Photo @ APIITDTT
On 29 March there was held the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) in the community of Álvaro Obregón, Juchitán de Zaragoza municipality, where the primary theme for discussion was the organization of communities to resist wind-energy projects in the Tehuantepec Isthmus. National and international organizations and persons from the states of Oaxaca, Chiapas, Veracruz, and Mexico City were received by the communal council, the council of the elderly, and the communal police of Álvaro Obregón, “who continue stronger than ever despite the constant harassment we have suffered in recent months at the hands of the municipal and state governments, as well as due to the leaders of the COCEI-PRD-PT and the PRI of Juchitán,” as the closing statement notes.
During the meeting there was a discussion of challenges and commitments: “New constitutional reforms are coming in terms of agrarian matters, and there will be other laws to prohibit protests and social mobilizations. They threaten us, they imprison us, they repress us […]. We commit ourselves to struggle for the strengthening of our autonomy as indigenous peoples, campesinos, and mestiz@s […]. We commit ourselves to the struggle of our grandfather, comrade Ta’ Pedro Martínez Guerra, a communard from Juchitán, to recover his lands which find themselves being invaded by the Fenosa Natural Gas firm.”
Participants also made reference to other projects they are resisting, such as “the invasion and extraction of minerals for construction on the mountain of Santa Cruz Igú, a sacred site, historical and communal, that is part of the communal goods of Juchitán, and we pronounce ourselves against the construction of the mining project in Ixtepec, which will have strong negative consequences in terms of health, environment, and the way of life our all our communities.”
For more information (in Spanish):
Pronunciamiento del Congreso Nacional Indígena CNI – Istmo (Asamblea de los Pueblos Indígenas del Istmo de Tehuantepec en Defensa de la Tierra y el Territorio – APIITDTT, 31 de marzo de 2014)
Rechazo a proyectos eólicos, tema central en congreso de comunidades del istmo (La Jornada, 29 de marzo de 2014)
El paso de la resistencia a la autonomía en el Istmo de Tehuantepec(Desinformémonos, 31 de marzo de 2014)
Nuevo ataque de las eólicas en Oaxaca (Desinformémonos, marzo de 2014)
For more information from SIPAZ (in English):
Oaxaca: Members of the communal police of Álvaro Obregón detained (30 March 2014)
Oaxaca: Denunciation of new attacks in Álvaro Obregón and organizational call for National Indigenous Congress in the Isthmus Region (28 March 2014)
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)
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