May 28 March: Free the May 3-4 Political Prisoners
"Today a new cycle of movements starts..." --Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos, May 28th rally, Zocalo, Mexico City.
"The mobilizations that occured from the 19th of May through and on the 28th show that we now have a national leftist anticapitalist organization." --Subcomandante Marcos, 2nd National Assembly of Adherents of the Sixth Declaration of the Lacondon Jungle, May 29th, Mexico City.
The estimated numbers of participants of the May 28th march range widely, from 10,000 to 50,000. Some 25,000 might be a good estimate. [see Kilombo webpage on the Sixth for updates on the Intergalactic mobilizations] There were contingents from each state of the republic, international contingents, children's contingents, campesino contingents, women's contingents, released political prisoners contingents, punk contingents, and many more. The Abejas, members of the indgienous community of Acteal where paramilitaries massacred 45 men, women, and children in December 1997, marched under their banner, "Atenco, brothers, the Abejas of Acteal are with you." People carried signs with pictures of Javier Cortes, the 14-year-old shot in the chest and killed by police May 3rd, of Alexis Benhumea, the young student shot in the head with a tear gas bullet on May 4 who has laid in a coma ever since, of FPDT (Popular Front in Defense of the Land) leader Ignacio del Valle, held political prisoner in La Palma, a high-security federal prison in Toluca, of Felipe Alvarez, another FPDT leader and Hector Galido, human rights lawyer for the Atenco resistance, both also being held in La Palma, of America del Valle, daughter of Ignacio del Valle, who has been in hiding since the May 4 police operation, with arrest warrants hanging over her head, of Valentina Palma, the Chilean student studying in Mexico who was detained, beaten, sexually abused, and deported May 4th. These faces, names, voices, have been claimed by all of the Other Campaign, and of the 6th Declaration internationally, as compa~eros in struggle, as "one of our own." Now in addition to "Todos somos Atenco" "We are all Atenco," the Other Campaign shouts, "We are all America" (del Valle), "We are all Alexis," and "Todos somos todos," or "We are all 'us'!"
The campesinas from Veracruz, whose naked manifestation is their own protest for peasant rights, continue to support the mobilizations of the Other Campaign. They chanted with the Other Campaign marchers, "Free the political prisoners," "You are not alone!"
This woman went police officer by police officer, showing them her sign, referring to the rapes and sexual abuses by police of the women taken prisoner May 4, "If it had been your sister, your mother, you! Would you still stand here with your arms crossed?" If they refused to look at the sign she read it out loud to them. On the other side of her sign reads, "We are all Atenco." Other women, some of them who were taken prisoner May 3-4 and have been since released, shouted "rapist," "murderer," at the riot police lines.
At the rally, in addition to the contributions by representatives from various states, messages were sent to be read in the Zocalo from Trinidad, the wife of Ignacio del Valle, from America del Valle, from Valentina Palma, from the political prisoners still in Santiaguito, Almoyoloya, from those in permanent vigilance outside the prison. At the 2nd National Assembly of Adherents of the Other Campaign, May 29th, we hear reports from around the network of the Other: 26 prisoners in Santiaguito continue their hunger strike, they are now in day 29, and have insufficient medical monitoring. Of the prisoners 6 have severe untreated injuries, including multiple broken ribs, mental illness, and a paraplegic man who was dragged from his home and beaten on May 4.
Alexis Benhumea has now been declared officially braindead. The permanent presence outside the prison is at risk of being evicted by police in the next couple days. The lawyer representing many of the political prisoners, an adherent of the Other Campaign himself, clarifies that the complaints and demands of the women prisoners against police are of charges of sexual torture, not just beating or sexual abuse. In each national adherents assembly we see more faces that before we had only known by their bloodied bodies on the videos taken in Atenco May 3 and 4. At the first assembly, Jorge Salinas Jardon, a telephone worker from Atenco, one of the most savagely beaten, who appeared on live tv the morning of May 3 under the flailing batons and boots of 24-27 police, appeared, bandaged and in heavy casts, but walking and talking and fighting. 
At the 2nd assembly the UNAM student whose bald head we knew from its bloodied appearance in the prison videos, appeared, wounds scabbed over, the white of one eye blood red, but walking and talking among us. The spirit of the Other, in the face of brutal violence and state repression, has been militant, of unprecedented compa~erismo and commitment and creativity, and most importantly, organization. "The worst we could do right now is be disorganized," a member of the prison sit-in declares. "My father taught me never to hate," America del Valle said, "to know our enemy, and to fight, but never to hate."
The EZLN Intergalactic Commission reports global solidarity mobilizations in the following cities (see the Kilombo webpage on the Sixth for the complete Intergalactic report): San Diego, San Francisco, New York, Washington, Los Angeles, Riverside, La Puente, Santa Ana, San Diego, Houston, Sacramento, Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis, Tucson, Portland, San Antonio, Albuquerque, Montreal, Vancouver, Bogotá, Quito, Caracas, San Salvador, San José, Buenos Aires, Rosario, Bahía Blanca, Mar de Plata, Brasilia, Cochabamba, Santiago, La Havana; Stockholm, Bilbao, Barcelona, Madrid, Munich, Munster, Heidelberg, Berlin, Paris, Toulouse, Athens, Venice, Rome, Mestre-Marghera, Bologna, Naples, London, Oslo, Copenhagen, Vienna, and Salzburg. In addition, letters in solidarity with Atenco and condemning repression directed by the Mexican government have been sent from: Palestine, Turkey, Basque Country, Greece, Spain, Italy, Germany, France, Austria, Denmark and Belgium; and from Argentina, Puerto Rico, Canada, Peru, Brazil, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Bolivia, Venezuela, United States, Cuba, and Chile.
"The mobilizations that occured from the 19th of May through and on the 28th show that we now have a national leftist anticapitalist organization." --Subcomandante Marcos, 2nd National Assembly of Adherents of the Sixth Declaration of the Lacondon Jungle, May 29th, Mexico City.
The estimated numbers of participants of the May 28th march range widely, from 10,000 to 50,000. Some 25,000 might be a good estimate. [see Kilombo webpage on the Sixth for updates on the Intergalactic mobilizations] There were contingents from each state of the republic, international contingents, children's contingents, campesino contingents, women's contingents, released political prisoners contingents, punk contingents, and many more. The Abejas, members of the indgienous community of Acteal where paramilitaries massacred 45 men, women, and children in December 1997, marched under their banner, "Atenco, brothers, the Abejas of Acteal are with you." People carried signs with pictures of Javier Cortes, the 14-year-old shot in the chest and killed by police May 3rd, of Alexis Benhumea, the young student shot in the head with a tear gas bullet on May 4 who has laid in a coma ever since, of FPDT (Popular Front in Defense of the Land) leader Ignacio del Valle, held political prisoner in La Palma, a high-security federal prison in Toluca, of Felipe Alvarez, another FPDT leader and Hector Galido, human rights lawyer for the Atenco resistance, both also being held in La Palma, of America del Valle, daughter of Ignacio del Valle, who has been in hiding since the May 4 police operation, with arrest warrants hanging over her head, of Valentina Palma, the Chilean student studying in Mexico who was detained, beaten, sexually abused, and deported May 4th. These faces, names, voices, have been claimed by all of the Other Campaign, and of the 6th Declaration internationally, as compa~eros in struggle, as "one of our own." Now in addition to "Todos somos Atenco" "We are all Atenco," the Other Campaign shouts, "We are all America" (del Valle), "We are all Alexis," and "Todos somos todos," or "We are all 'us'!"
The campesinas from Veracruz, whose naked manifestation is their own protest for peasant rights, continue to support the mobilizations of the Other Campaign. They chanted with the Other Campaign marchers, "Free the political prisoners," "You are not alone!"
This woman went police officer by police officer, showing them her sign, referring to the rapes and sexual abuses by police of the women taken prisoner May 4, "If it had been your sister, your mother, you! Would you still stand here with your arms crossed?" If they refused to look at the sign she read it out loud to them. On the other side of her sign reads, "We are all Atenco." Other women, some of them who were taken prisoner May 3-4 and have been since released, shouted "rapist," "murderer," at the riot police lines. 
At the rally, in addition to the contributions by representatives from various states, messages were sent to be read in the Zocalo from Trinidad, the wife of Ignacio del Valle, from America del Valle, from Valentina Palma, from the political prisoners still in Santiaguito, Almoyoloya, from those in permanent vigilance outside the prison. At the 2nd National Assembly of Adherents of the Other Campaign, May 29th, we hear reports from around the network of the Other: 26 prisoners in Santiaguito continue their hunger strike, they are now in day 29, and have insufficient medical monitoring. Of the prisoners 6 have severe untreated injuries, including multiple broken ribs, mental illness, and a paraplegic man who was dragged from his home and beaten on May 4.
Alexis Benhumea has now been declared officially braindead. The permanent presence outside the prison is at risk of being evicted by police in the next couple days. The lawyer representing many of the political prisoners, an adherent of the Other Campaign himself, clarifies that the complaints and demands of the women prisoners against police are of charges of sexual torture, not just beating or sexual abuse. In each national adherents assembly we see more faces that before we had only known by their bloodied bodies on the videos taken in Atenco May 3 and 4. At the first assembly, Jorge Salinas Jardon, a telephone worker from Atenco, one of the most savagely beaten, who appeared on live tv the morning of May 3 under the flailing batons and boots of 24-27 police, appeared, bandaged and in heavy casts, but walking and talking and fighting. 
At the 2nd assembly the UNAM student whose bald head we knew from its bloodied appearance in the prison videos, appeared, wounds scabbed over, the white of one eye blood red, but walking and talking among us. The spirit of the Other, in the face of brutal violence and state repression, has been militant, of unprecedented compa~erismo and commitment and creativity, and most importantly, organization. "The worst we could do right now is be disorganized," a member of the prison sit-in declares. "My father taught me never to hate," America del Valle said, "to know our enemy, and to fight, but never to hate."
The EZLN Intergalactic Commission reports global solidarity mobilizations in the following cities (see the Kilombo webpage on the Sixth for the complete Intergalactic report): San Diego, San Francisco, New York, Washington, Los Angeles, Riverside, La Puente, Santa Ana, San Diego, Houston, Sacramento, Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis, Tucson, Portland, San Antonio, Albuquerque, Montreal, Vancouver, Bogotá, Quito, Caracas, San Salvador, San José, Buenos Aires, Rosario, Bahía Blanca, Mar de Plata, Brasilia, Cochabamba, Santiago, La Havana; Stockholm, Bilbao, Barcelona, Madrid, Munich, Munster, Heidelberg, Berlin, Paris, Toulouse, Athens, Venice, Rome, Mestre-Marghera, Bologna, Naples, London, Oslo, Copenhagen, Vienna, and Salzburg. In addition, letters in solidarity with Atenco and condemning repression directed by the Mexican government have been sent from: Palestine, Turkey, Basque Country, Greece, Spain, Italy, Germany, France, Austria, Denmark and Belgium; and from Argentina, Puerto Rico, Canada, Peru, Brazil, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Bolivia, Venezuela, United States, Cuba, and Chile.
posted by El Kilombo Intergalactico at 9:09 PM
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