The Indigenous National Congress
May 1, 2001
Translated by Agustin J. Avila-Sakar and B.J. Kowalski

WHEREAS 509 years of history have signified nothing but exploitation, discrimination, and misery to our peoples, who are the primordial inhabitants of this nation; and whereas this Mexican Nation, born from our seed and heart, was built by powerful rulers in denial of our existence and of our supreme right to walk along our own path -and by this we don't mean that we ourselves deny of our Fatherland, which was founded with our blood;

REMEMBERING that the San Andrés Accords on Indigenous Rights and Culture, signed on February 16, 1996, are but the First Stage of Dialogue between the Federal Government and the Zapatista Army for National Liberation (EZLN), and that the Accords represent a joint proposal and commitment to guarantee a new relationship among Indigenous peoples, Society and State. Remembering, also, that such proposal was offered for national debate and decision and was gathered by the Commission for Peace and Concord (COCOPA) -integrated by legislators of various national political parties- into a legal Initiative for Constitutional Reform; that such Initiative was accepted by the EZLN and the National Indigenous Congress on November 29, 1996, and recognized as a first step toward the constitutional acknowledgement of our rights, notwithstanding some omissions which were pointed out at that time;

ADMITTING that the San Andrés Accords, as well as their translation into the COCOPA Initiative, reflect the consensus of the majority of Mexican Indigenous peoples, the Federal Government and the Civil Society with respect to Indigenous rights and culture;

WHEREAS the constitutional acknowledgement of Indigenous rights and culture, along the terms of the COCOPA Initiative, and as one of the three signals demanded by the EZLN, is the next firm step toward peace and justice with dignity in Chiapas;

WHEREAS the March of 1111 Zapatistas to Mexico City in September 1997, and the results cast by the National Poll on Indigenous Rights and Culture of March 1999, ratified the national consensus expressed by the San Andrés Accords and the COCOPA Initiative;

REMEMBERING that our peoples, represented at the Third National Indigenous Congress in Nurio, Michoacán on March 2,3 and 4, 2001, unanimously agreed to demand: the constitutional acknowledgement of Indigenous rights -with Indigenous peoples legally regarded as subjects with rights, as per the COCOPA Initiative; the constitutional acknowledgement of our inalienable right to self-determination -that is, to our autonomy within the Mexican State; and the constitutional acknowledgement of our territories and ancestral lands, which represent the totality of our habitat, where we, as peoples, continually regenerate our material and spiritual existence;

OBSERVING that the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, both with the rank of Supreme Law in our country, establish that all peoples have the right to self-determination, by virtue of which they "freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development";

OBSERVING, furthermore, that the 169th Convention of the International Labor Organization (ILO), Concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries, also with the rank of Supreme Law in Mexico, under the current constitutional order, recognizes the right of our peoples to assume control of our own institutions, ways of life and economic development, as well as the right to maintain and fortify our identities, languages, lands and natural resources, within the framework of the national State;

DENOUNCING that, once again, our words and sentiments have only nourished the scorn and mockery of the powerful rulers; that the voice of our peoples and of the majority of the Mexican society, expressed during the EZLN March for Indigenous Dignity in early 2001, has not been listened to by those who claim to be the bearers of the popular will; that the economic and political interests of the ruling class prevail once more over our Indigenous peoples, who, while being descendants from the original inhabitants of these lands, are being denied their most fundamental rights and have fallen victims of plunder, ethnocide and forced integration to a national project that is foreign to our history and sentiments and which now attempts to seize everything away from us;

THE PEOPLES, COMMUNITIES AND ORGANIZATIONS THAT COMPOSE THE NATIONAL INDIGENOUS CONGRESS DECLARE: ...

FIRST: We categorically reject the constitutional reform on the rights of indigenous people approved by Mexico's Congress because not only does the new law flout the will of the people but it would result in a profound decline in the recognition of our peoples' fundamental rights, as provided in the Constitution itself as well as in the agreements, pacts, and international treaties that Mexico has signed. Specifically, the new law distorts the precepts of the International Labor Organization's Article 169 and omits many fundamental points.

SECOND: The constitutional reform on indigenous rights, approved by persons claiming to represent the popular will, does not conform to the letter or the spirit of the San Andres Accord. Indeed, it substantially diverges from the statements on indigenous rights put forth by the Peace Commission (COCOPA), for it says that the recognition of the rights of indigenous peoples will occur on the state (and not the federal) level. In reality, this means that our rights and laws will not be respected. The new law is an obstacle to the resumption of the dialogue between the federal government and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) regarding a peace with equality and dignity. The legislature's vote was not a vote for peace.

THIRD: This constitutional reform makes a mockery of our communities by putting into the hands of local authorities the power to define the character of indigenous autonomy and the mechanisms for its implementation. It is an insult to the majority of Mexican society, who decided to support our just cause. It subverts our right to self-determination and the aspirations of our communities for the full expression of our autonomy within the structure of the Mexican state.

FOURTH: The reform relegates our right to autonomy to the municipal level. It does not resolve the question of access to municipal government and resources for indigenous peoples. It lays the basis for the construction of territorial reservations for indigenous peoples.

FIFTH: In a pious and demeaning way, the constitutional reform would make the indigenous communities dependent on public charity and override our rights as citizens within the national structure established by COCOPA. It negates our rights to freedom of assembly in order to coordinate our activities. The new law fails to guarantee self-determination for indigenous peoples at every level.

SIXTH: The reform does not allow for the reintegration of the land where indigenous people are currently living. The fact that some districts would be reorganized in order to placate indigenous peoples only confirms the regressive character of the constitutional reform.

SEVENTH: With respect to our communities' land, the new law does not recognize the standard set by Article 169 of the International Labor Organization. The word "territories" is crudely substituted for "places." Under the new law, we are left without a place to exercise our autonomy and provide for our physical and spiritual needs.

EIGHTH: The indigenous law that is being imposed on our peoples reinforces the individualism behind the counter-reform of the Constitution's Article 27, approved in 1992. The current legislation is a complement to that law, which does not recognize our constitutional right to collectively use and enjoy the natural resources found on our lands. On the contrary, it negates our constitutional rights of ownership, overrides our customs, and allows access to our land and resources to be acquired by outsiders. We have demanded recognition of our rights to the natural resources that are found on our lands. Instead, the politicians have decided to deny those rights, which were won with the sweat and the blood of our ancestors.

NINTH: Contrary to the dialogue begun between the federal government and the EZLN, the new law seeks to obviate agrarian reform and return to the backward provisions of Article 27 without taking into the account the overwhelming opposition of our communities to that law. The politicians forget that the agrarian question should be addressed at the negotiating table as part of a discussion of well-being and development.

TENTH: Similarly, the indigenous law adds a provision to the second article of the Constitution that revives the politics of ethnic genocide that have historically existed in Mexico, signaling a series of authoritarian political moves on the part of the legislators, in opposition to our demand for recognition of the rights of indigenous people to define our own priorities and development.

ELEVENTH: Today, as we did yesterday, we continue to say: Mexico cannot exist without us! No longer will the voices of indigenous peoples be silent in the face of injustice! In this time of crisis, we stand firm against the new attack that this law constitutes. There will be no true, just, and fair Mexico until the rights of our peoples are recognized. For all of these reasons, we call on all indigenous peoples, communities, and organizations to unite with us, in voice and in action, to demand the recognition of our rights, in accord with the COCOPA agreement. We must organize in every corner of the country. Through their regressive policies, presented by Diego Fernandez de Cevallos and Manuel Bartlett, backward politicians have kidnapped Congress and the will of the nation. We call for the exercise of our rights of sovereignty as guaranteed by Article 39 of the Constitution, which has been violated by the new law. We remind the authorities, both national and international: The voice of the first peoples, the indigenous peoples, will be heard and felt throughout the nation. To the workers of the farms and the cities, and to all the people of Mexico, we call on you to organize a united national movement. We must find a consensus and overcome the obstacles to our goal of achieving constitutional recognition of the rights of our peoples and an end to the neo-liberal policies that are destroying the entire nation.

Never again a Mexico without us!

On to the unity of our peoples!

The Indigenous National Congress