Statement regarding of the Attack on the "Caravan for Life" of the CIG in Michoacan, Mexico

Congreso Nacional Indigena

Comunicado sobre las agresiones a la caravana del CIG

January 21, 2018

Mexico City

The Indigenous Governing Council (CIG) Mexico and the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) denounced that a group of journalists covering the route of their spokesperson MariChuy, were intercepted and cornered by members of organized crime in Michoacán, who forced the journalists to turn over their cameras and cell phones. The networks of Indigenous Peoples blamed the attack "on the three levels of government: the federal government represented by Enrique Peña Nieto; the state represented by Silvano Aureoles Conejo, and the municipal authorities".

The Indigenous Governing Council CIG, a collegial body composed of representatives of the Indigenous Peoples of the country who last October toured the territories of indigenous communities, also blamed the government "for the possible aggressions that the communities and peoples of the CNI may suffer, the CIG Caravan , and journalists who give coverage to their walk, because during the tour of the communities of the Indigenous Peoples we have shuddered to hear the pain caused by organized crime in collusion with the bad government.

The attack on the journalists occurred when the caravan left a ceremony held in the Nahua community of Ostula and "went to Paracho, having just left the limits of the municipality of Tepalcatepec, outside the territory under the protection of the Communal Guard of Ostula and the self-defense groups that articulate with her." The last vehicle of the caravan, in which the independent journalists Daliri Oropeza, Aldabi Olvera and Cristian Rodríguez traveled, who, the CIG informs, have covered from the beginning the route of the CIG and its spokesperson, "was intercepted and cornered by a gray van HONDA CR-V, in which five subjects carrying high-caliber weapons were traveling. These men forced the companions Aldabi Olvera and Cristian Rodríguez to descend, threatened them and forced them to deliver their cameras and cell phones only. "

The IGC and the CNI recognized the work of independent journalists, particularly those who accompany the caravan, "since they have been fundamental to make our journey and our pains visible". They warned that "exercising journalism in Mexico is a high-risk job", since 40 journalists have been murdered in the administration of Enrique Peña Nieto. "As Indigenous National Congress, we are outraged by this war against the word, a fundamental tool for the organization of peoples. We sympathize with the compañeras who carry out their work and defend freedom of expression and the press," they said in a statement released this morning.

The community of Ostula, located on the Pacific coast of Michoacán, where MariChuy and the CIG held a political event on Sunday morning, has been organized precisely to stop the wave of organized crime, which plundered the precious woods and minerals within the Indigenous territory. "During the festive and multitudinous meeting, we realized that Ostula is a free, safe community, where the community police take care of the people, growing resistance against the system o of capitalist dispossession," said the CNI and the IGC.

Next Wednesday, January 24, the spokesperson MariChuy will be back in Mexico City, attending a public activity in the Hemicycle to Juarez, at 6:00 p.m.

The recent attack, they said, was carried out "in a territory controlled by organized crime, in the context of a generalized capitalist war in the state of Michoacán and in several states of the national territory in complicity with the bad government. We know that the intention of organized crime in collusion with the government is to create a climate of fear and terror. "