Atenco political prisoner in solidarity with the peoples’ struggles

Letter from Felipe Álvarez to La Jornada

Monday, November 9, 2009

Eight years after we began our resistance struggle against the invading, oppressive, killer system, I urge people to keep up the struggle. There’s no torture that can change the course of our ideals. They can chain my body but never my consciousness. And they can’t chain the dignity and spirit of our peoples who are struggling for what belongs to them either.

The government is still determined to dispossess us of what is ours and put all this at the service of empire, grabbing our lands, our water, oil, light and the little bit of wealth we have left.

On September 15, they hypocritically shout: “Long live Independence! Long live the heroes who gave us our homeland!” What independence are they, the very ones who’ve turned over the country to be looted and exploited, talking about? How dare they use the word “heroes” when it’s clear they’re offending their memory?

In the situation we’re now facing, we must have a higher level of consciousness and resistance. Forgetting what’s been won is like forgetting about Hidalgo, Morelos, the Magón brothers; it’s like turning our backs on Villa. Bowing down to repression or being afraid of captivity is like forgetting the great spirit of struggle left to us by Zapata.

Only those of us who struggle for land, natural resources, and freedom can win independence, sovereignty, and the homeland that the very people now looting the country talk so much about.

Brothers and sisters, you exist in my heart! Not one step backward! Zapata lives, the Front continues!

Felipe Álvarez Hernández, known as “Finini”, Atenco political prisoner sentenced to 67 ½ years in prison. Member of the Peoples’ Front in Defense of the Land.