The sit-in blocks the modernization works of the railway that intends to connect with the Mayan Train and with an entire railway network that would connect Canada, the United States and Mexico. For defending their territory they have faced criminalization, repression and a strong smear campaign by the Federal government for hindering one of the flagship projects of the AMLO government and that in 2019 presented this megaproject through a letter to Donald Trump to attract investment and American support.
In addition to the formal attacks by the government’s armed forces, the military, the National Guard, and the Navy have also had to resist the criminal violence of drug trafficking groups. They denounced the repressive actions committed by the criminal group headed by Tacho Canasta against of community members of Santa Cruz Tagolaba and the repression against activists and local authorities of Ixhuatan. This is part of a strategy that is used throughout the country to dismantle territorial defense.
Given this, the need to weave networks of solidarity, national and international support in the defense of nature, to the communities that defend it and to confront the state discourse, position the word of the peoples claiming their self-determination, was emphasized.
The land belongs to those who work it, to those who defend it, to those who inhabit it, to those who step on it, to those who love it and to those who defend it. That is why international rights recognize the right of the Original Peoples to free self-determination, and this right implies deciding what to do in the territories they inhabit.
Comrade Carlos Beas recalled how the trans-isthmic train emerged, in 1899, the military dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz handed over the concession for the project to the English company Pearsons and Son Co, the railway was inaugurated in 1907, the project lost importance when the Panama Canal initiated it’s operation. However, this interventionist project and neoliberal model was projected again for its implementation in different administrations such as Salinas and Fox. It should be noted that Carlos Beas has been the target of threats by organized crime groups, which harass communal authorities and community members involved in the community organizing process.
The López Obrador train project poses a macro-regional dispossession; it is just building the railways, there is a whole plan to dispossess the Isthmus area: gas and oil pipelines, refineries, maquiladoras, mines and 10 industrial parks. López Obrador is managing to materialize the greatest dream of all neoliberals, and the Original Peoples, like the 32 towns that make up the northern area of the Isthmus, have been his greatest nightmare.
“From June 2019 to March 2023, we have counted around 69 mobilization of towns to prevent the work from advancing and damage to these projects. On February 3, 2023, 3 communities were mobilized together; Palomares, movilización, palomares, y sabirera. The Navy was present at the three mobilizations trying to intimidate, that is the response of the 4t to our demands.”
The complaint by the UCIZONI comrades continued to mention the consultations in a manner and the refusal to provide information: the people detailed how the federal authorities have not provided sufficient information about the project, nor the sample of environmental impact, nor is there information in Mixe or Zoque, the most spoken languages by the inhabitants.
The division of communities through selective government projects and handouts: the inhabitants of this region mentioned the Sembrando Vida project and other programs of the 4T that creates a patronage relationship between some inhabitants and the federal and state governments in other areas of the Isthmus. The situation is repeated in the eastern part of the region, where two murders of activists and community defenders are identified. The villagers also detail that people from the federal and state governments have pressured traditional authorities of the ejidos to accept large sums of money in exchange for ceding land rights; The sums have risen to one million pesos, a figure that is insignificant for companies. The investment that López Obrador announced in 2018 for the Isthmus of Tehuantepec Development Plan alone was 8 billion pesos. However, the question is: Where do those 8 billion pesos go? Where are the billions of pesos used for other projects such as wind farms and gas pipelines?
At the end of the sharing, a march was made from the sit-in to the highway to resume the march of the caravan and continue towards Veracruz.
During the day, they commemorated the life and struggle of Betty Cariño and Jyri Yaakkola, who were killed on April 27, 13 years ago, in a caravan in support of the autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala, Oaxaca. The political organization MULT ambushed the caravan and has displaced and killed in the Triqui region for many years in order to secure political control as well as the municipal budget. The four probable perpetrators were released through a pact between that organization and the Mexican government. So, justice for Betty and Jyri is demanded 13 years after this terrible date.
