EZLN issues red alert

From Narco News

Zapatista Red Alert: The Other Mexico on the Verge of an Explosion from Below
The Story Behind the Zapatista Red Alert as the Other Campaign Arrives at Zero Hour

By Bertha Rodríguez Santos and Al Giordano
The Other Journalism with the Other Campaign in Mexico City

May 3, 2006

MEXICO CITY: From his first statements early this morning on Mexico City’s historic Alameda, Zapatista Insurgent Subcomandante Marcos was clearly informed about — and visibly bothered by — the police riot underway in the nearby city of Texcoco, where 800 heavily armed riot cops stormed the local flower growers’ market in the dawn’s early light, leading to a violent nationally televised standoff between the firearms of above and the worktools of below. By the afternoon — after “Delegate Zero” traveled through downtown Mexico City by foot, by subway and by motorcycle, through its most working-class neighborhoods, listening to the grievances of the people — he exploded in the Plaza of the Three Cultures: The Zapatistas have gone on Red Alert, the Other Campaign is suspended, and Marcos is heading to the scene of the crime to confront the Mexican State.

“To the death, if that’s what it takes,” as he said two days ago during a mass meeting in front of the national palace.

And now, the Red Alert…

The first clue came at 10 a.m. During a gathering with “sexual dissidents” — gays, lesbians, transvestites, “other loves” and sexual workers who have adhered to the Zapatista “Other Campaign” — on the historic central park of this metropolis known as La Alameda Marcos referred to the police raid underway in Texcoco: “If those above think that they are going to continue repressing us, they are mistaken. The Other Campaign is not just a movement of words. It is also a movement of action.” He announced that meeting with campaign adherents in downtown Mexico slated for six o’clock would be suspended to deal with the conflict underway, less than an hour from Mexico City.

After all, the compañeros and compañeras in the line of fire in Texcoco were the Other Campaign adherents of San Salvador Atenco, where, in 2001 and 2002, they chased out the federal government with machete swords and defeated an international airport imposed on their farmlands. These are men and women that Marcos visited on April 25 and 26 and urged to come to the aid of their neighbors; to show the rest of Mexico how to stand up for, and win, its rights and autonomy. This morning the men and women of Atenco went to nearby Texcoco and, together with the local people, drove out the invading police. The government response: to send more police, and thus what the TV news called a riot (in fact, a police riot) ensued. full article

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