[News] Zapatistas Back Indigenous Woman to Run for Mexico's Presidency

[Anti-Imperialist News]

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Zapatistas-Back-Indigenous-Woman-to-Run-for-Mexicos-Presidency-20170528-0020.html 



  Zapatistas Back Indigenous Woman to Run for Mexico's Presidency

May 28, 2017
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Hundreds of Indigenous representatives at the National Indigenous 
Congress from all across Mexico elected a prominent Indigenous leader 
Sunday as their independent candidate for the upcoming presidential 
elections in Mexico due in 2018.

Maria de Jesus Patricio “Marichui” Martinez will be backed by the 
Zapatista Army of National Liberation, known by it's Spanish acronym 
EZLN, in a break 
<http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Zapatistas-Meet-to-Elect-First-Indigenous-Presidential-Candidate-20170527-0013.html> 
from more than two decades of the rebel group's rejecting the Mexican 
state and its electoral politics. Among the EZLN delegates present were 
Subcommandantes Mosies and Galeano — formerly known as Marcos — and 
Comandante Tacho.

Coming from the Nahua community of Tuxpan, in the state of Jalisco, 
Patricio Martinez is a traditional doctor in her community, founder of 
the health center Calli Tecolhuacateca Tochan in 1992 and a long-time 
leader in the Indigenous movement.

The convention and consultations, which began Friday and concluded 
Sunday, also included delegates from 32 states, for a total of 848 
delegates from 58 Mexican Indigenous communities and was held in San 
Cristobal de las Casas in the southeastern state of Chiapas.

The assembly formed and also appointed counselors to its Indigenous 
Government Council, with Patricio Martinez as their spokesperson. The 
goals of the presidential campaign include organizing in every corner of 
the country and making the Indigenous Government Council a 
self-governing body.

The members debated proposals and strategies of the council, as well as 
its organization and networking with other sectors of the civil society, 
with the participation of 296 international observers, including 
representatives of the Apache community from the United States and the 
Mam community from Guatemala.

The Zapatistas came into the international scene after attacking several 
military installations in Mexico on Jan. 1, 1994, launching an 
Indigenous struggle against NAFTA and conditions in Mexico. The movement 
has seen victories, but also considerable challenges, including intense 
repression and criminalization of the struggle at the hands of the 
Mexican state, private landowners, and paramilitary forces.

-- 
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