Last Tuesday, June 22, the first group of the Zapatista delegation of the “Tour for Life” disembarked in the port of Vigo, a journey of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation through the five continents, with the idea of “holding meetings, dialogues, exchanges of ideas, experiences, analysis and collaborations among those of us who are engaged in the struggle for Life”. The first group to come, Escuadrón 421, is made up of 7 people, although the entire delegation will be made up of 160 people, most of them women, and will arrive later.
Escuadrón 421, made up of a transgender person, three women and three men, was received, in a festive atmosphere with traditional Galician music and dance, by dozens of activists, amid applause and shouts of “Zapata lives, the struggle continues!”. Marijose, the trans woman of the delegation, who was the first to disembark, declared in her speech: “the name of this land, which is now called Europe, from now on will be called: SLUMIL K´AJXEMK´OP, which it means “Insubordinate Land.” And so it will be known by people and strangers as long as there is someone here who does not give up, does not sell out and does not give in”.
After 10 years organizing and training in the Lacandon Jungle, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation emerged in 1994 when a group of armed indigenous people tried to occupy seven municipal seats on the same day that the North American Free Trade Agreement came into force. With that gesture of resistance they defended the autonomy of the indigenous communities. Their demands for “work, land, shelter, food, health, education, independence, freedom, democracy, justice and peace” continue to be valid to the extent that their demands have not been met and the government’s attacks with its paramilitary henchmen continue, in order to harass the insurgent population.
The Zapatista group has been traveling since May and reached the Azores in Portugal on June 12. That weekend delegations from Germany, Brazil, Colombia, France, Greece, Iran, Italy, Morocco, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, Andalusia, Asturias, Catalonia, Castilla y León, Madrid, Murcia, the Basque Country and Valencia held events all along the coast to commemorate the arrival of the ship “The Mountain.” The Zapatista caravan will tour more than 30 countries where it will meet with social movements from the five continents.
1 https://desinformemonos.org/desembarcan-zapatistas-en-vigo-y-renombran-europa-como-tierra-insumisa/ 2 https://www.goteo.org/project/gira-zapatista-europea-2021 3 https://elpais.com/mexico/2021-06-22/el-escuadron-421-del-ejercito-zapatista-desembarca-en-galicia-para-iniciar-su-gira-por-europa.html 4 https://elordenmundial.com/el-movimiento-zapatista/ 5 https://www.elsaltodiario.com/alkimia/tras-27-anos-de-zapatismo-viajaran-a-la-europa-de-abajo-y-a-la-izquierda-en-el-verano-de-2021
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