TONATIERRA
Community Development Institute
PO Box 24009
Phoenix, AZ 85074
www.tonatierra.org
January 26, 2018
Sr. Presidente Enrique Peña Nieto, Mexico
Residencia Oficial de los Pinos
Casa Miguel Alemán
Col. San Miguel Chapultepec,
C.P. 11850 Ciudad de México
Fax: (+52) 55 5093 4901
Correo: enrique.penanieto@presidencia.gob.mx
Twitter: @PresidenciaMX
Members of Congress of the Union, Senators
and Representatives - Mexico
Señor Presidente:
It is with growing concern with which we hear
of developments in Mexico that give testimony to the degradation of the Territorial Rights and Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples of the country.
We are aware that ever since the adoption of the principle of “Original Property of the Nation” in the
Mexican Constitution of 1917 that the
“nefarious” principles of the Doctrine
of Discovery and the Papal Bulls of Pope
Alexander VI “Inter Caetera” have
served to legitimize the usurpation of the territorial rights of the Indigenous Peoples of Mexico under the
cultural, political, economic, and legal superstructures of the Spanish
invaders who brutally attempted to dominate and colonize Mexico directly for
300 years, until independence in 1821.
As Emiliano Zapata stated in his letter to US
President Woodrow Wilson in 1914:
“So
it is that the landowners, by dispossession upon dispossession, today with this
pretext, tomorrow with another, have been absorbing all properties that
rightfully belong to and from time
immemorial have belonged to the Indigenous
Peoples, lands from whose livelihood and culture the Indigenous Peoples
have drawn sustenance for themselves and their families.
To
realize this extortion, the land barons have used legislation which has been
elaborated under their influence that has allowed them to take over vast tracts
of land, with the pretext that these lands are idle, or not protected by
legally correct titles.
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.”
Señor Presidente,
The same principles of the Doctrine of Discovery of Christendom
were established as fundamental to the jurisprudence of the US legal system in
the US Supreme Court decision Johnson
v. M’Intosh in 1823, the same year in which the Monroe Doctrine was proclaimed.
It is the Monroe Doctrine, which basically extrapolates the Doctrine of
Discovery of Christendom to assign to the economic and military command
structure of the North American corporate empire headquartered in Washington,
DC the same rights of geopolitical domination in this continent that previously
was assigned to the Royal Families of
Europe under the Doctrine of
Discovery. By 1845, the Doctrine of Discovery had morphed and merged with
the pathology of Anglo-American “White
Supremacy” into the Doctrine of
Manifest Destiny, and the war on the nascent Republic of Mexico was given a
racist ideology of justification.
In the case of Canada, the original version of the Doctrine of Discovery remains intact and undisturbed, set in policy
and law derived from the Royal
Proclamation of 1763 by the Crown of
England under which still until today the government of Canada purports to
claim jurisdiction over the Original
Nations of that northern region of the territories of the Great Turtle Island Abya Yala
[Americas].
The Royal Proclamation of 1763 is
contextualized historically by the Treaty
of Paris 1763 between the of Great Britain, France, Spain, and Portugal
which set the framework for territorial relations among the emerging North American Settler States (including Canada) as derivative polities
of the colonial Doctrine of
Discovery.
Colonization was proclaimed as a violation of
International law by UN General Assembly
Resolution 1514 (1960) which states: “All Peoples have the Right to Self
Determination”.
In 2007, barely ten years ago, with the
proclamation of the United Nations
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples the internationally
recognized right of Self Determination was affirmed as Equally Inherent to the Universal
Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples,
by the acknowledgment of the principle of equality: “Indigenous Peoples, equal to
all other peoples….”
We bring these points forward in order to
clarify the historical and legal context of the issues in conflict between the Original Nations of Indigenous Peoples and the American States who claim status
internationally on this continent based upon being successor states to the legaloid
principles of the Doctrine of Discovery,
particularly in the present context of the secret
negotiations now taking place between the Canada-US-Mexico in terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement
(1994).
In 2010, the United Nations Permanent Forum
on Indigenous Issues, presented a preliminary
study on this issue:
“This preliminary study establishes that the
Doctrine of Discovery has been institutionalized in law and policy, on national
and international levels, and lies at the root
of the violations of Indigenous Peoples’
human rights, both individual and collective. This has resulted in State
claims to and the mass appropriation of the lands, territories and resources of
indigenous peoples. Both the Doctrine of Discovery and a holistic structure
that we term the Framework of Dominance
have resulted in centuries of virtually unlimited resource extraction from the
traditional territories of indigenous peoples. This, in turn, has resulted in
the dispossession and impoverishment of indigenous peoples, and the host of
problems that they face today on a daily basis.
The United
Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (General Assembly
resolution 61/295, annex) is the product of efforts spanning three decades. The
Declaration addresses human rights grievances and other concerns that
indigenous peoples’ representatives have brought to the international arena
since the early 1900s, during the days of the League of Nations. The adoption
of the Declaration presents the opportunity to clearly identify what lies at
the root of those grievances and concerns, namely, the historic tendency of
State actors to assert a sovereign dominant authority over indigenous peoples,
based on claims to and assertions of ultimate or superior title to indigenous
peoples’ lands, territories and resources. This paper demonstrates that the
Doctrine of Discovery lies at the root of such claims and assertions of
dominance by States.
*******
Lamenting the enduring manifestations of the
“Doctrine of Discovery” and other morally condemnable, socially unjust and
racist policies used for centuries by colonizers as legal justification to
disenfranchise indigenous peoples and seize their lands, the Permanent Forum on
Indigenous Issues today urged the rejection
of such “nefarious” dogmas, and
encouraged measures that would redefine relations between native and aboriginal
peoples and the State based on justice.”
Subsequently, in 2012 during its eleventh
session, the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues made the following recommendations:
“1. The
Permanent Forum recalls the fourth preambular paragraph of the United Nations
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which affirms that all
doctrines, policies and practices based on or advocating superiority of peoples
or individuals on the basis of national origin or racial, religious, ethnic or
cultural differences are racist, scientifically false, legally invalid, morally condemnable and socially unjust. Legal and
political justification for the dispossession of indigenous peoples from their
lands, their disenfranchisement and the abrogation of their rights such as the
doctrine of discovery, the doctrine of domination, “conquest”, “discovery”, terra nullius or the Regalian doctrine
were adopted by colonizers throughout the world. While these nefarious
doctrines were promoted as the authority for the acquisition of the lands and
territories of indigenous peoples, there were broader assumptions implicit in
the doctrines, which became the basis for the assertion of authority and
control over the lives of indigenous peoples and their lands, territories and
resources. Indigenous peoples were constructed as “savages”, “barbarians”,
“backward” and “inferior and uncivilized” by the colonizers who used such
constructs to subjugate, dominate and exploit indigenous peoples and their
lands, territories and resources.
2. The ongoing manifestations of such
doctrines are evident in indigenous communities, including in the areas of:
health; psychological and social well-being; denial of rights and titles to
land, resources and medicines; conceptual and behavioural forms of violence
against indigenous women; youth suicide; and the hopelessness that many
indigenous peoples experience, in particular indigenous youth.
3. Another
ongoing manifestation of dispossession
doctrines is the concept of extinguishment,
found in the regulations, policies and court decisions in which States have
purportedly “extinguished” the rights of indigenous peoples to their lands,
territories and resources, their right to self-determination, their languages,
religions and even their identities and existence through the notion of “recognition”, that is by recognizing
some and not recognizing others as indigenous. “Extinguishment”, in the context
of indigenous peoples’ rights to lands, territories and resources is
inconsistent with the contemporary understanding in international law,
specifically the peremptory norm of the absolute prohibition against racial
discrimination. No other peoples in the world are pressured to have their
rights “extinguished”.”
Sr. Presidente,
In January of 1994 the Indigenous Peoples Alliance realized an International Solidarity Delegation to Chiapas, Mexico and produced
a report which included a letter to then president Salinas de Gotari. One specific concern in this letter of
January 4, 1994 by TONATIERRA to the
President of the Mexican Republic stated:
“It must be mentioned as well that the
proposals for a NAFTA trade corridor that would traverse the territories of the
Tohono O’odham Nation in the region
of Sonora/Arizona were never submitted for consideration by the Tohono O’odham
Peoples who would be most affected.
We take this opportunity to express our
concern regarding the unilateral action which you have taken regarding the
recognition of indigenous codices as valid documentation for the protection of
aboriginal land titles in Mexico. It is
our understanding that under the law of
agrarian reform, these indigenous documents were admitted as valid and enforceable until your office issued a presidential decree in 1992
unilaterally abrogating this indigenous land right to primordial titles. This development cannot but be seen as
another deliberate effort to undermine the land base of the aboriginal sovereignties
of Mexico, and an element of the instability in Chiapas.”
The unilateral abrogation, denial, and
violation of the Inherent Human Rights
of the Indigenous Peoples of Mexico
by the executive actions of president Gotari in 1992, are violations in
particular of the collective territorial
rights of Indigenous Peoples based upon our responsibilities as Original Nations, defenders of the Territorial Integrity of Mother Earth.
This was the case in 1992, it was the case in
1492. It was the case in 1994, when the North
American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) came into effect, but as of September
13, 2007 with the adoption of the United
Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the continuation
of these policies and practices must be denounced internationally as violations
of the modern principles and standards of International Law.
The unilateral acts of executive action of
Mexican president Salinas de Gotari in 1992, were yet another extension of the
cruel regimes of expropriation and exploitation of the territories, natural resources,
and labor of the Indigenous Peoples
of Mexico that began in with the Doctrine of Discovery of 1492, which were denounced
by Emiliano Zapata in his letter to
President Wilson in 1914. Extended over
the centuries via the Requirement (1513),
the Viceroyalties of New Spain, the Enconmiendas, the Haciendas, the Reductions,
the Land Grants to the Catholic Church
by the Crown of Spain, by 1994 the time had come to “modernize”.
Thus, the North American Free Trade Agreement
NAFTA, and then the attempt to extend the neoliberal policies of NAFTA
continentally via the failed Free Trade
Agreement of the Americas (FTAA).
But “modernization” is the still the theme of the day according to the Trumpiavellian
politics of the present government in Washington.
Just as Salinas de Gotari did in Mexico in 1992,
US President Donald Trump flexed the executive power of a unilateral
edict in 2017, granting fast tract permitting to the Dakota Access Pipeline in violation of US civil rights, in
violation of environmental protection statutes, and in blatant international
aggression against the Oceti Sakowin
Seven Council Fires of the Great
Sioux Nation, with whom the US government has standing International Treaties that recognize the territorial jurisdiction of
the Oceti Sakowin over their Traditional
and Sacred Treaty Territories.
And now the fight at Bears Ears and Escalante
in Utah where these National Monuments
have been reduced in protective status to allow the invasion of fossil fuel
corporations and extractive industries, once again in no regard for Civil Rights, Human Rights, Indigenous
Rights, or Treaty Rights.
The state of Utah is one of the fifty recognized states of the union of the
United States of America. It’s existence and adoption into the federal system
as a state was preceded by cession from the Republic of Mexico in 1848 under the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is a peace
treaty.
As Original
Nations of Indigenous Peoples living in the territories north of the border
established by the two signatory governments of Mexico-US to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, we
reaffirm our commitment to maintain the peace, the same quest for peace that
was at the heart of the San Andres
Accords, and the same peace that can only be realized on earth if we are at
peace with Mother Earth.
Sr. Presidente;
In May of 2017, in San Cristobal de la Casas Chiapas the National Indigenous Congress of Mexico convened a gathering that
resulted in the founding of the Indigenous
Governing Council of Mexico, the CIG. The Indigenous
Governing Council (CIG) then appointed Maria
de Patricio Martinez, of the Nahua Nation as their national spokeswoman,
and immediately nominated her as a candidate
for the 2018 presidential elections.
One of the strongest elements of
representation in the CIG is the Purépecha Peoples of Cherán, Michoacán. The
Indigenous Purépecha community of Cherán is the only municipality in Mexico
where there are no elections, as its inhabitants chose their authorities and
their Council, in accord with their Indigenous
Customs and Traditions.
On January 18, 2018 the 32-year-old social
activist of this indigenous community, María
Guadalupe Campanur, was found dead.
Her body was found in a state of putrefaction and with a knife wound in
the neck, on the road to Carapan-Uruapan.
On January 21, 2018 in the same state of Michoacán Mexico, the Caravan For Life being led by Maria de
Jesus Patricio Martinez was attacked
and the independent media journalists covering the Caravan for Life were
threatened and robbed of their equipment.
The attack on Maria de Jesus (MariChuy for us Indigenous Peoples of
Mexico) as the spokeswoman for the
Indigenous Governing Council (CIG) Mexico, came she is engaged in the Mexican
presidential elections as a candidate nominated NOT BY ANY POLITICAL PARTY, but
instead by the surviving Indigenous Nations themselves via the National
Indigenous Congress (Congreso Nacional Indígena)
as a collective political movement of national Indigenous Self Determination.
During the Tour for Life, MariChuy spoke out
against the murder of María
Guadalupe Campanur T. of Cherán. She refused to stay silent. She refused to
accept the murder of yet another (5 in Michoacán just this year) Indigenous
Woman, another victim of the narco-state
in Mexico.
The attack on the Caravan for Life on January
21 in Michoacán cannot go unchallenged, it cannot be allowed to be normalized
or sanitized by the mass media and even worse, we cannot allow the complacency
and complicity of "Silence Gives
Consent" to be the policy of pathology that has resulted in so many,
too many, many times too many MISSING
AND MURDERED INDIGENOUS WOMEN across the centuries of CONTINENTAL genocide
and colonization here our homelands of the Great
Turtle Island Abya Yala.
In light of the above and in consideration of the current
critical situation facing our relatives of the Original Nations of Indigenous
Peoples in Mexico:
Communique and Demand to President
Enrique Peña Nieto, México
January 26, 2018
WE DEMAND
1)
Accountability for the murder of María Guadalupe Campanur and the attack on MariChuy and the Caravan for Life in Michoacán;
2)
Guarantees of Protection for the Indigenous Governing Council (CIG) Mexico,
and their spokeswoman Maria de Jesus Patricio Martinez;
3)
Protection for the Right of Mobility and Free
Expression, and Access to Justice
for the Indigenous Peoples of Mexico;
4)
Recognition, respect, and guarantees of
protection for the Right of Self
Determination of Indigenous Peoples of Mexico, including the right of Self Government in accord with their
customs and traditional such as being exercised by the Purépecha Pueblo of
Cherán;
5)
January 26, 2018 also marks 40 months since
the Forced Disappearance of the 43
Ayotzinapa Students in Iguala, Guerrero. The issues of complicity of the
Mexican military apparatus in conjunction with the federal, state, and local
levels of government and police operating in criminal collusion with
narco-cartels tied to the heroine drug trade in Chicago and Atlanta, USA have
yet to be clarified and brought to justice.
Instead the government of President Enrique Peña Nieto continues to
cover up the violent assault on the 43 students on the night of September 26,
2014. We demand international
accountability, a diligent, professional and impartial investigation,
punishment for the guilty parties as well as support and protection for the families of the 43 Ayotzinapa
students.
6)
We call for the Mexican federal government to
take responsibility for the current political violence in Oxchuc, Chiapas, being that although the Electoral Tribunal of the State Chiapas ordered the Institute of Electoral and Citizen
Participation of Chiapas (IEPC), through TEECH / JDC / 19/2017, to proceed to recognize the right of the
people of Oxchuc to choose to their municipal authorities, through their own
customary regulatory systems as an Indigenous
Pueblo, without the presence of political parties, to date the IEPC has
ignored that mandate of the Court. This
omission, opened the door for political parties to intervene in the
municipality, and foment the current wave of violence. On January 24, an armed group attacked the
local population and left 3 people killed, 18 injured and 3 people seriously
hospitalized. We join in the demand by
the Tseltal of Oxchuc that the IEPC
execute the judgment of the Court and that the government of the state
collaborate in good faith. The present wave of political violence must be
investigated and the aggressors punished.
7)
We demand full recognition, respect, and
guarantees for the right of Free, Prior,
and Informed Consent of Indigenous
Peoples in Equality as Peoples,
with equality in right of Self
Determination to all other peoples, in particular as may being negotiated
presently in terms of the “modernization” of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the government
of Canada-US-Mexico.
“Affirming that Indigenous Peoples
are equal to all other peoples,…..”
United Nations
Preliminary Study on the Impact of the Doctrine of Discovery
"This preliminary study establishes that the Doctrine of Discovery has been institutionalized in law and policy, on national and international levels, and lies at the root of the violations of indigenous peoples’ human rights, both individual and collective. This has resulted in State claims to and the mass appropriation of the lands, territories and resources of indigenous peoples. Both the Doctrine of Discovery and a holistic structure that we term the Framework of Dominance have resulted in centuries of virtually unlimited resource extraction from the traditional territories of indigenous peoples. This, in turn, has resulted in the dispossession and impoverishment of indigenous peoples, and the host of problems that they face today on a daily basis."
###
The Law of Exceptions
NAFTA and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Open Letter to the Ministers of State and the Public Societies of Canada-US-Mexico
CONCLUSION
NAFTA and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Open Letter to the Ministers of State and the Public Societies of Canada-US-Mexico
CONCLUSION
We call upon the ministers of government at all levels of Canada-US-Mexico
and the public constituencies of their respective societies to address without
prejudice or discrimination the above clarifications. We assert that these clarifications
command rectification of the crime of colonialism and a moratorium on all NAFTA
economic development projects impacting the territories of the Nations and
Pueblos of Indigenous Peoples until the right of Free, Prior and Informed
Consent of the Indigenous Peoples is fully recognized, respected, and protected
in the spirit of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, as
follows:
are equal to all other peoples,…..”
United Nations
Preliminary Study on the Impact of the Doctrine of Discovery
"This preliminary study establishes that the Doctrine of Discovery has been institutionalized in law and policy, on national and international levels, and lies at the root of the violations of indigenous peoples’ human rights, both individual and collective. This has resulted in State claims to and the mass appropriation of the lands, territories and resources of indigenous peoples. Both the Doctrine of Discovery and a holistic structure that we term the Framework of Dominance have resulted in centuries of virtually unlimited resource extraction from the traditional territories of indigenous peoples. This, in turn, has resulted in the dispossession and impoverishment of indigenous peoples, and the host of problems that they face today on a daily basis."
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