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finishing us all o. Throughout the campaign
launch event, Marichuyscohort referred to her as

spokesperson, never candidate a key little

detail that speaks to the collective nature of the
eort.
MARICHUY Were not going out to ask for votes, says
Bettina Cruz, an indigenous Binni Zaa from
PARA Oaxaca and a council member. The point of
getting a candidate on the ballot, she explains, is
PRESIDENTE to use the attention surrounding the electoral
process to organize at a grassroots level across

the country. The Indigenous Government Council

For the first time in Mexican
history, an indigenous woman
is running for president.
The countryhasnt had an indigenous president
for 145 years, and a woman has never held the
highest oce. But gender and heritage arent the
only aspects that set Mara de Jess Patricio
apart from her contenders. Marichuy, as shes
known, is a57-year-old traditional Nahua healer
from southern Jalisco.
As a traditional healer Marichuy, forests and fields
are her pharmacies, depending for cures on trees
and plants within thriving local ecosystems,
maintaining a healthy environment which is a core
value for so many indigenous cultures. Marichuy
became involved in Zapatista-inspired struggles at
least as early as 1996 when she participated in the
formation of the Indigenous National Congress,
known by the Spanish acronymCNI, which
groups together representatives of dozens of
nationalities and tribes from across Mexico. The
CNI says its newly formed Indigenous
Government Councilwill adhere to a seven-point
philosophy: serve and not self-serve; construct
and not destroy; obey and not order; propose
and not impose; convince and not conquer;
work from below and not seek to climb;
represent and not replace.
rights and territory from interests that seek to
Marichuy says that winning the presidency or
even getting votes at all isnt the aim of their
venture into the electoral arena. Our participation
is for life; its to bring together our communities
that have been hit hard for years and years and
that, I think, right now need to look for a way to
keep on existing, Patricio told followers and
reporters gathered in Chiapas. She clarified that
the eort isnt just for indigenous people, but for
Mexicans from all walks of society, to join forces
to be able to destroy this system that is generally
and our spokesperson are inserting ourselves
because were also part of this country, and were
going to speak out, she says. Our proposals are
about organizing, about rescuing the country and
about a way of life thats new and dierent from
the one thats dragging us into a debacle of
civilization, not only on a national level but all of
civilization.
Like the Zapatista uprising, the move to put an
indigenous woman on the July 2018 ballot is a
swipe from below at Mexicos dominant
economic, political and social order. The
campaign promises to be anything but politics as
usual and draws on indigenous governance
philosophies and communalism, rather than
polling, focus-group testing or other usual tactics.
That aspect may beparticularly hard for people
accustomed to party politics to understand. It
comes fromtraditional governance models used
in indigenous communities, where collective
bodies like popular assemblies outrank individual
positionslike mayor.
It also comes at a time when Native
groupsworldwide are fighting to defend their
profit from resources on their ancestral lands,
engaging in multiple disputes over resource
extraction on their land. This can include
government-backed activities like building an
aqueduct or issuing permits to foreign mining
companies against local wishes to illegal
logging of old-growth forests by organized crime
groups. The disputes pitting indigenous
self-determination against the pursuit of profit
within their territories is what the Indigenous
Government Council calls a capitalist war.

PALESTINIAN PRISONERS STRIKE ACHIEVES DEMANDS

Palestinian Prisoners Day, April 17- 1,500 Palestinian prisoners out of nearly prisoners movement. The Palestinian prisoners movement is at the core
6,500 imprisoned in Israeli jails launched their strike for a series of demands of the liberation struggle of the Palestinian people as a whole; far from a
on. Victory came 40 days later at the end of May. The key accomplishment of side issue of the movement, it represents the Palestinian people and
the strike is the restoration of the second monthly family visit, cancelled last their resistance.
year by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). under the Fundamentally, the Palestinian prisoners movement is and remains a voice
pretext of budget cuts, despite pledges from at least August 2016 to cover and a power of resistance that continues to confront the occupier on a daily
the costs of the second monthly visit for Palestinian prisoners. Far from a basis. This strike was not only about family visits, medical care and basic
neutral bystander, the ICRC was in fact a party to this strike and a human rights; fundamentally, it was an assertion of Palestinian
participant in the confiscation of the rights of Palestinian prisoners. resistance, rejection of the occupier, and power to struggle, not only for
Included in the achievements of the strike: specific demands, but for freedom, return and liberation.
periodic entry of private external physicians to examine ill prisoners samidoun.net
allowing visits from family members of the second class, including
grandparents and grandchildren
increasing the amount prisoners may have in their canteen (prison store,
where nearly all necessities of life must be purchased from and Israeli
corporation) accounts
adding 3 satellite channels to the prisoners TV access
transferring the Ramla prison hospital to the old section which includes
several rooms and a recreation area
installation of a public telephone for women prisoners, child prisoners and ill
prisoners to communicate on a daily basis with their family members
family visits to be increased to 60 minutes from 45 minutes
photographs with parents once annually
increasing the quantities of meat, vegetables and fruits for prisoners
allowing the introduction of clothing such as trousers and bags
providing each prisoner with 1 liter olive oil, 1 kilo coee, 1/2 kilo baklava
and 1/2 kilo zaatar.
The Palestinian prisoners made clear through the Strike of Dignity and
Freedom the power of Palestinian unity. The imprisoned leadership of all
Palestinian trends stood together to confront the occupier, while that
unity was felt in struggle, on the streets and inside prison walls and the
eects of that unity have been felt in the achievement of the prisoners
victory.
The hunger strikers demanded that the Israeli occupation speak with their
chosen leadership and defeated all attempts to circumvent the prisoners
direction, leadership and choices. More than that, however, they
demonstrated once again that the true, respected leadership of the
Palestinian national liberation movement itself is found in the Palestinian
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