The EZLN said it will defend its territory and stop the construction of the Maya Train.
MEXICO.- The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN) threatens to prevent the construction of the Mayan Train, one of Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s brand mega-projects.
In commemorating the 26th anniversary of its uprising, the movement said it was willing to defend its territories even with their own lives if necessary.
From El Caracol Morelia, in the Chiapas municipality of Altamirano, Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés criticized the consultations made by the federal government to build the Mayan Train.
Without naming López Obrador directly, Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés considered that the President is challenging them.
“A year ago, in December 2018, the foreman who now commands the farm called “Mexico”, made a simulation that he was asking Mother Earth for permission to destroy it,” Moisés said.
“A few weeks ago he made another simulation of an alleged consultation where he only reported that there are many good things about megaprojects, but he did not say one thing about all the misfortunes that these mega-projects bring to people and to nature,” he continued.
In his speech at the Caracol Corazón de Arcoíris de la Esperanza, the Zapatista leader stated that very few people participated in that consultation.
“People are saying that the Maya Train project will be carried out even if the Zapatistas like it or not”.
“That means: alive or dead, but we are going to defend it.’ And we, the Zapatista people, take this as a challenge, the president thinks he has the strength and the money, and that no one will oppose his mandate, “said Moises.
“And then we made the count of how many people are needed to defend the land, it turned out that one Zapatista person is enough (…) then we went to look in the collective heart that we are(…) one Zapatista is ready for everything, everything, and we found not one, not two, not a hundred, not a thousand, not 10 thousand, not 100 thousand, we found everything called the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, willing to do everything to defend the Earth “.
Moisés assured that at the EZLN they are willing to be beaten, jailed, disappeared, or even killed, to oppose the Maya Train.
“Why are bad governments trying to destroy us at any cost, to beat us, imprison us, disappear and kill us?” He questioned.
In his message, Moisés compared López Obrador’s Government with that of Carlos Salinas de Gortari, and he criticized AMLO’s mega-projects, national guards, and insecurity, and recalled the murder of activist Samir Flores Soberanes.
The Yucatan Times Newsroom with information from SIPSE
