To the people who subscribe the Declaration for Life:

We inform you of the following:

FIRST. – A few months ago, after a long and profound critical and self-critical analysis, and after consulting all the Zapatista towns, it was decided to disappear the Zapatista Rebel Autonomous Municipalities (MAREZ) and the Good Government Juntas.

SECOND. – All seals, letterheads, positions, representations and agreements with the name of any MAREZ or any of the Good Government Juntas are invalid from this moment on. No person can present themselves as a member, authority or representative of any MAREZ or Good Government Junta. The agreements held before this date, with Non-Governmental Organizations, social organizations, collectives, solidarity groups and instances in Mexico and the world are maintained until their expiration, but new agreements cannot be made with these bodies of Zapatista autonomy, for the simple reason that they no longer exist.

THIRD. – The Caracoles remain, but they will remain closed to the outside world until further notice.

FOURTH. – We will tell you the reasons and process by which this decision was made little by little in the following texts. I can only tell you that this evaluation, in its final phase, began about 3 years ago. We will also explain to you what the new structure of Zapatista autonomy is like and how it has been developing.

All that, and more things, will appear at the right time.

FIFTH. – We inform you that we will hold a celebration to mark the 30th anniversary of the beginning of the war against oblivion. This, in the months of December 2023 and January 2024. All people who signed the “Declaration for Life” are invited.

However, it is our duty, while inviting you, to discourage you. Contrary to what the official press, self-proclaimed cool-progre-chill, reports and misinforms, the main cities of the southeastern Mexican state of Chiapas are in complete chaos. The municipal presidencies are occupied by what we call “legal hitmen” or “Disorganized Crime.” There are blockades, assaults, kidnappings, “cobro de piso”, forced recruitment, shootings. This is the effect of the protection of the state government and the dispute over the political charges that is in process. What is being confronted are not political proposals, but rather criminal societies.

So, of course we tell you that, unlike other years, it is not safe.

San Cristóbal de las Casas, Comitán, Las Margaritas and Palenque, to mention some municipal seats, are in the hands of one of the disorganized crime cartels and in dispute with another. This is confirmed by the so-called hotel, tourism, restaurant and service industries. Those who work in these places know this and have not reported it because they are threatened and, furthermore, because they know that any request is useless, because the state and municipal authorities are the ones who commit crimes and know no limit in the robbery they are doing.

In rural communities the problem is even more serious. This is what is being shouted by those who live in all the regions of Chiapas, particularly in the entire border strip with Guatemala.

What is read, heard and seen in the majority of local and national media is just a bad and shameless echo of the state government’s social networks. The truth is that the official authorities are the problem. Yes, like in the rest of the country.

Federal, state and local military and police forces are not in Chiapas to protect the civilian population. They have the sole purpose of stopping migration. That is the order that came from the North American government. As is their way, they have turned migration into a business. Human trafficking is a business of the authorities who, through extortion, kidnapping and buying and selling of migrants, shamelessly enrich themselves.

So, we do not advise you to come. Unless, of course, you organize yourselves very well to do so.

So, although we are not waiting for you, we are inviting you. The tentative dates of the commemorations are between December 23, 2023 and January 7, 2024, the central celebration being December 30-31 and January 1-2. We will tell you the place afterwards. That is to say, we do want you to come, although we don’t recommend it.

Even if you don’t arrive, don’t worry. We will still send you photos and videos.

Well, that is if there still is a world in those dates, anyway.

See it for yourselves.

From the Mountains of the Mexican Southeast
Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés
Mexico, November 2023.