By Elio Henriquez on July 20, 2026 from San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas
Capitan Marcos of the EZLN. foto: Bill Hackwell
A small boat named Lacandona traveled to Cuba as part of the crew of the sailboat Astral, which arrived on the island on Sunday carrying humanitarian aid from European solidarity groups, reported Captain Marcos of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN).
“These days, a sister organization in the struggle for life—the Spanish group Open Armas, Brazos Abiertos—is landing on the shores of Cuba to deliver much-needed aid to the Cuban people. They are not bringing slogans, demands, conditions, or political stances; they are bringing solar power equipment and medicines for a hospital,” he added.
He said that traveling with the sailboat Astral was also “as another part of its vessel and crew, a small boat called Lacandona, akin to the cayucos that, five years ago, crossed the Atlantic against the tide of history to forge a bond between rebellions that know no borders.”
He noted that “just as the little Lacandona is the younger sister of the Astral and is the smallest vessel that rescues castaways from military, economic, and racial wars, our word and practice are one more part of the great family of those who recognize the struggle for life as necessary, urgent, and cannot be postponed. The smallest, truth, but also part of the whole.”
Marcos made these remarks at the start of the activities for the “War Against Humanity” Seminar. (Populations and Nature Under Siege), which is taking place in San Cristóbal de Las Casas from July 20 to 25.
“We are brought together by a crime—the crime par excellence, the crime that has become a system—a crime so transparent that light does not pass through it, but rather transforms it into a mirror, into a prism that shatters into colors that are pleasant, endearing, desirable, and fashionable. It accumulates trillions of ‘likes’ from its scapegoats and yet remains unsatisfied. So a crime summons us,” the captain stated as the proceedings began.
“We have a unique criminal; there is evidence, there is the daily judgment of reality, and there is a sentence that remains forever pending. The criminal in question has public defenders, judges, police, armies, banks, industries, businesses, social media, the media, World Cups, FIFA, virtual fan clubs, trade agreements, clandestine and open meetings, and the resigned attitude of millions of victims. He will not surrender easily and will not stop in his quest for conquest and subjugation,” he stated.
Marcos added that “if the aberrant target of its war—the planet—succumbs, it is preparing, and in some cases already has, its refuges or alternate panic rooms. Its main target now is the expendable—those who get in the way—not only because they yield no profit, but also and above all because, contrary to and in contradiction to what revolutionary political catechisms preach, it is there, in those disposable ones, that the threat to its deadly project lies. But also—and above all—because within those little ones lies the seed of the other, of the non-homogeneous, the non-hegemonic. Their offense against the system lies in their heterogeneity, in their resistance, and in their despair-defying defiance.”
He emphasized: “We are here and there, wherever there is listening, reflection, and critical engagement, driven by two goals that are always unfinished, always renewed: the understanding and analysis of the system’s vulnerabilities, and the existence of others—men, women, and non-binary people—who, in their daily lives, far from the mainstream media and trending topics, learn and come to understand through their struggles.”
Source: La Jornada, translation Walter Lippmann