Note: This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Sixth Declaration and the 5th anniversary of the Declaration for Life. With the VI Declaration we clearly indicated our anti-capitalist position and our critical distance from institutional politics. With the commitment of the Declaration for Life we try to extend the invitation to a sharing of resistances and rebellions. For our compañeras, compañeros and compañeras of the Sexta and the Declaration for Life, these have been difficult years, however, we have continued without giving up, without selling out and without giving in. The storm is no longer a bad omen, it is a present reality. The following postscript reaffirms our commitment, affection and respect for those who, being different and diverse, share a vocation and destiny according to the ways, calendars and geographies of each one of us.
-*-
All wars are foreign as long as they don’t knock on your door. But the Storm does not knock before. By the time you sense it, you have no door, no walls, no roof, no windows. There is no house. No life. When it leaves, only the smell of the deadly nightmare remains.
The stench of diesel and gasoline from the machines will come, the noise with which you build on what is destroyed. “Listen,” says the golden beast, “that sound heralds the coming of progress.”
And so, until the next war.
-*-
War is the homeland of chaos, disorder, arbitrariness and dehumanization. War is the homeland of money.
The use of missiles, drones and AI-driven aircraft are not a “humanization” of war. Rather, it is an economic calculation. A machine yields more profit than a human being. They are more expensive, it is true. But, come on, it is a medium-term investment. Their destructive capacity is greater. And there are no problems problems with regrets of conscience, physically and mentally crippled veterans, lawsuits, protests, “body bags” and useless trials in international tribunals.
So it will be until the aggressor’s spilling of blood becomes profitable again.
-*-
It is common to calculate how many people could be fed with what is spent on predatory wars. But, besides the fact that it is useless to appeal to the sensitivity and empathy of Capital, it is not well quantified.
What needs to be quantified is how much profit the shopping mall and tourist zone will yield when erected on a pile of corpses hidden under the rubble (hidden, in turn, under the hotels and recreational centers). This is the only way to understand the true character of a war.
The foundations of modern civilization are not built with concrete, but with flesh, bones and blood, lots of blood.
The system destroys, in order to sell the replacement. The destroyed cities will be followed by a landscape of apartment buildings, shiny skyscrapers, shopping malls and golf courses so smart that even Trump wins, while Netanyahu lectures on human rights, Putin organizes Siberian bear races, and Xi Jinping sells tickets. A money sign shines at the top of the pyramid that congregates the cult of money.
-*-
In the last wars, the proud Europe from above has functioned as a beachhead. Something in keeping with the function of a recreation and entertainment zone for Capital. So-called “Eurocentrism” is already part of a nostalgic and stale past. The course of this Europe is decided in the shareholders’ councils and lobbies of the big corporations. The head of Amazon celebrates his marriage in the swimming pool of his country house (Venice), and NATO is the delivery outlet and customer of the most profitable goods: weapons.
The governments of the Nation States of that continent cover their faces modestly before the “Father and Master,” from whom they dream of becoming independent by enlisting in the army of Capital. No longer in the future, but right now (as in Ukraine), Capital provides the weapons, Europe the present and future dead, Putin the holograms of a mixture of Tsarism and USSR, and Xi Jinping refines his alternative proposal of a social pyramid.
Nearby, not Trump’s brood, but the heirs of the big companies dream of vacationing in a Palestine free… of Palestinians. Netanyahu, or his equivalent, will be the gracious host and, at after-dinner drinks, amuse the visitors with anecdotes of infants, women, men, old people, hospitals and schools killed by bombs and starved to death. “I saved millions by using food distribution centers as hunting grounds,” he will boast as he serves the Zibdieh. Diners will applaud.
-*-
War is Capital’s first option to get rid of the disposable. Religion, political correctness or incorrectness (that no longer matters), fiery speeches and heroic stories fabricated with AI, cease-fires with explosions and gunfire as background music, truces as indicated by stock exchanges and oil prices; all this is nothing more than scenery.
The various gods pretend to be busy flagging death and destruction from one side or the other. And the true all-powerful and all-embracing god, Capital, remains discreet. Or not, cynicism is now a virtue. Behind it all hides the main thing: the balance sheet in the accounts of big business and banks.
International legislation on military conflicts is decades outdated. In modern wars, the UN is only a reference for school celebrations. Its statements do not go beyond the declarations of a beauty pageant contestant: “I wish for peace in the world.”
The armies of Capital are the equivalent of home delivery services. And there are those who, far away in geography from the place of delivery, rate: “5 stars for Netanyahu.” In the dispute for the “delivery man of the year” award, Trump, Putin and Netanyahu are in the lead, true. But the system will always have the option of choosing others… of all genders.
-*-
Through the mass media, including social networks, geographies far from the attacked territory, assume the role of spectators. As if it were a sports championship, they choose their favorite, they take sides with one side or the other. They applaud one and boo the other. They rejoice at the successes and are saddened by the failures of the contenders. In the narration boxes, experts spice up the spectacle. “Geopolitics,” they say. And they sigh for changing the dominator, not for changing the relationship in which they are victims.
Perhaps they forget that the world is not a sports stadium. Instead, it resembles a gigantic coliseum where the future victims applaud while they wait their turn. They are not gladiators in the anteroom, they are the hunting trophies that will be the victims of war machines. Meanwhile, bots with all the avatars and ingenious nicknames, lead the applause, the roars and cheers; and, when the time comes, the sound of tears and laments.
From his VIP box, Capital acknowledges the applause of the public and listens to what the spectators shout in mute words: “Hail Caesar, those who are going to die salute you”.
-*-
And yet…
One day, on the ruins of history, will lie the corpse of a system that thought itself eternal and omnipresent. Before that dawn, to speak of peace is only sarcasm for the victims. But on that day, the eastern sun will look, surprised, at Palestine alive. And free, because only free is alive.
Because there are those who say “NO”.
There are those who do not want to change bosses, but rather have no boss.
There are those who resist, rebel… and reveal themselves.
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.
El Capitán
June 2025
Original text published by Enlace Zapatista on June 28th, 2025.
Translation by Schools for Chiapas.