The government of the United States, the Mexican Agency of International Development Cooperation, the conservation organization The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and USAid or the United States Agency for International Development signed a letter of intent to “promote conservation and economic development in the south/southeastern region of Mexico.
The objective is “to support the efforts” of the southeastern Mexican states, and to this end, an initial investment of 30 million dollars is anticipated. The letter has the intention of adopting lines of coordination to implement policies, plans and strategies together and “to achieve a sustainable southeast.”
The announcement was made Thursday, the 24th during the Third Encounter of Governors of the Mexican South Southeast in Quintana Roo, where the governors, secretaries of the economy, and of the environment from Yucatán, Tabasco, Campeche, Veracruz, Chiapas and Oaxaca participated.
In a press conference, the ambassador of the United States, Kenneth Lee Salazar said that there is an “tremendous” interest in the region for the unique opportunity in the Maya jungle and the southeast of Mexico.
Mixed in with conservation discourse , the invited States addressed updates on the Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, as well as strategies for the attraction of new investments in the Mexican southeast and public -private partnerships for conservation and development.
The Ambassador of the United States added the importance of environmental conservation in the economic development of the region, in which infrastructure projects like the one in the Isthmus “will trigger more commerce in our countries and improve the movement of merchandise coming from Latin America and Europe,” in his words.
Security
In addition to “conservation” and “development” in the Mexican south-southeast, security was also a theme of the conversations between the United States and Mexico. This agreement took place a few days after the Mexican Secretary of the Navy announced, on February 3rd, that for the first time it will allow the United States to carry out military exercises on Mexican territory as part of the “Tradewinds 20221.” The event will be held from the 7th to the 21st of March.
The Ambassador from the United States said that in October of 2021, a new era in the relationship between the United States and Mexico on the issue of security had begun. He recalled a reunion of the Cabinet members of his country with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. “Since that time we began a new period against violence in the two countries. The difference from what had happened with previous governments, is that now we do it together, we are working very well as partners,” Kenneth Lee Salazar said in a press conference.
The governors agreed to hold a follow up meeting to present the comprehensive projects. They announced that the proposals set forth in the letter of intent would receive follow-up in subsequent meetings.
Migrants caught in limbo in southern Mexico must contend with dismal living conditions, precarious status, and a void of official information surrounding their fate.
“Don’t abandon us here,” a man says angrily as his voice breaks. He is surrounded by about 3,000 Haitian adults and children who have traveled from South America to southern Mexico and now seek refuge from the harsh sun in the city of Tapachula’s Olympic Stadium.
The scene is disheartening. Migrants have no basic services and live in cramped conditions. There is no access to clean water, food, or health care. The campsite has only a few portable toilets. A foul stench emanates from neglect. The trash has piled up—enough to cover the ground. Only by organizing themselves are migrants able to meet some of their needs.
Everyone waits in line, enduring high temperatures, hunger, and sickness with the hope of boarding a bus that will allow them to leave Tapachula. The border city has become a prison for migrants who, despite requesting asylum, have not yet received a response from immigration agencies. To make matters worse, the lack of information from authorities has created a chaotic situation. Thousands desperately look for a way to continue their journey.
“We are sleeping on shit,” a woman angrily tells us. She mentions the worms in the garbage and the places where migrants rest. “A lot of people have the flu, fever, there is no light. We are sleeping in garbage,” says another migrant, emphasizing the unsanitary conditions in which thousands find themselves.
“I haven’t seen much organizational or individual presence,” says Laura Benítez, project coordinator for the organization Global Response Management (GRM), in reference to immigration authorities. Benítez, who has joined various caravans in recent years, says the current migrant crisis is reaching new levels amid unresponsiveness from authorities.
“The main thing is children with fever, flu, cough, some problems with skin allergies...People are here waiting for hours, days under the sun. They don’t eat well or drink enough water. They are dehydrated and with the heat, and we’ve seen children with temperatures over 102 degrees,” she says.
Chaos
According to Karen Martínez, coordinator for the Office of Jesuit Refugee Services (JRS), due to the Immigration Regulation Office’s inability to expedite refugee requests at the southern border, news unofficially spread at the end of November that the Tapachula division was transferring migrants to other Mexican states.
In roughly 10 minutes, 10,000 people flooded the office. Immigration authorities “upon being overrun, sent them to the stadium to form a line, and there they were going to tell them where they were going,” explains Martínez, who believes that this response led to the chaotic situation that ensued.
“Truthfully, it’s been very sad to see the conditions in which people find themselves. The stadium is full, which has likely caused discomfort for many, but it’s the only way to put pressure on the National Immigration Institute (INM),” she says.
Between 3,000 and 10,000 Haitian migrants gathered in a provisional campsite on the esplanade of the Olympic stadium in Tapachula.
Only then, on November 28, did the INM publish a statement specifying that in order to reduce the massive concentration of foreigners in Chiapas, the institution would expedite “the transfer of asylum requests to other entities, with the goal of issuing and delivering humanitarian visas in a fast and orderly fashion.”
“[Immigration authorities] never said anything, and it was all unverified information from people who had been moved during those transfers; we know nothing else about [them],” explains Martínez. This is in contrast to the official version that speaks of a safe and orderly transfer to other Mexican states.
“Immigration comes one minute, says one thing, then later, they say another,” people at the stadium reported. This coincides with the stance of JRS, which maintains the situation has been worsened by misinformation and the enforcement of immigration policies that are geared toward containment, rather than providing clarity.
COMAR, Overrun
According to data from the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (COMAR), between January and November 2021, the state of Chiapas alone received almost 50,000 asylum requests for a total of 90,038 foreigners.
Of all the applications registered at Mexico’s northern and southern borders, 38 percent are Haitian nationals, which makes the Caribbean nation first in terms of the number of asylum requests in progress.
The majority of them, however, are not coming from their homeland. Instead, they have been traveling for months or even years from South American countries like Chile, Brazil, and Argentina. According to Martínez of JRS, the fact that Haitians continue to migrate stems from the xenophobia and anti-immigrant backlash they face throughout the continent—just as they do in Mexico.
For Martínez, the Haitian population has been the most vulnerable in Tapachula because they have no other options to legalize their immigration status besides requesting asylum. She points out that COMAR’s handling of this process has been slow, which has stranded people in Tapachula without documentation proving their status that would allow them to travel to other parts of Mexico.
“The law says that everyone who is subject to the application process is eligible for residency. These individuals apply for a residency card for humanitarian reasons. The INM issues this card, which proves that you are able to transit through Mexico for a year. It also means that you won’t have any problem regularly moving within the country,” she explains.
Immigration offices, however, do not have appointments available until March and April of 2022. Migrants who find themselves in Tapachula against their will are still without work, food, or homes, essentially living on the street, waiting long periods for a response from immigration authorities.
“Faced with this situation, new caravans leaving from Tapachula have started to pop up...These so-called caravans enter into direct confrontation with the National Guard and the INM. Serious human rights violations against migrants have been proven,” says Martínez.
Resettlement?
In Tapachula, a sign reads: "INM, we want buses please." (Santiago Navarro F / Avispa Midia)
“We’re miserable, we’re not animals,” another migrant tells us when we ask about their situation. “Immigration has to get us out of here because if we stay, we’ll die of hunger, sick and dehydrated,” she adds. Meanwhile, the majority of those we interviewed agree that there is a lack of information from immigration officials, who are sometimes seen in the vicinity but avoid questions.
According to migrants’ testimonies, the INM is inefficient. Even though it promised to send between 50 and 70 buses to transport thousands of migrants, only three were seen over the course of a week. Benítez has heard testimonies from migrants that the buses that did depart went to San Luis Potosí, Guadalajara, and Puebla.
Despite the lack of official information from immigration authorities concerning their destinations, Martínez more or less confirmed the transfers. “Yes, they have told us that they arrived in Querétaro and there were people who shared with us that they had been left in Veracruz and that afterwards…the response [to their residency requests] was ‘better to keep moving, here there is no way to gain residency, better to look along the way,’” she says with concern. It remains unclear where the resettlements are taking place.
“It’s a situation that got out of control and they are looking for a way to close these routes because in reality, up until now, I’ve had reliable information on who these people are, where they go, where they are dropped off, what their legal status is. But everything is very much up in the air. So the truth is that it’s very worrisome because safety and individual rights are not guaranteed,” Martínez says.
Martínez underscores how this could lead to another problem. As with the 2018 caravans, many migrants could “get lost” in the refugee process “and later they are sent to the southern border again to verify their migration status at the special request of COMAR.”
Militarized Migratory Policies
Amid increased migrant numbers in Tapachula, the need for basic sustenance is growing, as are issues like xenophobia, according to Martínez. For her, the government’s militarized immigration policies contribute to the repression against migrants.
An example of this is INM’s discourse, which seeks to blame migrants for violent actions that make it difficult to carry out procedures. In a statement at the end of November, the immigration authority stated: "Groups of people were detected who, on the one hand, armed with stones and sticks, block avenues and streets and prevent the arrival of buses, and others who, at the same time, resort to violent actions to demand that they leave the same day.”
In contrast, after accompanying various caravans, Martínez points out that INM officials have used force against migrants. Migrants, in turn, are just looking to defend themselves. “This is a consequence of what is happening in the region, people have heard ‘no’ since leaving their country…There hasn’t been communication, dialogue, or listening,” she says.
There are also multiple reports from migrants who have denounced extortion attempts by immigration authorities. However, due to the already precarious situation and the fear of reprisals, no one has filed a formal complaint.
For Martínez, another case that shows how the policies of the Mexican state do not guarantee migrants’ fundamental rights is the truck accident on the Tuxtla Gutiérrez-Chiapa de Corzo highway that, as of December 10, had a death toll of 55—all migrants from the Quiché region in Guatemala.
“We are truly in solidarity with the families and their losses, and the anguish in knowing the fate of their loved ones. This is reflected in a militarized, repressive, and violent immigrant policy, which has forced the people who move through southern Mexico to choose these increasingly dangerous options and routes that put their lives and dignity at risk,” says Martínez.
For her part, Benítez emphasizes the importance of raising awareness of the migrant crisis happening in Tapachula. “It was incredible to arrive here on Monday and see so many people and not see anyone helping them, to see so many with basic needs: from medical attention to water, food… There is a lot of need and we have to be human and show solidarity.”
On December 10, elements of the National Guard, together with state and local police, carried out an operation to remove the migrants who remained in the esplanade of the sports stadium. After this, the authorities reported that thousands of migrants had been relocated, but there is still no clear information as to where the migrants actually went and how many still remain in the border city.
According to the Ajmaq Network of Resistance and Rebellion, the Ocosingo Regional Coffee Growers Association (ORCAO, Organización Regional de Cafeticultores de Ocosingo) initiated armed hostilities against civilian supporters of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) in the autonomous community of Moisés y Gandhi, Chiapas at 8:30 pm October 13.
Ajmaq, which is made up of organizations, collectives, and individuals adhering to the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandón Jungle and located in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, learned of the attack from the “New Dawn in Resistance and Rebellion for Life and Humanity” Good Government Council from Caracol 10, Floreciendo la Semilla Rebelde. The attack comes just over a month after the same paramilitary group kidnapped Zapatista autonomous leaders José Antonio Sánchez Juárez and Sebastián Núñez Pérez.
At 1:25 am October 14, the gunfire intensified, reaching the autonomous high school. At 2:20 am the heavily armed group stood only 30 meters from the houses of the EZLN-supporting families, who were forced to flee to find safe refuge.
The attack ended around 3:30 am according to the Good Government Council. “We demand respect for Zapatista land and territory, autonomy, and free determination,” Ajmaq said in its communique.
After the September kidnapping, the Clandestine Indigenous Revolutionary Committee – General Command (CCRI-CG) of the EZLN published a communique warning that Chiapas is on the brink of civil war and calling for national and international solidarity. Despite insistent calls on all three levels of government to put a stop to paramilitary activity against these self-organized communities, ORCAO continues to enjoy complete impunity for its actions.
On September 29, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador signed an official decree restoring 2,900 hectares of territory to the Yaqui Tribe in Sonora. The order recognized the Indigenous group’s right to utilize 50% of the water from the Yaqui river for agricultural use in the eight towns that make up its territory. The rest of the water is destined for large-scale producers and the major urban zones in the region, including Hermosillo, the state capital.
The president announced the news in a public ceremony in the municipality of Vícam, where he asked for forgiveness for the wrongs committed by previous governments against the eight Yaqui towns: Loma de Bácum, Huirivis, Rahum, Potam, Belén, Vícam, Tórim, and Corit, or Loma de Guamúchil.
A few meters away from the event stood the traditional leadership of Loma de Bácum, who like the people of the community, known as the Tropa Yoeme (children, men, women, and elders), were not allowed into the event.
The council who represented the community of Loma de Bácum at the event, and in the previous negotiations with the government, was not elected by the community’s traditional methods, and does not have the consent of the Tropa Yoeme.
Federal government event for the signing of the Justice Plan for the Yaqui Nation.
“We do not recognize this council because they are the ones who attacked the legitimate leadership and the community with firearms [in 2016] in an attempt to impose the gas pipeline on our community,” said Carmen García, of Bácum, the wife of Fidencio Aldama, a member of Bácum’s Traditional Guard.
Fidencio was arrested in October 2016, just after the armed group attacked the community. He was sentenced to fifteen years and six months in prison on false charges stemming from the one death that occurred during the attack. Today, people from the group of attackers are the same ones sitting down with those from the rest of the villages to hear the government’s decree.
Carmen told Avispa Midia, “All of this began because they wanted to impose authorities that would accept the gas pipeline.” The final straw, she said, “was when they arrived armed and shooting. My husband was part of the Traditional Guard and together with the other members, they tried to protect the community. They unjustly accused my husband, despite the fact that we presented evidence contradicting their frame-up, like the type of gun that our Traditional Guard legally uses as opposed to the type used in the murder. In addition to my husband’s arrest, ten members of our community were disappeared in July. What they are trying to do is weaken our community to make way for the passage of the pipeline and mining projects in the region,” said Carmen.
Carmen is referring to a natural gas pipeline project called Gasoducto Sonora, or Sonora Pipeline, which began construction in 2012. The project belongs to the US-based company Sempra Energy and is operated by IEnova, its subsidiary in Mexico. It is divided into two segments totalling 830.56 kilometers: the Gasoducto Sásabe-Guaymas (CSG) segment and the Gasoducto Guaymas-el Oro (CGO) segment, which crosses Indigenous Yaqui territory.
Anabela Carlón, a Yaqui lawyer in Loma de Bácum, maintains that the high level of violence in the region is linked to an attempt to implement several projects in Yaqui territory. “The people who were disappeared were people who have opposed mining exploitation, the construction of the Independence Aqueduct—which supplies water to the capital of Hermosillo—and the Sonora Pipeline, which was supposed to pass only 300 meters from the community.”
“Two days after our brothers were disappeared, the state informed us about measures to reroute the pipeline because we stand firm against allowing it to cross through Loma de Bácum. After the disappearances, we heard nothing more, and today, they’ve brought us this decree. Despite their claim that it benefits us, we don’t really know what it actually means,” said Carlón, since the federal government is legitimizing the Indigenous leaders who are in favor of the projects.
Pressure to Finish the Pipeline
Sempra Energy was supposed to be supplying the Mexican government with transportation and sales of natural gas fracked in the United States since 2014. They never finished building the infrastructure, though, and have not provided any gas.
However, Sempra’s 2021 financial statement informs their investors that their affiliate IEnova has received payments stemming from a force majeure clause in the contract. This means that the Mexican government must pay the company despite lack of service since, as IEnova claims, the refusal of Loma de Bácum’s residents to allow the pipeline through their territory counts as an uncontrollable factor or force majeure. These payments were made from 2017 to 2019.
Obrador’s administration renegotiated the contracts with IEnova, which were signed before his term began, considering them “opportunistic and abusive.” They agreed on a suspension of force majeure payments and that payments for services would be resumed when the damaged section of the Guaymas-el Oro section, located in Loma de Bácum, is repaired.
According to a Sempra Energy report, “If the pipeline is not repaired before March 14, 2021, and the parties do not agree on a new date to begin service, IEnova reserves the right to terminate the contract and try to recover its reasonable and documented costs and lost profits.”
In addition, the report warned, “If IEnova is unable to make the repairs,” which they have not yet begun, “and resume operations in the Guaymas-El Oro section of the Sonora pipeline, or if IEnova terminates the contract and cannot obtain compensation, there may be a significant adverse impact on Sempra Energy’s operational results and cash flows and in our capacity to recover the book value of our investment.”
Sempra-IEnova paid the military and hired killers to impose a gas pipeline in Yaqui territory. By Santiago Navarro F
This date has already passed, and the Obrador government is doing everything possible to get the Sonora Pipeline running to avoid having to deal with what the company might do. The Mexican government has not yet made an official statement regarding Sempra’s possible actions.
Up through 2018, 17 other pipelines in addition to the Sonora Pipeline, owned by several companies including Carso and TransCanada, charged for services they didn’t provide. This is detailed in Avispa Midia’s report “Sempra Energy: The Real Winner in Mexico’s Energy Reform.” According to the 2018 financial report from the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), the total cost to the Mexican government was $16 billion. When López Obrador took power, the government paid an additional $672 million in force majeure payments to these projects.
“That’s why it stands out to us that they haven’t let our traditional leaders be present, who obviously, together with the majority of the community, oppose this project. Because of the risk it implies and because it does not bring us any benefit,” said Carmen.
Carlón said, “If there are other communities who want the gas pipeline, then let them build it there instead. Here, we will not accept any money or project because we don’t want it. Now we want our missing brothers to return and we want the state to free Fidencio Aldama, who is unjustly imprisoned.”
Residents of Loma de Bácum unfurled banners at the government’s event. Expressions of rage stood out on the faces of the women who, just two days before, had been officially informed that their missing loved ones’ remains had been found. “They are five of the ten men who were disappeared on July 14,” said the Yaqui lawyer, who has joined the search for the missing men.
This October 27 will mark five years that Fidencio Aldama has been imprisoned in Ciudad Obregón, Sonora. Activists and collectives that work against prisons and the prison industry, who are also part of a campaign to free Fidencio, are preparing actions to continue demanding his immediate release.
Front page photo: Indigenous mobilization in Brasília heads to the esplanade of the ministries to hold a vigil against the reform of the so-called "Time Frame". Photo by Vito Ribeiro
At least 6,000 Indigenous people came together from all over Brazil for a series of protests in Brasilia, the country’s capital. The delegations include representatives from 117 Indigenous peoples, who traveled for days by bus and truck. This is one of the biggest demonstrations that Indigenous peoples have organized in recent times, centered around a legislative reform that would implement what is being called the “time frame” criterion concerning the demarcation of Indigenous territory. The reform would limit what is considered ancestral territory to lands that have been occupied since the 1988 constitution was enacted.
If approved, this initiative would further threaten possession and recognition of these territories and directly affect hundreds of Indigenous land claim cases currently under litigation, above all for peoples who were driven off their lands or dispossessed during the 1964-1985 military dictatorship and up through the passing of the 1988 constitution.
The demonstrators have planned diverse actions that began August 22 and will conclude on August 28. Actions intensified on Wednesday, August 25, lifting people’s spirits. Meanwhile, the Federal Supreme Court (STF) will reach a verdict defining the Brazilian state’s process for recognizing ancestral territories, or, on the contrary, its disregard for this unique right that First Peoples have, known as “demarcation of Indigenous lands.”
Although the legal recourse of “demarcation” considers Indigenous peoples to be mere “land users,” if this law is passed, the villages that were created after 1988 will be considered illegal in their own lands.
Struggle for Life
Indigenous mobilization in Brasilia. Photo by Vito Ribeiro
“We’re conducting the biggest mobilization of our lives in Brasilia, because our future and all of humanity’s are on the line. To speak of demarcation of Indigenous lands in Brazil is to speak of guaranteeing the future of the planet with solutions to the climate crisis,” said Sonia Guajajara, an Indigenous woman and one of the coordinators of the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB).
This campaign is called “Struggle for Life.” Among other points, they state, “we stand for our rights and for promoting action against the anti-Indigenous agenda in motion in the national congress and the federal government,” stated the APIB.
In a unified voice, these peoples have shouted, “Bolsonaro Out!” They have denounced the increase in violence within and outside of their traditional territories since Jair Bolsonaro became president. These complaints have reached agencies outside of Brazil. On August 9, International Indigenous Peoples’ Day, APIB presented an unprecedented declaration before the International Penal Court (CPI) “accusing the Bolsonaro administration of genocide and ecocide,” according to the peoples that make up the organization.
The APIB stated that the Bolsonaro’s policies have been openly “opposed to Indigenous peoples” and that additionally, “since he took office, he has signed several acts that violate the Constitution and international treaties protecting Indigenous communities and their territories.”
Brazil’s capital city was alive with protests, but also songs, speeches, and political discussions. Over the week, the delegations have been presenting an intense program of political debates and cultural events. “We have to give visibility to and raise the voices of the Indigenous movement as a whole. In this scenario with so many threats, communication plays a key role and we will be joining forces in this encampment,” said Erisvan Guajajara, coordinator of Media India.
Indigenous mobilization in Brasilia. Photo by Vito Ribeiro
The APIB is made up of: the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of the Northeast, Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo (APOINME); the Counsel of the Terena People; the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of the Southeast (ARPINSUDESTE); the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of the South (ARPINSUL); the Great Assembly of Guaraní Kaiowá Peoples (Aty Guasu); the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB); and the Guaraní Yvyrupa Commission.
Who Is Interested in this Reform?
The interest in removing recognition of ancestral Indigenous territory is centered around a congressional segment known as “ruralists or ranchers,” who represent international agribusiness giants such as Bayer, BASF, Bunge, Cargill, Coca Cola, Dow, DuPont, Kraft, Monsanto, Unilever, Danone, Carrefour, ChemChina, Cofco, Glencore, Nestlé, and Syngenta, among others.
Indigenous mobilization in Brasilia. Photo by Vito Ribeiro
Meanwhile, the Trade Balance records of the National Agricultural Commission (CNA) showed that Brazilian exports of agro-industrial products grew by 15.8% in 2021, compared to the same period last year. This institution assures that a “series of meetings are being held with the National Secretariat of Public Security to define an agenda focused on increasing rural security in Brazil”. Among other issues, includes a discipline on public safety of military personnel working in the rural police.
In addition, APIB denounces that Bolsonaro has been pushing a bill to authorize mining and other extractive activities in several ancestral territories, mainly in the Amazon.
