Between 28 February and 1 March, there was held in the Isthmus community of San Francisco del Mar, Oaxaca, the Regional Forum in Defense of Land and Territory, We Struggle against the Caciques.
Various representatives of the people, assemblies, collectives, organizations, and municipal and communal authorities participated in the event, denouncing and raising different cases of rights-violations, such as those which have to do with the acts of transnational firms engaged in the wind-energy megaprojects that have been developed in the Isthmus region. “We have met to exchange the words of our brothers and sisters who defend the land and their rights amidst the invasion we suffer on the daily due to the large firms from other places of the world and their accomplices from the bad governments.”
In the final manifesto final of the forum, “Declaration of San Francisco del Mar,” participants made a call to defend the land and the rights of communities: “We in this act say that we will continue together to defend the rights of our peoples.”
In this way, participants expressed their total rejection of the Energy Reform advanced by the government of Enrique Peña Nieto, which is “only a means of privatizing the resources that are the property of our nation, to benefit foreign firms; this reform signifies greater looting and violence for the indigenous peoples of Mexico and the Isthmus.” They demand respect for the right to free, prior, and informed consent and consultation.
For more information (in Spanish):
Manifiesto del Foro Regional En Defensa de Nuestra Tierra y Territorio(Proyecto Ambulante, 4 de marzo de 2014)
En el Istmo se prepara “nueva ofensiva de las empresas” (Educa, 4 de marzo de 2014)
For more information from SIPAZ (in English):
Oaxaca: Opponents to wind-energy parks threatened with death in the Isthmus (2 March 2014)
Oaxaca: Denunciation of harassment and death-threats against human-rights defenders in the Tehuantepec Isthmus (9 December 2013)
Oaxaca: The Popular Assembly of the Juchiteco People denounces attack on wind-energy camp (26 October 2013)
Oaxaca: Death by gunfire of opponent to wind-energy projected promoted by multinational Fenosa Natural Gas (20 August 2013)
Oaxaca: “The Isthmus at the Crossroads” Seminar (20 August 2013)
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