Testimony of the Corruption of the Party of the Democratic Revolution

Words of Ernesto Alonso López Uriarte, representative of the Alfredo Jiménez Mota Union of Journalists, in Culiacan the 10th of October

By Ernesto Alonso Lopez Uriarte
The Other Mexico

October 16, 2006

CULIACAN, SINALOA, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2006

TRANSCRIPTION OF THE WORDS OF ERNESTO ALONSO LOPEZ URIARTE, A MEMBER OF THE ALFREDO JIMENEZ UNION OF JOURNALISTS AND COMMUNICATIONS PROFESSIONALS AND OF THE DEMOCRATIC YOUTH NETWORK, PRESENTED BEFORE THOSE PRESENT AND SUBCOMANDANTE MARCOS, IN HIS VISIT TO SINALOA.

Good afternoon…
Good afternoon Subcomandante…
Good afternoon to all of those who are assembled…

I am Ernesto Alonso López Uriarte. I am a reporter. I work in the media that have been so heavily criticized by some of those who are present.

I work, and have spent much time working, in the media, thinking against the mainstream that another world is possible, although it is very difficult given the conditions that many of us, those who do the work of the oppressed, are living in – the beat reporters, we fight a daily battle in the streets.

I am a representative of the Alfredo Jiménez Mota Union of Journalists, named after a man who was disappeared by the narco-government in 2005. I want to tell you that we still don’t know anything about Alfredo and… Well, since he was a good friend of mine I will share with you the sorrow and pain that I still hold in my heart.

I am also a proud member of the Democratic Youth Network that has done political and grassroots work. We have funded ourselves with our own resources and at times, because we do not have money, we have not been able to continue in our struggles, with respect to mobilizing ourselves. But we are still doing political work.

In 2004, this Democratic Youth Network, some will recall, compelled me and other compañeros to join the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD by its Spanish acronym). We were wrong in this decision and we recognize it today. I was a citizen candidate, an external candidate of the PRD.

In the middle of the campaign I denounced the corrupt culture that exists within this party and that some of us have seen… I tell you that this corrupt culture did a lot of damage to the youth in this campaign. We removed ourselves because, as Marcos has already said on many occasions, there is nothing that can be done through political parties. What I don’t understand – and I express it here Subcomandante – why in Sinaloa, where there is supposed to be a party of communists, you have gone to almost all of the places that they supposedly have done political work, yet we don’t know of any of that work and we have been truly working hard.

I will tell you this Marcos; we see a lot of phonies here. I don’t know if they’re deceiving you… Maybe I am being too frank, or perhaps pompous. Excuse me if this is arrogance, excuse me if I am being too honest, but this is the truth. I want you to know that this same self-assured honesty has cost me my Saturday morning radio program with the “formal” media.

Marcos, it was I that sent you the email that told you they cancelled our Saturday program because we made public the testimonies of thirteen women raped in Atenco, as well as sound clips that you made available to us on the Enlace Zapatista webpage. We downloaded them, made them public, and within the week there had been a programming adjustment. A reprogramming… And to this day they have kept me on the job, but only as a crime reporter, and here I am, no? I would like to tell you that the media and the press – those who truly do this job – we are not deceived, we are not on the wrong track, though they say we are are deceived. Nor are we indifferent. We suffer as much as the rest, and sometimes worse, because living in this country, surviving to report our stories is most surely heroism. And there are people here that have many stories. It is fortunate that they are here, because they have had to keep quiet… And like Alfredo, well, Alfredo didn’t silence himself and he is not here.

We know, Marcos, that López Obrador is a fake. Because in 2004, as a citizen candidate, we met with his people, with his brother, and he promised us a lot of things, but didn’t follow through on any of these promises. What happened is he simply and easily deceived us. That is to say that they profited from our political inexperience. I want to tell you that, after this, there is nothing more to say. Thank you for your patience and support. I hope there will be another time in which we speak.

Translated from Spanish October 13th

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