIRST OF MAY, 2001
WHEREAS, that 509 years of history have meant
exploitation, discrimination and poverty for our first peoples; and that
the
Mexican Nation, born of our seed and of our
hearts, has been built by the powerful, denying our existence and denying
our
supreme right to walk our own path, without
eliminating the country founded with our blood.
REMEMBERING, that the San Andrés Accords
on Indigenous Rights and Culture, signed on February 16, 1996, correspond
only
to the First Table of Dialogue between the
Federal Government and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, and are
promises
and proposals joined together that both parties
agreed to in order to guarantee a new relation between the indigenous peoples
of the country, of Society and of the State.
And that these proposals together, that were sent to the places of national
debate and
decision, were collected by the Concord and
Peace Commission (COCOPA) - constituted by legislators from the different
national political parties - in a bill that
was presented as the Constitutional Reform Initiative. And that the Zapatista
Army of
National Liberation (EZLN) accepted them,
as did the Indigenous National Congress, on November 29, 1996, not without
noting
the omissions it presented but recognizing
it as the first step toward constitutional recognition of our rights.
RECOGNIZING, that the San Andrés Accords,
as well as their legislative and constitutional interpretations that are
expressed in
the Constitutional Reform Initiative elaborated
by the Concord and Peace Commission (COCOPA), reflect the majority consensus
of the indigenous peoples of Mexico, of the
government, and of national society on the issue of indigenous rights and
culture.
CONSIDERING, that the constitutional recognition
of indigenous rights and culture, according to the COCOPA initiative, as
part
of the three signals demanded by the EZLN,
is the firm step toward the construction of a just and dignified peace
in Chiapas.
CONSIDERING, that the march of the 1,111 Zapatistas
to Mexico City in September 1997, and the results of the National
Consultation on Indigenous Rights and Culture
realized in March 1999, ratified the national consensus represented by
the San
Andrés Accords and the Constitutional
Reform Initiative elaborated by the COCOPA.
REMEMBERING, that our peoples, convened and
reunited in the Third Indigenous National Congress realized in Nurío,
Michoacán, on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th
days of March of this year, agreed unanimously to demand: the constitutional
recognition of
the rights of the indigenous peoples, consistent
with the COCOPA initiative; the constitutional recognition of our inalienable
right to free determination, expressed through
autonomy as part of the Mexican State; and the constitutional recognition
of our
territories and ancestral lands that represent
the totality of our habitat where we reproduce our material and spiritual
existence
as peoples.
OBSERVING, that the International Treaty of
Civil and Political Rights, like the International Treaty of Economic,
Social and
Cultural Rights, both binding upon the Supreme
Law of our country, establish that all peoples have the right to free
determination and that by virtue of this right
freely establish their political condition and provide at the same time
for their
economic, social and cultural development.
OBSERVING, at the same time, that Convention
169 of the International Labor Organization (OIT) on Indian and Tribal
Peoples in
Independent Countries, also binding upon the
Supreme Law of Mexico according to our living constitution, establishes
the right
of our peoples to assume control of their
own institutions, forms of life, and economic development, and to maintain
and
strengthen their identities, languages, territories
and natural resources within the law of the State in which they live.
DENOUNCING, that once more our word and our
sense has only been used to for the mockery and cruelty of the powerful;
that
the first voice of our peoples and the majority
voice of Mexican society expressed during February, March and April of
the year
2001 in the March for Indigenous Dignity led
by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation is not listened to by those
who say they
are the depositories of the popular will;
that the political and economic interests who control power try, once again,
to impose
upon the very first peoples of these lands,
of our towns, of the Indigenous peoples, who stand last in line without
being
recognized for their fundamental rights, who
are prisoners of looting, ethnocide and the forced integration of our nation
outside
of our history and our common sense, that
today they try to take everything from everyone.
THE PEOPLES, COMMUNITIES AND ORGANIZATIONS
THAT BELONG TO THE INDIGENOUS NATIONAL CONGRESS STATE
THAT:
FIRST: We reject absolutely the Initiative
of Indigenous Law approved by the Congress of the Union, because it not
only violates
the popular will and is unconstitutional,
but also is profoundly regressive in disowning fundamental rights of our
peoples,
granted by the same Constitution, as well
as the international treaties, pacts and agreements that Mexico has adopted
and that
are binding upon the Supreme Law in agreement
with our living Constitution. In particular, the approved initiative incorporates
in a partial and distorted form some concepts
and rights guaranteed by Convention 169 of the OIT, and omits many others
that
are fundamental.
SECOND: The Indigenous Law Bill approved by
those who say they represent the popular will does not incorporate the
spirit nor
the letter of the San Andrés Accords
and it substantially changes the Constitutional Reform Initiative elaborated
by the COCOPA,
signaling that the recognition of indigenous
peoples and communities will be made in the laws and constitutions of the
states, a
situation that, in reality, implies that constitutional
recognition of our peoples and their rights will not be recognized. The
approved initiative represents an obstacle
to renewing the dialogue between the Federal Government and the Zapatista
Army of
National Liberation with the goal of constructing
a just and dignified peace. The vote of the legislators was not a vote
for peace.
THIRD: This constitutional counter-reform represents
a mockery of our peoples and a major affront to Mexican society, who
decided to back our just cause, because it
leaves in the hands of the Federal States the definition of indigenous
autonomy and
the mechanisms for its realization, nullifying
our rights of free determination expressed by autonomy inside the law of
the
Mexican State and the aspirations of our peoples
for their plain recognition.
FOURTH: The initiative approved reduces the
application of our autonomous rights to the municipal level. It does not
resolve
our access to, and administration of, municipal
resources that correspond to our peoples, nor does it make possible the
construction of authentic indigenous municipal
reservations.
FIFTH: The constitutional counter-reform delivers
to indigenous communities, in the form of charity and pity, the character
of a
state of public interest and not of public
rights as was established in the COCOPA initiative so that, inside the
structure of the
State and being plainly recognized for its
standing, those municipalities that recognize their belonging to an indigenous
people
can associate freely between themselves with
the goal of coordinating their actions of free determination by the indigenous
peoples at each of the levels that give value
to their autonomy, in agreement with particular and specific circumstances
of each
federal state.
SIXTH: In the approved initiative, the possibility
of redistricting the territories inhabited by indigenous peoples is omitted,
and
that fact - that the territorial reorganization
of districts, with the goal of propitiating the political participation
by indigenous
peoples - is left in a non-binding article
of law and does not accomplish that, but rather affirms the illusory and
regressive
character of the imposed constitutional reform.
SEVENTH: The initiative that the Congress of
the Union approved ignores, relative to the territories of our peoples,
the legal
right already established by Convention 169
of the OIT, and doesn't recognize our lands and territories in agreement
with the
concepts stated by that Convention. The term
"territories" is grossly substituted by that of "places," and we remain
denied the
immediate physical space to exercise our autonomy
and the material and spiritual reproduction of our existence.
EIGHTH: The Indigenous Law that today they
try to impose upon our peoples and society reaffirms the individualist
concept that
inspired the counter-reform of Article 27
of the Constitution in 1992 and is expressed just the same, now that it
doesn't recognize
the CONSTITUTIONAL right that we have to decide
collectively the use and enjoyment of the natural resources that are found
in
our lands and territories. To the contrary,
it restricts, regressively, this exclusive right that we have. And it turns
it into a simple
right of preference, already limited by the
forms and norms of property and tenancy of the land already established
by the
Constitution and by the rights that have been
acquired - generally, through illegal means - by third parties over our
peoples. We
have demanded the recognition of the right
that we have to access the natural resources that are found in the entire
habitat that
the peoples occupy. And the legislators, to
the contrary, decide to reduce rights that we have historically already
won, in fact and
in law, through ancient titles and agrarian
resolutions and with the sweat and blood of our ancestors.
NINTH: The initiative approved, in contradiction
to the format of dialogue established between the Federal Government and
the
EZLN, tries to dodge the agrarian question
in the same terms that Article 27 of the current Constitution does, without
considering
the grand opposition by our peoples to the
reform of that Article and forgetting that the agrarian theme must be discussed
in the
Table of Dialogue together with the theme
of Well-Being and Development.
TENTH: At the same time, the Indigenous Law
establishes a part "B" in the Second Constitutional Article that, beyond
not
corresponding its content to an appropriate
constitutional text, reproduces the indigenist policies of ethnocide that
the Mexican
State has historically applied, signaling
a series of aid policies that the legislators, in authoritarian form, have
supposed will
serve our peoples, being that our demand is
the effective recognition of the indigenous peoples so that they can define
their
own development priorities.
ELEVENTH: Today, like yesterday, we say: Never Again a Mexico Without Us!
Never again will the voice of the indigenous peoples be silent before injustice!
In this national hour, we ratify and strengthen
this cry against the new aggression that this recent constitutional counter-reform
signifies. We will make everyone see that
a true Mexico, just and dignified, will exist only when the rights of our
people are
plainly recognized.
For all that has been said, WE CALL:
To all the indigenous peoples, communities
and organizations of the country to unite with our belief, our paths and
our voice
with the goal of demanding the constitutional
recognition of our rights in agreement with the COCOPA initiative, and
TO
ORGANIZE FROM EVERY CORNER OF THE COUNTRY
THE MOBILIZATION AND RESISTANCE AGAINST THE NEW MOCKERY
BY THE FEW THAT CONTROL POWER IN THIS COUNTRY
AND WHO HAVE KIDNAPPED THE CONGRESS OF THE UNION AND
THE WILL OF THE NATION THROUGH THE MOST REACTIONARY
POSITIONS THAT EXIST IN OUR COUNTRY, REPRESENTED
BY DIEGO FERNANDEZ DE CEVALLOS AND MANUEL
BARTLETT. WE CALL FOR THE EXERCISE OF POLITICAL SOVEREIGNTY
THAT ARTICLE 39 OF THE CONSTITUTION DELIVERED
TO US, NOW THAT THE CURRENT LEGAL ORDER HAS VISIBLY BEEN
OVERTHROWN THROUGH THE APPROVED UNCONSTITUTIONAL
INITIATIVE.
WE WILL UTILIZE ALL EXISTING LEGAL, NATIONAL
AND INTERNATIONAL MEANS: SO THAT THE VOICE AND THE PRESENCE
OF THE VERY FIRST PEOPLES, THE INDIGENOUS
PEOPLES, IS LISTENED TO AND IS FELT BY THE ENTIRE NATION.
To the workers of the town and the city and
to the entire Mexican people, to organize a mass national movement that
brings us
to the unity of action and at the same time
permits us to construct consensus and overcome weaknesses with the goal
of
achieving the constitutional recognition of
the rights of our peoples and the cancellation of the neoliberal policies
that today
destroy the entire nation.
Mexico City
May 1, 2001
NEVER MORE A MEXICO WITHOUT US!
FOR THE INTEGRAL RECONSTITUTION OF OUR PEOPLES!
INDIGENOUS NATIONAL CONGRESS
April 27 Communique of CNI
CONGRESO NACIONAL INDÍGENA
TO THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES, COMMUNITIES AND
ORGANIZATIONS OF MEXICO.
TO NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL CIVIL SOCIETY.
TO THE NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL PRESS.
Mexico City, April 27, 2001
In compliance with the resolutions and agreements
of the 3rd Indigenous National Congress realized in Nurío, Michoacán
on
March 2nd, 3rd and 4th, and the session of
the CNI coordinating committee on April 21st of this year, all the indigenous
peoples
of Mexico are convened to mobilize and realize
actions of civil resistance this Tuesday, May 1, together with the workers
and the
people in general in every state of the nation.
Whereas the Legislative Branch (Senators and
Deputies) represent the will of the Mexican people, we demand of the different
factions and the political parties the strict
respect to the original edit of the Initiative of Constitutional Reforms
elaborated by the
COCOPA.
The indigenous law approved by the Senate eliminates
substantial parts of the COCOPA intitiative, such as: recognition of
indigenous territories; the use and collective
enjoyment of the natural resources in those territories and the possibility
of
associations of indigenous communities and
municipalities.
The indigenous law approved by the Senate of
the Republic reduces indigenous autonomy to the municipal level and passes
the
recognition of the indigenous peoples to the
State constitutions and laws, nullifying their constitutional protection.
This law legitimizes the strategy of ethnocide
that historically has been expressed in the indigenous policies of the
Mexican
State.
Because of that we express our rejection of
the Indigenous Material Bill approved by the Senate of the Republic last
April 25th,
and sent to the House of Deputies for their
revision on the 26th, because it does not correspond what the federal government
and the EZLN signed in San Andrés SakamChem
de los Pobres, Chiapas, in October 1996, and embodied in the Initiative
of
Constitutional Reforms presented by the COCOPA
in November of that year.
At the same time, we demand the passage of
the COCOPA initiative - and not a different one - on the part of the Legislative
Branch (House of Deputies and Senate of the
Republic) and by the local congresses, to be elevated to a Constitutional
Amendment, as part of the three signals demanded
by the EZLN and the CNI for the renewal of dialogue.
Upon complying with these three signals a space
will be given for the next steps that permit arriving at a peace with justice
and
dignity. That this is clear: not before.
Coordinating Commission
Indigenous National Congress
Never Again a Mexico Without Us