Chiapas: Third Forum for the Defense and Care of Mother Earth in Chicomuselo

(@Koman Ilel)

From 10 to 12 November, in the Chicomuselo municipality, different activities were organized to protest mineral exploitation and to organize in defense of life.  At the end of a march held on 10 November, Chicomuselo was declared a “municipality free of mining.”  On 12 November, the Third Forum for the Defense and Care of Mother Earth took place, with the participation of 3,500 persons.

At the close of the event, participants declared their opposition to mineral exploration and exploitation operations, as well as wind-energy plants, natural gas ducts, hydroelectric dams, and superhighways sought to be imposed on their lands.  They noted that the structural reforms advanced by the federal government “in no way benefit the campesino and indigenous peoples of our country but instead seek to facilitate once again the looting of our common goods and to impoverish us evermore with policies that would have us depend on the large firms of the country, as well as transnationals.”  They affirmed that they would continue to resist the government “and its predatory policies,” and they called on Mexican society to unite to the cause against megaprojects, to educate itself, and to act “amidst a system that oppresses, imposes, and violates human rights.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Declaran a Chicomuselo territorio libre de minería (Chiapas Paralelo, 10 de noviembre de 2014)

Chicomuselo, libre de explotación minera (Koman Ilel, incluyendo materiales audiovisuales y declaración final, 11 de noviembre de 2014)

“Megaproyectos despojan y saquean a la Nación”, denuncian comunidades campesinas e indígenas (Sididh, 12 de noviembre de 2014)

Acuerdan ejidatarios que Sierra Madre de Chiapas estará libre de minería(Chiapas Paralelo, 13 de noviembre de 2014)

A 5 años del asesinato de Mariano Abarca por su resistencia contra la minera Blackfire, demandamos justicia (Movimiento Mesoamericano contra el Modelo Extractivo Minero, 12 de noviembre de 2014)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: Denunciation of renewal of mining activities in Chicomuselo (21 August 2013)

Chiapas: Self-defense brigades against looting by mining corporations (5 March 2013)

Chiapas: two thousand march at the close of the “Chiapan Meeting of Unity against the Extractive Mining Model” in Frontera Comalapa (7 December 2012)

Chiapas: Second Forum “For the Defense of Our Mother Earth and Land; Yes to Life, No to Mining Devastation” (21 September 2012)

Mexico: “Mined land, the defense of the rights of communities and of the environment” (14 December 2011)