Named by the Aztecs and long celebrated by Mexican artists, writers and poets, the volcanoes Popocatepetl (poh-poh-ka-teh-peh-tuhl) and Iztacihuatl (is-tah-see-whah-tuhl) stand guard over the valley of Mexico - forming one of the most beautiful landscapes in the world. In the nahuatl language, Popocatepetl means Smoking Mountain, while Iztacihuatl means Sleeping Woman. Ancient Aztec lore tells of a time when Tenochitlan, the capital of the Aztec empire, was at war with a neighboring tribe. The empire’s most valiant warrior, Popocatepetl, fell in love with a princess named Xochiquetzal. Deeply in love, the two would marry upon the return of Popocatepetl from battle. The invincible warrior went off to war, but after failing to return for months, Xochiquetzal believed her beloved was slain on the battlefield - lovesick, she drank a potion that put her into a deep sleep.

Soon thereafter Popocatepetl returned victorious from battle, only to be told by the emperor that the princess lay still, her body resting in a temple. The teary eyed Aztec knight took his seemingly dead lover in his arms, and carried her outside of the city and into the high mountains. There he cried and wailed over the lifeless body of his dearest until the Gods took pity over his suffering and sent a deep blanket of snow to cover the two lovers. The pair were transformed into the great volcanoes that look down upon the valley. Since that sad day, Popocatepetl has been waiting for his Sleeping Woman to awaken from her endless sleep, and people say that when Popocatepetl volcano erupts… it’s really the valiant warrior’s passionate heart keeping his true love warm.

On July 31st, 2005, Popocatepetl erupted twice… the moderate eruptions sending a huge column of hot ash a mile and a half into the air, which later rained down upon parts of southern Mexico City.

This July 30th in Baldwin Park, Califas, Danza Cuauhtemoc will be celebrating a Fiesta del Maiz related to the Aztec goddess of corn, Xilonen (she-lon-en). Named after the golden hair-like tassels found on unshuked corn, Xilonen is also the goddess of food and produce, and by extension - fertility. The powerful goddess is also the wife of Tezcatlipoca (tehs-cah-tlee-poh-cah), the sorcerer god of night who sees all in his smoking mirror of obsidian… hence his name, Lord of the Smoking Mirror. This year’s Xilonen ceremony will be cause for much dance, prayer, and blessing of foods, giving strength and vision to the people of corn. Everyone is encouraged to come and participate in the ceremony. Danza Cuauhtemoc is especially aware of the attempts by the racists of “Save Our State” to desecrate the statue, Danza Indigenas, created by Chicana artist Judy Baca for the city of Baldwin Park - so this year’s Xilonen ceremony will also help revitalize the spiritual power necessary to resist those out to destroy indigenous culture. The ceremony will be held from 11 to 5 pm., in the city of Baldwin Park - Saturday, July 30th, in Morgan Park (click here for directions). For more information, check the Danza Cuauhtemoc webpage.

Urban Outfitters, a trendy apparel company that targets the 18-30 age group, has come out with a racist T-shirt presently being marketed to the public. The offensive shirt displays the caption “New Mexico, Cleaner than regular Mexico”. Apparently the executives at Urban Outfitters think it’s ok to make repulsive jokes about “dirty Mexicans”, but racism is no laughing matter. Here’s the number of their corporate headquarters, 215-564-2313. Give them a call and ask to speak to someone in charge of retail operations - tell them that racism is not funny, fashionable, or something to be marketed for profit. Last year the bigots at Urban Outfitters marketed a T-shirt with a slogan that read “Everyone Loves A Jewish Girl” - the words surrounded by dollar signs. That outrageous insult brought the Anti-Defamation League into the fray, and the ADL demanded Urban Outfitters stop producing and selling the offensive shirt. Urban Outfitters followed up by releasing a T-shirt called “Ghettopoly”, infuriating African Americans. That not being enough, the 77 retail store outlet released a T-shirt displaying the words “Voting is for Old People”. To their great credit, the Anti-Defamation League have now demanded Urban Outfitters stop selling the shirt insulting to Mexicans and Mexican Americans. The regional director of the ADL, Barry Morrison, told the offending retailer the T-shirt slogan “is saying that the country of Mexico is a dirty place.” Despite the persistent controversies, the sales for the company are up by over 60%. Here at Xispas, we think it’s high time for a boycott of Urban Outfitters.

[ The following article originally appeared on artist Mark Vallen’s Art For A Change web log (link) under the headline of Mural Masterwork: Myth of Tomorrow. His report is reprinted here with kind permission ]


An important antiwar mural painted in Mexico by famed Japanese modern artist, Taro Okamoto (1911 - 1996), has been rediscovered after thirty five years. In Spanish the work is known as Mito del Mañana (Myth of Tomorrow), and in Japanese, Ashita no Shinwa - but like all great works of art, Okamoto’s painting speaks a universal language. The gigantic mural depicts the exact moment of an atomic bomb explosion, with the focus of the work being an anonymous human reduced to skeletal form and burning under an atomic sun.

Okamoto’s mural was originally painted in the lobby of what was to be a high-rise luxury hotel in Mexico City, but the developer encountered financial troubles that prevented the building’s completion. Okamoto’s wall painting, dismantled and put into storage, eventually disappeared - and it remained missing until just recently. In 2003 the mural was found abandoned in a yard for building materials located in a suburb of Mexico City. The Taro Okamoto Memorial Museum in Japan sent a team of restorers to Mexico to evaluate the condition of the artwork, and found that it was suffering minor damage. Calling the piece “Taro’s magnum opus”, the institution obtained the rights to the mural earlier this year. The mural has been shipped to Japan where museum staff and experts began restoration work in July, 2005. Okamoto’s mural will eventually be placed on public display at the end of 2006.

The Taro Okamoto Memorial Foundation for the Promotion of Contemporary Art released a statement that in part read, “Okamoto believed that the myths of the future develop at moments of cruelty and tragedy. This mural speaks from his deepest thoughts, from his heart.” While the world’s first atomic bombing of civilian population centers occurred in August 1945 when the U.S. devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki with nuclear fire… it would be a mistake to see Okamoto’s artwork as fixated on those terrible events. Rather, his striking mural is a warning to all humanity, and the message is more relevant today than ever before. That we’ve grown accustomed to living with a nuclear Sword of Damocles hanging above us all is really the core meaning of the mural’s title - and our continued apathy only assures that tomorrow is indeed a myth.

Painted between 1968 and 1969 and measuring some 18 feet high by 98 feet long, Okamoto’s artwork is a powerful indictment of war. While it may seem incongruous that such a disturbing and forceful work of art would appear in the lobby of a luxury hotel, one must remember that Mexican restaurants, hotels, commercial and government buildings have often made wall space available for the display of controversial large-scale public artworks. The Mexican Muralist Movement led by greats David Alfaro Siqueiros, Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco, set the standards for a progressive and internationalist school of art. The radical and populist artworks of these masters and the many others who worked shoulder to shoulder with them, enhance public space all across Mexico. There’s absolutely no doubt that Taro Okamoto was inspired and influenced by the remarkable Mexican school of socially conscious artists, and the discovery and restoration of his mural is cause for celebration.

[ In this Column of the Americas opinion piece by Roberto Rodriguez, the sad tale of an LAPD shooting and killing of a 19 month old girl is recounted. Titled The Price of the Innocents, Rodriguez places the tragedy in a wider context. You can reach the writer, at: XColumn@aol.com ]

As a result of the recent SWAT police shootout in the Watts section of Los Angeles, this much is known: gunman Jose Raul Pena and his 19 month-old daughter, Suzie Marie, are both dead from police bullets. William J. Bratton, chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, immediately lay the blame on the father (a car dealer and ex-soldier from El Salvador) - who used his daughter as a human shield during the shootout - characterizing him as a bad man. Several investigations are already underway regarding the circumstances and tactics of the SWAT team, etc. However, three things are not in dispute: Suzie Marie was unintentionally killed; her death is a tragedy; and Suzie Marie’s mother, Lorena Lopez, will be compensated. The only question will be, how much… as in how much the price of a child?

There’s little doubt Lopez will be receiving a sum with lots of zeroes. Yet no amount of money will soften the tragedy. No one disputes this. Not the chief, not the new mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, not anyone. This unfolding tragedy serves as a reminder regarding the value that society places on human life. That officers would shoot at a gunman - who is using a child as a shield - is also an uncomfortable reminder of the dehumanization that our society has undergone since 911. One would have expected the opposite, but we do live in times of numbing dehumanization. Suzie Marie’s death has transfixed the City of the Future, causing it to collectively ask about the wisdom and limits of force in resolving conflicts and innocent bystanders.

Think about Iraq. (Others are recalling the 40th anniversary of the Watts riots, whose epicenter was nearby). How many Suzie Maries are being killed daily in the crossfire in Iraq? We don’t know, primarily because this administration - with seemingly full compliance from the mainstream media — has intentionally shielded Americans from the actual horrors of the war. (The world media does not censor the news from the front).Why? Because war is hell. Suzie Marie’s tragedy shows us that the death of a single child can stir the emotions and conscience of an entire city (along with the people of El Salvador). The political strategists at the White House know this full well. This may well explain why the Pentagon does not count, much less name Iraqi casualties (unless it is to its political advantage). To do so might stir the American conscience. (The world conscience, particularly among Arabs-Muslims, has already been stirred as it is continually outraged by this dehumanizing practice). The outcry over Suzie Marie helps to explain why we are not permitted to see those horrors of war, nor the funerals for U.S. service personnel. The collective emotions of the nation might be stirred. Imagery is powerful and a lesson learned from Vietnam.

Yet the tragedy in Watts also points to another, even more uncomfortable truth. When force is used, it must be based on truth (including an accurate arrest warrant) and the threat posed by the situation must be credible and imminent. When there’s an innocent party involved (Suzie Marie), another factor enters the picture: the force used should be both proportionate and measured. This is what the investigations will examine. Across the ocean, Israel has engineered the controversial practice of “targeted assassinations,” which require no trials. As long as the primary target is a known terrorist/combatant, it matters little if anyone else is killed. While clearly reckless, if not outright illegal, its chief ally (the United States) does not forcefully condemn the practice, thus, the Israeli Defense Forces do not feel morally constrained. In the Afghanistan and Iraqi wars, the U.S. military has borrowed that same technique and rationale: it’s the terrorists fault for hiding among civilians.

Obviously, the technique and frequency are greatly magnified in Iraq, involving thousands of deaths. However, unlike police departments that acknowledge when they raid the wrong house and/or kill innocent bystanders, the U.S. administration has undeniably raided the wrong country. Yet, the Bush administration continues the war as if somehow, because the war rationale has changed, it is somehow now the right house. (It can do this as long as the victims remain nameless and faceless). In Los Angeles, the police chief has justified the killing and the tragedy of Pena and his daughter by claiming that he was a bad man. That cannot be the standard for use of force when it involves innocent bystanders… unless American cities are now also being regarded as actual war zones.

© Column of the Americas 2005

On Tuesday, June 14, 2005, the Cesar Chavez-founded United Farm Workers asked North American wine consumers to join a new international boycott of the Gallo winery. A noon rally at San Francisco’s City Hall was attended by hundreds of vineyard workers and supporters who kicked-off the UFW’s first major nationwide boycott in more than 20 years. UFW Union President Arturo Rodriguez premiered boycott posters, buttons and bumper stickers spotlighting Gallo’s exploitation of its Sonoma County vineyard workers, 75% of whom are denied any benefits or job protections. “The Gallo’s abuse, cheat and deny the majority of their workers benefits, job protections and humane living conditions in the heart of California’s fabled wine country,” he noted. “The Gallo’s deny responsibility for what is being done to farm workers on their behalf, on their land, to produce their product and to help make their money. Through this boycott people of goodwill can say, ‘No Gallo!’”

When Gallo’s Sonoma County workers voted overwhelmingly for the UFW in a 1994 state-conducted election, all were full-time workers with benefits. Today, however, 75% of the work force is composed of temporary employees with no benefits. Gallo was found guilty of illegally attempting to decertify, or get rid of, the UFW by a state administrative judge and unanimously by the Agricultural Labor Relations Board in 2004. In 1973, Chavez declared the first Gallo boycott after the Modesto-based jug wine producer refused to renegotiate its UFW contract. E&J Gallo Winery has wineries in Fresno, Livingston, Modesto and Sonoma County, Calif., and vineyards across the region. Its wine is sold throughout the U.S. and in more than 85 countries. The company, the leading U.S. wine exporter, is one of the world’s biggest wine makers and the largest in the U.S. by cases sold. For more information, visit www.gallounfair.com or www.ufw.org

[ This review of Luis J. Rodriguez’ Music of the Mill was written by Gina Ruiz, who has also reviewed a number of other recent books for Xispas ]

Pulitzer-prize winning author John Steinbeck wrote The Grapes of Wrath in 1939 about the Joad family - their poverty, their desperation and above all their dignity. It was and is an amazing social commentary, and Luis Rodriguez’s Music of the Mill is as well. Everyone knows about the Great Depression but how many people outside of the little South L.A. towns where the steel mill ruled for so many years and about the economical and social decline the closing of those mills caused? Billy Joel sang about Allentown and the whole nation was made aware of the loss of mills in Pennsylvania. Who sang for Huntington Park, Maywood, and South Gate, those little sad towns in Los Angeles? Luis J. Rodriguez has now done so. In Music of the Mill, Luis Rodriguez writes about the Salcido family and their 60-year relationship to the mill called Nazareth Steel. The story starts with Propocio and Eladia walking most of the way from their home in Mexico to a new life in the United States. They wind up in Los Angeles and Procopio gets a job in the big steel mill. Rodriguez’s portrays the union battles, tensions between Blacks and Mexicans, the white domination in the union, in the mill itself, and the fight of the Salcido family for equality and safety within the dangerous mill.

Johnny Salcido, the main protagonist is as strong of a character as any I’ve read. He has his dark side yet he is strong in his love for his wife and family. His portrayal - the young vato loco getting in trouble to the young green mill worker to the activist and father all are so amazingly well done that you just feel like you know him and maybe you do. There is a lot of Johnny Salcido in all of us: the rebel, the fighter, the lover of hearth, home, family. The mill itself is portrayed as a dangerous, toxic yet seductive monster. Mr. Rodriguez brings the reader into the mill; you feel its heat, its intensity, its ugliness and its beauty. From workers grilling their carne asada on an ingot to the racial tensions and divisions, you are in that mill. You can feel the tension, smell the carne. People die in the mill, lose limbs, breath in bad fumes. Workers turn to alcohol, drugs to stay awake in order to work more shifts. It is all too real.

I grew up a Xicana in the shadow of Bethlehem Steel in the 1970s. I remember the men that would come home dirty, black from the fire of the mill and tired. I remember when the mill closed and the rise in drug use; sales of such and violence began to escalate in the barrios where I was now raising my children. I never really tied the two instances together until I read this most remarkable novel. It is as much a social commentary and as well written and gripping as Steinbeck’s. I read one review where the book was well received but the reviewer had a problem with Mr. Rodriguez’s socialist bent. I didn’t see that all. I found the book to be most realistic, the characters were people you cared about, wanted to find out more about. He is a master storyteller and one of the best social commentators of the Xicano in L.A.

No one understands the gangs, the drugs, the jail culture, the strong Xicana men and women, the love we have for our children and culture, the strong worth ethic of the modern and past day Mexican-American as much as Luis J. Rodriguez. He is our Steinbeck. The Music of the Mill hammers out its own glorious song and will be one day a force to be reckoned with. This is more than just a novel. This book has a destiny.

[ The following article was written by Gina "Mar y Sol" Ruiz, who is a Danzante Azteca, activist, writer, and columnist for Xispas ]

If you’ve ever sat in bumper-to-bumper traffic in line at the Tijuana Mexico/US border for hours on a Sunday afternoon, then you know how hard the street vendors on the Tijuana side work. I used to live in Tijuana and made the border crossing early every morning to my job in San Diego. At 3:00 a.m. the street vendors were there waiting for me with hot champurrado, atole, tamalitos bien calientitos or arroz con leche feeding me and keeping me company on my long wait to cross. On the hottest days or in pouring rain the vendors are there; running back and forth to the cars waiting in line hawking their wares and keeping the drivers entertained with juggling, music and the last chance to buy something Mexican before hitting the US. They go home late at night, often to the poorest of dwellings, to work some more feeding their families, cleaning the house, working on the yard, washing clothes or tending to children. Exhausted though they may be, they wear their dignity like a crown. It is a dignity that comes from hard and honest work. It is the pride of being able to provide for your family.

Enter Tijuana’s mayor Jorge Hank Rhon who has issued a new decree that the street vendors must wear brightly colored costumes to allow visitors to “feel at ease” according to the Associated Press. Wear the costume or leave is the mandate and the vendors have two days to comply or leave. “Que Diablo?!”, I say out loud, startling my youngest son. “What the hell?” I read further, my blood already boiling with my somewhat famous (in my family) temper. Yes, it seems that Mexico, Tijuana in particular, want the pinche tourists to feel more comfortable. Two years ago Mexico City had their policemen don the costume of a charro to make the tourists feel at ease. Yeah uh huh, the tourists need to feel more like they are visiting a foreign and third world country. BULLSHIT! The tourists don’t want to feel comfortable, they want to feel superior and that ass kissing vendido that is the worse Mexican President since Porfirio Diaz complies. Now, I don’t know quite whom or where to rail on first, the choices are so many.

Tijuana and Mexico buy this pile of horse manure that is getting sold to them and perform; or rather force the people to be like an organ grinder’s monkey, falling back on the “it’s our culture” canto, yet get their backs up against the wall over Memin Penguin! It’s all fucked up. No, I’m not going to excuse my language because it is all fucked up. Let’s not pretty it up. It’s our culture? That’s bullshit too. Why is it our culture to dress like we’re still living in the 1800’s in order to make the tourists happy? It’s our culture only when it’s convenient and lucrative, you self-serving little boot licker of a mayor. What about our culture when you have poor indigenous people forced from their lands that live in Tijuana? What about our culture then? Do you hand them a brightly colored costume? Hell, no! Those people you have no pride in. Shit, you can’t hide them fast enough. So what about the tourists? They want brightly colored colonial costumes so they can say “Oh how pretty. Look, Biff we’re in a third world country! How charming, how backward!” Seeing Mexicans as a backward people makes them feel superior, more justified in taking from them and dictating how they should be.

The first terrorists (oops sorry meant to say tourists) came and brought disease, famine, genocide, pollution and colonization to Mexico wrapping it up into a nice little package and calling it civilization of the savages. They were a little more honest about it by calling themselves conquistadors but they used the same argument. To the Spanish, the Indians were backward, uneducated children to be conquered and dominated. Some City officials say that the costumes are no different from something you would see in oh, say Disneyland. Again I say bullshit. If I go apply for a job at Disneyland, I know I’m going to have to wear the mouse suit or some other silly costume. It’s part of the job and it’s my choice to apply there. These people have no choice. Well they do but it’s a shitty one. Wear the silly costume or you don’t have a way to make a living. I’m a danzante, I wear my indigenous costume with pride, but again, it’s my choice. I’m not forced to wear it to work and sit at my desk amid my American co-workers in full regalia and feathers while they stare at the poor Indian. Why should the street vendors have to be outfitted like freaks to be gawked at?

Does Mexico have to put on a fool’s mask to please the United States? Come on Mexico! Remember who you are. We’re better than that. We are a country that produced Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Elena Poniatowska, Octavio Paz, Dr. Atl, Guadalupe Posada, Emiliano Zapata, Hidalgo and so many more, too numerous to list, to brilliant to be forgotten. We are a country who has fought for 500 years against genocide, against oblivion. A war is raging now, however swept under the carpet by government; againstthat very oblivion. Are the tourists so threatened by little Mexico that they feel compelled to push the house of cards that is the government to strip us of our dignity? Some will say I am paranoid, that I see a dark message where there is none. Again I say bullshit. 500 years of colonization gives my so-called paranoia some credence. There is a very sinister message here if you’ll only take a look. Let’s take some action. Let’s not just write about this. We have to stop it. We must say no!

There are a couple of quotes from Rigoberta Menchu Tum that sum up what I am trying to say, perhaps ineloquently, about the situation in Tijuana. “What hurts Indians most is… our costumes are considered beautiful, but it’s as if the person wearing it didn’t exist.” And, “We are not myth of the past, ruins in the jungle or zoos. We are people and we want to be respected, not to be the victim of intolerance and racism.”

[ This timely "Column of the Americas" essay by Patrisia Gonzales entitled, Fighting for Justice? comes to us just days after the terror bombing in London ]

The other day at a picnic, the words of a friend’s son, a U.S. Marine who was recently deployed in Falloujah, caused me to question the precepts of democracy and freedom. (The London bombings are making me wonder whether the days of open and free Western societies are numbered as it has created the pressure to further militarize society). While his father is staunchly anti-war, the son did not speak out against or in favor of the war, even as he is being reassigned. He simply encouraged everyone to become civically involved. It was the same day that the president spoke in defense of the war.

I’m also against the war, precisely because I take the time to listen to him when he speaks of soldiers making the ultimate sacrifice. What comes to mind is the numbing daily count. I also think of the marine at the picnic - wondering if this is the embodiment of No Child Left Behind - an initiative that requires schools to make the names of students available to the military. (In his particular case, he’s a little older and readily admits he knew precisely what he signed when he enlisted). The soldiers the president sends off to Iraq are fighting for our freedom, the president says. Yet, his rationale seems disembodied. He certainly did not volunteer to fight in Vietnam and few lawmakers have family members serving in Iraq.

We are constantly being told that the Iraq debate is now irrelevant … that our only concern should be about winning and supporting the troops. We’re also encouraged - especially after the London bombings - to link Iraq with the “war on terror.” (The bombings have actually made conservatives giddy). Forget the reasons why the president is sending young soldiers to war? This demand for unquestioning loyalty is the epitome of dehumanization more associated with militaristic societies. The people we’re killing, secretly imprisoning and even torturing are terrorists or savages not worthy of coming under the protection of the Geneva Conventions. Yes, there’s “collateral damage,” but that’s war and the price of freedom, says the president. (Sound familiar?) Apparently, my freedom is also dependent upon the slaughter of thousands of innocents. That’s nonsensical circular logic. The president is sending young soldiers to kill or be killed… so that we may remain free? Since when did Iraq have a say-so on this matter and since when did it acquire the capability to threaten our liberties? It never has. Yet, you’d never know this by the president’s recent patriotic exhortations.

That’s not why we’re at war. The president - without admitting his faulty claims and lethal miscalculations - is now claiming that we’re fighting to bring democracy and freedom to Iraq. Beyond that, he also sees himself as the one chosen to bring God’s gift of freedom and democracy to not just Iraqis, but to the entire world. (He’s the conservative answer to Che). The only problem with his millennial vision is that not everyone reads the same Bible. That’s the point. In his vision, everyone should be reading not the Koran, Vedas, the Sutras, nor even the Old Testament, but the New Testament. This is why we’re at war: to spread not just democracy and freedom, but to spread the Good News and “free market” economies to the infidels. This is why our sons and daughters and friends are being repeatedly sent off to war - even though not all of them share in the president’s apocalyptic vision. Regardless, has it been worth it?

The president has determined that the death of and maiming of thousands of Iraqis and Americans, is a small price to pay to spread his vision. Yet, is it freedom and democracy if it’s premised on demonstrable falsehoods and if it requires foreign troops and marital law to maintain it? Lest we forget, this system of governance cannot be imposed, but has to be won. What we have instead is a crusade, occupation and a classic quagmire. As a result, at home, we also now have less resources for our own social needs, less rights, privacy and freedoms and little trust in government. What we have more of is a crushing debt, a steady move toward Big Brother government and plenty of fear to fight the president’s permanent wars. (Seems like the president will not be happy until we’re all living in fear). That doesn’t quite sound like freedom… and I’m not so sure that that’s what our friend’s son is fighting for.

[ © Column of the Americas 2005. The writers can be reached at: XColumn@aol.com or Column of the Americas PO BOX 5093, Madison WI 53705. ]

[ On June 19th, 2005, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), issued a communiqué titled RED ALERT. Xispas reprints the entire communiqué here for purposes of dialog and understanding. On June 27th the EZLN announced it would launch "a new political initiative" to be outlined in days to come, and that the rebel leadership would be releasing a series of texts called "The Sixth Declaration from the Lacandon Jungle." In a post titled, Red Alert for Everyone, Chicano author, poet, and novelist, Luis J. Rodriguez, provides some analysis on the situation at his web log ]

Latest Communique from Marcos/EZLN
Originally published in Spanish by the CCRI-CG of the EZLN. Translated by irlandesa.

Communiqué from the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee - General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation. Mexico. June 19, 2005

To the People of Mexico: To the Peoples of the World: Brothers and Sisters:

As of today, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation has declared, throughout all rebel territory, a GENERAL RED ALERT. Based on this, we are informing you: First - That at this time the closure is being carried out of the Caracoles and the Good Government Offices which are located in the zapatista communities of Oventik, La Realidad, Morelia and Roberto Barrios, as well as all the headquarters of the authorities of the different Rebel Zapatista Autonomous Municipalities. Second - That also being carried out is the evacuation of the members of the different Good Government Juntas and the autonomous authorities, in order to place them in shelter. Now, and for an indefinite time period, they will be carrying out their work in a clandestine and nomadic manner. Both the projects as well as the autonomous government will continue functioning, although under different circumstances than they have been up until now.

Third - That basic community health services will continue functioning in the different Caracoles. Civilians will be in charge of these services, and the CCRI-CG of the EZLN is distancing them from any of our future actions, and we are demanding that they be treated as civilians and with respect for their life, liberty and goods by government forces. Fourth - That there has been a call-up of all members of our EZLN who have been engaged in social work in the zapatista communities and those of our regular troops who have been in their barracks. In a similar fashion, all broadcasts by Radio Insurgente, “The Voice of Those Without Voice”, in FM and in short wave, have been suspended for an indefinite period of time. Fifth - That, simultaneous with the publication of this communiqué, national and international civil societies who are working in peace camps and in community projects are being urged to leave rebel territory. Or, if they decide freely of their own volition, they remain on their own and at their own risk, gathered in the caracoles. In the case of minors, their departure is obligatory.

Sixth - That the EZLN announces the closing of the Zapatista Information Centre (CIZ), not without first thanking the civil societies who have participated in it, from the time of its creation until today. The CCRI-CG of the EZLN formally releases these persons from any responsibility for the future actions of the EZLN. Seventh - That the EZLN releases from responsibility for any of our future actions all persons and civil, political, cultural, citizens and non-governmental organizations, solidarity committees and support groups who have been close to us since 1994. We thank all of those who have, sincerely and honestly, throughout these almost 12 years, supported the civil and peaceful struggle of the zapatista indigenous for the constitutional recognition of indigenous rights and culture.

Democracy! Liberty! Justice!From the Mountains of the Mexican Southeast. By the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee - General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation. Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos Mexico, in the sixth month of the year 2005.