8.12 Appendices

List of abbreviations

CND: National Democratic Convention
EZLN: Zapatista Army of National Liberation
FZLN: Zapatista Front of National Liberation
MLN: National Movement of Liberation
NAFTA: North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement
PAN: Partido de Acción Nacional
PRI: Party of the Institutionalised Revolution
PRONASOL: National Program of Solidarity

Data:

Primer Informe de Gobierno, Mexico 1989, http://lanic.utex.edu
Third Informe de Gobierno, Presidencia de la República, Mexico 1991
Declaración de la Selva Lacandona, EZLN Documentos y Comunicados vol. 1, Mexico: ERA
Segunda Declaración de la Selva Lacandona, Documentos y Comunicados vol. 1, Mexico: ERA
Tercera Declaración de la Selva Lacandona, , Documentos y Comunicados vol. 2, Mexico: ERA
Cuarta Declaración de la Selva Lacandona, Documentos y Comunicados vol. 3, Mexico: ERA

For the English translations of the texts of the EZLN I have used Womack (1999) and Ponce de León (2001). The texts are also available on http://www.ezln.org.

Appendix 1: Excerpts of the First Informe de Gobierno related to the transformation of the state

Our generations were educated in an environment in which increased state capacity meant more justice (.). The state developed a protectionist policy and provided subsidies to defend small and large initiatives. The state bought enterprises that had financial problems to protect employment and to support the productive sectors. We can say today, in the light of the results, that these decisions have not been adequate. (.) Nobody can deny that this policy has led to many positive results (.). But the circumstances have changed. Mexico was transformed; the world became different. Policies that previously led to growth and expansion for well-being, have now become a direct obstacle.

The crisis has revealed that a larger state is not necessarily a more efficient state; a state that holds more property is not necessarily a more just state. The truth is that, in Mexico, more state meant less capacity to respond to social claims of our citizens and, in the end, it meant increasing weakness of the state. (.) the privatisation of public, non strategic, enterprises, responds to a principle of loyalty with the social and nationalist character of the state (.). Privatisation does not mean that national development is being put in other people's hands. On the contrary, it provides the state with the resources, attention and capacity to use immense instruments of policies of expenditure, income (.) of the strategic enterprises to determine the road of development and to achieve the project that the nation demands. (.) the central point of the state reform is to resolve, in favour of the population, the dilemma between a state that holds property or a state that provides justice. The economy, as it opens up to private initiative and investment, will serve the nationalist goals of sovereignty and justice (all translations by the author, unless indicated otherwise).

Appendix 2: Excerpts of the First Informe de Gobierno on the representation of change

Throughout the Republic there is a persistent, determined and urgent call for change. The voice of change demands justice, security, jobs, services, education, health, housing, food, and a clean environment. It also calls for a wider and more effective participation in public life, through elections in which predominate impartiality, security, respect and mutual recognition. It is the call for a new democratic relationship between citizens and authorities, based on a confident dialogue, through a responsible agreement and abiding the law.

I committed myself to this change, because it will guarantee the continuity of Mexico in history (I, 24-27) (.) Problems of the recent past have led to a more intense expression of the national eagerness for transformation (I, 35-37). No change will last without keeping in mind what is essential in the past and always. But no change can be based on the nostalgic celebration of the past.

The future that we want must be the achievement of the dream of our parents as well as the achievement of the desires of our children (I, 44-49).

Over the past few years, a big worldwide transformation has occurred. The political, military and economic post-war configuration has been replaced at an extraordinary velocity by a less predictable, multipolar, highly competitive, technologically revolutionary scenario that has a great capacity to affect life in all countries. This change does not acknowledge borders, it does not respect ideologies, nor does it consider levels of development.

Not all nations that we know today will survive as sovereign states. Nobody has a guaranteed future, because the world will not wait. Nobody has the guaranteed right to subsist, unless he works with patriotism to achieve this.

There are countries that fall apart, conquered by the weight of conflicts and disagreements. Other countries, that do not change, polarise and perish under the pressures of change. To be stronger, we have to transform. We will do this while keeping in mind what is important for Mexico.

National sovereignty is of fundamental importance (.) it was important for our origins and it is also essential for our struggle today. Without sovereignty, it is useless to formulate other goals, because they would not be ours. I have proposed as a strategy for change the modernisation of Mexico (I 56-82).

Appendix 3: Excerpts of the Second Declaration of the Selva Lacandona

We all understood [then] that the days of the eternal party in power (.) cannot continue (.) [that presidentialism is an obstacle for liberty and must no longer be permitted, that the culture of fraud is the method with which they impose and deny democracy, that justice only exists for corrupt people who are in power, that we must achieve that he who rules must obey, that there is no other way]. This all honest Mexicans of good faith, Civil Society, have understood. The only ones who are opposed are those who have based their success on theft form the public treasury, (.) who resort to political assassinations and electoral fraud to impose themselves [on the country] (Womack 1999:281; the fragment between square brackets is the author's translation of a part of the original that was omitted in Womack's translation).

Appendix 4: Excerpts of the Third Declaration of the Selva Lacandona

The indigenous question will not have a solution if there is not a RADICAL transformation of the national pact. The only form of incorporating with justice and dignity, the indigenous into the Nation is by recognizing their specific characteristics in social, political, and cultural organization. Autonomy is not separation; it is the integration of the most humiliated and forgotten minorities in contemporary Mexico (.).

Today, we call [the people of Mexico] to struggle by all means, at all levels, and in all parts of the country, for democracy, liberty, and justice, by means of this Third Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle in which we call on all social and political forces of the country, all honest Mexicans, all those who struggle for the democratisation of national life, to form a MOVEMENT FOR NATIONAL LIBERATION, including the National Democratic Convention (.) that are against the State-party system. (.)

We call on the workers of the Republic, the labourers in the countryside and the cities, the people in squatters settlements, the teachers and the students of Mexico, the women of Mexico, the young people of the whole country, the honest artists and intellectuals, the committed churchmen, the grassroots militants of different political organizations (.) to struggle for the end of the State-party system, joining the National Democratic Convention if they do not belong to a party, and the Movement for National Liberation if they are active in any of the opposition political forces.

We declare that Custody of the Fatherland is removed from the federal government. The Mexican Flag, the Nation's constitution, the Mexican Hymn, and the great National Seal will now be under the care of the forces of the resistance until legality, legitimacy, and sovereignty are restored in all the national territory. (Womack, 1999:292-3).

Appendix 5: Excerpts of the Fourth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona:

We call on the people of Mexico to participate in a new stage of the struggle for national liberation and the construction of a new fatherland through this Fourth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona in which we call all honest men and women to participate in the new national political force that is born today: the Zapatista Front of National Liberation. (.) A political force that can organize citizens' demands and proposals so that he who commands, commands in obedience to the popular will.

Many words walk in the world. Many worlds are made. Many worlds make us. There are words and worlds that are lies and injustices. There are words and worlds that are truths and truthful. We make true words. We have been made from true words.

In the world of the powerful there is no space for anyone but themselves and their servants. In the world we want, everyone fits. We want a world in which many worlds fit. The nation that we construct is one where all communities and languages fit, where all steps may walk, where all may have laughter, where all may live the dawn. (Ponce de León 2001:88).

Índice general