On Thursday February 2, Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, published two decrees in the Official Journal of the Nation making official the expropriation of 1,018 acres of communal lands in Ciudad Ixtepec, and 1,240 acres in Santa María Mixtequilla, both in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca. These lands will be the future sites of two industrial parks or Development Poles for Wellbeing that are being constructed as part of the Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.
Both lands were bought by the federal government through the national fund, El Fideicomiso Fondo Nacional de Fomento Ejidal (FIFONAFE).
According to one decree, the Mexican government paid $111,447,000 pesos to community members and land caretakers for the expropriation in Ciudad Ixtepec,
In the other decree, the federal government paid $40,000,000 pesos in advance, of the total $130,000,000 pesos that will be paid to cover the expropriation of land in Santa María Mixtequilla,
The government has announced ten industrial parks to be constructed as part of the Interoceanic Corridor. Three of these industrial parks are being planned in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. However, the government still lacks the decree to expropriate 300 hectares of land of El Pitayal, in the community of Puente Madera, in the municipality of San Blas Atempa, Oaxaca.
The Community Assembly of Puente Madera has mobilized and managed to detain the sell of the lands. Community members filed a lawsuit to nullify an assembly decision which took place on March 14, 2021, where the sell of the lands was authorized for the installation of the industrial park. The lawsuit alleges that dead people’s signatures were used to authorize the sell.
In statements to the media, the Secretary of Economy, Raquel Buenrostro, has pointed out that of the ten industrial parks, between three of four of them will be for companies that produce renewable energies.
At the end of February, Buenrostro said that a program will be presented to “generate a business model” for the ten industrial parks. “We want to do an auction, to see what will be placed where,” she said.
Salomón Jara Cruz, governor of the State of Oaxaca, has announced to the media that in April, the Secretary of the Economy will launch a call to national and international companies for bids for the industrial parks.
IDB
The Inter-American Development Bank announced that it is making available between $1,800,000,000 and $2,800,000,000 dollars in the next three years to finance projects of companies relocating to Mexico. This is taking place amidst a reconfiguration of the global value chain. The IDB said that priority would be given to projects that decide to move to the Interoceanic Corridor.
Cover image: The Batwa indigenous people are currently facing multiple challenges. The cultural crisis, the lack of recognition of their territorial rights and the reappropriation of their lands by multinationals make the communities that live by and for the forest even more fragile.
With its rivers, forests, savannas and freshwater swamps, the Congo Basin – the second largest rainforest in the world after the Amazon – is a patchwork of treasures. It is home to approximately 10,000 species of tropical plants, as well as more than 400 species of mammals, 1,000 species of birds, and 700 species of fish, including several endangered species such as forest elephants or mountain gorillas.
Humans have shared the Congo Basin forests with these other species for tens of thousands of years. Today, the forests still provide food, fresh water and shelter to more than 75 million people.
The Congo rainforest, much of which is in the Democratic Republic of Congo, is the second largest rainforest in the world. The Congolese government has recently tendered 16 new oil fields, some of them in the rainforest. Photo by Axel Fassio/CIFOR.
I had the privilege of talking to Blair Byamungu Kabonge, an Indigenous Batwa descendent who was born in the South-Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where the Congo Basin connects with the Great Lakes region. Growing up in these lands, he has not only been a witness to nature’s beauty, but also its tragic ongoing destruction.
Together with its wildlife, Blair’s region is extremely rich in oil, diamonds, gold, copper, and minerals like cobalt, tin, cassiterite and coltan. This makes it ripe for extraction and exploitation, as these materials are used to produce new technologies such as smartphones and tablets as well as electric vehicles, solar panels and other so-called ‘green’ or ‘clean energy’ technologies.
Decades of violence
The economic interests in the minerals, timber and wildlife located in the region has attracted the interest of foreign countries and transnational companies over the past centuries, which has led to the explosion of violence.
This started with the colonisation of the territory by Belgium from the end of the 19th century. Attracted by its abundant wealth in rubber, ivory and minerals, the belgium crown, together with concessionary companies, undertook the brutal exploitation of its natural resources and population. Between 1880 and 1926, half of the inhabitants were killed, to the point that some historians refer to this period as a “forgotten holocaust”.
After the official independence of the country in 1960, the economic interests didn’t vanish, and more countries started to get involved in natural resources extraction, such as the United States, Canada, South Africa, the European Union or China, principally.
Locals and NGOs working in the region have long been calling out the direct link between the exploitation of natural resources and continuing armed conflicts in DRC.
Today, the Kivu region is still highly insecure, with multiple armed guerrilla groups, and a heavy presence of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) which are guilty of violently exploiting civilians to extract valuable minerals to sell on to transnational companies.
A Democratic Republic of Congo Army soldier at an outpost on Chanzu hill in eastern North Kivu region, Nov. 5, 2013.
“The wars we have are linked to the quest for control and domination over ecosystems,” Blair tells me. “But the rich countries chose to cover their ears. They do not seek to establish peace in eastern Congo; they know what they have to gain in this story. If the production of coltan stops in the Congo, what are you going to use to make your phones?”
The race for natural resources has been responsible for significant environmental damages, with devastating destruction of humid primary forests. According to Global Forest Watch, the total area of humid primary forests in South-Kivu decreased by 6.6% between 2002 and 2021.
The hypocrisy of international conservation plans
In light of the ever-worsening climate crisis – and despite the fact that local communities had been trying to give the alert for far longer – combating deforestation has begun to be seen by international institutions as a crucial step in limiting the impacts of climate change, as the world’s forests absorb roughly one-third of carbon emissions annually.
During COP26 in 2021, leaders from more than 100 countries pledged to halt deforestation by 2030.
A group of 11 countries, along with the Bezos Earth Fund, agreed to contribute $1.5bn toward restoration efforts in the Congo Basin region. At the latest COP conference that took place in November 2022, a Forest and Climate Leaders’ Partnership (FCLP) was launched to unite actions by governments, businesses and community leaders to implement the commitment made at the COP26.
However, this seems unrealistic given that there was a similar plan adopted in 2014, which sought to halve global deforestation by 2020 and end it by 2030… with absolutely no results so far.
Like many others, Blair does not really believe in international mechanisms that promote environmental protection. “After each international conference, agreements are signed, but if we get to COP27, it’s because it’s useless,” he says. “The initiators of these policies take people for idiots.”
The hypocrisy of these international declarations is hard to ignore, knowing that the countries that promote them are often the ones who benefit the most from (and contribute the most to) nature’s destruction.
“The same nations that run the COPs are the ones that own the industries that are destroying the planet,” agrees Blair. “So, are we going to start taking action, or are we going to stay distracted and carry on as if nothing is happening?”
I ask Blair what he thinks the answer should be. “What we need is for countries like France, the United States and Russia to reduce their production,” he says. “If we want to conserve the planet, we have to reduce! But which of these countries is taking real action? None!”
He continues: “Everybody says that the DRC is a poor country. And if you come here, it’s true, you’re going to find poor people. But these countries which you think are poor are still rich in forests – and that’s because the people have preserved them. We accept to live in misery, but we preserve nature. You refuse to live in misery, but you destroy the Earth!”
Conservation failures
During his lifetime, Blair has witnessed the failure of multiple conservation plans, one of which is directly linked to his homeland. His village is located at the edge of the Kahuzi Biega National Park (KBNP), a protected area of 6,000 square km situated near Lake Kivu and the Rwandan border. Established in 1970, it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980, and has been largely funded by the US and German governments. But far from providing protection, it seems like that designation has actually created the conditions for the acceleration of the sale and exploitation of animals and soils in the area.
A burned Batwa home in Kahuzi Biega National Park. Between July 2019 and December 2021, joint contingents of park rangers and army soldiers violently expelled the Batwa from their ancestral home in the park, according to a report by Minority Rights Group International. Photo by Robert Flummerfelt.
“My village is located in the middle altitude of the Kahuzi-Biega National Park. As a child, I saw elephants. The park was one of the parks that attracted a lot of attention from tourists. Before the area officially became a national park, even if we made our livelihoods from hunting, there was everything. But when the white man came here and decided to create the park, that’s when the destruction started. The elephants are gone. Who organised the illegal sale of ivory? Who came to exploit the soils? The local communities or the people of the park, in collusion with the so-called “donors” who finance the park?” Blair challenges.
Blair left his region some years ago and now works in the North-Kivu region, near the city of Goma.
Here, he observes a similar case in the Virunga National Park. “Today, this park is the home of armed groups. And it’s called world heritage, it’s registered with UNESCO – and that makes me laugh. If it’s a world heritage, then what is the international community doing to knock the rebels out of the park? These armed groups threaten ecosystems and communities, they trade in species, they trade in minerals. But when the minerals come out of the park, they become “pure” in the eyes of white people, where in fact, they are made of blood.”
Sadly, this terrible situation is not specific to DRC: there are several other cases of conservation plans (designed by the UNESCO or other institutions and organisations) leading to a significant increase of violence and destruction throughout the world, such as in Central America.
Nature keepers
Blair is not just a witness, he has dedicated his life to defending the forests and Indigenous and local communities’ right to self-determination and self-organisation in their own land, because he knows that their destinies are closely related.
From speaking to Blair, it is clear that the land which Indigenous communities live on, and the natural resources which they depend on, are inextricably linked to their identity, culture and livelihoods, as well as their physical and spiritual well-being.
“For Congolese forest communities, the forest is everything,” Blair explains. “An inhabitant of a forest community can spend a year without buying anything, he does everything thanks to the forest: if he wants meat, he finds meat there; if he needs plants to heal himself, he finds them in the forest, if he wants to build, he doesn’t need nails since he finds ropes in the forest. The forest is life. The traditions of the people here conserve the forest.”
Yet now, the communities are faced with the risk of losing the forests on which their ways of life depend. Blair continues: “they know that if they end up being displaced, they have no place in the outside world, their way of life is absolutely different. They think: our life is here. To move us is almost to take us to the guillotine. We are not going to adapt to the way of life in the cities.”
Community forestry to protect the land
Throughout the world, Indigenous peoples often lack formal recognition of their lands, territories and natural resources. This puts them in a vulnerable situation and in a permanent state of war against companies and governments that seek to take control over their territories in order to exploit their natural resources.
Since 2017, Blair has been working as a community facilitator with the National Alliance for Support and Promotion of Indigenous and Community Heritage Areas and Territories in the DRC (ANAPAC-DRC). One of his main missions has been to support Indigenous communities to manoeuvre the slow bureaucracy and long legal processes necessary to assert their rights on their lands and forests.
In DRC, the soils and subsoils of protected forests belong to the State. However, according to Article 22 of the 2002 Congolese Forest Code, local communities can request a proprietary title on their forest, even if they are located in protected areas, if they can prove that they have a historical relationship with this territory.
When the communities receive their titles – which are collective and permanent, meaning that they won’t need to be renewed by future generations – they also obtain the right to manage their land in autonomy: they gain access to the right for self-determination and self-organisation in their territory.
Kahuzi Biega National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is famous for its gorilla reserves. The status was achieved at the cost of expelling the nomadic pygmy communities that had been living in this part of the Kalehe territory of South Kivu for generations. Democratic Republic of Congo, November 2020.
With his organisation, Blaire has helped the Bambuti Indigenous community win land titles in the forest territory of Kisimbosa Chamsaka in the province of Nord-Kivu in 2019, becoming the first community forest in the region.
“It helps solve a lot of land issues. Without this, outsiders can easily come from Kinshasa and impose concessions. This brings a certain security”, explains Blair, even if he knows that there is no absolute guarantee that the communities won’t suffer from industry and economic pressure, and that the violence is not going to disappear with land titles.
However, he is sure that all of this is not just about property rights: the entire process also promotes collective organisation and solidarity between communities, which can be decisive when facing any type of threat.
“After obtaining their titles, communities are able to build projects such as schools at their local level, and then also open them up to other communities. One of our most important goals is connection: sometimes communities have a lot in common without realising it. Meeting each other allows them to learn from each other and to join forces for the protection of ecosystems,” he clarifies.
Building international awareness and solidarity
At the end of our conversation, I asked Blair about the responsibility of other people in the world with this same reality, and more precisely, what the people that will read his story can do to support local communities in Congo in their struggle for life.
One of the main things Blair says is building consciousness, especially among people that live in the Global North and asking: what are the impacts of living in rich countries on other peoples, and especially Indigenous peoples all over the planet?
Then, it is crucial to start holding the companies that are benefiting from the land’s destruction accountable for what they are doing: Which industries, and which products are made with blood? What can be done to stop them?
We must also build solidarity, and support those who are fighting everyday to protect not only their own lives but the planet we are all living on. Because, as Blair urges: “the biodiversity we have here in Congo is not just for ourselves, it is for everyone.”
Cover image: Indigenous Binniza residents of Puente Madera, in the municipality of San Blas Atempa, protest against the imposition of an industrial park on their communal lands.
The Mexican government, through the Ministry of Economy, announced that the first tenders towards the creation of planned industrial zones in the Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (CIIT), in Oaxaca, will be open for bids in February.
“We hope that each development zone will generate investments of around one billion dollars,” said Raquel Buenrostro Sánchez, Minister of Economy, who anticipated that, in addition to government investment, resources from the United States government will be forthcoming.
At the end of 2022, the former head of the CIIT, Rafael Marín Mollinedo, announced that ten plots of land were ready for the construction of industrial parks. “At the beginning of the year, they will be opened for bidding so that developers can take charge and fill them with businesses,” he said in an interview with an infrastructure industry media outlet.
Now, in 2023, the Minister of Economy is also including the participation of the U.S. “We have presented the logistics corridor project to the United States and they were very interested. Perhaps Gina Raimondo, U.S. Secretary of Commerce, will join us at the official presentation,” said the minister.
In its first phase, the Corridor foresees the rehabilitation of 200 kilometers of railroad tracks connecting the ports of Salina Cruz, Oaxaca, and Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, in addition to the construction of ten industrial parks referred to as Well-Being Development Zones (PODEBI).
“The idea is that in each zone there is a private operator who commits to an investment plan with employment generation goals and a short, medium, and long term development vision,” said the Minister of Economy.
In this regard, the federal official added that there exists a high probability that included among the economic stimuli for the project will be resources from the U.S. government, in addition to those that may be provided by the Mexican government and which will be determined by the Ministry of Finance.
Buenrostro’s recent statements contradict those of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who, since December 2018, when he assumed the presidency of Mexico, said that for reasons of “sovereignty” there would only be Mexican investment fueling the CIIT project.
Semiconductors
The Minister of Economy also elaborated on the possibility that part of the resources from the United States, coming from the Semiconductors Law or CHIPS Act, with 390 million dollars in spending, could be channeled towards the production of semiconductors in southern Mexico.
“Part of these funds could be invested in Mexico. This makes sense for the United States because there is an urgency in relocating (those resources). One issue that complicates rapid relocation is the shortage in their labor market. Taking that into consideration, Mexico is the best place to move companies that are now in Asia,” Buenrostro shared during a Mexico City meeting with financial media outlets.
At the same time, she pointed out that there exists between 1.8 and 2.8 billion dollars from the Inter-American Development Bank (BID) to fund the relocation of companies to Mexico. As a result, she mentioned, the administration will give priority to projects that choose to establish themselves in the Interoceanic Corridor.
“We have suggested they locate their investments in the south because in northern Mexico there is not enough water and, as well, it will allow for other problems to be attended to and resolved, such as those related to migration and development in southern Mexico and Central America,” said the minister.
Repression
The federal government’s announcement comes one week after the arrest of activist David Hernández Salazar, who, as a member of the municipal government of Puente Madera, an Indigenous Binniza community in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, supported the demands of his community in opposing the construction of an industrial park on their communal lands.
Following Salazar’s arrest, his community and social organizations mobilized. He was released after a few hours.
Indigenous Binniza residents of Puente Madera, in the municipality of San Blas Atempa, protest against the imposition of an industrial park on their communal lands.
“It is not right that for defending our land, territory, human rights, and ourselves as Indigenous peoples we are criminalized, assaulted, and threatened for deciding to defend life when faced with their Megaprojects of Death,” denounced the Community Assembly of Puente Madera and the Assembly of the Indigenous Peoples of the Isthmus in Defense of Land and Territory (APIIDTT) following the release of Salazar.
In a statement, the above organizations once again stood firm in rejecting the installation of an industrial park linked to the CIIT and called for decentralized actions in solidarity with the peoples of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec on February 9, with an emphasis on the struggle against the imposition of the Interoceanic Corridor project.
Keving Hernán Sánchez, an Indigenous Zoque man from Oaxaca, Mexico, left his community at a young age to move to the state’s capital and study literature. He never imagined that after graduating and returning to his territory he would have to learn how to defend it, but that is what happened when a mining project threatened to tear apart the social and environmental fabric of his town.
Hernán hails from Los Chimalapas, a region in southern Mexico spanning 1,468,000 acres (594,000 hectares)—1,137,000 (460,000 ha) in Santa María Chimalapa and 331,000 (134,000 ha) in San Miguel Chimalapa. According to the National Commission for Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity (CONABIO), the region contains areas of “extreme priority for conservation” because they function as a biological corridor that, along with other ecosystems, make Oaxaca the most biodiverse state in the country.
Data from the National Institute of Ecology and Climate Change (INECC) indicates that today Los Chimalapas “is one of the most important tropical areas and resource banks in Mexico and Mesoamerica. One sole hectare of undisturbed tropical vegetation in this region is estimated to contain up to 900 plant species.” It’s also home to endangered species such as cycads in the Ceratozamia genus and palms in the Chamaedora genus.
More than 200 animal species also live there, including several that are vulnerable or threatened: the mealy parrot, great curassow, keel-billed motmot, black solitary eagle, wood stork, and others.
However, despite its natural riches, 422 mining concessions have been authorized throughout the state of Oaxaca as of December 2022, putting its residents, flora, and fauna at risk. There is great concern over the significant amount of water used by mining operations, as well as groundwater contamination. On top of that, as the sources consulted for this report show, the Indigenous peoples who live in areas marked for mining don’t know what kinds of metals the companies want to extract from their territories and have not been consulted about the matter.
A study published in December 2020 by the University of Paraná’s Electronic Journal System states that Sonora, the state with the highest number of mines in the extraction phase in Mexico, suffers from significant water pollution from toxic substances. These include sulphuric acid, cyanide, and others. “Several mines have reported more than one spill and all of them are frequent, which causes concern as to how many have occurred over the course of the mine’s entire life cycle,” states the report, titled “Extractive mining and socio-environmental conflicts over water in arid northwest of Mexico: a political ecology analysis.”
Cover Image: Signing of the declaration of bicentennial friendship in Mexico City
In December 2022, the United States government commemorated 200 years of political and economic ties with Mexico, celebrating the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) as one of the principle achievements. The US government also highlighted a new bilateral security deal which has revamped some of the original objectives of the Merida Initiative.
At the end of 2022, the Special Presidential Advisor for the Americas, Christopher Dodd, the United States Ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, and the Mexican Minister of Foreign Affairs, Marcelo Ebrard, signed a declaration of bicentennial friendship in Mexico City.
Since October 2021, talks related to the agreement—known as the Mexico-United States Bicentennial Framework for Security, Public Health and Safe Communities—have been ongoing. The United States has outlined three guiding principles: 1) investments in public health solutions for drug use; 2) prevention of transborder crime, including the reduction of arms and human trafficking; 3) dismantling of illicit financial networks linked to organized crime in both countries.
In early discussions, Marcelo Ebrard said that the plan would include: “11 areas of coordination, 26 joint objectives, and 102 actions of cooperation, which have been jointly developed and approved (between the United States and Mexico).”
United States Ambassador to Mexico and the Mexican Minister of Foreign Affairs
While this new agreement advances, the United States Congress is evaluating the results of the Merida Initiative, which was launched in 2007 with then president of Mexico, Felipe Calderón. According to the US Congressional Research Service, prior to the Merida Initiative, “Mexico didn’t receive large amounts of security aid from the United States, in part because of Mexico’s sensibility toward the implications of United States influence in Mexico’s internal affairs.”
The Merida Initiative, an aid package oriented toward strengthening the rule of law and the war on drugs, was key for the United States government’s entrance into Mexico.
Up until 2021, $3.5 billion dollars have been earmarked for the Mexican government. Part of these resources were used for Foreign Military Financing (FMF) which allows the buying of military equipment, planes, and helicopters. The US also provided equipment and training for the now defunct Federal Police.
Assessments carried out by the United States Congress have cast doubt on the Merida Initiative’s success seeing as organized crime violence is increasing in Mexico. The number of drug overdose deaths in the US is also on the rise. This has led to questions about “the efficacy of the security cooperation between the United States and Mexico,” according to the US Congressional Research Service.
That same research team reported that homicides in Mexico reached record levels between 2016 and 2019, before slightly declining in 2020 due to the pandemic. “Yet they increased again in 2021, and maintained elevated levels in 2022. Furthermore, since 2019, Mexico has surpassed China to become the leading source of United States fentanyl, representing around 66% of the nearly 108,000 lethal drug overdoses in the United States in 2021.”
Merida Initiative in the Background
Since López Obrador took power in Mexico in 2018, he has criticized the Merida Initiative. According to the Congressional Research Service, he has decided to “reduce federal security cooperation with the United States.” Following pressure from ex-president Donald Trump, the Merida Initiative focused most of its activity on border security.
In this way, there was a reorientation of the Merida Initiative toward migration control, which became the principle objective of the United States, “while the promotion of human rights and the rule of law remained secondary,” according to the Congressional Research Service.
During that same time, President López Obrador mobilized more than a thousand members of the National Guard toward southern Mexico in order to contain migrants coming from other countries. The National Guard, which since then has become a fundamental part of the border police, inherited the equipment acquired from the Merida Initiative.
National Guard represses migrants in Chiapas
In a document produced by the US Congress in December of 2022, it states that bilateral security operations and priorities have changed with the new security agreement. Although some of the old objectives of the Merida Initiative have been revamped, the new agreement seeks primarily to “secure borders and ports; and combat transnational organized crime, including opium poppy cultivation and heroin, fentanyl, and methamphetamine production.”
According to the Congressional Research Service, “the revitalization of bilateral security cooperation” is on the horizon with the new bicentennial agreement. In March of 2022, Congress enacted the Consolidated Appropriations Act (Public Law 117-103), designating over $122 million dollars to kick-start the new security pact. Meanwhile, for the year 2023, the United States Congress is debating a budget request of $141.6 million dollars for bilateral aid with the government of López Obrador.
A portion of these resources will also be destined to implement aid projects in Central America.
Progress
In October 2022, the United States and Mexico presented a report on the agreement’s first year (2021-2022) via a joint communique. “We protected the health of our citizens, expanding collaboration to reduce drug addiction and its related damages,” the governments informed.
One of the most noteworthy activities is the increased patrolling of the borders. To this end, the United States Justice Department created the Joint Task Force Alfa (JTFA), “which increased coordination with the Department of Homeland Security and other law enforcement partners, including in Mexico and Central America, to disrupt human smuggling networks,” the statement said.
According to the US Department of Justice, this task force is meant to disrupt and dismantle human smuggling and human trafficking networks that operate in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico.
A memorandum of understanding was signed between the National Customs Agency of Mexico and the US Customs and Borders Protection to improve the exchange of information related to air cargo shipments. Furthermore, Mexico joined the Global Container Control Program of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to minimize the use of marine containers in order to combat illicit drug trafficking.
According to the communique, the armed forces in Mexico confiscated more than 32,000 guns, 17 million ammo cartridges, and 3,200 grenades between 2019 to 2022. Meanwhile, United States law enforcement agencies confiscated more than 600,000 firearms in 2021.
On the other hand, there is plans to implement an infrastructure and cyber security arrangement between the National Guard and the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. With these different security agreements, the governments of Mexico and the United States are commemorating and celebrating 200 years of bilateral relations.
Cover Image: Zapatista youth in the Caracol of La Realidad, Chiapas
In the early morning hours of January 1, 2023, Zapatista children and youth with their faces covered, along with women, men, and elders, celebrated the 29-year anniversary of the uprising of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation in different political spaces of the organization in Chiapas, in southern Mexico.
One of the events took place in the Caracol of Jacinto Canek, located in CIDECI-UniTierra, a space where throughout the year, Zapatista youth study and learn different trades.
There, in the municipality of San Cristóbal de las Casas, the Indigenous Zapatistas celebrated another year of their declaration of war against the Mexican government with activities that included sporting, cultural, and political events, along with dancing.
In the Caracol known as “Flower of Our Word and Light of Our Peoples Reflected for All,” the presence of Zapatista youth stood out, who represent the fourth generation of the EZLN.
“Continue in struggle, in resistance. The work still isn’t finished. There are things to come in which the collaboration of the communities is necessary. We ask the new generations that they learn the organizational forms, that they learn to organize from inside their towns and communities,” were the words shared by a woman and man of the armed movement with the younger generations.
“We are gathered here to remember this date which is of great importance for us. It may be only a few hours that we are together, but we are remembering a date that is important for everyone. A date in which people gave their lives so that we could have a good life, so that we could live good,” shared the Zapatista woman in a speech in the last few minutes of 2022.
Zapatista mobilization against all wars. March 2022. Photo: Jeny Pascacio
On the 29-year anniversary of the Zapatista uprising, the Zapatista woman also remembered the validity of the demands which have still not been fulfilled by the Mexican government, now almost thirty years later: work, land, housing, food, healthcare, education, independence, freedom, democracy, justice, and peace.
“It is of great importance that we remember those who have lost their lives, the men and women who died during those difficult days. Continue working in unity. It is a long road that has already been traveled, but left behind by those who have died. We continue in search of justice,” shared the Zapatista woman.
For his part, the Zapatista man directed his comments to the youth of the political-military organization, asking them not to change their way of thinking and to honor the people who have died for the organization.
“Don’t change your way of thinking, continue as you are. We continue thinking this way because up until now the organization is on strong footing. We continue the legacy and thinking of those who have already died. And while the project has transformed, it has transformed in community. It is important that we continue learning all of this,” he announced in Tsostil, directing his comments to the youth who were present.
At the stroke of midnight, together with music and fireworks, the Zapatistas celebrated another anniversary of the armed uprising with the cry of “Long live resistance and rebellion!”
