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Yaquis: Between Government Forgiveness and Pressure for the Pipeline

Por
Santiago Navarro F
-

Section of the Sonora Gas Pipeline that passes through the community of Loma de Bácum. Photo: Santiago Navarro F.

Versión en español

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.

Indigenous protests in Brazil against violation of their land rights

Por
Santiago Navarro F
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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.

10 Yaqui People Reported Missing

Por
Vanessa García Navarro
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Header photo by Santiago Navarro F.

On Wednesday, July 14, the Yaqui village of Loma de Bácum—one of the eight towns that make up the Yaqui Nation in Sonora, Mexico—reported the disappearance of several community members. Uncertainty has persisted since then, as family members of the victims do not know what condition they could be in.

The public complaint released by the community mentions the names of seven people: Martín Hurtado Flores, Braulio Pérez Sol, Eladio Molina Zavala, Juan Justino Galaviz Cruz, Fabian Sombra Miranda, Leocadio Galaviz Cruz, and Fabian Valencia Romero, ranging in age from 27 to 66. However, Artemio Arballo Canizalez, Benjamín Portela Peralta, and Gustavo Acosta Hurtado were reported missing that same day, totalling 10 Indigenous people from the community who are currently missing.

Seven of them were last seen while getting ready to bring cattle to a nearby town for a celebration. The community found out about the disappearances on the day they occurred, so the local Traditional Guard (a Yaqui institution responsible for community defense) decided to proceed with caution before taking action. After seeing that the missing people hadn’t returned the following day, the Guard and several volunteers headed into the mountains in four pickup trucks to search for them. Unfortunately, they only found “scattered luggage belonging to three of them, a rope, and a burned cow,” as the families stated in the public report.

Another resident of the town, who for his safety preferred to identify himself only as Felipe, explained the circumstances surrounding the disappearances and the dangerous situation they are in. The people there distrust the state as much as they distrust the narco presence in the region—it’s often difficult to tell one from the other. “They raised cattle. They were part of a ranch called Agua Caliente. They were going to move some cattle for the traditional festival in a neighboring town called Bataconsica, which is five kilometers from our town, called Loma de Bácum,” said Felipe.

Family members of missing persons file a police report.

They were intercepted once they were moving the cattle. “Since we had already lived through the experience of a compa and her husband being taken, we thought it was the PEI (Policía Estatal Investigadora, the State Investigative Police), the government. And then a little while ago, we learned it was organized crime. But everyone knows that when we’re involved in a struggle, organized crime and the government, the state police, are all in collusion. They all have the same goal, to harass those in struggle so as to get what they want,” he added, referring to the resistance the community has mounted against a gas pipeline that the US-based company Sempra Energy seeks to build across their territory, through its Mexican subsidiary IEnova.

See also: Sempra Energy: The Real Winner in Mexico’s Energy Reform

By not allowing the pipeline to be built a mere 300 meters from their houses, Loma de Bácum has caused problems for the transnational company. Above all, the residents fear for their lives due to the risks the pipeline brings with it. Of the eight Yaqui towns in the region, Loma de Bácum was the only one not to accept the project, and for this they have been attacked several times by armed groups. Meanwhile, Sempra has the backing of the Mexican government.

Now, a long way from a truce in the process of defending their lives and land, the Yaqui village faces a new threat. Loma de Bácum’s spokeswoman, Guadalupe Flores Maldonado, pointed out recently that the state government has made room for more transnational companies to invade the Indigenous territory by granting some 12 mining concessions. The companies plan to extract gold, with no care for the collateral damage they will do to the area’s inhabitants and ecological equilibrium.

Two weeks have passed since the disappearances and Felipe maintains that, as of now, “they haven’t appeared, nor has anyone called about a ransom or anything. We’re at square one; we don’t know anything.”

Armed violence against Loma de Bácum is not without precedent. In October 2016, a group made up of police and members of neighboring communities who had accepted the pipeline staged an armed attack against the town in order to impose a new municipal authority that would approve the project. The attack left one dead, Cruz Buitimea Piña, from the side of the attackers. Days later the police arrested Fidencio Aldama, a member of Loma de Bácum’s Traditional Guard, accused of homicide with no evidence. After a trial filled with irregularities, he was sentenced to 15 and a half years in prison.

The Yaqui community predicts that the mining companies, allied with other actors, will use violence to intimidate them. In the past two weeks, 15 residents of the town have gone missing. While five of them returned home (three women and two children), ten are yet to be found. These “disappearances” share a common element: they don’t appear to be common kidnappings, that is, no one has demanded a ransom nor initiated negotiations for their return. The number of victims is increasing and, as Guadalupe Flores suspects, “perhaps the intention is to frighten and chase off the residents to leave the path free for the multinational corporations.” For the moment, the townspeople have declared themselves ready to defend their territory through to the ultimate consequences. Family members of the disappeared continue to demand justice. They have filed a report with the prosecutor’s office, holding onto the hope of finding their relatives alive but aware that this becomes less likely with each passing day.

Government of Oaxaca Prepares Repression Against Indigenous Zapotecos

Por
Ñaní Pinto
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Indigenous Zapateco communities belonging to San Pablo Cuatro Venados, Oaxaca, denounce ongoing threats and harassment seeking to dispossess them of their territories in pursuit of mining interests

Indigenous Zapatecos pertaining to the municipality of San Pablo Cuatro Venados denounce that the State Government of Oaxaca is preparing repression, and the dispossession of their territory, with the use of the National Guard.

They alert that an agreement was made between agencies of the government and the municipal and agrarian authorities of Cuilápam de Guerrero, the neighboring municipality of Cuatro Venados. “The objective is to take control of these lands, to exploit the three mining concessions, and to take control of the water and forest,” they assert.

On June 20, community members of El Rebollero, Los Arquitos, and Río Minas, pertaining to the municipality of San Pablo Cuatro Venados, went to Oaxaca City with their banners, and maps where they have located the mining concessions.

“We deny the position of the authorities of Cuilápam de Guerrero, in collusion with the authorities of San Pablo Cuatro Venados, who have more than once branded us as invaders of these lands. Our documents demonstrate the opposite,” they denounced in a press conference, where some showed their credentials and their land deeds.

According to these communities, this has been the motive for which they have been attacked on different occasions. On May 19, 2019, when the authorities of Cuilápam, Pedro Pérez Rojas, Erick Carrasco Vázquez, Maura Silva Fernández, and the ex-representative, Flavio Sosa Villavicencio, warned that if the state government does not apply the law against the supposed invaders, a bloodbath would ensue. “This was a threat. We were brutally attacked on May 31, and June 1 and 2. They destroyed our houses, they burned our crops, and they robbed what they could,” the campesinos maintained.

They added that after these attacks, “the corresponding complaints were filed before the prosecutor’s office and six investigation files were opened” against the aggressors. The aggressors being the authorities of the neighboring municipality of Cuilápam. Despite this, up until the moment, they have not been informed of any results of the investigation.

On the contrary, Magdiel Hernández Caballero, representative of the Human Rights Defense of the People of Oaxaca, signaled that “precautionary measures were issued for the protection of the community of Cuilápam de Guerrero” with the denunciation of attacks by supposed invaders.

After these supposed attacks, “which the community of Cuilápam has suffered,” community members in resistance explained that on July 5, a red helicopter flew over their territories and landed nearby. One day after, the communities of Cuatro Venados were attacked.

“Around 15 vehicles entered the vegetation of the community and the people in the vehicles began to shoot at us. Events which we also denounced by means of a communique.”

The community members of these localities warn that they foresee a new attack coming, with the declarations from the government of Oaxaca. They have not come to an agreement, “if there is a problem of land boundaries or if we are invaders.”

The official declarations of the representative of the Secretary of Government in Oaxaca, José Carlos Fuentes Ordaz, is that he will follow up, in coordination with the National Guard and the Secretary of Security, “on the problematic expressed by the municipal and agrarian authorities of Cuilápam.”

The Indigenous people pertaining to San Pablo Cuatro Venados added that a series of their rights were violated, with the approval of the mining concessions and with these others actions: “like the right to information, participation, security, free will, justice, self-determination, and territory. As we are Indigenous people, they are violating agreements and conventions that the Mexican state has signed, like Convention 169 of the ILO, and the Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Justice in Environmental Matters, known as the “Escazú Agreement.”

At the end of the press conference, they pointed to the Oaxaca state, to the Federal Government, and to the authorities of the municipalities of Cuilápam de Guerrero and Cuatro Venados, as those responsible for what might happen to their communities.

Photos by Santiago Navarro F

Translated by itsgoingdown

Zapatista delegation to meet with women, trans, inter and non-binary people at The ZAD in France

Por
Ñaní Pinto
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Cover photo: EZLN Commission in Barcelona, supported by more than 60 collectives from Catalonia who organized the Assembly in support of the "Gira Por La Vida" (Tour for Life). By Alicia Calderón

Translated by Shantal Montserrat Lopez Victoria / Voices in Movement

The “Squadron 421”, the maritime brigade of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), composed of four women, two men and a non-binary person, left Isla Mujeres, Mexico on May 3 in an old sailboat named “La Montaña”. At 6:10 p.m. (European time) on June 22, they landed in Vigo, one of the main ports of Galicia.

The delegation from La Montaña were greeted by representatives of the so-called “Xira pola Vida” (Tour for Life), made up of several groups from Spain and other delegations from Italy, Germany, Greece, Switzerland, Portugal, Euskalerria, Catalonia, Andalusia, France, Belgium and Mexico.

A welcoming ceremony was held, which included a collective greeting to the rhythm of traditional Galician music. At this event, Marijose, the non-binary member of this brigade, renamed Europe. “On behalf of the women, children, men, elders and, of course, other Zapatistas, I declare that the name of this land, which its natives now call “Europe”, will henceforth be called: SLUMIL K’AJXEMK’OP”, said Marijose, which means, “Tierra Insumisa”, or “Insubordinate Lands” or “Land that does not surrender or falter. ”

The delegation tried to disembark on the Galician coast last Sunday, but did not succeed, due to some logistical and bureaucratic constraints, among them, tests to corroborate that none of the crew was infected with Covid-19.

The tour kicked off in Europe, where it is scheduled to visit at least 30 countries. It will then proceed to the rest of the five continents. This delegation will be joined by other brigades from the EZLN and the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) that will fly there in the coming days.

Several European cities have already prepared for their arrival. In France, “the European gender commission” is organizing a meeting exclusively for women, trans, inter, and non-binary people, from the 10th to the 11th of July 2021, in the ZAD of Notre-Dame-des-Landes (Nantes-France).

This event is open to everyone, even though the organizers are following a strict attendance policy. Therefore, it is necessary to fill out a registration form in order to attend this event. Also, if you want to participate with a proposal, you must fill out a different form.

The organizers announced, “we are living beings, grandmothers, mothers, daughters, women, trans, non-binary people who fight from our different realities. We are feminists, migrants, non-migrants, precarious, from lower-income sectors and today we call for an intergenerational, intercultural, interethnic, intergalactic dialogue among a diversity of genders based on the knowledge of multiple struggles and their different geographies, from the countryside, the city, the factory, the neighborhood, as well as all the possible spaces of political activism.”

This European gender commission affirms “we want to support the Zapatista Tour from a feminist, decolonial and intersectional perspective and are open to other expressions of struggle for women, trans and non-binary people who speak out against all kinds of discrimination.”

The commission express they have been inspired by shared concerns, “moved by the affection, pain, joy and rage that go through our struggles in our territories and our diverse bodies; we are committed to uplifting and revitalizing ancestral practices and also knowledge the current struggles and resistances that sustain life in all its expressions.”

In this meeting between the Zapatista brigades and the CNI, we encourage people to value words and the diverse expressions, “to listen and learn from what everyone has to teach each other from our experiences”, states the proposal for this event, of which a website muchasluchasparavivir.noblogs.org has been created.

Topics and contents to be addressed in this event aim to “create alternative approaches to those we know, using all types of language that decentralize the spoken and written word to enhance the (re)creative expressions of our bodies, of art, of playing, of enjoyment, of sports, of other imaginaries worlds that bring us closer to other horizons and futures for all,” the gender commission shared.

Indigenous Communities Denounce Armed Attacks in Oaxaca

Por
Avispa
- 
In Spanish: Un día después de descender un helicóptero en El Rebollero, Oaxaca, personas armadas atacan a los comuneros

One day after a helicopter circled above their territories, Indigenous Zapotec communities in the municipality of Cuatro Venados, Oaxaca, denounce armed attacks carried out in the interests of mining exploration

To the Zapatista Army of National Liberation

To the National Indigenous Congress

To the Indigenous Governing Council

To the Free and Independent Media

As community members from El Rebollero and Rio Minas, pertaining to the municipality of Cuatro Venados, located just an hour from Oaxaca City, we are being attacked again this July 6, with military grade weapons. Around fifteen vehicles from the neighboring community of Cuilápam de Guerrero, dropped off people who are hidden in the vegetation of our communities. From there, they have fired rounds toward people in our communities who are laboring their crops and caring for their animals.

Yesterday, July 5, a red helicopter flew over the area that today, July 6, they are attacking. The aircraft afterwards descended in the area known as Loma Boluda. This helicopter, which we do not rule out belonging to the state government (AGUSTA-109 POWER, with license plate XA-HUX), is combing the area in order to know how many people live there so they can attack us afterwards. This is not a coincidence. From unofficial sources we have found out that politicians and authorities of Cuilápam de Guerrero and our municipality, San Pablo Cuatro Venados, have been meeting and are planning an attack against our community. The objective is to take control of the area to advance on three mining concessions that have been issued in our territory without our consent.

This series of attacks adds to others that we have already suffered and denounced before the corresponding authorities, exhausting all legal solutions. We hold responsible the federal government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, as well as the state government of Alejandro Murat, and the municipal authorities of Cuilápam de Guerrero and San Pablo Cuatro Venados, for the scale of this conflict. We hold them responsible for whatever may happen.

We make it clear, as community members of this region, we adhere to international agreements, like Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization, related to Indigenous rights and culture. We adhere to our free self-determination. We will defend our territory against these invaders. We will defend our water, our forests, and our dignity.

As of 1pm, July 6, people from outside our community are hidden in the vegetation and continue shooting.

We make a call out for solidarity, and encourage people to be attentive to the situation. We will soon inaugurate our house of healing, which is part of the reconstruction of our community.

The mining concessions are:

Title 217598, issued in 2002, located in Cuatro Venados.

Title 227548, issued in 2006, located in Cuatro Venados.

Title 242664, issued in 2013, covering the municipalities of Cuatro Venados and San Miguel Peras.

Sincerely,

Communities of El Rebollero, Los Arquitos, and Rio Minas

Translated by itsgoingdown

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