Mexico: Weekly Newsletter
We hereby share an unofficial translation of the part on Mexico from the latest Weekly Newsletter published by Sol Rojo on September 7.
Despite its demagogic rhetoric, the self-proclaimed “fourth transformation” continues to pursue anti-popular policies, which has been shown once again in recent days against indigenous peoples and the children of the poor peasantry.
At the federal level, the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples (INPI), led since AMLO’s six-year term by the defector and demobilizer Adelfo Regino Montes, is pushing a reform to the General Law of Rights of the indigenous and Afro-Mexican peoples, which in fact, constitutes a step backward from Article 2 of the Constitution and a direct attack on social land ownership contained in Article 27 of the federal Constitution. In other words, it is a reactionary counter-reform.
The ruling Party is pushing for greater corporatization and control over Indigenous peoples, and proposes measures such as “formal recognition and validation” by the State through a “ruling” that will determine whether or not they are Indigenous; the standardization of internal regulatory systems through “recognized assemblies and statutes validated in writing”; in addition to undermining land and territorial rights by subordinating them to exceptions, political will, and consultations with the peoples conducted solely at the State’s convenience. In other words: a total dismantling of hard-won rights.
To impose this bureaucratic policy in the countryside, and specifically against Indigenous peoples, the ruling Party is promoting “regional consultative assemblies” in the purest INPI style, identical to those made to impose the Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the misnamed “Maya Train” and other imperialist megaprojects of plunder and death. We already know what the 4T’s “consultations” are like: “Who agrees to receive welfare programs? Who is in favor of progress? Who supports the transformation? Who wants to receive more assistance?”…And so, by force, with the bussing in of supporters, the buying of consciences, threats and destruction of the community fabric, they impose their bureaucratic vision of development.
At the same time, on our platforms, we have reported on the campaign of criminalization, persecution and repression against the students of the “Carmen Serdán” Rural Teachers’ College of Teteles, Puebla, who are waging an exemplary struggle in defense of the boarding system, the school cafeteria, and access to free public education for the daughters of the poor peasantry.
The students of this female school have been victimized in the past weeks in a real repression and lynching campaign by the Morena government of Alejandro Armenta in Puebla and the federal government. Additionally the students have denounced, that one of their lawyers, Alejandro de Jesús Martínez Martínez has been detained as a punishment for defending them legally. Facing this the Student Council of the Teacher’s College has assured that the State is trying to close their school.
Over the past few weeks, the students at this all-girls school have been victims of a full-scale campaign of repression and public shaming by Alejandro Armenta’s Morena government in Puebla and the federal government. Moreover, the young women have denounced that one of their lawyers, Alejandro de Jesús Martínez Martínez, has been detained as a warning for providing them with legal counsel. In light of this, the Student Council of the teacher’s college asserts that the State is seeking to close their school.
If Morena claimed “for the good of all, the poor first,” how should we interpret this onslaught against Indigenous peoples and the daughters of poor peasants?
Down with the INPI’s Rigged Consultations!
Defend the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, No to the Counter-reform!
Total solidarity with the “Carmen Serdán” Rural Teachers’ College!
Long live the FECSM!
