The Lacandona boat arrived in Cuba as part of the crew of the sailboat Astral, which reached the island on Sunday with humanitarian aid from European solidarity groups, Captain Marcos of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) reported.
“These days, a sister organization in the struggle for life, the Spanish Open Arms, is landing on the Cuban coast to deliver necessary support for the Cuban people. They are not carrying demands, requirements, conditions, or positions; they are carrying solar energy equipment and medicine for a hospital,” he added.
He said that aboard the sailboat Astral, “as one more element of its vessel and crew, was a small boat called Lacandona, related to the canoes that, five years ago, crossed the Atlantic from the mountains, defying the tide of history to unite a rebellion that knows no borders.” He pointed out that “just as the small Lacandona is the younger sister of the Astral and is the smallest vessel rescuing shipwrecked survivors of military, economic, and racial wars, our words and actions are one more in the great family of those who recognize the struggle for life as necessary, urgent, and imperative. The smallest, certainly, but also part of the whole.”
Marcos explained this at the start of the activities of the workshop “War Against Humanity: Populations and Nature Under Siege,” which will take place in San Cristóbal de las Casas from July 20th to 25th.
“We are summoned by the ultimate crime, crime made systemic, a crime so transparent that light doesn’t pass through it, but rather distorts it like a mirror, a prism that breaks down into pleasant, endearing, desirable, fashionable colors. It accumulates trillions of likes from its sacrificial victims and yet remains unsatisfied. So, we are summoned by a crime,” the captain stated at the start of the proceedings.
“We have a single criminal, the evidence is there, the daily judgment of reality is there, a sentence is always pending. The criminal in question has public defenders, judges, police, armies, banks, industries, businesses, social media, news outlets, World Cups, FIFA, virtual fan clubs, trade agreements, clandestine and open meetings, and the resigned attitude of millions of victims. It will not surrender easily and will not stop in its quest for conquest and subjugation,” he declared.
Original article by Elio Henríquez, La Jornada, July 21st, 2026.
Translated by Schools for Chiapas.