Text: Camila Plá

Photos: Esthel Vogrig

During the morning of February 20, in Amilcingo, Morelos, men and women arrived little by little to the Flores Velazquez family home, the majority with a bouquet of baby’s breath flowers beneath their arm, and as is custom in the region, a clay vase to put them in. With solemn faces, they sat down to listen to the priests and the seminarian who began the mass in honor of Samir Flores.

Meanwhile, Samir’s wife, Liliana Velázquez, ran from place to place without respite. Their daughters were with their friends and they entered the house to play. The neighbors greeted them with a quick handshake, and a hummingbird pecked at the flowers adorning the table where pictures of the deceased were displayed.

Tuesday, February 20, marked five years since the assassination of Samir. That day an armed group knocked on his door and shot him twice, changing his history, the history of his family, and of the entire community. Five years without justice.

While quite some time has passed, it also seems like it was just yesterday that he was walking through town, greeting the neighbors, and sharing news on the radio. In Amilcingo his presence is felt close, his name continues alive. His life and death mark the history of the community because Samir was assassinated for resisting the Morelos Integral Project (PIM), a megaproject of death that passes through the three states of Morelos, Puebla, and Tlaxcala, also passing through the community of Amilcingo.

The megaproject meant the construction of an aqueduct, a combined cycle thermoelectric plant, and a gas pipeline. The last of which passes through Samir’s home town. The three levels of government are implicated in the construction and imposition. Many of the early supporters of the megaproject continue serving in the current government, although the colors of the political parties have changed with the elections. The forms and discourses have changed with the different administrations, yet the people continue to resist the PIM.

The priests who led the mass remember the history of Samir as one of struggle in defense of territory, land, campesinos, and water. And the PIM is a serious threat amidst the current water crisis through most of the country, especially in the center of the country where Amilcingo is located.

Residents of the community know very well the implications of megaprojects, and the PIM is not the first struggle that the community has carried out. It is the latest in a long history of popular organization. It goes back to the revolution when the inhabitants joined the Zapatista army, the Southern Division, to struggle for land and freedom. Elders in the community still recount the experiences of their mothers and fathers, maintaining the Zapatista memory alive.

Afterwards, many of the residents became jaramillistas and in the 70’s they organized for the autonomy of the communities against the large landholders of the municipality. This struggle resulted in the creation of the municipality of Temoac—the current municipality of the community—and led to the defense of the rural teacher training colleges, led by Vinh Flores Laureano, a teacher and political organizer.

Vinh was assassinated together with his two compañeros before the Normal Rural Emiliano Zapata of Amilcingo was founded, yet the people continue remembering him with love and pain. The street where Samir lived was even named after him. Curiously, Vinh was Samir’s uncle.

At the end of the mass, the people began a walk toward the cemetery of the community. The family and close friends of Samir led the walk. Children from the elementary school joined with signs and posters bearing the name of the person who years before has been their organic agriculture teacher.

The first stop was in front of the community radio station where Samir was a DJ for two programs, and also the founder. In the radio station, the comparsa, a group with masks, was waiting to welcome the procession with guapachosa and protest music. The radio station is located in a family home who lent their space for the radio ten years ago. The wall that faces the street is painted with a mural of different faces from the popular struggle, among them Lucio Cabañas, Genaro Vázquez, Subcomandante Marcos, an Adelita, and now Samir Flores.

The second stop was the elementary school that now bears his name. The school exists because after the earthquake of September 19, 2017, the community prevented the state from demolishing the primary school, historically the only one in the community. The state’s intention was to close the school in order to divide the community and force them to relocate to another school constructed with funds from the gas pipeline company on the outskirts of the community.

For almost two years, the school lacked official recognition. However, the community organized to continue giving classes autonomously. It was then when Samir began as a teacher of organic agriculture. In March of 2019, the people obtained official recognition of the school and changed its name to the elementary school Samir Flores Soberanes. The director spoke of the life of Samir and those responsible for his assassination. After presentations from the children, the walk continued toward the cemetery where Samir current rests together with the ancestors of the community.

Since his assassination, Samir’s name has resounded in different geographies, crossing territories he didn’t know in life, being named and respected by people who he never met or knew. His name, life, and struggle are now a reference when talking about the defense of land and water. To remember his name and continue demanding justice is also an act of resistance against the war on Indigenous peoples.

During these five years, the memory has been indispensable for the inhabitants of Amilcingo. To remember is not only an act of resistance, but a tool for the construction of alternatives. It is from remembering of what was that one can glimpse and construct an alternative to the dispossession. Like Jorge Velázquez of the People’s Front explained: “We will continue resisting, we will continue with what our grandparents taught us.”

In your memory, compañero.

In 2021, campesinos witnessed people passing through their territories with equipment. It caught their attention because it wasn’t people who were known in the region. They didn’t think much of it at first, but it turned out that they were engineers and technicians carrying out mining exploration in the municipalities of San Miguel Chimalapa and Santo Domingo Zanatepec, Oaxaca, one of Mexico’s largest tropical forest zones. The miners confirmed that, in the entrails of these mountains, there is a major gold and copper deposit.

Shortly before entering this region of the Zoque people, the Canadian company, Minaurum Gold S.A. de C.V., in 2021, sold 23,000 shares in Canada, raising $9.2 million Canadian dollars to continue exploration for its mining projects in Mexico. One of those projects is named Santa Marta.

The communal lands commissioner of San Miguel Chimalapa, Vicente Contreras, told Avispa Midia that they’d seen people pass through in 2021. “We decided to form brigades to surveil the territory and we found that in certain areas they had been removing land. So, we mobilized because we do not want mining in our territory,” he said.

According to information from the Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT), obtained through the Platform of Transparency, the applications for the permits of Santa Marta had been rejected in the ruling UGA-0687-2021. The company was notified via certified postal mail on June 25, 2021.  

A month after the supposed ruling of SEMARNAT, in July, Minaurum, to provide certainty to its shareholders, announced that it saw “more unlocked opportunity in some of the less advanced exploration projects, in particular Santa Marta, a potential volcanogenic massive (cooper and gold) sulfide project.”

The company’s announcement was even trumpeted by one of its most important investors, the asset management company, Crescar Capital, equating Santa Marta with the world class gold and copper deposit Hod Maden in Turkey, a project that holds reserves of 8,696 tons of gold and copper.

Although SEMARNAT maintains that the permits for Santa Marta were rejected in June of 2021, on their official platform the resolutions haven’t been made public. On the contrary, in requests for information, they sustain that it is “reserved and confidential.”

Minaurum solicited an exploration permit for a period of 12 months. If this had taken effect, it would have been from August 2021 until August 2022, right when people were seen passing through the area.

On the company’s website there are photos of their visits to the area, although they don’t mention the dates.

^{Geologists of Minaurum in the Santa Marta mine}

The novelty is that the company sustains in a report from this year 2024, that the rock sampling carried out “has yielded copper values ranging from 1% and 3.7% copper and gold values reaching 3 g/t gold (grams for gross ton of rock),” according to its report called “Perspectives of Exploration 2024.”

Thus, Minaurum has advanced with the Santa Marta project and announced that it has updated its activities of exploration for 2024, including a new application for a permit of 3,000 meters of drilling, which implies a new Environmental Impact Report and a new process that SEMARNAT has to approve. Meanwhile, Minaurum is obligated to provide progress to its investors who have invested $9.2 million Canadian dollars.

^{Brigades that surveil the territory of San Miguel Chimalapa}

The Strategy

The Santa Marta project encompasses two concessions located in the municipalities of San Miguel Chimalapa and Santa Domingo Zanatepec, both of which have legal conflicts in relation to their territorial boundaries. “The boundary problem is related to more than 13,000 hectares of land and it is there where this project is located,” said the commissioner of San Miguel Chimalapa.

The interesting thing is that when Minaurum applied for its permits for exploration in 2021, according the Environmental Impact Report (MIA) carried out by Asesores en Impacto Ambiental y Seguridad, C.S., they presented a copy of the resolution of the legal conflict related to the boundaries between San Miguel Chimalapa and Santo Domingo Zanaptepec. But the commissioner sustains that “the agrarian problem has still not been resolved. We have filed an appeal and it remains in the courts, so the conflict is not resolved.”

In 2019, SEMARNAT had already denied an Environmental Impact Report (MIA) to the company according to the document SEMARNAT-SGPA-UGA-0021-2019, with which it requested authorization for the realization of projects and activities in the two lots of the project.

But when Minaurum again requested the approval of a new MIA and permits for exploration, in 2021, the company’s legal representative, Daniel Jespús Ventura Uribe, presented more documents, this time only to carry out exploration in the Jackita lot. This was accompanied by a document certified by the notary with permission from the community La Cristalina, pertaining to San Miguel Chimalapa.

It is already known that mining companies in Mexico resort to various strategies to advance with the exploration and exploitation of minerals, one of them is dividing the communities and strengthening one side of the division. “It is what happened with the community La Cristalina, who supposedly gave permission to enter our territory to carry out exploration,” laments the commissioner Contreras, who has served the community for two years.

For the commissioner this is totally illegal, as they bypassed the ultimate authority. “Here no community is empowered to give that permission, not even me as commissioner. Because the communal statute establishes that the final word has to be taken up in a general assembly, where all of the community members participate. Thus, La Cristalina is not authorized to give permission. This is illegal”, explained the agrarian representative of the community.

Together the two mining lots, Reducción Mar de Sobre and Jackita, with corresponding updated title numbers 246936 and 225472, total an exorbitant dimension of more than 6,400 hectares, almost the equivalent of nine times that of University City of the UNAM.

Currently this company, through its affiliate Minera Zalamera, S.A. de C.V., has nine active concessions in the state of Oaxaca in the phase of exploration which make up more than 27,000 hectares. It also has a concession in Puebla, one in Morelos, two in Guerrero, and three in Sonora.

Water Dependence

The reserve of Los Chimalapas is internationally recognized. According to the National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity (CONABIO), in this region there are zones considered of “extreme priority for conservation,” because it is a large corridor that, together with other ecosystems, make the state of Oaxaca the most biologically diverse in the country.

The region is crossed by the Sierra Atravesada, the Sierra de Tres Picos, and the Sierra Espinazo del Diablo, along with the basins of the Corte and Alto Uxpanapa rivers. It includes the totality of the municipalities of Santa Maria Chimalapa and San Miguel Chimalapa, as well as parts of the municipalities of Matias Romero and San Pedro Tapanatepec, bordering to the east of the state of Chiapas.

The commissioner of San Miguel Chimalapa emphasizes that the majority of the people in the community dedicate themselves to agriculture and depend on the water. “What are we going to do if the aquifers are contaminated. Chimalapas feeds a great part of the communities, that is why we are concerned, because we are not going to eat gold. We live off the land. We depend on the water,” he warns

Neither the company nor the state has given them any information so far about what the exploration and possible exploitation of these mining lots means. “The only information that we have obtained is through forums that have been organized by youth from the community,” says Contreras, agrarian representative of the community. The commissioner maintains that the communities are adamant in not allowing extraction. “In different assemblies we have agreed not to allow mining exploitation in our territory. We are going to defend our territories,” says the Indigenous Zoque.

^{Forum carried out by youth from San Miguel Chimalapa}

^{Cover image: Residents of Puente Madera, among them David Hernández Salazar, receive activists and organizations in their community to denounce the negative effects of the Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Photo: El Sur Resiste}

The Community Assembly of Puente Madera, an Indigenous Zapotec town located in the municipality of San Blas Atempa in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, has denounced the prison sentence handed down against David Hernández Salazar. Hernández Salazar is a community organizer involved in communal land defense against the imposition of an industrial park proposed as part of the Interoceanic Corridor megaproject.

On January 30, Hernández, who is a community representative, member of the Assembly of Indigenous Peoples of the Isthmus in Defense of Land and Territory (APIIDTT), along with the National Indigenous Congress (CNI), was declared responsible for damage to public roads and highways caused by arson.  

In a hearing on February 7, the district judge ratified the sentence against Hernández Salazar of 46 years and 6 months in prison, a fine of $182,000 pesos, and a payment for damages of more than $1,000,000 pesos.

For the Indigenous organizations of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec who are organizing in solidarity with Hernández Salazar, “these sanctions clearly represent the criminalization and persecution of David for his struggle in defense of land, human rights, and Indigenous peoples.”

APIIDTT, as well as the Community Assembly of Puente Madera, argue that the authorities have ignored and omitted evidence and information “demonstrating David’s innocence, such as reports presented by his defense and the contradictory testimonies of supposed witnesses.”

The organizations accuse both the public prosecutor as well as the judge of incriminating Hernández Salazar with false accusations and inconsistent testimonies. “This case makes clear the corruption and collusion of judicial authorities with political and business groups in the region who are linked to organized crime. Territorial defenders are bothering these powerful figures, so they seek to silence them with prison, disappearances, and assassinations.”

Criminalization

The Indigenous organizations detailed that Hernández Salazar has been persecuted since 2017 as a consequence for his struggle in defense of the common use lands of El Pitayal. At that time, the Mexican Military sought to impose an electric substation on the lands.

In 2021, as community agent of Puente Madera and member of the general coordinator of APIIDTT, he was persecuted and prosecuted by authorities of the three levels of government. This includes those of San Blas Atempa, the State Government of Oaxaca, the Interoceanic Corridor, the Secretary of Communications and Transport, the National Agrarian Registry, the Secretariat of Defense, the Marines, and the National Guard. After the investigation file 269/2021 was opened, it was decided to not press charges.

^{Protests of the Zapotec community demanding freedom for David Hernández Salazar, illegally detained in January 2023.}

However, in early 2022, another case file was opened, 446/2022. On January 16, 2023, he was arrested, but only held for a few hours. The investigation from that case has led to the current 46.5-year sentence.

It is important to highlight that in October 2023, he was notified of a new federal charge. The first hearing for that case will be held on February 21. “In these three legal processes, the figure most responsible for the criminalization against David has at all times been the Municipality of San Blas Atempa, obeying the ex-administrator of the State of Oaxaca, and the current candidate for Senate, Antonino Morales Toledo,” emphasized the Indigenous organizations.

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Still, the recent sentence isn’t absolute or immediate. The Indigenous organizations explain that there are different appeals filed against Hernandez Salazar’s arrest warrant, as well as the arrest warrants against the other 17 inhabitants of Puente Madera who are being criminalized in the case file 446/2022.

“We will continue working on the legal defense, filing the necessary appeals, and seeking out the competent authorities who can review and rule on this unjust and absurd sentence,” declared the Community Assembly of Puente Madera and APIIDTT.

Repression Intensifies

At the same time as the repression and criminalization continues against Puente Madera, nine community members of Santa Maria Mixtequilla, Oaxaca, who were detained on January 27, were ordered continued detention. The judge in Tanivet issued the order on February 2 against the members of the Resistencia Civil Mixtequillense.

The Indigenous detainees have participated in protests in the Mixteca community against the imposition of a “development pole,” an industrial complex planned on 502 hectares to house agro, metal, and textile industries as part of the Interoceanic Corridor megaproject.

The Resistencia Civil Mixtequillense pointed out that beyond punishing people who participate in the organization, the actions of the authorities “seek to do away with any opposition to the imposition of the development pole.” In response they have filed an appeal to obtain the freedom of those being processed.