MEXICO: STATEMENT IN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
We hereby publish an unofficial translation of an article published by Red Sun Mexico.
August 9, 2024
DESPITE DEFAMATION, CRIMINALIZATION AND VIOLENCE, INDIGENOUS PEOPLE CONTINUE TO DEFEND THE TERRITORIES IN THE SOUTH-SOUTHEAST OF MEXICO
Within the framework of the International Day of Indigenous Peoples, communities, peoples and organizations from the states of Chiapas, Guerrero and Oaxaca, we held the Second Regional Meeting: the topic was Conflict, Violence and Criminalization against Defenders and the Social Movement, in order to go deeper into defense strategies in the south-southeast region and build joint actions that can strengthen our movements. In a scenario of deepening and normalization of violence and the systematic pattern of criminalization of defenders and social movements in the region, we analyze the following:
1. We have common characteristics and features in the three states of the southeast of the country, our main strengths and historical conquests have been the social ownership of land and our collective organization system, based mainly on collective decision by our community assemblies.
2. The serious situation of social violence, criminalization and attacks against our movements has been unleashed by the dispossession of our common properties. We denounce that the development tendency promoted by the executive power at the federal and state functions based on deep social inequalities. Such model is characterized by the legalization of dispossession or governance of dispossession, we denounce that in this six-year term neoliberal projects were done from past governments, we refer to the inter-oceanic project in Oaxaca, Guerrero and Oaxaca mining projects and the Mayan Train in the south-southeast region.
3. The executive federal power has assumed the monopoly of the legitimacy of the social causes and assumes that the social movement has come to power. Before the simplification of the State, it is important to mention that social processes are more complex and to denounce that there is impunity and no access to justice for defenders who have been attacked by paramilitary groups, shock groups and organized crime that moves under the protection of impunity.
4. The oldest presence of organized crime is concentrating in the regions of imposition of extractive projects, such are the cases of mining projects, wind energy projects, gas pipelines, road expansions (in Guerrero, Chiapas and Oaxaca). Those of us who are in opposition to these projects are murdered, they disappear, criminalize and delegitimize us. This practice has been systematically operated by federal, state and municipal governments.
5. There is a failed security strategy, militarization has not reduced the rates of conflict, violence and insecurity, on the contrary, has served companies’ interests and organized crime. The disappearance of young people and women, murder, collection of fees, forced displacements, lack of resolution of conflicts and greater presence of armed groups and organized crime in the communities are examples of this situation.
6. The communities forcibly displaced by violence are not a scandal made by organizations and movements. Based on several reports, the shameful number of 21 thousand displaced indigenous people in Chiapas in the last two years, the murder of 176 defenders during this six-year term, the recruitment of young people, the violence generated in the last electoral process, in addition to the criminalization against social movements’ members have been documented .
7. The consequences of the imposition of such model, the negligence of state and federal governments and impunity have been the normalization of violence, irreversible pollution of the environment, a deep water crisis in the southeastern region, the loss of flora and fauna, territorial control by companies and organized crime, citizen apathy, fear widespread in our communities, community fractures, in addition to serious effects on our social network.
8. We, the peoples, communities and movements in the southeast of the country are committed to a different model of society, in which our common properties are a priority, social property of land, the integrity of our territory, the strengthening of our social network, the promotion of Internal Regulations and Communal Statutes. This model is in clear confrontation with the model of the new development tendency, marked by violence, murder, criminalization, the obstruction of agrarian laws to the recognition of the Statutes and internal regulations of the communities (specifically in Guerrero) and the militarization of our territories.
9. In front of the violence and criminalization, communities and organizations have agreed strengthen our resistance and organization processes for security, the creation of committees for territorial protection against threats, strengthening our collective processes and historical memory, mobilization, the visibility of our problems and the construction of alliances and broad articulations at the national and international level.
10. Today, within the framework of the International Day of Indigenous Peoples, we agree on promote a campaign against the criminalization of defenders and a joint mobilization between the three states, no more missing defenders, murdered and criminalized! Freedom for political prisoners Agustín Pérez Domínguez, Martín Pérez Domínguez, Juan Velasco Aguilar and Agustín Pérez Velasco of San Juan Cancuc, Freedom for Pedro Hernández López of the Cuxquital ejido, San Cristóbal de las Casas, and no to the incrimination of innocent people in Chiapas! Justice for Mateo Gómez López, murdered for opposing the recruitment of criminal groups in San Cristóbal de las Casas! Alive presentation of Sergio Rivera Hernández from the territory in the Sierra Negra of Puebla! Justice for Bety Cariño and Jiry Jakkola! No more displaced by the new development tendency model! Stop the repression by the military and national guard! No to mining in the states of Oaxaca, Guerrero and Chiapas! Dismantling criminal groups and no more impunity! Solidarity with the Mazatecx comrades of Eloxochitlán de Magón Flowers! Freedom and absolution for Salvador Pinal Meléndez, indigenous Zapotec of Santa Cruz Tagolaba and Arnulfo García Santos, Triqui indigenous displaced from San Miguel Copala, both criminalized because of their defense of land! Alive presentation of Dr. Ernesto Sernas García! Justice for Capulálpam from Mendez!
Oaxaca de Juárez, Oaxaca. 09 August 2024
Asamblea de Pueblos Indígenas del Istmo en Defensa de la Tierra y el Territorio
Autoridades agrarias de San Miguel del Progreso
Autoridades agrarias y municipales de Capulálpam de Méndez
Centro de Apoyo para la Educación y Creatividad Calpulli
Centro Universitario Comunal de San Antonio Huitepec “Ityi Ndya Ndoo” UACO
Centro de Derechos Humanos de la Montaña Tlachinollan
Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas
Centro de Derechos Humanos Tepeyac
Centro de Estudios de la Región Cuicateca-CEREC
Consejo de Comunidades en Resistencia del Estado de Oaxaca CCORO
Corriente del Pueblo Sol Rojo
Espiga de Maíz
Frente no a la Minería por un Futuro de Todas y Todos
Coatecas Altas
San Matías Chilazoa
El Llano Sitio Santiago
Movimiento Agrario Indígena Zapatista MAIZ
Movimiento Lubizha
Organizaciones Indias por los Derechos Humanos OIDHO
Observatorio Ciudadano y Comunitario del Medio Ambiente y el Agua de los Valles Centrales de Oaxaca
Red de Defensoras y Defensores Comunitarios de los Pueblos de Oaxaca – Redecom
Servicio Internacional para la Paz – SIPAZ
Servicios para una Educación Alternativa A.C. EDUCA
Unión de Comunidades Indígenas de la Zona Norte del Istmo UCIZONI
