Chontal Community Radio Echoes Across the Southern Sierra Mountains of Oaxaca

Por

15 August, 2024

^{Photo: Santiago Navarro F}

A dense fog slowly creeps through the southern Sierra mountains of Oaxaca, as if dancing to the rhythm of a soft melody, while a mix of voices echo like a murmur from an old wood box radio. “It is the signal of Chontal radio,” says a campesino who is listening attentively.

It was a Sunday just like any other, yet it wasn’t. It was July 28, 2024, a day now engraved in the memory of a generation of Chontal youth and adults in the southern Sierra mountains of Oaxaca, in southern Mexico. The day will be remembered because everyone dusted off their radios, and tuned in early to 95.9 fm. It was the day that the community radio Jlijualey Tzomé, of the Chontal people began broadcasting through the radio waves.

Silvia Ramírez Nolasco smiles remembering that the planning of the community radio lasted about four years, a period where many different things happened. “But we are happy. I just saw some uncles who are elders, they were in the radio station giving guidance. They are excited to be able to listen, and also that their voices can be amplified,” shares Silvia.

Silvia’s memories travel back and forth as she responds to the question: “How was the radio project born?”

She responds with certainty: “It was a necessity. When we found out about the mining concession that existed in our territory, we began to organize ourselves and inform the people. It was not easy. We had to go from community to community, assembly after assembly. Now with the radio the information can arrive much faster, and to all the different communities and beyond.”

The mining concession in Chontal territory covers more than 5,000 hectares belonging to Minera Zalamera S.A. de C.V. an affiliate of the Canadian mining company Minaurum Gold Inc., seeking to exploit gold, silver, copper, zinc, and lead from the area.

“The entire community was put on alert. We created the Assembly of the Chontal People. We organized as women and that’s then we decided that we needed our own media project,” adds Silvia.

In 2020, the Assembly of the Chontal People agreed to create their own community radio. Since then, the project has been training different adults and youth. Today the radio is a reality, constructed collectively on the hill of Santa Lucía Mecaltepec, from where you can see the mountain range on the horizon.

^{Photo: Santiago Navarro F}

“It is exciting to see that our radio is providing a voice to what was previously ignored,” comments Silvia. “The adults and youth are committed to the radio, and it is a reflection of the desire of our communities to be organized to defend our territory,” she adds.

To arrive to the hillside where the radio cabin is, some participants have to walk up to two hours, to fulfill their community responsibility. Each community has to name a woman and a man who offer their service in maintaining the radio alive. They are those who make up the Equipo Semillero. “The fact that we have created our own radio wasn’t easy. The first obstacle that we faced was that the youth learned throughout the year, and then they left and we had to train a new team. So, we decided that the outgoing team had to train the new one and like that we have continued the project,” explains Silvia.

Equipo Semillero is made up of youth between the ages of 18 and 30, but also adults of more than 40 years of age who have assumed this community responsibility which rotates every year. “This process has been true team work. Those who already have experience make sure that the new ones are prepared to continue with the dream,” says Silvia.

Radio as a Tool

^{Photo: Santiago Navarro F}

Silvia has noted that each Sunday the women in the kitchen or in their everyday labor turn on their radio to listen to the broadcast. At the moment, the radio broadcasts on Sundays from 10am to 1pm. “For us it is a tool that allows the communities to share news and local events, but also to preserve the Chontal language, that is in danger of extinction,” adds Silvia.

The Assembly of the Chontal People, in collaboration with the organization Tequio Jurídico A.C. has launched a call for high school students in the Chontal region, with the intention of opening the doors of the radio to other youth. They are offering workshops both in person and online, as well as experience in the radio cabin. The workshops are limited to ten people. Different youth have applied immediately, hoping to participate. The call closes on August 12.

Although the mining concession has been suspended due to ongoing organizing and struggle that the 16 Chontal communities have maintained, the risk is latent. Any company could return and acquire the concession causing serious impacts in the region. “For this reason, we must always be on alert. Our radio also serves that purpose,” adds Silvia.

The signal is still in the monitoring phase. The agrarian and municipal authorities have supported the Equipo Semillero, ensuring that the radio continues to operate and grow.

Meanwhile, Silvia's stare is lost in the horizon and she says, “We are seeing the fruit of years of work and dedication, we are fulfilling the motto of our radio: Bringing the voice to the Chontal hills and villages.”

Lima Mobilizes for Victims of Massacres

Por

Javier Bedía Prado

12 August, 2024

From July 26-29 protests took place in Lima, Peru against the government of Dina Boluarte and Congress.

The protests were made up of delegations from the Andean regions where 49 people were killed between December 2022 and January 2023 following the coup against Pedro Castillo. The coup was orchestrated by the parliament of the far right, in alliance with the business oligarchy and military-police forces.

One of the demands of the protests was punishment for those responsible for the massacres in Puno, Ayacucho, Apurímac, Cusco, and Junín. Marches were organized from the working-class neighborhoods of the capital city toward the city center, and were watched over by hundreds of police. Four people were detained.

On one hand, the charge of genocide against Boluarte was dismissed, while on the other, on July 30, the Attorney General’s Office denounced the president for aggravated homicide and serious injuries to victims.

Voices in defense of territory and agriculture, guardians of the Amazon, were heard in the marches toward the center of the capital city. These protests take place in a context of the onslaught of mega-mining in campesino communities, along with an emergency in Indigenous communities due to organized crime violence and the lack of security provided by the state.

In the capital city, the rejection of legislative maneuvers to control the electoral institutions was echoed in the protests. In the following months, congress will rule on the constitutional counter-reforms being pushed to dominate the judicial institutions and the next electoral process scheduled for 2026.

The authoritarian officials, with Fujimorism in charge, are pushing for the elimination of the National Board of Justice (JNI), in charge of naming judges, prosecutors, and the head of the National Office of Electoral Process (ONPE). Likewise, they intend to modify the election of the presidency of the National Jury of Elections (JNE) and the ONPE, to subject electoral authorities to impeachment and political trials which threaten their autonomy.

Photos: Fran Florián

Almaden Minerals Files Lawsuit Against Mexico After Losing Concessions Due to Human Rights Violations

Por

Ñaní Pinto

8 August, 2024

At least fifteen Mexican organizations doing work related to territorial defense protested this last week against the decision of the Canadian mining company Almaden Minerals Ltd. to file a lawsuit against the Mexican state. The suit was filed by the company after the Nahua community and ejido Tecoltemi of the municipality of Ixtacamaxtitlán, Sierra Norte of Puebla, achieved the permanent cancellation of two concessions for open pit gold and silver mines in the municipality, affecting at least 20 Nahua communities.

The suit was filed at the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), a legal mechanism of the World Bank. In 2022, after eight years of litigation, the Supreme Court revoked the mining concessions authorized by the Secretariat of Economy, arguing that the company’s activities had violated the human right to territory, to a previous, free, and informed consultation, and to prior consent from the Nahua communities.

Almaden Minerals Ltd. is demanding $200 million dollars from the Mexican state for not allowing the mining projects. The company has announced that it has $9.5 million dollars at its disposal to sustain the legal battle led by the Boies Schiller Flexner legal firm.

The Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT), together with the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples (INPI), had concluded that the mining company caused social, cultural, spiritual, and human rights impacts. “The activities of Almaden Minerals Ltd. negatively affected the population, impacting the health and environment, leading to the criminalization and stigmatization of community defenders, the unweaving of the social fabric, and corporate control,” they said in a statement.

Together with the Union de Ejidos y Comunidades en Defensa de la Tierra, el Agua, y la Vida Atcolhua, an organization that has carried out the struggle against the mining company, the organizations demand that Mexican authorities consider the human rights and environmental impacts caused by the mining company in the territory as part of the arbitration procedure.

The demand is that the competent authorities—Secretariat of Economy, General Direction of Legal Consultation Regarding International Trade, Subsecretary of Foreign Trade, and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador—permit the presentation of evidence and testimony from the Indigenous communities who were affected by the mining project during its exploration phase, as well as the documentation compiled on the effects caused to the environment and human rights as the mining company attempted to establish its operations in the territory.

Furthermore, the organizations are asking that the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) facilitate the Union de Ejidos presenting its written opinion as people affected by the mining project and as a non-disputing party. “We raise our voices to demand that the damages caused by Almaden Minerals Ltd. in the municipality of Ixtacmaxtitlán be repaired, and that the Indigenous communities receive compensation and not the millionaire corporations,” add the organizations.

Lenca Communities in Honduras Demand Communal Titles for their Territories

Por

Sare Frabes

7 August, 2024

^{Cover image: Hundreds of Indigenous Lencas mobilize in Tegucigalpa to demand the recognition of their ancestral lands.}

Following a week of mobilizations, more than 400 Indigenous Lencas from 12 communities in southeastern Honduras reached a historic agreement with the National Agrarian Institute (INA). The state has committed to the communal titling of more than 9,000 manzanas of land where more than 900 families live.

The Consejo Civico de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de Honduras (COPINH), or Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras, an organization made up of Lenca communities, announced that the agreement was signed with agrarian authorities on Friday, July 19.

The agreement was the result of mobilizations of the Lenca communities, Montaña Verde, Limoncillo, El Achiotal, Río Blanco, Wise, El Naranjo, 1 de Agosto and Grupo Campesino Nueva Esperanza, who revindicate the communal possession of their territories.

“COPINH will be monitoring that these agreements reached with the INA are fulfilled, to ensure respect, along with just and prompt implementation. If they are not fulfilled, there will be more protests in the capital city. This vigilance is not only a duty, but a commitment to our community, to the future generations, who depend on the protection of our territories,” explained the organization through a statement following the announcement of the agreements.

The organization explained that the state committed to a concrete time frame and to specific responsibilities for the titling of the Lenca territories. “In particular the titling of four communal lands within 20 days, and the steady advance in the remaining processes. This agreement represents a major step forward toward legal certainty of the lands that our communities have possessed for generations, after more than 25 years of waiting.”

Bertha Zúñiga Cáceres, coordinator of COPINH, celebrated the agreements which will make possible the ratification of the communal possession of the Lenca lands. “These are ancestral lands, lands of the Lenca people, yet there is legal uncertainty which exposes us to judicial persecution,” she argues. In the affected communities, private property titles have been presented which causes the Indigenous population to be accused of the crime of “usurpation of lands.”

Zúñiga says that the agreement provides steps toward the solution of some cases, but there still exist other communities who demand the involvement of the National Agrarian Commission, and even the Supreme Court of the Nation, “to orient the local judges, who have played very nefarious roles in delaying processes and hindering communal possession of the lands.”

Distrust

It should be noted that the Plataforma Agraria del Aguán and the Coordinadora de Organizaciones Populares del Aguán (COPA)--campesino organizations from the valley of Bajo Aguán, in the department of Colón, who have led the revindication of campesino lands dispossessed by oil palm agroindustry--also participated in the protests.

Esly Banegas, member of COPA, indicated that there are currently multiple organizations that have signed agreements with the national administration, led by President Xiomara Castro, to reduce conflicts in the titling of lands. However, they signaled that despite the political will, “it is not reflected in solutions to the problems that have been caused by oligarchic sectors against campesino and Indigenous families.”

Justice

On the same days of action, Indigenous Lencas also mobilized at the Supreme Court of Justice of Honduras, to demand the confirmation of the evictions of eight people condemned for the assassination of the leader Berta Cáceres, which took place in March 2016.

Accompanied by campesino and human rights organizations, the Indigenous Lenca people stood up to demand a response from the criminal court judges, who have still not ruled on two cessation appeals presented by the defense, seeking to invalidate the convictions emitted in previous years.

“I cannot give an exact day, because it would be irresponsible of me to do that. What I can tell you is that we are working hard and that this will be done in the shortest time possible and it will be public knowledge,” responded the judge Mario Díaz to the Lenca protest.

Meanwhile, residents of La Esperanza, Intibucá, warned that every day more people and organizations are joining the demand for the confirmation of the convictions against the seven perpetrators and the co-perpetrator of the crime, in addition to demanding an investigation against members of the Atala family, who are accused of being the masterminds of the murder.

“They don’t want to do anything to them (the masterminds). Here the authorities are in cahoots with the companies, they agree to fix the situation and they come to us to give a certain discourse to the poor, to the humble communities, the campesinos, the women,” claimed Catalina Hernández, resident of the Lenca community.

At the same time, the mobilization also demands that the assassination of campesinos in the valley of Bajo Aguán be investigated, as well as the relations between organized crime and the agro-industrial companies that operate in the region.

Organizations Denounce Criminalization of Imprisoned Zapatista in Chiapas

Por

Sare Frabes

5 August, 2024

^{Cover image: Press conference held in the capital city of Chiapas to denounce irregularities in the legal process of the Zapatista.}

José Díaz Gómez, Indigenous Ch’ol, support base of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), has been imprisoned and accused of violent robbery. The Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center (FRAYBA) pointed out that Díaz, imprisoned in CERSS No. 17, “El Bambú”, in the municipality of Catazajá, in the north of Chiapas, is the victim of criminalization accused of a crime that hasn’t been substantiated.

FRAYBA has documented the human rights violations carried out by Chiapas state police during José Díaz’s detention: executing an illegal and arbitrary detention; engaging in torture; engaging in cruel, inhumane, and degrading conduct; forced disappearance; and holding someone incommunicado.

The organizations demand that the Mexican state immediately free the Zapatista who has been held prisoner for nearly one year and nine months without a conviction. On July 8, the presentation of evidence was completed which will be followed by a verdict from the court.

“The evidence presented against José Díaz is inconsistent and lacks credibility. These details make evident the deficient investigation and lack of fairness in the judicial process,” asserted FRAYBA in a press conference held on July 29 in the capital city of Chiapas, Tuxtla Gutiérrez.

Jorge Luis López, FRAYBA’s lawyer, detailed that evidence presented by the public prosecutor is made up of four parts, “and none of them directly link José to the crime; we would expect that the judge issues an acquittal.”

The lawyer emphasized that one of the pieces of evidence, testimony of the supposed victim, was full of contradictions during the trial. Furthermore, the witness presented at the hearing confirmed that he does not know the accused. The other two pieces of evidence, two reports presented by the State Attorney General’s Office (a field forensics report and a crime scene inspection), “neither of them directly links José to the crime,” emphasizes López.

The human rights center has documented the investigation process carried out by the public prosecutor’s office, of which it assures, “is deficient because it does not comply with the requirement of being objective, nor does it have evidence to link José to the crime.” The human rights center even warns that given the accumulation of irregularities and the lack of solid evidence against José Díaz, just like four other Zapatistas who have arrest warrants out or them, are at risk of being unjustly convicted.

FRAYBA argues that the imprisonment of José Díaz is politically motivated, part of a pattern of fabricating guilt against Indigenous community organizers, emphasizing that “the prosecution didn’t carry out a legal, scientific, and objective investigation.”

“The Judge of Catazajá must consider not only the crime of robbery and an investigation lacking authenticity, but also the situation of political criminalization in the case of human rights defenders belonging to Indigenous communities,” FRAYBA says in a bulletin.

According to López, as part of José Díaz’s defense, the human rights center has met with judicial officials in Chiapas. Before the officials, they requested a change in the pre-trial detention status, arguing that there is justification to free the Zapatista so he can continue his legal process in freedom. This request was denied.

They have also appealed to international organizations like the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights where they also solicited a change in his pre-trial status because of prison conditions and overcrowding in CERSS No. 17 which are inhumane and violating the human rights of the Zapatista.

Prison in Chiapas, Inhumane and Degrading

As part of its documentation, FRAYBA assures that there exists a pattern of human rights violations of people detained in the prisons of Chiapas. Among them they have registered acts of torture, cruel, inhumane, and degrading conduct, as well as conditions of overcrowding, all of which are predominant in these prisons.

CERSS No. 17, in the municipality of Catazajá, is particularly overcrowded. With a maximum capacity of 120 people, the prison currently houses 478 inmates, and maintains practices like holding 18 people in cells that measure nine square meters.

“This situation has increased the risk of infectious diseases, worsened by compromised immune systems. We also note the presence of multiple diseases reflected in skin rashes, symptoms of fever, dizziness, vomiting, and lumps of different sizes, among other side effects…,” denounces the human rights center. It also emphasizes that the conditions worsened for lack of medical attention and lack of disease monitoring to intervene and mitigate the risks of contagion among the prison population.

FRAYBA says that the response from authorities is to forcefully and unjustly transfer the population to other prisons “putting their lives and well-being at risk.”

The litigator explains that due to the enormous number of cases, the public defenders and judges are overwhelmed with work, which doesn’t allow them time to give specific attention to each case. “What this generates is that an Indigenous person who doesn’t know how to read, who doesn’t know how to write, and who doesn’t know the conditions of our penal system, obviously will be imprisoned for more time,” the lawyer points out.

López explains that there is a two-year term limit in which a person can remain in pre-trial detention: “Precisely, before the two years is up, they accelerate the entire process so that they can give a sentence as soon as possible. The concern is that he will be convicted.”

More than 50 organizations from Chiapas, Mexico and around the world called for the immediate freedom of the Zapatista and called for actions in the context of the coming ruling, which is scheduled to be announced on August 6.

Perú: Indigenous People Declare Permanent Emergency, Twenty-Five Leaders Assassinated since 2020

Por

Avispa

23 July, 2024

Indigenous peoples of Perú who pertain to the Asociación Interetnica de Desarrollo de la Selva Peruana (AIDESEP) have declared a state of permanent emergency after the tragic assassination of Mariano Isacama Feliciano, leader of the Kakataibo people.

This action was taken in response to the inaction of the government in the face of the increasing violence faced by Indigenous people protecting their ancestral territories, says AIDESEP.

Isacama was from the Indigenous community of Nativa de Puerto Azul, located in the province of Manu, Madre de Dios, in the Peruvian Amazon, and was found dead on the banks of the Yurac river after going missing twenty-four days ago.

The Indigenous leader had alerted the community and human rights organizations of previous threats against him prior to his disappearance. According to the autopsy report, his death was caused by a bullet wound, as well as showing signs of torture.

Isacama had sustained a persistent struggle in defense of the Amazon and against illegal mining and logging activities in the region, alongside the communities that pertain to the AIDESEP.

AIDESEP is an organization which unites Indigenous peoples of the Peruvian Amazon through its nine regional base organizations which have expressed profound discontent for the lack of justice for victims and the continued impunity surrounding these crimes.

The Indigenous Amazonian communities have announced that, with the lack of justice and security provided by the state, they themselves will prepare to take other measures. The communities have announced that they’ve been obligated to exercise their right to legitimate self-defense and “utilize the means in the same proportion with which they attack us,” with complete responsibility falling on “the government for the consequences,” says the communique.

La Federación Nativa de Comunidades Kakataibo also warns that a new practice of organized crime in the region is to let the bodies decompose, so as to disappear evidence and delay investigations.

With this case, the National Coordinator of Human Rights registers twenty-five environmental defenders and Indigenous leaders who have been disappeared and murdered since 2020. Five of the victims were from the Kakataibo people. In 2021, two members of the community were disappeared and their whereabouts are still unknown. The violence against Indigenous peoples has expanded in recent years in the Amazon regions of Ucayali, Huánuco, Pasco and Junín.

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