In the memory of the people, knowledge of plants, water, and mountains, of how to be a community and what it means to serve the community, is safeguarded and maintained. Generation after generation, in a ritualistic way, this knowledge is passed down through spoken word. In the heart of the Sierra mountains of the Mexican state of Puebla, Masewal and Tutunaku peoples decided to expand and preserve the power of the spoken word through an Indigenous radio, Radio Tosepan Limakxtum.

In 2010, the founders of the radio were debating the best way not of starting the radio, but of defending it. “We discussed how seeking a concession meant accepting the programmatic guidelines of the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE). Not having a concession meant running the risk of being classified as a clandestine or pirate radio,” explains Bonifacio Iturbide Palomo, a collaborator of the radio.

The decision had to be made by the maximum authority in the community, the assembly. There it was decided to support the initiative. Through collective work (known as faena) and economic donations, without permission from the state, they built the radio cabin and bought the necessary equipment. They also received training. “It was not until September 2011 that we launched our first broadcast. Our main topics were how to care for mother earth, the importance of our Indigenous language, traditional medicine, and identity. We focused on community harmony and its importance for us as Indigenous peoples,” explains a collaborator of Radio Tosepan to Avispa Midia.

In 2013, the Mexican government implemented a telecommunications and radio broadcasting reform which ordered the legal recognition of community and Indigenous radios through concessions. As of today, there are 140 community radios with concessions, 18 of them registered as Indigenous radios, according to data from the United Nations.

The reform didn’t come out of nowhere, but rather derived from the necessity to concretize what had been stipulated in the San Andrés Accords; agreements reached in dialogues between the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) and the Federal Government. Among other things, these accords influenced Fraction VI of Article 2 in the Mexican Constitution:

“Extend the communication infrastructure, enabling integration of communities to the rest of the country, but constructing and expanding transportation routes and telecommunication means. Also, authorities are obliged to develop the conditions required so that indigenous peoples and communities may acquire, operate and manage media, in accordance with the law.”

However, this law imposed certain restrictions and obligations on Indigenous radios, like the broadcasting of political party spots and propaganda of the National Electoral Institute (INE). “We are opposed to broadcasting these messages because they are contrary to our forms of organizing and making decisions. Our system is made up of different community positions, and is not a system of groups like political parties that divide us,” adds Iturbide.

Erick Huerta, an advisor to Radio Tosepan and lawyer for the Network of Diversity, Equity, and Sustainability, AC, explains that the main objective of Indigenous media is to strengthen the autonomy, culture, and identity of Indigenous peoples. “It is contrary to those objectives that Indigenous peoples are forced to broadcast political party advertisements. Imagine the EZLN, negotiating the San Andrés Accords, accepting the possibility to have their own radios, but having to broadcast political party propaganda,” the lawyer suggests.

“This imposition affects the autonomy of Indigenous peoples. Furthermore, it is contrary to the form in which authority is exercised in the communities. It is not organized around different groups or factions, but rather is based in mutual aid, work, and service to the community,” Huerta tells Avispa Midia.

Iturbide, a collaborator of Radio Tosepan, explains that in Masewal territory in the Sierra mountains of the state of Puebla, they have prohibited political party interference, “but recently we are seeing that their influence is present.” More and more we are seeing groups of people who want to control positions in the community, and that is not how things work. Here we have our own system, and it is not for personal interests, but for the entire community. If we permit this, the community fabric will begin to unravel,” he says.

The Legal Battle

Radio Tosepan is currently registered as an Indigenous radio and has appealed on several occasions to the Federal Electoral Tribunal in Mexico City to revoke the legal ruling made on February 27, which says “that this Indigenous radio is obligated to include in their programming political party spots.”

“So far we have not broadcasted any of these messages,” says Iturbide.

On July 5, with two votes in favor of the radio and four against it in the Electoral Tribunal, the request was denied to the community. According to the court, “No right is violated by broadcasting political party propaganda…it does not violate the customs and traditions or the internal normative systems.” The Magistrate Mónica Aralí Soto Fregoso added, “On the contrary, it is the people’s right to information.”

These communities have not let down their guard. “Before taking the case to international courts, we want to exhaust all resources in the country,” said the lawyer Huerta.

For this reason, on October 11, the president of the Auxiliary Council of the Nahua community of San Bernardino Tlaxcalancingo, Rogelio Xinto Coyol, as an Indigenous authority, filed a lawsuit to protect the collective political-electoral rights in his community, against the different acts of the INE. The lawsuit was directed specifically at the General Agreement INEC/CG445/2023, which modifies the telecommunications law and reaffirms the order to broadcast electoral propaganda.

The radios in Tlaxcalancingo and Tosepan are the only 2 radios considered for “social Indigenous use” in this region. There are 2 other community radios, 6 social radios, 12 public use radios, and 50 commercial concessions.

They point out that with at least 70 radio concessions in the state, “it is disproportionate and incomparable to consider that not broadcasting the political party messages (spots) is violating the right to information and to be informed, when the radio spectrum is 97% saturated with these messages.”

In the lawsuit, the community argues that the law “violates our collective rights to strengthen, promote, protect, and make known our own form of organization and our normative systems, as a Nahua community that has managed their own media.”

In addition, the community considers the law to be “discriminatory and racist.” Therefore, they are adhering to their self-determination and autonomy as Indigenous people, making the decision not to broadcast the propaganda. This case was again assigned to Magistrate Soto Fregoso.

In a communique released by Radio Tosepan, Radio Cholollan, and the Network of Diversity, Equity, and Sustainability, they say that the Nahua community has the authority “because the acts notoriously violate the right to autonomy of the community and their right to have their own media. Furthermore, these legal decisions were made without consultations that were previous, free, informed, and culturally adequate to Indigenous communities.”

On October 18, through the auxiliary president of the locality of Yohualichan in the municipality of Cuetzalan del Progreso, Puebla, another lawsuit was filed on behalf of the citizenry arguing that the Masewal community has the right to manage their own media according to the logic of autonomy.

“We are not going to broadcast propaganda of any political party, we are going to resort to other legal resources. Because we are defending our autonomy as organized communities,” adds Iturbide.

The lawyer Huerta assures that, if this legal battle is won, it will benefit all Indigenous and community radios in the country. “The instruction would be to the INE, annulling this obligation or broadcasting political party messages. In the meantime, these radios resort to civil disobedience because their defense is legitimate. They are not broadcasting any type of electoral publicity,” he concludes.

^{Cover photo: Press conference outside the House of the Peoples “Samir Flores Soberanes.” Photo: Regina López}

In the early morning of Monday, October 16, more than 500 Mexico City riot police surrounded the House of the Peoples and Indigenous Communities “Samir Flores Soberanes,” seeking to evict the members of the Otomí community, who have recently marked three years squatting the building, located in the south of Mexico City.

In the face of the repression, members of the Indigenous community were able to repel state forces, “hundreds of riot police, as if we the Otomí community were the criminals, as if we were the ones with the weapons,” explained Isabel, delegate of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI). As a result of the violent operation, ten people were injured, among them, adolescents, elders, and disabled peoples.

“A 17-year-old was attacked by a group of five riot police who kicked and beat her causing immobility in one of her legs; a 13-year-old girl was beaten by three male riot police who kicked her in the head causing her to faint,” detailed the communique.

The government of Mexico City proclaimed via a communique that the police operation was aimed at merely evicting the street encampment in place since October 12 which is demanding dignified housing for 40 Otomí families. However, the Indigenous community denied that telling of the events, arguing police tried to enter the House of the Peoples.

An hour after the operation, a group of more than six motorcyclists arrived to provoke and insult those present in the encampment on Avenue Mexico-Coyoacán. After another attempted incursion, they threatened members of the Otomí community with firearms.

“This is the response from the government to the demands of the Otomí people,” they denounced, showing the firearm cartridges in evidence of the attack, along with images of the aggressors and license plates of their vehicles. They also denounced the absence of the Human Rights Commission of Mexico City (CDHCM) emphasizing that the police operation was never peaceful.

“Three years after the occupation of the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples, racism, discrimination, and repression are the offers of the fourth transformation,” said members of the Otomí community in a press conference.

“We hold Martí Bartes (Head of Government of Mexico City) responsible for whatever else happens to us. The riot police beat us regardless of there being children, women, and elders. Enough of this discrimination,” said an Otomí woman who was assaulted.

“Having a Roof Over Our Head is a Right”

The primary demand of the Otomí community is the expropriation of two buildings located in the Juarez neighborhood in Mexico City, at the addresses of Roma 18 and Londres 7, to serve as housing for Indigenous families. Since two and a half years ago, the building at Zacatecas 64 was expropriated with the intention to house 40 Otomí families, but there are still no indications of fulfilling the demand.

The Otomíes explained that they are tired of lies from government officials like Juan Gutiérrez and Rodrigo Chavez with whom they held a meeting on October 14, where they offered dialogues “without response, without real commitment, their offers are pure simulation of the fourth transformation.”

“We do not believe their words, because we’ve gone four years of this administration that is on its way out and they still have not given us a response,” explained Isabel, delegate of the National Indigenous Congress, who emphasized that this is a decades-long struggle for dignified housing for the Otomí community.

The Otomí community denounced that, on Saturday, October 14, they were informed that the building could not be expropriated because they are not occupying it. With that, they demanded that the government of Mexico City expropriate the building that they are occupying, that House of the Peoples “Samir Flores Soberanes.”

“We demand the expropriation of this building, because here we are occupying it,” they said. The Otomí community announced that they will not remove the encampment on Avenue Mexico-Coyoacán until the demands are fulfilled for social housing of the Otomí community.

Solidarity

Collectives and organizations from different parts of Mexico City and the country arrived to support the struggle and resistance of the Otomí community.

“That is the struggle, so that they don’t continue handing over our territory to real estate companies, for police and military barracks, that are doing away with our lands…to serve the interests of transnational corporations that come for the minerals, the oil. Here, the occupation of the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples building was necessary. The insurrection was necessary,” explains María de los Angeles Fernández, also known as Doña Fili, organizer for dignified housing in Santo Domingo, Coyoacán.

Doña Fili reminds us that just recently on October 12, cultural activities with children were organized in the House of the Peoples. “How can they attack people who struggle so peacefully? And deny housing to the people,” she asked.

For their part, members of the Coordination of Peoples, Original Neighborhoods, and Districts of Xochimilco denounced that the violent actions against the Otomí community are part of the strategy of Juan Gutiérrez Márquez, General Coordinator of Political Concertation, Prevention, and Good Governance in Mexico City.

“He did it to us as Xochimilcas and he does it again…These actions have been repeated. I raise my voice so that this person is removed from office. In the CDHCM, we filed a complaint for the aggressions against citizens of Xochimilco. The man is a coward…he brings a group of motorcyclists to attack, which we documented and filed the information with the CDHCM,” they said in response to the aggressions.

“We want to denounce the act of violence committed by three riot police causing a 13-year-old girl to lose consciousness…she was savagely beaten, that is what we are saying today, not in 1968, not in Palestine, or in another part of the world, we are saying it here in Mexico City, which claims to have a vanguard government,” said Carlos González, member of the National Indigenous Congress.

González said that the conditions of the different Indigenous peoples residing in Mexico City are inhumane. “The government does not give a damn, it is interested in political control, clientelism, giving handouts, not recognizing nor respecting rights, that is the innovative city of rights that this government is selling us.”

He also pointed out that the violence against Indigenous people is being repeated at the national level. For example, on October 13, two Chol youth, 19-year-old Juan Carlos Jiménez, and 17-year-old Oscar Pérez, both of the community of Tila, “were cowardly assassinated by paramilitary forces in their community…that is the reality that we are living,” denounced González regarding the situation of war in Mexico.

Actions

Lastly, the Otomí community called for actions in Querétaro in defense of water and territory and in support of the population of Santiago Mexquititlán.

“This cowardly action is because they are afraid of us, they have to attack us at the cost of life and in favor of the capitalist and real estate interests that have the titles to the land. We will continue struggling together, we will continue organizing, so that this patriarchal power, these transitional companies do not continue to dispossess us,” finalized Isabel, Otomí delegate of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI).