Northern Sierra Mountains of Oaxaca. Photo: Santiago Navarro F
With the approval of the state congress, the governor of Oaxaca has passed the revenue law for the 2024 fiscal year, with which he is pushing the privatization of social use lands in the state.
According to the discourse of Salomón Jara and the opinion of local representatives reproduced in Section B of the law, the idea is to strengthen state revenue through the conversion of ejido and communal lands into private property.
Furthermore, Article 25 proposes to offer fiscal stimulus to ejido and community members who move toward the certification of their agrarian rights in the modality of private property. This new policy has set off warning signals in the ejidos and communities of the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca where according to the National Agrarian Registry (RAN), as of 2022, there are 7,600,000 hectares of social land. That is to say, more than 80% of Oaxacan territory is collectively managed.
In light of this, the ejidos and communities have declared themselves against what they call a “neoliberal economic policy.” According to the ejidos and communities, the law violates the legal security of social property of agrarian, Indigenous, and ejido communities as enshrined in Article 27 of the Mexican Constitution.
Through a statement, ejidos, communities, agrarian authorities, and organizations of Oaxaca have demanded the repeal of the law that they consider “neoliberal tax policy.” “The part of the decree being questioned is its neoliberal vision, founded in policies imposed by Carlos Salinas de Gortari (ex-president of Mexico) through the constitutional reform of January 6, 1992, to privatize social property held by Indigenous peoples, agrarian communities, and ejidos in the state of Oaxaca,” contextualizes the document.
Salomón Jara, Governor of Oaxaca
In the statement, the ejidos, communities, and organizations argue that the intention of the Oaxacan government to increment tax collection through cadastral and registry rights “clearly demonstrates the lack of knowledge of the reality of agrarian, Indigenous, and ejido communities.”
They also argue in the statement that the law undermines the foundation of social property in Oaxaca, manifesting that it is a “Salinist neoliberal policy” of land privatization of ejidos and communities. For that, they demand the governor repeal Article 25 of the law.
The ejidos, communities, and organizations also demand the annulment of the program called “Legal Certainty of the Security and Well-being of the Patrimony,” as they argue that agrarian and ejido communities already have legal certainty with their files registered with the RAN.
“The program the government seeks to implement in no way benefits ejido or community members. The legal certainty is for national and international investors who want the natural resources in our territories, thereby guaranteeing their profitable businesses. This is the case with the megaprojects imposed in the Isthmus region and the mining concessions,” they argue.
Lastly, they call on Indigenous peoples, agrarian and ejido communities, along with social organizations to carry out actions demanding the repeal of the “neoliberal tax policy that threatens our social property.”
Meeting between federal and state officials related to the justice plan of the Mayo people.
Myrna Valencia, professor and human rights defender, member of the Mayo-Yoreme community of Cohuirimpo in southern Sonora, is firm in asserting that the so-called justice plans being pushed by the administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador are detrimental to the Indigenous peoples of Mexico.
As a strategy to promote its policies with Indigenous peoples, the government of the “fourth transformation” (or the 4T as it is popularly known) has coordinated talks with different communities. According to the General Director of the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples (INPI), Adelfo Regino Montes, these talks “will allow us to know and respond to the just demands and historic necessities of Indigenous peoples.”
The federal government is holding meetings with members of the Yaqui, Séri, Wixárika, Náyeri, O´dam, Guarijío, and Mayo-Yoreme people, to whom they have announced the implementation of these so-called justice plans. The promises for the Yoreme tribe include the recuperation of the Mayo River and access to the water; the construction of highway and hospital infrastructure; and the resolution of agrarian conflicts, among others.
Valencia, who is also part of the Indigenous Governing Council (CIG) of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI), critiques the official statements arguing that the strategy of the federal government is just more of the same: “The justice plans, especially for us, the Yoreme, are just harassment and the coup de grace,” she says, denouncing the cooptation of community leaders and the electoral use of government assistance.
Meeting between federal and state officials related to the justice plan of the Mayo people.
Her testimony complements those of inhabitants of the communities of Bachoco El Alto, Buaysiacobe, Masiakawi, and Cohuirimpo, who came together in the Alianza Yoreme or Yoreme Alliance, in January of this year, to denounce that their “ancestral existence is at serious risk due to the resounding failure of the indigenist policies implemented by the Mexican government.”
Through a statement, the alliance in northern Mexico argued that “the 4T is the ideal instrument of capitalism. Businessmen, political parties, organized crime, and other de facto powers all blend together perpetuating themselves in political power, directing anti-identity actions such as drying up the Mayo River in the territory of our tribe.”
For Myrna, the cultural component of the Mayo people is fundamental to the organizing work in the communities. For this reason, she emphasizes that the approach of the peoples of the alliance is to denounce the state for their actions that seek to negate their identity.
“Because when the Yori government, the white government, says ‘this community isn’t Indigenous anymore,’ it has an effect,” she mentions criticizing the creation of the National Catalog of Indigenous and Afromexican Peoples and Communities. INPI, who created the national catalog, has argued that it is necessary in identifying the different peoples in order to guarantee the full exercise of their rights.
This publication is part of a series of dialogues with participants in the last assembly of the National Indigenous Congress in Tehuacán, Puebla. You can consult the past posts on other resistance struggles in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Michoacán, and Quintana Roo.
Below, we share the testimony of Myrna Valencia who is also a member of the Indigenous Governing Council of Cohuirimpo Rio Mayo, one of the eight towns of the Mayo-Yoreme tribe, whose territory spans a region between southern Sonora and northern Sinaloa.
Avispa Midia (AM): In the working groups you talked about the so-called justice plans being pushed by the federal government. Can you share with us more details?.
Myrna Valencia (MV): We have sadly seen that this is just more of the same. In 2019, the president made his first advances. A diagnostic was carried out among Indigenous authorities of the different peoples, communities, and leaderships. We had the opportunity to attend and the diagnostic was very clear. However, we weren’t very clear on what the diagnostic was all about, nor of the economic benefits that would be offered to those who seek out economic resources and political positions. The people were honest in saying how they felt. ‘We want land, we want our land legally recognized. We want our territories and we want our water.’ That was the general sentiment that we delivered.
AM: How have things advanced with the state?
MV: They began to carry out meetings. The INPI and other organizations, who say they are representatives of Indigenous peoples, they began to make incursions, imposing themselves in the communities, naming Indigenous authorities in their own interests and convenience, authorities that would favor them. It was that clear. There has been a lot of differences with the authentic Indigenous governments. They have not been respected. There have been certain individuals, I remember Juan Pérez Gil, who claims to be the spokesperson for the 8 governors of the 8 towns. There has never been such a thing, never talked about, much less legitimized.
As intermediators, they have benefitted from the resources of the justice plan allowing them to manipulate the will of the people. It allows them to take advantage of the necessities of the people, to convince them of things to come. They only know how to act in electoral matters. They are already preparing for the upcoming election, that is what this has served.
It is a platform for electoral questions, for positions of local and municipal government, and even in the institutions like INPI and CEDIS (Commission for Attention to Indigenous Peoples of Sonora) which work on Indigenous issues in the state. That is what we are experiencing, what we are suffering from. In reality there is no progress. In May of 2022, the president said something like: ‘I know what you want, I am not going to fight with those who have the land, I am going to compensate you for it. I am going to fulfill my commitments with you all.’ The people applauded, it was euphoria.
Mexican president visits with the Yoreme people
But sadly, there have been meetings, workshops, and roundtables on different topics. Our people are not accustomed to this. In the meetings, there are people who are not informed and other people who are misinformed. So, the working groups, workshops, and meetings are far from what the Indigenous communities, what the Indigenous people need. In so much coming and going, the object has been lost. We have the responsibility and consciousness because we have been there from beginning. We have had to participate, with a lot of shame because we realize how the people’s will is being managed.
Access was not allowed if you were not a governor (traditional figure of the Yoreme peoples). Obviously, those who are at the front acting as representatives of the tribe and administrators of the budget, they recognized whoever they wanted. It was then that we declared ourselves an alliance and began to reply, criticize, and say clearly that this is a farce, just more of the same.
AM: One of the promises being made is related to the recuperation of the Mayo River. Has that work already begun?
MV: If they really wanted to they would have begun by giving the ration of water that is detained in the dams and benefits the large landowners. It has been years since the necessary ration (of water) has been left in the river, and the plant and animal species are going extinct.
Our territories are dry. The people who lived on the edges of the river are even being affected because concessions were given to these inhabitants. They had access to a certain amount of the riverbed toward the banks. But now as the riverbed has decreased with barely a trickle of water, their houses are now outside the concession. Even so, the government is charging them taxes.
The river, that is one of the most important elements of our identity as a tribe, and it is dry…we continue being treated as foreigners in our own territory, led to a way of thinking that undermines diversity.
AM: What do you think is important about this event that has brought us all together?
MV: Organization is the foundation. No one from an external government will come and take stock of what is hurting us, much less resolve our problems. When someone from outside comes and says that they are our representative, like the white government for example, the only thing they do is take advantage of the resources from our taxes.
But the organization, in this case, the National Indigenous Congress that brings us together on this occasion, and that animates us to organize, I believe that it is the best thing we can do as Indigenous peoples, as people with an identity of a native people. It allows us to know personally, up close, the pains we suffer as people, that we suffer as communities.
Here, comunalidad is the trait that is promoted, recognized, and that which makes us feel truly proud. Here we live it, we express it, we manifest it, and we take it home with us, thanks to the principles of command by obeying of the National Indigenous Congress and the commitment that we have as an Indigenous Governing Council in forming, implementing, and organizing this form of self-government of our tribes.
Commemoration of the Acteal Massacre. Photo: Las Abejas Area of Communication
Friday, December 22, marked 26 years since the Acteal Massacre, a state crime that shocked the country for the genocidal policy implemented by the Mexican government in Chiapas.
For the occasion, the civil society organization Las Abejas de Acteal—active for 31 years in the region—together with the Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Center, spoke out against the lack of commitment of the Mexican state to advance toward justice and punishment for the perpetrators of the crime. “Those responsible continue unpunished. This is an example of the negationist posture and a commitment to forgetting and apathy,” the organizations claimed in a communique.
After 26 years of seeking justice, Las Abejas de Acteal emphasize that they have recently received two notifications from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
The case of the Acteal Massacre is nearing discussion and the publication of a Merits Report, which “is important for the recognition of this state crime as one against humanity for which the entire Mexican state is responsible,” Las Abejas stated in a communique.
The Tzotzil organization considers that, “although late, it opens a small window of advancement toward justice and reparation for the survivors, although we know that it will not be complete.”
The Indigenous Tzotziles emphasize the responsibility of government officials who were in power at that time. Specifically, they name the President of the Republic, Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León; the Secretary of Government, Emilio Chuayffet; as well as the Secretary of National Defense, General Enrique Cervantes Aguirre, who was even decorated by Andrés Manuel López Obrador in October of this year.
Other officials involved are the ex-Governor of Chiapas, Julio Cesar Ruiz Ferro; the State Secretary of Government, Homero Tovilla Cristiani; the State Subsecretary of Government, Uriel Jarquin, and the Municipal President of Chenalhó, Jacinto Arias, among others.
Las Abejas de Acteal emphasize that their struggle and resistance is against social amnesia, which they consider “important to reclaim justice and name those responsible for organizing and implementing the strategy of extermination toward the civil population in the context of the Zapatista insurrection, as well as pointing out the responsibility of complicit government officials.”
Commemoration of the Acteal Massacre. Photo: Las Abejas Area of Communication
In addition to calling out federal and state authorities for obstructing justice for Acteal, they also denounced what they consider to be the “resounding” failure of both the federal government led by AMLO, and the state government led by Rutilio Escandón Cadenas, in in issues related to social justice, peace, and security.
“They have encouraged community division through governmental projects, which represent the continuity of the counterinsurgency by means of manipulation and cooptation. They have opted to embrace, empower, and reward military power, and they have authorized an implicit pardon for political violence carried out in the 1990’s,” the organizations condemned.
For that, Las Abejas de Acteal consider the current situation in Chiapas to be critical.
“We are immersed in a spiral of violence that converges with and involves the historical processes of demanding justice…the crisis of violence in the border zone, which generates serious human rights violations like forced displacement, disappearances, assassinations, extorsion, torture, kidnappings, population control, and silenced communities and municipalities. All of the above in the context of an electoral process that further exacerbates the violence in the territories,” they detail in the communique.
However, the Maya Tzotziles assured that, “In spite of this dark panorama, the processes of struggle and community resistance are constantly articulating, walking the paths of peace, autonomy, territorial defense, and care for Mother Earth, our common home.”
This past Wednesday, December 13, the Senate approved the request from president Andrés Manuel López Obrador for the presence of US military personnel in Mexican territory.
By majority vote the Senate approved the participation of joint military activities between personnel of the US Army and members of the Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA). With that, they also authorized the entry of weapons, ammunition, and tactical equipment into Mexico.
The arrival of the North American military delegation, composed of 11 members of the US Special Operations Command North, is scheduled for January 22, 2024.
According to the request made by AMLO last November, the military activities in Mexican territory will last until March 22, 2024. Among their objectives is to provide training to SEDENA Special Forces in the Mexican municipalities of Temamatla and San Miguel de los Jagüeyes, to the east and north of Mexico City respectively.
As approved by the Senate, SEDENA must submit a report on the results of the training received from the U.S. Military.
Mobilization of the EZLN in the city of San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas. March 2022. Photo: Tercios Compas/ Enlace Zapatista
November 25 marked one year since the arbitrary detention of José Díaz Gómez, Support Base of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, who remains in pretrial detention in the CERSS No. 17, also known as “El Bambú,” located in Catazajá, in the north of Chiapas.
According to a communique from the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba), Díaz Gómez, Indigenous Ch’ol accused of robbery, “remains in a serious situation which threatens his human dignity due to the fabrication of a crime against him.”
“The accusation is based on the fabrication of a crime by the State Attorney General’s Office. This has been the mode of conduct of this institution which operates a pattern of fabricating guilt and criminalization against human rights defenders in complicity with local judicial power,” contextualized the human rights center.
Frayba details that the process of pretrial detention against Díaz Gómez has been “maliciously prolonged.” Also, they point out that given the lack of evidence against Díaz Gómez, the Selva District Prosecutor’s Office and the Magistrate’s Court have worked together to simulate a process, at the cost of his freedom.
For example, both instances have extended the investigation times with the objective of delaying the trial, “knowing that it is impossible to prove any responsibility against him,” sustained the organization.
Another point to highlight is the lack of due diligence on part of the Chiapas Public Defenders Office. Just over two months ago, a new public defender was assigned to Díaz Gómez, who has still not interviewed him to get up to date on his legal situation and to know the necessities in order to seek justice. “Consequently, the public defender has not carried out the necessary actions to push for his prompt release,” denounces Frayba.
Faced with this scenario, this past November 15, Díaz Gómez solicited before the Magistrate’s Court of Catazajá, the modification of his pretrial detention to carry out his process in conditional freedom.
The Support Base of the EZLN has two kids who are minors and a wife “who also suffer the consequences of the detention, affecting their family life, as well as their physical, psychological, and economic situation, which is why a change in the pretrial condition is a necessity to lessen such impacts. To date, there has been no response to this request,” contextualized the human rights organization.
The EZLN has denounced that José Díaz Gómez is kidnapped by the government of Chiapas for being a Zapatista. The same occurred in the case of Manuel Gómez Vázquez, who recently recuperated his freedom after nearly three years arbitrarily detained.
On November 16, Manuel Gómez Vázquez, Support Base of the EZLN, was freed after nearly three years of arbitrary detention. Photo: Frayba
The human rights center, based in San Cristóbal de las Casas, emphasizes that there is a pattern of criminalization in other parts of Mexico as well, against “Indigenous peoples who oppose the imposition of megaprojects being pushed by the current government. They highlight the existence of arrests warrants against populations opposed to the Interoceanic Train” in reference to the persecution against member of the Binizaá community of Puente Madera, in Oaxaca.
In Chiapas, there are the cases of Cesar Hernández and José Luis Gutiérrez, Tseltal human rights defenders criminalized for opposing the imposition of a National Guard barracks in their territory. Also, the case of five Tseltal human rights defenders of San Juan Cancúc, who were sentenced to 25 years in prison for defending their territory against megaprojects like the “highway of cultures.”
“The fabrication of crimes against Indigenous organizers represents a selective strategy of the current federal government, seeking to cause an inhibiting effect on the communities and people who defend their rights, highlighting that most of them are directed against Indigenous land defenders,” says Frayba.
The deployment of police and military forces in El Salvador during the ongoing state of exception, first declared in March of 2022, has set the conditions for serious human rights violations.
The young man Levi Morales is a member of the Movimiento Indígena para la Integración de las luchas de los Pueblos Ancestrales de El Salvador (MILPA). On November 11, 2022, when he was finishing a day of agricultural work in the municipality of Nahuizalco, he was detained by elements of the National Civil Police (PNC).
At that moment, more than seven months had passed since the state of exception was enacted by the Legislative Assembly in March 2022. Under the argument of combatting gang violence, which at the end of that month killed more than 80 people in only three days, the president Nayib Bukele requested and congress decreed the suspension of the right to legal defense of people detained, and extended the term of administrative detention up to 15 days.
Morales became one of the people captured and accused without evidence of pertaining to a criminal gang. Held for more than a year, the authorities never turned over evidence connecting the young Indigenous man to gang activity. Thus, on November 20, a court in the city of Santa Ana ordered his release.
Despite the request coming from the same National Attorney General’s Office, Morales was captured again following his release without any explanation or charges against him. He was transferred to the prison of Usulután, nearly 200 kilometers from his home.
During a press conference carried out on Monday, December 4, Ariela González, member of the Fundación de Estudios para la Aplicación del Derecho (FESPAD) and the defense lawyer of Levi Morales, pointed out that the authorities never notified the family of his release nor of the charges against him in his recapture. “We do not know who ordered his recapture nor the crimes of which he is being charged, if there is a new accusation or if we are facing a double persecution of the same supposed crime,” explained González.
Levi’s father, Silverio Morales, an Indigenous leader from the western part of the Central American country, has raised his voice to demand the liberation of his son. “I am a little afraid of doing this press conference because of the personal persecution against my family, because something similar happened to me last time. The military and police began to persecute me. We ask the public prosecutor’s office to release him,” he demanded.
Also present at the press conference were members of MILPA, La Mesa por la Soberania Alimentaria, La Asociación de Estudiantes de Derecho, and La Mesa Permanente por la Justicia Laboral, organizations that have documented due process violations in the case of the Morales family.
Attacks on Political Organizers
Something the different organizations accompanying the case of Levi Morales see in common is that the case is representative of what is happening repeatedly in El Salvador, specifically with arbitrary detentions as a strategy of repression of social struggles.
Ángel Flores, also a member of MILPA, explained that there is currently a process of reconcentration of land taking place in the Central American country through different economic initiatives that continue the dispossession of the communities, like projects planned for the coastal strip of El Salvador.
“In areas where there is a presence of Indigenous peoples and campesinos, there exists many interests in expanding mega investment projects, hotel complexes, processes of accelerated urbanization, and also of the turistification of territories…it is no coincidence that they are persecuting Indigenous leaders, environmentalists, women’s collectives, among other organized sectors that are active in our country, as they are an obstacle to the appropriation of the natural resources,” said Flores.
The deployment of police and military forces in El Salvador during the ongoing state of exception, first declared in March of 2022, has set the conditions for serious human rights violations.
The member of MILPA stressed that the attacks against Indigenous peoples are due to the fact that they are antagonistic to the forms of life that the economic and political elites seek to impose on the Central American country. “The attacks obey the interests of appropriating what is currently in the hands of the Indigenous and campesino communities of El Salvador,” he argues.
Militarization
On Tuesday, December 5, Amnesty International published a report where they accuse the Salvadoran government, led by president Nayib Bukele, of committing “repression and the regression” of human rights in El Salvador.
According to Amnesty International, the situation of repression represents one of the greatest crises in the country since the end of the armed conflict 32 years ago. Furthermore, the organization denounced that the policies of the authorities consolidate a “punitive model of public security,” which they constantly seek to make invisible.
Through interviews and monitoring, the human rights organization identified the restriction of the rights of the Salvadoran people and the implementation of policies that “expand militarization, repressive practices, and permanent legal reforms contrary to international human rights standards—particularly those related to a fair trial. This has set the conditions for serious human rights violations,” said Ana Piquer, director of Amnesty International for the Americas.
Arrests during the state of exception in El Salvador. Photo: La Prensa Gráfica
According to the organization, the illegal and massive detentions, forced disappearances, torture, and deaths which have occurred in state custody during the state of exception “are the product of a high level of state coordination and are taking place with the knowledge of the highest up authorities who many times incentivize and justify them.” Among the consequences of these actions, there exists a rise in patterns of self-censorship among journalists, media outlets, and social organizations.
The report shows that the state has a policy of systemic torture against people that have been captured during the state of exception, accused of pertaining to criminal gangs.
The detention of Levi Morales is one among more than 71,000 people detained as of October of this year, 19 months after the beginning of the state of exception, which continues to be extended every month by the Legislative Assembly.
Socorro Jurídico Humanitario is an organization that has documented the systemic detention of activists. According to their data, 17 union leaders have been detained and accused of criminal association and terrorism.
Ángel Flores of MILPA asserted that the case of Morales is an arbitrary detention, demanding that the Salvadoran government “end the criminalization, persecution, and incarceration of Indigenous, environmental, union, and social leaders along with their families, like is the case on this occasion…it is an extremely worrying situation because defenders of human rights, of the environment, and of collective and individual rights are being persecuted.”
