Now that the true millenium is upon us, and the election results are in in the United States of America, as well as in the United Mexican States, we can analyse the results in preparation of the visit of the comrades of the Zapatista National Liberation Army to the Federal District:
The government you will be confronting, as well as the government supporting it, have been chosen according to the constitutional regimes now in place in the US and Mexican republics. They are "legitimate," that is to say, upheld by those regimes. Nevertheless, we can say that they are inauthentically democratic, that is to say, they in no way represent the aspirations of the people they pretend to represent. Part of the difficulty lies in the arcane method of selection, via "Electoral Colleges" etc. which can bar majorities from power. This the minority party insists is a legitimate protection of its rights: however, can the right of a minority to bar pernicious initiatives by a majority be the same as minority rule? The ruling class seem to think so.
The system of checks and balances, overall, is a good safeguard against human rights violations, in our view: to this, however, must be balanced authentic representation and accountability. In both the US and Mexican republics, the executive branch of the federal government is represented by one person: the President. Would it not be more representative if there was a collective executive, as, for example, with the Provisional Government and Revolutionary Council of Aztlan?
The Supreme Court of the United States, which ruled on the presidential election there, embodies another problem: lack of popular accountability. It is almost impossible to remove a Supreme Court justice once he or she is selected. Even the supreme bank of the United States, the Federal Reserve, is governed by a board which can be changed over time. This, at least, must be done in the case of the US Supreme Court, if the US Republic is to be in any way democratic.
Beyond this, of course, we can say that the roots of the political parties now competing in the US and Mexico are in competing moneyed interests, not in the people: this bypasses any democracy offered by the constitutional regimes. This is why we now call for a Constitutional Convention in both the US and Mexico, and do so from the standpoint of support for the Provisional Government and Revolutionary Council of Aztlan, which does not recognise the legitimacy or authenticity of either government. We do applaud the efforts of the EZLN/FZLN and your supporters, among which we remain, to find a peaceful solution to the crisis now facing Mexico.
Liberty! Justice! Democracy! Human Rights!
Ready to pursue the path that the Mexican and US governments set before us, we remain, in solidarity and struggle,
From the Mexican Northwest, Insurgent Subcommander Angeles, Branch of Liaison, Communications, and Investigations, Clandestine Commando "Division of the North" (Villista National Liberation Front).
© 1997 villista@iname.com
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