Sunday, May 14, 2006

Interview with Subcomandante Marcos, Part II: "At This Rate, the Elections Will Take Place Under Military Supervision"

Delegate Zero Predicts the Emergence of an Unprecedented, Cultural, Political, Scientific, and Humanist Movement

The violence in San Salvador Atenco and in other parts of the country, like in San Blas Atempa, Oaxaca, is a product of the political system, and does not represent a victory for the government despite the repression, death, and imprisonment of dissidents. What the politicians have succeeded in creating, argues Subcomandante Marcos, is the destabilization of the country during an election year.

If things go on like this, the government is going to provoke "an increase in the level of social tension and protest, and come July, they will have to hold the elections in the midst of so much social agitation that they will have to bring in the Army and police. What image of democracy are they going to send to the rest of the world with elections overseen by the armed forces, and who is going to come out and vote if the Army is guarding the voting booths and there are protests all over the country and in other parts of the world?"

Marcos insists that the goal of the Other Campaign is to unite struggles in order to bring down the government, but non-violently, as has happened in other parts of the world. In an interview with La Jornada, delegate Zero confirmed that the future of the Other Campaign is "and always has been, to win."