The Uncomfortable Dead (15 page)

But you see, the PAN is an excellent example of a local branch of the fascist right. The Internationale of Evil, that’s what globalization is. So that’ll be forty-five pesos for the shower, with shampoo, soap, and towel. Yeah, we have a special going cause it’s too cold and nobody’s taking baths. A squirt of deodorant is all they do. And sometimes not even that.

THE BAD AND THE EVIL ACCORDING TO MUMIA ABU-JAMAL, JOURNALIST AND ACTIVIST AGAINST RACISM, ILLEGALLY AND UNFAIRLY CONDEMNED TO DEATH IN THE U.S. (REFERRING HERE TO THE DEVASTATION CAUSED BY THE RECENT TSUNAMIS ON THE COASTS OF ASIA).

Yet there is another watery war that is being waged, that may affect the lives of millions…Yet all across the globe, in Africa, Asia, and Latin America
—
and even here in North America
—
people are living under the very real threat of the corporatization of water and water systems. The waters of the earth, which have been, since the dawn of human civilization, for the collective usage of the community, is fast becoming just another commodity
—
something to sell. If you can afford it, cool. If not, tough … In short, there’s money in water, and where money is, there too are corporations, trying to get paid. That’s the dark, unforeseen, and treacherous side of the globalization movement among western governments and corporations. That’s also what privatization really means
—
taking the common inheritance of nature, and making it into someone else’s private property.
—Death Row, Pennsylvania, December 30, 2004

THE BAD AND THE EVIL ACCORDING TO COMANDANTE ESTHER AND COMANDANTE DAVID (ESTHER AND DAVID EXPLAIN TO EL SUP THE PROBABLE ORIGIN OF THE NOTES LEFT BY MANUEL VÁZQUEZ MONTALBÁN).

“I think what happened is that Don Manolo was preparing an article on the right in the government of Spain,” David began, looking over his own notes.

“Yes,” Esther added, “he was explaining how the Franco program was being reorganized—”

“That’s right,” David interrupted, pointing to a world map. “He was investigating that fascist Spanish organization known as Ciudad Católica and noticed that it had relationships with other extreme-right organizations in other countries.”

“In Mexico, for instance, with the organization that’s called El Yunque,” Esther explained, holding up a book with the same name, by Álvaro Delgado. “In Mexico, as I was saying, we find that in 1998 an entity called the International Civil Commission for the Observation of Human Rights (ICCOHR) began visiting Chiapas. It is, or was, made up of people from countries around the world, mainly from Europe, who were concerned about violations of the human rights of the indigenous communities, as well as the militarization and paramilitarization processes. The commission made its first visit after the Acteal massacre, right in the middle of the attack by Zedillo and Croquetas Albores on the autonomous municipalities. To keep them from seeing the shit they were pulling, the government expelled a number of those people from Mexico, especially the Italians.”

David picked up the line of reasoning: “One of the members of the commission was, or is, Daniel, a son of Don Manolo, who, among other things, is a video buff. So during the work of the commission, Daniel Vázquez Montalbán shot videos of the military posts and the meetings with the representatives of the bad Zedillo government. Once they were back in Barcelona, Don Manolo, along with Pepe Carvalho, was able to watch the videos that his son made in Chiapas.”

David checked his notes again, then continued his narrative: “Pepe Carvalho was, or is, a detective, and he was helping Don Manolo with his research into the resurrection of the Franco agenda in the Spanish state. While they were watching the videos, Mr. Carvalho replayed the parts with the representatives of Zedillo’s bad government and the shots of the military posts. Neither Don Manolo nor his son understood why then, but they soon did. At one point in the rerun, Mr. Calvalho identified someone and snapped, ‘That’s Morales.’ The person had appeared beside General Renán Castillo who, as you know, organized the paramilitary in Altos de Chiapas and, together with Zedillo, helped plan the Acteal massacre of December 22, 1997.”

“Then Mr. Carvalho explained to Don Manolo that in his research on the Spanish right, he had run across this character on a number of occasions—the guy had a close relationship with the José María Aznar administration, who knew him simply as ‘Morales,’ with no other identifying information,” explained Esther. “Then Don Manolo asked Carvalho to get more information on this Morales.” “Yes, as we say over here,” David added, “he wanted Morales
tailed.”

“That’s it,” Esther agreed, “they put a tail on this Morales person and found out about the hotel, the metro station, the Financial Center, the Mexican embassy, and, with a little creative investigation, they found out about the briefcase full of papers and euros.”

David continued: “Following up on the investigation, he discovered the links set up between the Aznar government and the intelligence services of the Mexican government to harass the Basque citizens residing in our country and accuse them of belonging to ETA. As you know, many Basques were kidnapped, tortured, and later turned over to the courts, using the same techniques developed by the White Brigade in what came to be known as the Dirty War. Carvalho discovered that in Mexico, not only is there a conspiracy of silence among the powerful to suppress the truth about the Dirty War, but that El Yunque was reactivating paramilitary groups through one of its organizations known as MURO. Then Carvalho found—”

“The Morales person,” Esther interrupted.

“And what about the Montes Azules, biodiversity, and the transnationals?” El Sup asked.

Esther answered, “According to the Deep Throat report you sent us, this Morales individual was supposed to be trafficking in endangered species in the Lacandona forest, aside from working closely with Julia Carabias and Ernesto Zedillo on the machinations to sell tracts of land in the Montes Azules to the transnationals. Don Manolo might have found out about this through something Mr. Carvalho ran across in that briefcase carted around by Morales, and because he had learned of the meeting Morales had in Spain with Zedillo, Carabias, and Tello.”

“Hmm. The pieces are beginning to fall into place,” El Sup commented, lighting his pipe.

“Where’s Elías?” David asked.

“He’s in the Monster. He already met up with the detective, Belascoarán, who agreed to cooperate with us in the investigation. Elías is going to see him again very soon to exchange information and decide what to do from here on out,” El Sup answered.

“I think it’s time to bring him back in,” Esther said.

“Yes,” David agreed, “according to the reports from the Good Governance Board in La Realidad, this Morales person was part of the Fox group that recently visited the Lacandona forest and had a secret meeting with some unidentified characters. That’s why Fox stayed overnight. The entire Fox party returned, all except one—”

“The Morales person,” Esther again interrupted.

“The area of Chiapas that Fox visited is full of fine hardwoods, oil, bountiful animal and plant life, uranium … and water. If there’s any one place where you can find the Bad and the Evil together, it’s there!” David exclaimed, jabbing his finger into a corner of the Chiapas map labeled,
Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve.

THE BAD AND THE EVIL ACCORDING TO JOSÉ REVUELTAS, MEXICAN WRITER AND RADICAL LEFTIST MILITANT, WHO WAS, AMONG OTHER THINGS, A POLITICAL PRISONER.

The PAN represents the economic sectors whose endeavors are less “fruitful and creative” in the life of the nation: banking capital, commercial and real estate capital, and the capital that thrives in the so-called
comprador
economy. Their physical incarnation is the Licenciado, whose historical debut on the national scene dates back to the colonial period and the Pontifical University … Now then, the fondest wish of the PAN and its Licenciados is to set Mexico up as an open field for the growth and development of foreign capital, without whose momentum (as avowed by the PAN) our economy would be doomed to have its entrails devoured by vultures for rebelling against the gods, who, in our case, would be the big interests of North American imperialist capital.
—Mexico: A
Barbaric Democracy,
October-November 1957

THE BAD AND THE EVIL ACCORDING TO PABLO NERUDA, CHILEAN POET AND LEFTIST MILITANT.

I
have seen the Bad and the Evil, but not in their lairs.
It is a tale of evil in caverns …

I found evil sitting on tribunals

in the Senate
I
found it dressed

and prim, diverting debates

and ideas into pockets.

The Bad and Evil

had just emerged from their baths: They

were framed in satisfactions

and were perfect in their softness

of their false decorum.

—Excerpt from “Se Reúne el Acero” (1945), in
Canto General

PORTIONS OF THE REPORT ON THE WORK OF ELÍAS IN THE MONSTER SENT BY EL SUP TO THE INDIGENOUS CLANDESTINE REVOLUTIONARY COMMITTEE AT THE GENERAL HEADQUARTERS OF THE ZAPATISTA NATIONAL LIBERATION ARMY IN EARLY 2005.

According to this report, Elías was a waiter at the Champs-Élysées restaurant in Polanco, and he brought about one of the most intense attacks of rage ever suffered by Diego Fernández de Cevallos, senator from the PAN (National Action Party), lawyer of criminals, consort of drug traffickers, and architect of the campaign to elect Santiago Creel, current Secretary of the Interior, to the presidency of Mexico on the PAN ticket.

As it happens, La Coyota, which is what they call Fernández de Cevallos, was eating in a restaurant with his friends Jesús Ortega (a corrupt politician from the PRD, notorious for his misappropriation of party funds and his bid to become governor of Mexico City after the López Obrador fiasco), Manuel Bartlett (member of the PRI, linked to drug trafficking and looking to hook up with one of the narco groups vying for power along with the PRI nominees for president of the republic), and Enrique Jackson (also a member of the PRI, also a nominee, owner of a number of rackets in Mexico City, and, according to reports by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, also tied in with one of the drug cartels).

Elías was supposed to serve them. Mr. Fernández de Cevallos yelled at him, “Hey, barefoot Indian trash, bring us the menu!” and turning to receive the approval of his guests, he added, “Let’s see if this lazy Indian falls asleep along the way,” as the others flattered him with chuckles and applause. When Elías brought the menu, Fernández de Cevallos said, “Listen, you, don’t pay any attention to those Zapatistas; you Indians are here to serve us; that’s what we conquered you for.”

More laughter and applause from the narco-legislators.

Elías waited for them to finish their orders, pretending he was writing them down. Then he left, and after a while he returned, not with the orders, but holding an antacid bottle with a pom-pom on top and a note that said, For
La Coyota and her pups.
Fernández de Cevallos turned every color of the rainbow; he could hardly speak. All he could do (according to Elías) was open his eyes really wide, like when he gets angry with reporters. The captain came to the table to see what was happening and Fernández de Cevallos pointed at Elías as his three little pigs pounded him on the back and fanned him with napkins. They called an ambulance. As they lifted him into the vehicle, Fernández de Cevallos mumbled, “Rat-shit Indians.” Maybe they fired Elías, but he didn’t hang around to find out. Diego Fernández de Cevallos was admitted to a hospital, so he said, “to have some lab analyses done and rule out cancer.” The fact is, he had such a severe bile attack that it turned his beard green. A very exclusive beauty parlor charged a fortune to dye it back, with white hairs and all. The Senate of the Republic picked up the tab.

… Before the incident with La Coyota Fernández de Cevallos, Elías worked as a room steward at the Oxford Hotel, over in the Tabacalera district. While he was working for them, Elías slipped a ski mask over the head of the Che Guevara bust in the park behind the San Carlos Museum, in that same district. That happened just last year, on October 8, 2004, but no one ever found out because just before first light, before anyone could see it, the personnel of the Cuauhtémoc Station tore off the ski mask, along with a sign that read. He
shall return, and they shall be millions.

THE BAD AND THE EVIL ACCORDING TO MANUEL VÁZQUEZ MONTALBÁN, CATALONIAN WRITER AND FIERCE CRITIC OF THE RIGHT (AS WELL AS THE LEFT).

No. There are no single truths, nor are there final struggles, but we can still find our way by siding with the possible truths against the evident non-truths and fighting. One can see part of the truth and not recognize it. But it is impossible to look upon evil and fail to recognize it. Good does not exist, but evil, I think, or I fear, does.
—In “Panfleto desde el Planeta de los Simios,” late 1994

THE BAD AND THE EVIL ACCORDING TO HÉCTOR BELAS-COARÁN AND ELÍAS CONTRERAS.

So I went to see this Belascoarán over where he works, which is his office. I left when it was getting on in the afternoon, which was almost like the evening. That morning, I had been reading in this newspaper called
La Jornada
about what a guy says who knows a whole lot of things and his name is … his name is … Gimme a second … That’s it, Miguel León Portilla. And I copied down what this Mr. León Portilla said, which was:

A
person’s word must neither be bought nor sold, says an old adage (pre-Hispanic) that a mother shared with her daughter Beautiful, isn’t it? Such a contrast with what so many contemporary politicians do and think.

That’s what the man said in that newspaper called
La Jornada.
Well, I just stood there thinking about what that wise man said, but not too long, cause I had to go and find that Belascoarán feller.

I reckon it musta been a Sunday, can’t really tell now, but what I do know is that I crossed in front of that big old building where they have that newspaper called
El Universal,
and I noticed that it was 6 p.m., Fox time, which is 19:00 hours Southeastern Combat Front time. I can tell that was the time, cause just as I was walking in front of the building, I heard the music of the National Anthem of Mexico, and so I snapped to, which means I came to attention and I brought my left arm real stiff to the side of my head, which is how us Zapatistas salute the anthem and the flag of our country, which is called Mexico. So there I was, all by myself cause there was no one else around at that time, standing there at attention and all, and twisting my eyes every which way to figger where it was coming from, the music to that anthem that says, Mexicans,
at the call to war/your steel and your bridle prepare …
and I couldn’t find where, till finally it finished and I turned and saw that it was coming from the big old clock on top of that newspaper. The thing is, that street is called Bucareli, and right around the corner is where that Belascoarán works, where he has his office, on the street that’s called Artículo 123 on the one side and Donato Guerra on the other.