UN Special Rapporteur: Mexico is a colonial state

A growing climate of violence and impunity in Mexico

Fernando Camacho Servin

La Jornada

Sunday December 19, 2017 p. 10

No different from the colonial system, says UN rapporteur: Indigenous peoples face an economic model based on dispossession

The indigenous peoples in Mexico and in other parts of the world face an economic model based on the dispossession and forced occupation of their territories, with the objective that their natural resources serve as a basis for a development model that does not benefit them, which is not very different from the colonial system that existed two or three centuries ago.

So stated the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, who stressed that although the scheme is practically the same on a global scale, the indigenous communities of Mexico face a climate of violence and impunity even greater than that which exists in other regions.

After concluding her visit to Mexico, from November 8 to 17, in which she toured the states of Chiapas, Guerrero and Chihuahua, the consultant and activist of indigenous Filipino origin spoke with La Jornada about her findings and concerns, as well as about the way in which she believes that governments can repay the historical debt they have with the original communities.

-How do megaprojects affect Indigenous Peoples?

"The indigenous communities are rich in natural resources, such as forests, minerals or biodiversity, and governments see these resources as the basis of national economic development. So they go to the communities and extract what is there, but they do not help people to live in the way that seems right to them. They only leave the environmental destruction generated by the mines and the extraction of gas and oil, but without rehabilitating their lands and waters.

Of course, indigenous peoples want at least to be consulted and there must be a negotiation. Yet when they resist, that is where the violence occurs, because the military or the security guards of the companies treat them in the worst way and even displace them from their lands without receiving compensation or a decent place where they can be relocated.

If the authorities would listen, they would know that indigenous peoples are not against development, they just want to make sure that development brings them benefits, that they can protect their lands and territories, and continue to practice their traditional cultures."

- How would you describe what happens in Mexico, compared to what happens in other countries?

"In many ways, what happens here is similar to what happens in many countries that I have visited, in terms of the situation of Indigenous Peoples. What is quite unique are the high levels of impunity, as in the cases of massacres of which I have heard and which occur very frequently. That's something I have not seen in other countries.

The government admits that there are between 98 and 99 percent impunity, which tells me that the issue of impunity in Mexico disproportionately affects the Indigenous Peoples, because it is they who defend their lands and oppose the projects that the government considers priorities; so it is logical to conclude that it is they who are being imprisoned and criminalized."

-Do the Indigenous Peoples continue to face schemes of colonialism?

"Clearly! The Pueblos Originarios of Mexico continue to face a lot of the colonial system because the thinking of the people who are in power is only to extract their resources, occupy their lands and get everything they can from them, and this is a form of internal colonialism, if not external."

- So is it basically the same as what happened two or three centuries ago?

"Yes, basically I think so, because the colonizers who wanted to extract everything and get rich are the same as the present elites, the rich who do business in the private sector, extract what they can from the communities without their consent and give nothing in return."

- What do you think about the difference between what is stated in the laws in Mexico and their application in reality?

"Mexico was international leader for the approval of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and that is very good, but the fact that this is not reflected in the country is worrisome. There should be a special law that recognizes indigenous people as subjects of public law.

-How should the historical debt to the Indigenous Peoples be repaid?

"First of all, there must be acceptance that there is in reality a historical debt, and that acceptance may come in the form of an apology, an acknowledgment of the wrongs that have been committed, so that then there may be a dialogue with the Indigenous Peoples. It must be accepted that the current development model is the root of the conflicts, because the inequity of resources, power and wealth which prevails in many countries and this has to be confronted, even if that means less wealth and power for those who have always possessed them."

TRANSLATION: TONATIERRA
 

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End of mission Statement by the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples on her mission to Mexico

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 Letter from Emiliano Zapata to Woodrow Wilson,
President of the United Sates
General Headquarters of Yautepec, Morelos

August 23, 1914

In this manner, aided by the complicity of the courts and even worse acts of the sort, such as false imprisonment or forced consignment into the military, the small landholders are robbed, and the great land barons have become sole owners of the entire country.  The Indigenous Peoples now disposed of their lands, have been forced to work on plantations for low wages and are forced to endure the extreme mistreatment of the landowners and their stewards or overseers, many of whom, being Spanish or the children of Spanish parents, consider that they are entitled to conduct themselves as if they live at the time of Hernán Cortés, in other words as if they were still the conquerors and masters, and that we the "peons" were mere slaves, subject to the brutal law of conquest.