Statement about the Aggression against the Otomí Community of Xochicuautla

 

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Statement about the Aggression against the Otomí Community of Xochicuautla

 

 

To national and international society

To the independent media

The undersigned organizations and collectives strongly protest about the acts of aggression against the Otomí community of San Francisco Xochicuautla in the State of Mexico, carried out by the narco-state, represented by the Higa consortium.

After ten years of political and legal struggle, the Otomí community achieved the definitive suspension of the construction of the highway Toluca-Naucalpan; this suspension opposed the decree of expropriation arbitrarily imposed by the presidency of Enrique Peña Nieto in 2015, with the intention of expropriating 37 hectares of the community.

The highway project is one of many business affairs that benefit the company in charge of the construction of the road, Autopistas de Vanguardia S.A. de C.V. belonging to the Grupo Higa, linked to the White House (Casa Blanca) of the wife of the current president of the republic.

Despite the resolution that orders the cancellation of the project, today on April 11, 2016 a group of approximately 800 riot police and representatives of the company entered the community, destroying the house of Sr. Armando García Salazar and violently evicting the people who were there. These actions violate the constitutionality of the Mexican State. The state police in the service of Grupo Higa violated the resolution of the court and also violated the rights of the individuals and collectives of the community of San Francisco Xochicuautla.

This is another attempt to plunder the forest of the Otomí community, which not only threatens the rights of the community members, but also threatens the environment and life in general because it is a project of death; this in turn is part of a larger web of megaprojects which benefit capital and the few.

We demand:

An end to the aggressions that the community of San Francisco Xochicuautla is experiencing!

Immediate cancellation of the highway project Toluca-Naucalpan!

That all types of contracts are ended with Grupo Higa, for violating the rights of individuals and communities, as well as their contempt for a court order!

That the state, federal, and municipal authorities comply with the suspension of the project and immediately withdraw from the community!

Signed:

Seminario Mundos Rurales, Tierra, Territorio y Territorialidades

Circulo de lectura Política Mundos Rurales

Proyecto de Siembra y Círculo de Saberes (UACMilpa)

Grupo Latinoamericano de Estudios, Formación y Acción Feminista (GLEFAS)

Centro de Derechos Humanos Toaltepeyolo A.C. (Orizaba, Veracruz)

XVII generación de la Maestría en Desarrollo Rural (UAM-X)

Tonelhuayotzin Nuestra Raíz A.C.

Proyecto Sierra Santa Marta A.C.

Asociación de Profesionistas Indígenas (API) Chiapas A.C.

Cholula Viva y Digna

Colectivo Campamento Intercultural UACM-América Latina

Colectivo Más de 131

Red de Humedales de la Bahía Adair

Red del Alto Golfo DRC A.C.

Grupo Lobos

Colectivo mujeres Trabajando

Red Manglar México

Asociación Latinoamericana de Medicina Social-México

Centro de Investigación y Capacitación Rural (Cedicar) A.C.

Colectivo Lumantik-  UACM

Centro de Estudios Ecuménicos A.C.

Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra-Atenco

Colectivo hormiguero UAM-A

Colectivo Enrique Dussel- UACM

Brigada Humanitaria de Paz Marabunta

Espacio Libre Independiente Marabunta A.C.

Fundación Don Sergio Méndez Arceo

Cooperativa de Café Nakumähetsi (UACM)

Colectivo Radio Zapote

 

From a translation by Palabras Rebeldes

 

https://www.centrodemedioslibres.org/2016/04/11/pronunciamiento-ante-la-agresion-contra-la-comunidad-otomi-de-xochicuautla/

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Rule of Law and Indigenous Rights: In Xochicuautla, State of Mexico, an Affront to Legality

 

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San Francisco Xochicuautla (red marker) State of Mexico, west of Mexico City

La Jornada: Editorial

13^th April, 2016

On Monday, the Autovan company, which is building the Toluca-Naucalpan expressway, demolished several houses in San Francisco Xochicuautla in the municipality of Lerma [in the State of Mexico, just west of Mexico City], with the support of hundreds of members of the State of Mexico police. These demolitions were carried out even though the Otomí are protected by two provisional injunctions issued by district judges. Moreover, the demolition was executed in the presence of members of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, which monitors compliance of such injunctions, and in spite of the precautionary measures issued by the National Human Rights Commission on behalf of the locals. The contractor continued the work yesterday using heavy machinery.

The conflict dates back to 2013 when the community received news of plans for an expressway project affecting their land. In July of last year, a presidential decree [by Peña Nieto, former governor of the State of Mexico] ordered the expropriation of almost 38 hectares [94 acres] for the purpose of building the expressway. Since then, federal and state authorities have launched a campaign against the community, which involves the criminalization of its leaders as well as the demolition of several homes.

However, given said judicial injunctions, prior to a definitive injunction, Autovan’s most recent actions, which should have been stopped immediately by the authorities, constitute a clear violation of the legal system. These authorities however, became complicit in the violation by providing police protection for the demolition work carried out by the company.

Beyond the strictly legal aspect, the context in which the attack on San Francisco Xochicuautla occurred must not be forgotten: it is pertinent to recall that Autovan is a subsidiary of The Higa Group, owned by Juan Armando Hinojosa, who faces various accusations as main contractor of the State of Mexico since being governed by the current president, Enrique Peña Nieto. The group also faces accusations as provider of the luxury residences of the president’s wife and Luis Videgaray Caso, head of the Secretariat of the Treasury.

In addition, the businessman’s name was included in the documents of Panama-based firm, Mossack Fonseca, among those who have moved money offshore through shell companies. According to the revelations, which have come to light recently, Hinojosa Cantú moved more than 100 million dollars into opaque institutions in the Caribbean and New Zealand at the precise moments when his real estate transactions were being reviewed by the Secretariat of Public Administration.

Against such a background, the official protection of the atrocities committed by a company which belongs to the contractor is particularly inadmissible. The suspicions amongst society as well as the breakdown of credibility suffered by the federal and State of Mexico institutions, already acute, are reinforced.

The destruction of homes and other properties in San Francisco Xochicuautla must cease immediately and it is important to demand that those who violated the provisional injunctions in support of the members of the indigenous community be investigated and punished, as well as the officials who covered up such an affront, not only to the villagers but also to the national legal system.

 

Translated by Angela Quick

 

http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2016/04/13/opinion/002a1edi?partner=rss

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Legal Protection Granted Against the San Cristobal-Palenque Highway Project

 

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The San Cristobal-Palenque super-highway has been met with massive rejection, Photo @ Espoir Chiapas

 

On April 3, the inhabitants of the Tsotsil communities of Los Llanos and San Jose El Porvenir in the municipality of San Cristobal de Las Casas, made known in a statement that on January 18 of this year they were granted legal protection against the San Cristobal-Palenque highway project. In the sentence for legal protection 16/2014, the judge orders the cancellation of the outlines of the construction project or any other programme for the highway on the stretch between the municipalities of San Cristobal-Huixtan, in particular on the lands of the communities, by the Secretariat of Communications and Transport and the Secretariat of Infrastructure of the State of Chiapas.

In the statement, the ejido demanded that, “the authorities should respect our community’s right to free consultation, previous and informed, through its representatives and traditional authorities, providing information in good faith, including the possible environmental and health risks resulting from the construction of operation of the highway project.” They also underlined that their “land is not for sale, now or in the future, and we completely reject the San Cristobal-Palenque highway project because it dispossesses the indigenous communities of the most sacred thing in this life which is land.” It should be mentioned that since its beginning, many communities and those possibly affected expressed their concern about the construction of the highway, whose cost would be around ten billion pesos and would reduce the journey from San Cristobal to Palenque, two of the zones most visited by overseas and domestic tourists, from five to less than two hours.

Chiapas: Legal Protection Granted Against the San Cristobal-Palenque Highway Project

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An amparo is granted against the Project to build a motorway from SanCristóbal de Las Casas to Palenque

 

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An amparo is granted to the Ejido Los Llanos and San José El Porvenir against the Project to build a motorway from San Cristóbal de Las Casas to Palenque

The cancellation of the section of the Palenque-San Cristobal highway between San Cris and Huixtan is ordered

While the state government of Chiapas seeks to promote the motorway from Palenque to San Cristobal, as a tool for economic development and a source of employment, the people of Chiapas in resistance against this megaproject achieve a big step, winning a protective order (amparo) against the project.

 

 

3rd April, 2016

To the media

To national and international civil society

To all indigenous peoples and communities

To the general public

We would like to make public that on the 18^th of January 2016, Los Llanos, our Tsotsil community in the municipality of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, was awarded a protective order (amparo) against the project to build a motorway from San Cristóbal de las Casas to Palenque. This is a project that the government, through the municipal council and the general secretariat of the government of Chiapas, has tried to force upon us, using threats and intimidation, since November 2013.

In the 16/2014 protective order, the judge orders the Chiapas State Secretariat of Communications and Transport and the Secretariat of Infrastructure to cancel the demarcation of the route and any other preparations for the construction of the San Cristóbal de las Casas-Palenque motorway falling within the San Cristóbal de las Casas-Huixtán municipalities, particularly on land belonging to our community.

The protective order also indicates that, in compliance with the international and constitutional norms identified in it, the authorities must respect our community’s right to freely consult external bodies, through our representatives and the established authorities, to ensure we are fully informed and prepared. They, in turn, are expected to provide the information in good faith, including the possible health hazards and environmental risks presented by the construction or operation of the motorway.

Our community celebrates the announcement of the order to protect our land and we would like to send a message to all three tiers of government that our land is not for sale; not now, not ever. We wholeheartedly reject the project to build a motorway between San Cristóbal de las Casas and Palenque because it would strip the indigenous communities of that which is most sacred in this life: the earth.

As an indigenous community we demand total respect for our rights, which are recognised in the Federal Constitution, international treaties and the San Andrés Accords.

This land has been home to our community for generations; we are its rightful inheritors. That is why we demand respect for the life of our community and that of all indigenous peoples who live under threat of private and state interests, eager to strip them of their land in order to exploit the area’s natural resources. We know that the government has always looked for ways to strip us of our land and that is why we urge all indigenous peoples and communities to defend their territory as one and shy away from divisionism.

We would like to thank you for reading and send you our best wishes from the men, women, children and elders of the Los Llanos and San José El Porvenir community, we who have walked and fought together, in defence of the earth.

Yours,

Comisario Ejidal,

Los Llanos, San Crístobal de Las Casas, Chiapas

Andrés Gómez Díaz, President

Javier Gómez López, Secretary

Pedro Jiménez Díaz, Treasurer

Surveillance Council

Los Llanos, San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas 

Guadalupe Díaz López, President

Domingo Marcelino Jiménez Pérez, First Secretary

Rogelio Jiménez Pérez, Second Secretary

Authorities of the Community, San José El Porvenir, Huixtan, Chiapas 

Domingo de la Cruz Gómez, Community Representative

Salvador de la Cruz Gómez, Auxiliary Agent

Translated by Ruby Zajac for the UK Zapatista Translation Service

http://espoirchiapas.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/ordenan-la-cancelacion-del-trazo-de-la.html

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Xochicuautla obtains suspension of highway

 

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Photo: @Mexican Commission for the Defense and Protection of Human Rights (Comisión Mexicana de Defensa y Promoción de los Derechos Humanos – CMPDH)

 

After a decade of struggle for the conservation of the natural wealth of their territory, the community of San Francisco Xochicuautla, Mexico State, obtained the definitive suspension of the construction of the Toluca-Naucalpan highway that threatened their forest. Following ten years of various strategies, political and legal, the suspension opposed the presidential decree of 2015 for the expropriation of 37 hectares of the ejido for the construction of the highway.

The infrastructure project was promoted by the then-governor of the State of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto. The company in charge of the construction of the highway, Autopistas de Vanguardia S.A., is part of the Grupo Higa, which sold the so-called “White House” to the wife of the current President of the Republic for seven million pesos, causing a huge scandal last year.

It is worth highlighting that the suspension is a “great step to protect the rights of indigenous peoples and communities, the defence of life, water, the forest, and the countryside”, although they haven’t yet obtained the definitive cancellation of the project, according to the statement from the community. In spite of the judicial ruling, the inhabitants of Xochicuaulta pointed out that machinery had recently arrived to their territories in violation of the said ruling. The comuneros demanded “that the state, federal and municipal authorities honour the suspension“, and that therefore, the companies “immediately vacate the territory of San Francisco Xochicuautla, removing machinery, workers and also that the state police who tend to accompany the works be removed.”

 

https://sipazen.wordpress.com/2016/03/21/national-xochicuautla-obtains-suspension-of-highway/

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Chiapas communities organize to protect sacred lagoon from tourist highway

 

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Candelaria residents erect a fence around the Suyul Lagoon to help protect it from intruders. (WNV/Sandra Cuffe)

 

Sandra Cuffe

The reeds and grasses are as tall as Sebastián Pérez Méndez, if not taller. The vegetation is so thick it’s hard to see the water in the Suyul Lagoon that he and other local Maya Tzotzil residents are working hard to protect. Pérez Méndez crosses the road to point out where aquatic plants serve as a natural filter for the water as it flows out the lagoon, located in the highlands of Chiapas, in southern Mexico.

“The water is under threat,” he said. Pérez Méndez is the top authority of the Candelaria ejido, a tract of communally-held land in the municipality of San Cristóbal de las Casas. “We’re not going to allow it.”

Communities in Chiapas are organizing to protect the Suyul Lagoon and communal lands from a planned multi-lane highway between the city of San Cristóbal de las Casas and Palenque, where Mayan ruins are a popular tourist destination. Candelaria residents continue to take action locally to protect the lagoon. They also travelled from community to community along the proposed highway route, forming a united movement opposing the project.

It all started back in 2014 when government officials showed up in Candelaria looking for ejido authorities, including Pérez Méndez’ predecessor. It was the first residents had heard about plans for the highway. The indigenous inhabitants had not been consulted and were not shown detailed plans.

“They realized that [the government officials] were only seeking signatures,” Pérez Méndez said.

No one person or group is authorized to make a decision that would affect ejido lands, however, and there are strict conditions in place to ensure elected ejido leaders are accountable to members, he explained. An extraordinary assembly was held to discuss the highway project.

The Candelaria ejido was established in 1935, a year after a new agrarian law enacted during the Lázaro Cárdenas administration led to widespread land reform throughout Mexico. More than 2,000 people live in the 1,600-hectare ejido, and more than 800 of them

Candelaria residents paint over graffiti to fix up a roadside sign proclaiming their opposition to the highway project. (WNV/Sandra Cuffe)

 

“The ejido said no,” said Guadalupe Moshan, who works for the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Centre, or FrayBa, supporting Candelaria and other communities in Chiapas. “They didn’t sign.”

Candelaria leaders sought assistance from FrayBa in 2014, after they were approached by government officials and pressured to sign a document indicating their consent to the highway project that would involve a 60-metre-wide easement through communally-held lands. Officials told community members that the highway was already approved and that they would be well compensated, but that there would be consequences if they refused to sign, Moshan said.

“They told them they would suspend government programmes and services,” she explained. In the days following the extraordinary ejido assembly rejecting the project, there was unusual activity in the area, according to Moshan. Helicopters flew over the ejido, unknown individuals entered at night, and trees were marked, she said.

Protecting the Suyul Lagoon remains at the heart of Candelaria’s opposition to the planned highway. The lagoon provides potable water not only for Candelaria, but also for several nearby communities, said ejido council secretary Juan Octavio Gómez. Aside from the highway itself, project plans eventually shown to the community leaders include a proposed eco-tourism complex right next to the lagoon. That isn’t in the communities’ interest, Gómez explained.

“Water is life. We can’t live without it,” he said. “Without this lagoon, we don’t have another option for water.”

Fed by a natural spring, the Suyul Lagoon never runs dry. Local residents are careful to protect the water and lands in the ejido, where the majority of residents live from subsistence agriculture, sheep rearing and carpentry. They engage in community reforestation, but have plans to plant more trees, Gómez said.

The Suyul Lagoon is also sacred to local Maya Tzotzil. Ceremonies held every three years in its honour involve rituals, offerings, music and dance.

“It is said that it’s the navel of Mother Earth,” Pérez Méndez said.

Candelaria residents didn’t sit back and relax after rejecting the highway project in their extraordinary assembly. They have been organizing ever since. The Suyul Lagoon lies just outside the Candelaria ejido, but it belongs to ejidatarios by way of an agreement with the supportive land owner. Aside from the highway project and potential eco-tourism complex, the lagoon has caught the attention of companies, whose representatives have turned up in the area expressing interest in establishing a bottling plant.

It’s cold in February up in the highlands, but community members have been out all day, erecting a fence around the Suyul Lagoon to protect it from intruders. White fence posts are visible under the treeline across the sea of reeds. Like so many other local initiatives, fence materials are collectively financed by the ejido and the labour is all voluntary, communal work.

While residents continue stringing barbed wire from post to post, others take paintbrushes to one of their roadside signs. Locals have erected large signs next to roads in and around their ejido, announcing their opposition to the tourist highway.

 

A sign along the road leading to Candelaria informs passers-by of opposition to the planned super-highway. (WNV/Sandra Cuffe)

 

“We’re also already organized with the other communities,” Pérez Méndez said. “All the communities reject the super-highway.”

After they were approached by government officials, Candelaria ejido residents travelled from community to community along the entire planned highway route. Some communities hadn’t heard of the project at all, while others said they were pressured into signing documents indicating their consent, Pérez Méndez said. As a result of Candelaria’s visits, community organizing along the highway route led to the formation of a united front of opposition, the Movement in Defence of Life and Territory.

Candelaria also recently got together with other indigenous communities in the highlands to issue a joint statement rejecting the tourist super-highway and a host of other government and corporate projects and policies.

“Our ancestors, our grandfathers and our grandmothers have always taken care of these blessed lands, and now it’s our turn to [not only take] care of the lands, but also to defend them,” reads the February 10 communiqué.

“The neoliberal capitalist system, in its ambition to exploit natural assets, invades our lands,” the statement continues. “The government and transnational companies are violently imposing their mega-projects.”

Back along the edge of the Suyul Lagoon, Candelaria residents continue to string barbed wire from post to post. They’ve been at it for a while now, according to Pérez Méndez, but they’ve now stepped up their efforts and hope to finish the fence by the end of the month.

Pérez Méndez surveys the progress, protected from the unrelenting sun and icy wind by his hat and white sheep’s wool tunic. He becomes pensive when asked if he thinks communities will be able to defeat the highway project.

“Yes,” the ejido leader said, after giving it some thought. “We can stop it.”

 

http://wagingnonviolence.org/feature/chiapas-communities-candelaria-organize-to-protect-sacred-lagoon-from-tourist-highway/

 

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Communiqué from San Sebastián Bachajón in solidarity with San Francisco Xochicuautla

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FROM EJIDO SAN SEBASTIAN BACHAJÓN, ADHERENTS TO THE SIXTH DECLARATION OF THE LACANDON JUNGLE, CHIAPAS, MEXICO, 12^th JULY 2015

To the compañer@s adherents to the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandón Jungle

To the mass and alternative media

To the Good Government Juntas

To the Zapatista Army of National Liberation

To the Indigenous National Congress

To the Network for Solidarity and against Repression

To Movement for Justice in El Barrio from New York

To the collectives and committees of solidarity at a national and international level

To national and international human rights defenders

To the people of Mexico and the world

Compañeros and compañeras, we express our solidarity with the indigenous Otomí community of San Francisco Xochicuautla, municipality of Lerma in the State of Mexico, which is fighting in defence of Mother Earth threatened by the bad government of Enrique Peña Nieto, where a few days ago a decree was published for the expropriation of 37 hectares of land to build a highway in the State of Mexico for the benefit of their friend the businessman Cantu Hinojosa, regardless of the destruction of mother nature, the trees, the water, and the sacred sites of our compañeros and compañeras.

We want to say to the community of San Francisco Xochicuautla that you are not alone, compañeros and compañeras, because we are watching your struggle, it makes us angry that the bloody government wants to take away their land with violence and repression, for they also wants to take away our land of San Sebastián Bachajón.

We ask the compañeros and compañeras of Mexico and the world that in their times and ways they raise their voices for San Francisco Xochicuautla in these important moments in the struggle for the defence of their territories and sacred sites.

We demand the liberation of our prisoners in Yajalón JUAN ANTONIO GOMEZ SILVANO, MARIO AGUILAR SILVANO and ROBERTO GOMEZ HERNANDEZ; prisoners in Playas de Catazajá SANTIAGO MORENO PERES, EMILIO JIMENES GOMEZ; prisoner in Amate ESTEBAN GOMEZ JIMENEZ.

From the northern zone of the state of Chiapas, Mexico, we send an embrace and combative greetings from the women and men of San Sebastián Bachajón.

Never again a Mexico without us

Land and Freedom

Zapata Vive!

Hasta la victoria siempre!

Freedom for political prisoners!

Juan Vázquez Guzmán Lives, the Bachajón struggle continues!

Juan Carlos Gómez Silvano Lives, the Bachajón struggle continues!

Antonio Vivar Diaz lives

NO dispossession of indigenous territories!

Immediate presentation of the disappeared compañeros from Ayotzinapa!

Long live the dignified struggle of our Chol compañeros y compañeras from the ejido Tila!

JUSTICE FOR AYOTZINAPA, ACTEAL, ABC, ATENCO!

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Mexican President Expropriates Indigenous Land for Highway

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Trucks, protected by police, entered an indigenous community’s territory, after a presidential decree was passed in favour of a construction company.

“Let’s strengthen Otomi resistance vs. the expropriation decree of [President Enrique Peña Nieto]”

Activists expressed outrage, launching an online campaign, after government trucks and construction vehicles entered protected lands of one of Mexico’s indigenous communities July 12-13, in order to build a highly controversial highway.

Mexicans used the hashtag #XochicuautlaNoEstaSolo (Xochicuautla is not alone) to tweet in solidarity after the recent attempt to begin construction on a new section of the Toluca-Naucalpan highway on the land of the Otomi community in the town of San Francisco Xochicuautla, just west of Mexico City.

This is the latest attempt by Grupo Higa S.A. to build on the land, and it came a day after President Enrique Peña Nieto signed a presidential decree July 9 that cancelled a 1954 order guaranteeing Otomi indigenous community land rights in San Francisco Xochicuautla.

The private construction company is owned by Juan Armando Hinojosa, who is believed to have close ties to Peña Nieto, and its trucks were accompanied on to Otomi land by police vehicles.

The new decree, on the grounds of “public interest” and the need for “easy transport” between Mexico City and the suburbs, stripped 38 acres of land from the Xochicuautla community. Officials claim the private highway will deliver huge financial returns to the community, something critics say is untrue.

According to a report by Proceso magazine, the act was labelled as “plunder” by community leaders, including Supreme Council member Lucas Josefa Hernandez, Xochicuautla community chief Armando Garcia and Otomi spokesman Jose Luis Fernandez Flores, who also said the move violates the ethnic rights granted to them by the state.

They added that they were not consulted about the new decree and thus they had not given any approval for giving up the lands.

“We defend life, we defend our land.”
“No, it’s not called dispossession. It’s called expropriation by presidential decree.”

Furthermore, many local residents accuse the government of expropriation and say the plan will destroy the Xochicuautla forests and natural resources. Some activists cut the water line to prevent the construction from taking place.

The villagers also said that they would challenge the new presidential decree and that they had submitted a new complaint to the national human rights commission.

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Mexican-President-Expropriates-Indigenous-Land-for-Highway-20150713-0005.html.

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Inhabitants of Los Llanos Obtain Investigation into Effects of Motorway

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Inhabitants of Los Llanos Obtain Investigation into Effects of Motorway

Translated by Oso Sabio

Federal Court Orders Investigation into the Effect of the San Cristóbal to Palenque Motorway on the Tzotzil Ejido of Los Llanos in Chiapas

On January 6, 2014, inhabitants of the indigenous Tzotzil Ejido of Los Llanos (in the San Cristóbal de Las Casas municipality of Chiapas) filed a petition of relief against all permits and licences issued by federal, state, and municipal authorities for the construction of the San Cristóbal to Palenque Motorway (which had been given without previous, free, and informed consultation with locals). According to the citizens, the megaproject would put their food sovereignty at risk, while violating their rights to territory, autonomy, freedom from discrimination, and protection of the environment and natural resources (all of which are provided for in the Mexican Constitution and the ILO’s Convention 169, concerning “Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries”).[1]

The aforementioned community specified in their complaint that, on November 16, 2013, San Cristóbal councillor Fidencio Pérez Jiménez had come to Los Llanos to assert (in a threatening manner) that the motorway would pass through the citizens’ common lands whether they liked it or not. If they resisted the project, he had told them, the communal authorities would go to jail and the army would be brought in to facilitate the start of the construction process.[2]

Furthermore, the citizens indicated that, on November 26, 2013, the Secretary General of Government in Chiapas had affirmed in public statements to the local and national media that there would be “no turning back” in the construction of the motorway, in spite of the opposition of local indigenous communities (including that of Los Llanos). With these words, the senior official had sent out a clear message that the indigenous Tzotzil people’s right to consultation had not been (and would not be) guaranteed by his regime.

On January 13, 2014, the petition of relief filed by the inhabitants of Los Llanos was accepted by the Sixth District Court of Tuxtla Gutiérrez, under the case number 16/2014. In turn, the suspension of trade to the community was granted, under the argument that all permits and licences issued by the three levels of government regarding the motorway in question had aimed to dispossess an indigenous community of its common lands. This postponement of business would only be ended upon the resolution of the case.

On August 5, 2014, however, the Sixth District Judge dismissed the case when government authorities suddenly claimed that the motorway’s construction would not affect the Los Llanos Ejido. Effectively, then, the federal judge found the government’s statements valid and claimed that the plaintiffs’ legal interests were not under threat. At the same time, though, this decision came in spite of the fact that reports submitted by the Department of Communication and Transportation had shown that Los Llanos could indeed be affected by the construction of the motorway. And, for precisely this reason, the plaintiffs launched an appeal against the sentence on August 19.

Now, the case was referred to the Fourth Court of Appeals in Tuxtla Gutiérrez under the case number 292/2014. Subsequently, on March 12, 2015, a new sentence was passed, which revoked the judgment of the federal court for having violated procedural laws whilst leaving Los Llanos inhabitants defenceless. Additionally, the court ordered a topographical investigation to determine whether the claims made by the plaintiffs (and the reports of the Department of Communication and Transportation) about the effects of the motorway megaproject on Los Llanos were correct or not.

Finally, on April 7, 2015, the Sixth District Judge complied with the aforementioned decision by ordering a land survey and asking both the plaintiffs and defendants to come to an agreement about which expert they wished to appoint to carry out the investigation. [As of April 20, 2015, the case remains unresolved.[3]]

Translated and adapted by Oso Sabio from a text written by Ricardo Lagunes (“attorney for the communal landowners of San Sebastian Bachajón”[4])

[1]http://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO::P12100_INSTRUMENT_ID:312314

[2] See https://ososabiouk.wordpress.com/2014/08/28/mexico-six-reasons-why-indigenous-communities-are-opposed-to-the-san-cristobal-palenque-motorway/

[3] For information on similar cases in Chiapas, seehttps://ososabiouk.wordpress.com/2014/09/05/mexico-indigenous-people-of-chiapas-oppose-megaprojects/

[4]http://www.eurasiareview.com/06042015-mexico-the-agua-azul-dispute/

Inhabitants of Los Llanos Obtain Investigation into Effects of Motorway

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The Agua Azul Dispute

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By Orsetta Bellani

From their vehicles, tourists stared in awe at the hooded Tzeltal indigenous people, who were sat on the edge of the road that leads to the Agua Azul waterfalls. Their machetes and facemasks were incongruous with the image of a quiet earthly paradise that is promoted by the state government of Chiapas.

The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) sympathizers from San Sebastián Bachajón were charging tolls and distributing flyers to the tourists. In a statement, they explained their Dec. 21, 2014 decision to retake control of the portion of their ejido (communally-owned land) where the toll booth for access to the waterfalls is located.

“The comisariado ejidal (the ejido administrative official) Alejandro Moreno Gómez does not provide information about the money that comes from paying at the entry or the gravel bank. We want to appoint someone else who can manage the resources that are ours,” explained an ejido member to Latinamerica Press.

On Jan. 9, the farmers were evicted by government order and then, while they were blocking the road, they were attacked by agents of the State Police who fired at them for about 20 minutes. Two people were injured.

In a further attempt to intimidate the residents, on Mar. 21, 600 troops of the public forces, which respond to the orders of Moreno Gómez, according to the ejido members, burned the ejido regional headquarters in San Juan Bajachón, built by the adherents to the EZLN Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle (2005) — a statement against the capitalism that “turns everything into merchandise, turns people, nature, culture, history, conscience into merchandise” — near the waterfalls.

“Is demonstrated again the policy of death and corruption of a bad government, its contempt for the people and human rights, because of his ambition on our territory to strip the land, water and everything that exists in our country to make money as if these are merchandise,” denounced the residents.

Attacks against common landowners

Few tourists know that Agua Azul, the location of the beautiful turquoise waterfalls amidst wild vegetation, is one of the most contentious areas of Chiapas. In 2008 the US tourism consulting firms EDSA and Norton Consulting recommended to government authorities to ensure that visitors feel safe and protected in the region.

“The Zapatista movement is still strongly associated with Chiapas,” wrote the consulting firms in a document on the development strategy for the construction of a luxury hotel in the area. “Chiapas is still considered unsafe by many who are not familiar with the region.”

Three years later, on Feb. 2, 2011, 17 tourists who were in Agua Azul had to leave the area by air. That day a pro-government shock troop attacked the Zapatista sympathizers who were managing the toll booth. Subsequently there was a clash that killed a member of the assault troops, Marcos Moreno García, while state and federal police, supported by army troops, arrested 117 sympathizers.

“We have no problems with the owners of the restaurants that are in the area that is part of the Tumbalá Municipality. But here, where the toll booth is, is our territory, and the money belongs to us,” stated Juan Vázquez Guzmán, leader of the supporters of the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle (2005) of San Sebastián Bachajón, on June 2012, to Latinamerica Press.

Less than a year later, Vázquez Guzmán, who was 32 years old and had two children, was murdered outside his home with six shots. A similar fate occurred to his friend Juan Carlos Gómez Silvano, who was shot 20 times in an ambush on Mar. 21, 2014.

Six months after the death of Gómez Silvano, three Bachajón ejido members were arrested and tortured with the charge of attempted murder of a uniformed officer, a charge based only on police officers’ testimony. “Their detention was revenge for having sought justice for our friend Juan Carlos,” denounced Domingo Pérez, spokesman for the Zapatista sympathizers of San Sebastián Bachajón, at a press conference in Sep. 2014.

What is disputed in Agua Azul is more than the control of the money charged for entering the area. Since 2000, the government has been planning to build a theme park on the banks of the waterfalls, which would be part of the Palenque-Agua Azul Waterfalls Integrally Planned Center (CIP), an infrastructure network planned as part of the Mesoamerica Project — the new name of former Puebla Panama Plan that promotes regional integration and development and coordinates the efforts and actions of the nine states that make up the Southeast region of Mexico, the seven countries of Central America, Colombia and the Dominican Republic — which the government hopes will transform Chiapas to a new Cancun.

Chiapas, the new Cancun?

According to former State Senator for the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) María Elena Orantes López, the CIP would generate revenues of US$6.8 billion per year. 30,000 jobs would be created for the indigenous communities in the area, but they would “not participate in management positions, but with their labor,” as Roberto Albores Gleason, the former Secretary of Tourism of Chiapas, stated in 2008.

The firms EDSA and Norton Consulting recommended the former governor of Chiapas Juan Sabines Guerrero — who ended his term in 2012 — to finalize the acquisition of the land adjacent to the waterfalls before attracting investments. The construction of the new electrical network that will support the project is already finished, foreseen in the 2007-2012 Institutional Program of the Chiapas Secretariat of Tourism. The plan included the relocation of indigenous communities from six municipalities in the area, opposed by the support bases of the EZLN and its sympathizers.

The CIP also plans other projects, such as the construction of a new international airport in the city of Palenque, which opened in February 2014, and a superhighway between this ancient Mayan city and San Cristóbal de Las Casas. The government says that the 105-miles highway will benefit all surrounding communities, although much of the population is against the project because of the environmental damage that it would cause and because the true purpose of the highway is to accelerate the plundering of Chiapas’s resources.

In 2009, the government was forced to suspend the highway construction plan due to popular opposition, particularly from the Mitzitón community, which was victim to the violence of the paramilitary group Army of God. After five years, in 2014, technicians came back to take measurements on land that is in the path of the alleged highway, and the villagers were summoned to meetings with government officials to discuss the highway. However, the superhighway and theme park projects in Agua Azul are an enigma; they appear and disappear from official documents.

“The government does not want to provide adequate information to the communities so they do not know the extent of the damages. It does not give details because it knows that it will have a very strong social opposition,” says Ricardo Lagunes, attorney for the communal landowners of San Sebastian Bachajón, to Latinamerica Press.

Last January the ejido members of Mitzitón, following the example of communal landowners of Los Llanos (Municipality of San Cristóbal de Las Casas), filed a precautionary measure to prevent the construction of the highway. Subsequently, the authorities denied their intention to build the highway. However, the 2014-2018 National Infrastructure Program estimates an investment of 10 billion pesos ($644 million) for the construction of the highway between San Cristóbal de Las Casas and Palenque, and 1.2 billion pesos ($82 million) for “CIP support projects.”

Latinamerica Press

http://www.eurasiareview.com/06042015-mexico-the-agua-azul-dispute/

 

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Mobilizations against the project of the Mega-Highway from San Cristóbal-Palenque

 

“It does not bring development for the original peoples. Only death, depression, division. Only money for the wealthy transnationals.”

(Meeting in ejido Los Llanos, San Cristobal de Las Casas, October 2014)

In November 2013, the Secretary of Government of Chiapas, Eduardo Aguilar Ramirez, affirmed that there would be“no going back” in the project to build a mega-highway that would go from San Cristobal de Las Casas to Palenque, two of the most important tourist centers in the state. In the time since this declaration, communities opposing the project decided to form the Movement for the Defence of Life and Territory. The project is part of the National Infrastructure Plan and was already part of the Plan Puebla Panama (2001-2007). There has been little official information so far. In November 2013, Ramirez Aguilar added that “the affected parties will be compensated, there is no other way. Some of them can get social benefits, improved housing, productive projects”. He also stressed that“when public utility works are constructed, as in this case, the government may expropriate and compensate, but we are favoring the route of politics and dialogue.”

Assembly in the ejido San Jerónimo Bachajón against the construction of the highway. Municipality of Chilón, August 2014
© SIPAZ

Although the final route has not yet been published, municipalities such as Huixtán, Tenejapa, Oxchuc, San Juan Cancuc, Ocosingo, Chilón, San Cristóbal and Palenque would be affected. According to Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization (ILO), concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, ratified by Mexico, indigenous peoples potentially affected by a project have the right to a free, prior and informed consultation. In this case, the indigenous population has not been integrated into the development of the project.

The definition of development for the peoples can be very different from the governmental or business concept. The peoples have specific needs, which in many cases, are far from the idea of entering the market for tourism or ecotourist projects. Furthermore, the construction of the highway will involve damage to the environment, crops and homes which line the road from San Cristóbal-Palenque.

We must appreciate that a state so rich in natural resources is of great interest to the business sector, which has had serious difficulties in accessing these resources due to the opposition and distrust of the peoples. In January 2014, the Secretary of the Government of Chiapas said that “we cannot bring investment if we do not have the highway infrastructure; the first thing the private sector asks, whether it is foreign or domestic, is whether there are good roads and highways, and in Chiapas we have very few roads and highways.”

So far in 2014, from gatherings and community assemblies, several facts have emerged which violate the peace of the peoples and have led to a growing opposition to the project. In January 2014, the ejidatarios of Los Llanos, in the municipality of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, filed an “amparo” (request for legal protection) against the project, and they stated that, in November 2013, a representative of the city council of San Cristóbal came to their community “to threaten that the highway would cross the common lands, and if the community objected, the authorities of the community would go to prison and they would bring the army to start the construction works.” Los Llanos and the community of San José El Porvenir, Huixtán reported that “we are (not necessarily) against the highway, but we will be if they take away our lands, which are of fundamental value for the life of our community”. At the same time, they denounced that the government “has not come to ask if we give permission or not, they are simply saying that the highway will pass through”. “They have offered us other lands in Rancho Nuevo, supposedly for us to relocate to, yet these lands are in dispute because they belong to Mitzitón. We do not accept them, because to do so would involve conflict with our indigenous brothers who own them,” the ejidatarios explained. “They have told us that the road will go ahead by force, whether or not we want it to. They are looking to buy the community leaders, they refuse them infrastructure projects, such as pavements,” they said.

Sign against the construction of the mega-highway between San Cristóbal de Las Casas and Palenque
© SIPAZ

 

In July 2014, more than 15,000 people marched in 10 municipalities in Chiapas against the highway project. In August, an extraordinary assembly was held in the ejido San Jerónimo Bachajón, municipality of Chilón, where some 1,800 ejidatarios rejected the construction of the highway. They denounced that the ejidal commissioner had been harassed and pressurized to sign the authorization for the mega-highway, and that his son was fired from his job at a state government office on the grounds that he could only return to his post once his father had accepted the project.

In Candelaria, in the municipality of San Cristóbal, the ejidal authorities explained that the city council summoned them to inform them of their intention that the road should run across their land and to ask them to sign a document approving the project. The delegate of the Government of Chiapas assured them that neighboring communities had already accepted. After the meeting, the ejidatarios went to visit several communities and found that “the other communities do not agree (with the project).” “We were not given information, they just tried to force us to sign, but we did not want to,” they declared.

In subsequent months, days of mobilization were held. In many communities signs and banners were placed. On September 17, there took place in Laguna Suyul, a sacred place in the Highlands of Chiapas, a ceremony and joint declaration from more than 2,000 people from 14 municipalities in opposition to the mega-highway. The final declaration stated that “we will defend the environment, the web and the veins of mother earth; rivers, lakes, springs, mountains, trees, caves, hills. We will defend the lives of animals, sacred places, the ecosystem of mother nature and human life.” It was agreed: total rejection of the construction of the mega-highway; to make a plan of resistance (including pilgrimages, occupations and mobilizations); to send letters to embassies, organizations that care for the environment and to the authorities.

The mega-highway is one more example in Mexico and Latin America, of where business interests collide with indigenous peoples who understand “development” as respect for “life”.

 SIPAZ Report Vol. XIX Nº 4 – November 2014

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March in Chiapas against the San Cristobal-Palenque highway

 

By Elio Henríquez, correspondent

Mar, 25 November 2014

March in San Cristóbal in support of the missing normalistas, against the construction of the San Cristobal-Palenque highway and against violence.

 

San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas. Thousands of Catholics marched simultaneously in 12 municipalities of Chiapas to demonstrate against the megaproject of the San Cristóbal -Palenque highway; to demand justice for the disappeared of Ayotzinapa, and against violence and alcoholism.

In a communiqué they said that one of the megaprojects which they are against is the San Cristóbal-Palenque highway which the federal government plans to build with an investment of over 10 billion pesos.

“All the communities and municipalities that this project wants to pass through live in extreme poverty and it is a mockery to say that the superhighway will improve our lives. If the federal and state governments really want, as they say, to benefit the communities in poverty we ask that they use the billions of pesos for that project to complete the 40 hospitals and clinics that corruption has left unfinished for the last six years, and pave the hundreds of rural roads which are in poor condition so we can take out our sick and our merchandise,” they said.

In addition, they added, “let them build the intercultural university centres which we do not have, and truly activate the local economies and not just give alms through their welfare programmes which they give out for electoral purposes and to gain control”.

They added that “during the last few months we have consulted with our community as to whether or not they want the superhighway from San Cristobal-Palenque to be built, and their answer is no because it will destroy Mother Nature; that it will bring other customs and traditions, it will increase alcoholism and drug sales and it will not benefit the vast majority of poor people, just large companies, business people and perhaps some traders”.

According to members of the Movement in Defence of Life and Territory and the Believing People of the Diocese of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, the marches began at 9 am in the municipalities of Tumbalá, San Cristóbal, Ocosingo, Oxchuc, Yajalón, Huixtán, Cancuc, Tenejapa, Salto de Agua, Altamirano, Chilón and Frontera Comalapa.

According to preliminary data over three thousand people marched in this city; seven thousand in Ocosingo; 10,000 in Chilón; a thousand in Oxchuc, and 800 in Tenejapa.

In this city the demonstration began in the west of the city, and half way the attendees made a stop at the height of the White Bridge – located ten blocks from the centre of San Cristóbal -, for a prayer, in order “to apologize to mother earth and water because we are destroying them with pollution; they are very soiled and hurt “.

The elders and leaders of some communities who led the traditional prayer said “we do not want death, we are in favour of life and so we reject the superhighway”.

With religious music, with flowers and banners, the Catholics continued their march to the Cathedral Square, where they concluded the march, chanting: “It looks and feels as if Tatik Samuel (Ruiz García) is present”, “Long live the mother earth” and “no to alcoholism because it damages the body.”

Dorset Chiapas Solidarity

http://www.jornada.unam.mx/ultimas/2014/11/25/marchan-en-chiapas-contra-megaproyecto-de-la-autopista-san-cristobal-palenque-1511.html

 

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Movement in Defence of Life and Territory calls a Press Conference

 

 

In defence of life, in Suyul

November 20, 2014

Press Conference

We send a fraternal greeting to all the brothers and sisters from the media who are in solidarity.

In these days of sorrow and outrage that we Mexicans are experiencing, along with the whole world, we see the need to further strengthen hope in an organized and peaceful manner; for this reason, we invite you to join us at a press conference we will give in the Curia of the Diocese of San Cristobal de Las Casas on Saturday November 22 at 12 noon to make you aware and to inform you about the peaceful demonstrations and pilgrimages, which as Believing Peoples we will undertake on Tuesday November 25 in the parishes of:

Tumbalá, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Yajalón, Huixtán, Cancúc, Tenejapa, Oxchuc, Ocosingo, Altamirano, Salto de Agua, pueblo de Bachajón and Frontera Comalapa.

 

To mark the “International Day against Violence and Exploitation towards women” and to continue raising our voice against: the San Cristobal-Palenque superhighway, the sale of alcoholic beverages, drugs, prostitution and against the clear corruption and inability of the authorities to solve these great problems.

We also make the pilgrimage in solidarity with the families of the dead and missing young people of Ayotzinapa in Iguala, Guerrero; with our brothers and sisters of the Parish of Simojovel and with the victims of Acteal to whom, almost 20 years after the massacre, the government has not done justice.

That is all for now, thank you for your noble and dangerous work of bearing the truth, we embrace you with open arms.

Sincerely

THE MOVEMENT IN DEFENCE OF LIFE AND TERRITORY

BELIEVING PEOPLE OF THE PARISHES:

Candelaria, Huixtán, Tumbalá, Cancúc, Tenejapa, Oxchuc,

Ocosingo, Altamirano, Bachajón-Chilón, Yajalón, Salto de Agua and Frontera Comalapa

 

DIOCESE OF SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, CHIAPAS

http://chiapasdenuncia.blogspot.mx/2014/11/movimiento-en-defensa-de-la-vida-y-el.html

Dorset Chiapas Solidarity

 

 

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Words from San Sebastián Bachajón during the gathering celebrating “522 years of indigenous resistance to the European invasion,”

 

Words from San Sebastián Bachajón during the gathering celebrating “522 years of indigenous resistance to the European invasion,” Ejido Los Llanos, 12^th October, 2014

From the “Day of Race” to the Day Of Resistance: The Harm Caused by the Road from San Cristobal to Palenque. By: Aldabi Olvera

http://www.masde131.com/2014/10/de-la-raza-a-la-resistencia-los-perjuicios-de-la-carretera-san-cristobal-palenque/

 

 

Through the voice of the indigenous Tzeltal and Tzotzil communities, original peoples of Chiapas, the demand to stop the federal project resonates in the Highlands of Chiapas through narratives that describe the harassment and pressure from the government, despite the lands being reclaimed during the Zapatista uprising.

12^th October, “Columbus Day”: the commemoration of the “discovery of America”, when 522 years ago sailors arrived from Europe. The discovery turned out to be nothing more than the imposition of a system for the “new” continent.

Since then, dispossessed, persecuted and cornered in the forests and mountains, the indigenous lost part of their lands.

In Mexico, on the first of January 1994, only two years after the five hundredth anniversary of the “Day of the Race”, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) rose up in arms and took back what are now known as the recuperated territories, stolen by the might of the local caciques.

Twenty years after the Zapatista uprising, these same lands are being targeted by entrepreneurs who are looking to build a road…

[…..]

 

 

Domingo Pérez, indigenous Tzeltal from San Sebastián Bachajón, speaks while his compañeros hold up a banner behind him which says: Juan Vázquez Guzmán lives, the Bachajón struggle continues.

“We thank you for the opportunity to talk and to speak, and to share with you our experience of struggle and resistance. We are adherents to the Sixth (Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle). We have been in struggle for about eight years and the root of the organization (community) is that the ejido is made up of common lands, the ejidal authorities were only one and they sold out to the bad government and then the bad government with the political parties divided the ejido.”

He relates:

“Many more years ago in San Sebastián Bachajón there is a place called the waterfalls of Agua Azul, part of it belongs to the ejido and the other part to Tumbalá. Since 1980 there has been a nature reserve, but Conagua altered the co-ordinates marked on the previous plan and which affects our territory, they are planning to build hotels, golf courses and others for the benefit of the bad government and big businesses, other countries and transnationals, but the government says it is development for the communities, which is a lie.”

On 24 April, 2013, Juan Vázquez Guzmán, a member of the organization, was murdered. On 21 March, 2014, Juan Carlos Gómez was murdered. On 15 September Juan Antonio Gómez Silvano, Mario Aguilar Silvano, Roberto Gómez Hernández, also from Bachajón were arrested accused of the attempted murder of police from the municipality of Chilón.

The banner shines behind him, there are the adherents with a star around an indigenous face: “Juan Vázquez Guzmán lives, the Bachajón struggle continues.”

“The super highway does not benefit us compañeros, and the bad government goes straight to the Commissioner without consulting with the people and assembly and went to the Ejido of Salto de Agua to sign an agreement to give passage to the super highway but not with the consent of the people.”

192 of the 206 communities of the neighbouring ejido of San Jerónimo Bachajón also declared themselves against the Highway. This decision was taken at a community assembly of nearly two thousand people in the town of Guadalupe Paxilá, on August 30, 2014.

“San Sebastián has three centres of population and 208 communities and the three centres do not know it. A few made ​​this agreement, selling out to the bad government but we are against it because it destroys our resources. There are big mountains, rivers, waterfalls. There are compañeros whose land with their coffee plantations and crops it will cross, and we will not allow it to affect seven municipalities from San Cristobal to Palenque.”

“The government has been doing it with the death of two compañeros and with the imprisonment, but we will keep fighting, as we already said the land is not for sale, it is defended. We are people of corn, we are of the earth. We eat from her and will not allow the highway to pass. As we say in our community, not one step to the super highway.”

 

 

 

 

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