The Zapatista communities will continue to search for a form of community relationship that is not pyramidal, but rather communal and organized, affirmed Captain Marcos of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN).
“In a surprising look back at the past, at our ancestors, the Zapatista communities are re-evaluating their present and the problems they face. Following their attendance at the Assembly of the Dead, the communities are beginning a profound analysis of their form of autonomous government,” he said.
In the summary of the second Zapatista participation in the Meeting of Resistances and Rebellions, held at the Comandanta Ramona Seedbed in the Caracol of Morelia, in the official municipality of Altamirano, he added that “the dead have warned them about copying the oppressive pyramid. Because the day will come when the living will have to answer to the dead.”
With that in mind, he elaborated in the text released this Saturday, “they are taking it upon themselves to criticize and self-criticize the flaws in the functioning of the Zapatista Rebel Autonomous Municipalities (MAREZ) and the Good Government Councils.”
He stated that “in community assemblies, corruption, theft, embezzlement, inconsistencies, bureaucracy, and, outright, bullshit from some government administrations are denounced. It’s unbelievable at first glance. The accusations are relentless, and evidence is provided. Various punishments and sanctions are determined and applied.”
He noted that “the self-critical analysis doesn’t stop there. It’s clear that the autonomous government model is replicating the pyramidal structure that the damn system imposes on the parts of the whole.”
Marcos continued: “Like a wind that begins as a breeze, increases in intensity, and becomes a hurricane, the condemnation grows. Young men and women with different mother tongues, with Maya roots, discuss, exchange ideas, analyses, thoughts, and proposals. The common sentence is: ‘fuck the pyramid.’”
He affirmed that “together and organized, the Zapatista peoples are tearing down their pyramid, disappearing the MAREZ and the Good Government Councils. They are thus committing their struggle to the collapse and destruction of all the pyramids, especially the mother pyramid: the capitalist system. In the face of a global criminal: resistance and rebellion in the parts of the whole, they declare.”
He concluded: “The rumors are confirmed: the pyramid is being stripped bare with fire and demolished. On its rubble, a multitude of people are dancing and singing. But only for a moment, we must continue fighting. We must be seen and heard before our fellow human beings in their differences, the parts of the whole that resist, and reveal and rebel against the system.”
With this, Marcos alluded to the moment when those attending the Resistance and Rebellion meeting set fire to a wooden pyramid several meters high, under the direction of Subcomandante Moisés.
“Today we want to show you that we are going to end this symbolically. We are going to destroy it. We are going to topple it because it is symbolic. Truly, to topple those up there—you know who is governing—we will have to organize. We will have to fight with resistance and rebellion,” said Moisés.
As hundreds of those attending the meeting looked on, he added: “First, we are going to strip it bare, we are going to undress it. Strip it, burn it; throw whatever you want at it.”
A video shows a man approaching and setting it on fire, after which several people throw stones at the pyramid. The flames consume the white “dress,” on which words like “exploitation” and “contempt” can be read.
As the pyramid burns, Moses exhorts those present: “Throw fire on it, or whatever. Go ahead! That’s it! That’s it! Don’t be afraid of those who exploit us, of those who humiliate us.”
Amid the uproar, shouts, whistles, and applause, another man used a lasso to pull down the wood that didn’t burn. “As you can see, the base is what remains. What must be destroyed is the pyramid. The people are the base. What must be brought down is the one on top of the people, which is the pyramid.” “So you see, the foundation is there, which is the people who will organize themselves again with a new way of governing themselves as a people with their autonomy. That’s the idea we want to show you symbolically, but what follows isn’t symbolic; it’s real: organizing, thinking, discussing, analyzing, and then deciding together with the people what the new thing will be. We can’t say whether it’s a figure or not,” he concluded.
Original article by Elio Henríquez, La Jornada, August 9th, 2025.
Translated by Schools for Chiapas.