Call for Participation in Ongoing Events Leading Up to the 30th Anniversary of the Founding of the CNI

In the Face of Capitalist War Against Humanity and Indigenous Peoples, Let Us Strengthen the National Indigenous Congress

To the peoples of Mexico and the world,
To human rights organizations and collectives,
To the Networks of Resistance and Rebellion,
To the National and International Sixth,
To the signatories of A Declaration for Life on five continents,
To a rebellious, dignified, and defiant Europe.

On October 12, 2026, one year from now, the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) will celebrate 30 years since its founding as the home of the indigenous peoples of Mexico who resist the nightmare called capitalism. It will celebrate 30 years of dreaming of new worlds from an anti-capitalist, anti-racist, anti-patriarchal, and anti-fascist perspective. 30 years of organizing the defense of life and Mother Earth, as well as the territories, cultural identity, mother tongue, autonomy, and inalienable rights of our peoples from the terrain of civil and peaceful struggle.

I

The CNI will turn 30 years old resisting the bloodiest war of conquest ever unleashed against our peoples and against the peoples of the world, with its most terrible expression being the painful genocide of the Palestinian people perpetrated by the government of the United States of America and its partner, the Zionist state of Israel. It will mark its 30th anniversary with a government, that of the Fourth Transformation (4T), which disguises its complicity in this war by distributing millions of pesos through multiple social programs and employing a discourse of rejection of neoliberalism without renouncing it; a government that promotes –through sinister characters who at one time betrayed the struggle of the CNI and that of their own peoples, such as Adelfo Regino and Hugo Aguilar — a folkloric indigenism that has appropriated our symbols without fully recognizing the rights of indigenous peoples. On the contrary, this official indigenism has been the mainstay of megaprojects and policies that seek to dispossess us of our lands, territories, and cultures; a government that has militarized the national territory and, at all levels, has built ties of collusion with organized crime like no other, while at the same time determined to besiege, wage war on, and exterminate the indigenous peoples who resist. Like these two individuals—and their “advisors”—who have renounced their color, origin, and history, other people have used the name, history, and identity of the CNI for their own benefit and to climb the government ladder, enjoy pleasure trips in the name of “solidarity,” and impersonate the CNI and those of us who are part of it.

This capitalist war of relentless conquest is expressed, like all wars, in casualties: as of the first half of 2025, we have 121,615 missing persons in Mexico, according to data from the National Registry of Missing Persons, with the rate of increase in disappearances having doubled between 2024 and 2025. And even though intentional homicides have decreased this year, the average remains scandalously high: 59.5 victims per day. Our country is experiencing an undeniable human tragedy, and the above data can be explained in large part by the massive trafficking of human beings for multiple purposes or by the hundreds of young people who, forcibly or voluntarily, are recruited by organized crime cartels to form irregular armies that fight each other over territories, populations, and routes. The unstoppable militarization of the national territory, the handing over of key sectors of our economy to SEDENA and SEMAR, the impunity granted to the military for their proven involvement in crimes as brutal as the disappearance of the 43 students from Ayotzinapa, or the increasing dominance of organized crime in the country’s economic activities and in its government structures and electoral processes at all levels, as well as the massive circulation of drugs in communities and cities, all clearly illustrate that Mexico is a country convulsed by war.

Despite repeated announcements by the 4T governments, decreeing the end of the neoliberal cycle and proposing the defense of food sovereignty as one of their central policies; despite the latest constitutional reforms on indigenous rights and federal programs that for years have dispersed millions of pesos in indigenous communities; the disaster in the Mexican countryside and the complete destruction of our food sovereignty due to the free trade policies promoted by the current and previous governments cannot be hidden; structural poverty, along with the loss of substantive rights, among the indigenous peoples of Mexico, or the increasing precariousness of such central rights as education and health, while bankers have made historic profits in recent years (such as the 288.34 billion pesos in 2024, which set an unprecedented record) due to the continuation of unjust neoliberal macroeconomic policies.

Drought and climate change alone do not explain the current tragedy in the Mexican countryside. They do not explain, except to continue the discourse of simulation, why national food production has been in free fall since 2022; why corn production in 2024 was the lowest in the last 10 years at 23.3 million tons, and will most likely drop to 21.7 million tons in 2025; In contrast, corn imports will reach a record 25.8 million tons this year, and while rural economies and food production to meet our needs are collapsing, exports of tequila, beer, berries, avocados, and other products generated or hoarded by large transnational agribusinesses continue to grow.

Neoliberal continuity in the case of indigenous peoples and peasants is also expressed in: 1) the permanence of the legal framework on agrarian matters that emerged from the counter-reform to Article 27 of the Constitution in 1992, which remains unchanged, if not deepened; 2) the approval, a year ago, of the constitutional reform on indigenous affairs, which completely omits recognition of the territory and territorial rights of our peoples; 3) the radical reorganization of the national territory, its populations, migratory flows, borders, and regions, based on certain megaprojects that serve the interests of the United States of America and large multinational corporations, such as the Maya Train, the Isthmus of Tehuantepec Interoceanic Corridor, and the Morelos Integral Project; or through multiple regional land use planning programs and extractive or hydrocarbon transportation projects; 4) the USMCA, which came into effect on July 1, 2020, and represents one of the most solid foundations of neoliberalism in our country, deepening the importation of genetically modified organisms and external control of national agricultural production, mainly campesino agriculture.

Special mention should be made of the growing privatization and hoarding of water throughout Mexico in favor of transnational corporations through the consolidation of the concessions scheme that emerged from the 1992 constitutional counter-reform and the National Water Law that resulted from it, with the number of water concessions increasing from 600 at that time to more than 500,000 today. with just over 3,000 concessionaires controlling more than a fifth of the water concessioned and 373 concessionaires of water for agricultural use (0.1% of the total) controlling 38.3% of the water allocated for that use. The recent initiative for a General Law on National Waters, which the 4T intends to enact in parallel with the current National Water Law and which separates the human right to water from its administration, will only consolidate the hoarding of water in a few hands.

In the midst of this unstoppable war of capitalist conquest, in the midst of the greatest planetary devastation ever seen, the CNI will soon celebrate 30 years of existence and resistance.

II

The CNI was founded between October 9 and 12, 1996, with the emblematic presence of Comandanta Ramona, delegate of the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee-General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN); and with the participation of more than 3,000 delegates from all over Mexico. For the first time, indigenous peoples were able to come together and get to know each other in order to dream of our own organizational space, the CNI, under the seven principles of “Leading by Obeying.” The CNI was born in direct response to the National Indigenous Forum, which was convened by the EZLN and took place in January of that year in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, just a few weeks before the federal government, the Chiapas state government, and legislative representatives from all political parties signed the San Andrés Accords with the intention of making an initial recognition of indigenous rights and culture in the federal Constitution, something that never happened.

Since its founding, the CNI has supported various initiatives promoted by the EZLN that sought to demand the incorporation of the San Andrés Accords into the Federal Constitution in order to recognize certain basic rights of our peoples. These initiatives culminated in the March of the Color of the Earth between March and April 2001 and the Third National Indigenous Congress in the Purépecha community of Nurío, the most representative indigenous assembly that had taken place in the country up to that point. Finally, the San Andrés Accords were betrayed by the political parties that negotiated the indigenous reform of April 28 of that same year, as well as by the powers of the Mexican state that did not hesitate to ratify it, all of them subordinate to the interests of the military leadership and business corporations, always opposed to the slightest recognition of indigenous rights, especially those relating to the lands and territories of our peoples.

Thus, the CNI went from demanding recognition of rights to exercising them through action.

The publication of the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle by the EZLN in 2005, calling for the formation of an anti-capitalist, left-wing political force to build a new way of doing politics and a program of national and left-wing struggle, led the CNI to endorse the Declaration and take a clearly anti-capitalist position, which happened during its fourth congress, held in May 2006 in the Ñahñu community of San Pedro Atlapulco, with the participation of almost a thousand delegates from 25 states of the country who did not hesitate to declare themselves anti-capitalist, as it is clear to us that the war we are experiencing in the communities of Mexico is being waged by corporations, governments, and criminal cartels, at the service of a global system called capitalism.

In 2016, the CNI agreed to create an Indigenous Governing Council (CIG), which appointed an indigenous woman, Ma. de Jesús Patricio, as its spokesperson and proposed her as its candidate for the presidency of the republic. The aims of this proposal had nothing to do with electoral purposes, as the intention was to use this space to put the problems and demands of the indigenous peoples back on the national political agenda, as happened in 1994, in the face of the storm unleashed by capitalist war. The CIG’s proposal sought to raise the profile of indigenous peoples once again in the eyes of national and international society. With this initiative, indigenous peoples, as well as indigenous women in the country, were able to push forward their anti-capitalist and, for the first time, anti-patriarchal struggles.

Throughout these years, just as important as the presence of our peoples has been the accompaniment and solidarity of thousands of people in Mexico and around the world; workers, artists, scientists, intellectuals, academics, organizations, and collectives who have given our space and our proposals their selfless and honest support, in contrast to the attempts at co-optation and annihilation by bad governments always at the service of big capitalists. This attitude of solidarity around the world has encouraged and animated the struggle of the CNI and reaffirmed its conviction that the struggle for freedom and life is not a matter of color, gender, or race, but a matter of humanity.

Just as we have received generosity from so many quarters, we have also sought to offer solidarity and, in particular, we have kept in our hearts and memories the pain of thousands who, as the main victims of capitalist war, have lost loved ones in Palestine, Mexico, and every corner of the world. Every day we learn from the dignity and courage taught to us by the collectives of mothers, fathers, and searching families, just as we learn from the mothers and fathers of the 43 student teachers from Ayotzinapa.

We are, therefore, the National Indigenous Congress. We are young. As the CNI, we are about to turn 30, but we are preceded by more than 500 years of resistance and rebellion as indigenous peoples. We are not objects of charity and pity. We are the path and the travelers.

III

We believe that in the face of the brutal capitalist war of conquest that is dispossessing and destroying our peoples with ever-increasing violence, the CNI must strengthen itself as a network that allows indigenous peoples to resist dispossession and defend what is sacred to us and everything that gives us meaning as peoples and as humanity: life, Mother Earth, our territories, our cultures, and our autonomy.

In line with the above, we call on indigenous peoples, nations, tribes, communities, neighborhoods, and organizations, as well as individuals, organizations, and collectives in Mexico and around the world who have accompanied our struggle, to:

ONGOING EVENTS LEADING UP TO THE 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOUNDING OF THE NATIONAL INDIGENOUS CONGRESS, WITH THE AIM OF STRENGTHENING IT IN THE FACE OF CAPITALIST WAR AGAINST HUMANITY AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

These activities will begin today and conclude around October 12, 2026, with a national assembly that will define the CNI’s path for the coming years, based on everything that has made it the home of the indigenous peoples of Mexico who are resisting the nightmare called capitalism:

• The CNI has been a network where indigenous peoples, nations, tribes, communities, neighborhoods, and organizations come together with their specific demands and aspirations, but within the general framework of the CNI’s profile and under the seven Zapatista principles of “leading by obeying.” Its highest authority is the general assembly, and its organizational motto is: together we are an assembly, separately we are a network. In this sense, the CNI is not an organization of women, youth, children, or older adults; it is a space for indigenous peoples in resistance.
• The CNI’s spokesperson is appointed by its general assembly and, between each of its sessions, by the commission established for this purpose. Consequently, none of its members may speak, express opinions, or make statements on behalf of the whole, and none of its members may supplant it or the cultural, historical, and identity of struggle of the indigenous peoples that comprise it. The CNI is the space where agreements and joint actions are developed by those who participate in it.
• The scope of action of the CNI is the territory known as the United Mexican States, although it can and should relate to other struggles and movements of indigenous peoples around the world.
• The CNI does not aspire to government positions regardless of whether they seem good, bad, or mediocre, nor is it a for-profit association, as its income comes from donations and support that are used solely and exclusively for its mobilizations as such and for its operation.
• The CNI’s struggle over the past 30 years has confirmed that we have our own voice, history, vocation, and destiny. We have fought to remain independent from the State and the various federal, state, and local governments, regardless of the political, ideological, religious, and gender affiliations of those in government. We do not depend on leaders or spokespersons. The peoples, nations, tribes, neighborhoods, and organizations that make up the CNI are what we are. Our path is collective, not individual, and does not depend on partisan or religious agendas.

Sisters and brothers:

Our demands are the same as they were 30 years ago: respect for Mother Earth and life, respect for our territories, respect for our culture and social organization, respect for our native language, respect for our identity and our self-governance. Despite the fact that we are the foundational basis of what they call the “Mexican Nation,” successive governments have reiterated their policy of supplantation, dispossession, theft, repression, exploitation, contempt, and racism through all the legal and illegal means that the system has implemented and will continue to implement until it achieves its goal of making us disappear.

That is why we remain in resistance and rebellion. We resist attempts at annihilation or “civilization” by big capital and its governments. Through rebellion, we create our own ways of life and social organization, nourished by our own history and in accordance with our territories and cultural expressions. The history of past and present struggles is our sustenance, and as the CNI, as the whole and the parts that make us up, we will not surrender, we are not for sale, and we will not give up on fulfilling our duty as guardians of Mother Earth.

The world we want is for everyone, not just a few. One where wealth is measured by diversity living together in respect, support, and mutual solidarity. One with all colors, races, genders, ways, and calendars.

Those of us who are part of the CNI today may fall due to illness, repression, imprisonment, or death, but there will always be indigenous people willing to continue the struggle to build a better, more just, and humane world, in the only way that will be possible, that is, with all those below who resist and rebel today.

WE REITERATE THIS CALL TO ALL THOSE WHO, COLLECTIVELY OR INDIVIDUALLY, ARE PART OF THE CNI OR HAVE ACCOMPANIED IT, EVEN AS OBSERVERS, CALLING FOR THE HOLDING OF ONGOING EVENTS LEADING UP TO THE 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOUNDING OF THE NATIONAL INDIGENOUS CONGRESS THROUGH ACTIONS, MEETINGS, FORUMS, CONFERENCES, AND CULTURAL ACTIVITIES OF ALL KINDS TO BE HELD FROM OCTOBER 12 OF THIS YEAR UNTIL OCTOBER 12, 2026, WITH THE PURPOSE OF STRENGTHENING THE STRUGGLES OF RESISTANCE AND REBELLION, AS WELL AS THE ORGANIZATION OF THE CNI FROM THE LOCAL LEVEL TO THE NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL LEVELS, AGAINST THIS STORM CALLED CAPITALISM AND IN DEFENSE OF LIFE.

SINCERELY

OCTOBER 12, 2025

FOR THE COMPLETE RECONSTITUTION OF OUR PEOPLES

NEVER AGAIN A MEXICO WITHOUT US

NATIONAL INDIGENOUS CONGRESS

ZAPATISTA ARMY OF NATIONAL LIBERATION

Original text published at Congreso Nacional Indígena on October 12, 2025.
Translation by Schools for Chiapas.

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=21963

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