Thursday, January 30, 2020

MEXICO: Maya Council obtains Order of Protection against AMLO Mayan Train

Maya Council of Calakmul obtains provisional suspension of the Mayan Train Project in Mexico after denouncing simulation of the federal consultation

January 29, 2020

Mexico City | Desinformémonos - The Mayan indigenous communities of Xpujil and Calakmu in the state of Campeche, obtained on January 14 the provisional suspension of the execution of the Mayan Train project in response to the request for an Order of Protection that they filed “against the simulated consultation process that was carried out in assemblies of supposedly informative and consultation character with representatives of indigenous communities”, informed the Regional Indigenous and Popular Council of Xpujil (CRIPX).

The members of the Council and the Mayan communities explained that the demand for Order of Protection was filed on January 6 to demand moratorium of “the simulated and fraudulent indigenous consultation ordered by the Federal Executive and executed to the detriment of the Indigenous Peoples of Campeche, Yucatán, Quintana Roo, Tabasco and Chiapas ”, as well as the“ illegal consultation and approval of the project called Mayan Train, whose action was carried out in flagrant violation of our human right to guarantee a Prior, Free, Informed, good faith and culturally appropriate consultation”.

They added that the Order of Protection the First District Court in the state of Campeche agreed to grant the provisional suspension “so that things remain unchanged in the state they are in presently, that is, so that the responsible authorities regardless of the outcome of the query made in relation to the so-called Mayan Train, refrain from decreeing the approval of said project, or, having said decree approved, refrain from performing acts tending to the execution of said project ” until the issue of definitive suspension is resolved.

The Mayan indigenous communities of Xpujil and Calakmul, in Campeche obtained on January 14, 2020 the provisional suspension of the execution of the Mayan Train in response to the request for an Order of Protection that they filed “against the simulated consultation process that was carried out in assemblies of supposedly informative and consultative character with representatives of indigenous communities”, informed the Regional Indigenous and Popular Council of Xpujil (CRIPX).

On December 14 and 15, 2019, the federal government carried out a “consultation process” in the five states through which the Mayan Train will cross to determine if the population was in agreement, however, several indigenous communities and national and international organizations denounced that the process did not meet the standards of Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization (ILO) and violated the right of Indigenous Peoples to Self-Determination and to be consulted in a Free, Prior, Informed, culturally appropriate manner and good manner faith.

Here is the full statement:

Indigenous communities belonging to the Peninsular and Ch´ol Maya people, residing in Xpujil, Calakmul, Campeche, members of the Indigenous and Popular Regional Council of Xpujil (CRIPX), obtained on January 14, 2020 from the Judicial Branch of the Federation the provisional suspension of the execution of the Mayan Train project, in response to a request for Order of Protection that we filed against the simulated consultation process that was carried out in assemblies supposedly of informative and consultative character with representatives of indigenous communities, in order to obtain the approval of the community for the Mayan Train project in our territories.

The request for an Order of Protection filed on January 6, 2020, claims “the simulated and fraudulent indigenous consultation ordered by the Federal Executive and executed to the detriment of the Indigenous Peoples of Campeche, Yucatán, Quintana Roo, Tabasco and Chiapas”, as well as the “ Illegal consultation and approval of the project called Mayan Train, whose action was carried out in flagrant violation of our human right to guarantee a Prior, Free, Informed, good faith and culturally appropriate consultation”.

In the legal application for the Order of Protection, the President of the Republic of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), is designated as the principal responsible authority, as well as the Director of the National Fund for Tourism Promotion (Fonatur), Rogelio Jiménez Pons, the Secretary of the Interior, Olga Sánchez Cordero, and to the General Director of the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples (INPI), Adelfo Regino Montes.

In the present demand for Order of Protection, we denounce that the consultation process was carried out without complying with the international standards established by Convention 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries, of the International Labor Organization (ILO), to which the Mexican State is a party, as well as in contravention of relevant determinations of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR).

The government consultation did not fulfill the character of being neither informative nor prior, as we did not receive detailed information in advance, nor was our right to participation respected since the structure of the forums during the alleged information phase (dated November 30, 2019) was designed and implemented unilaterally, so that its forms and modularities were not consistent with our forms of community deliberation and agreement. Likewise, before the simulated consultation, the approval of the project had already been announced by government officials, including President AMLO, through various public channels.

The simulated consultation was also not carried out in good faith and was not culturally appropriate, since electoral ballots were distributed to be deposited in polling stations by way of individual voting, without taking into account the traditional forms of organization and decision-making of the community.

Before these elements previously presented in the request for Order of Protection, the First District Court in the state of Campeche, agreed to grant the provisional suspension so that things remain unchanged in the state they are in presently, that is, so that the responsible authorities regardless of the outcome of the query made in relation to the so-called Mayan Train, refrain from decreeing the approval of said project, or, having said decree approved, refrain from performing acts tending to the execution of said project until the issue of definitive suspension is resolved.

The indigenous communities of the Peninsular and Ch´ol Maya people, residing in Xpujil, are heartened by this court decision and call on the rest of the Indigenous Peoples in the states of the Republic affected by the Mayan Train, to pursue until legal exhaustion the jurisdictional route to defend their right to a true consultation, to the integrity of their lands and territories, and to autonomy and self-determination.

We will continue working on our legal defense actions, as well as at the organizational level, carrying out community assemblies in which we provide information related to the defense of the territory. Likewise, we shall continue to establish alliances with different academic sectors, researchers, social organizations and the National Assembly of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) to be held on March 27 and 28 in Xpujil.

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Mayan Train in Mexico:

Manipulated Consultation

USMCA - Indigenous Peoples from Mexico, US, Canada : "We Deny Consent"

The Monroe Doctrine (1823) and USMCA 2020:

From the Doctrine of Discovery

to the

UN Development Goals 2030

US President D.Trump signing the USMCA at the White House, Washington, DC January 29. 2020

In our letter to the USMCA Working Group of the US House of Representatives on September 13th 2019, we informed the Working Group members and House Speaker Pelosi that upon review of the public record of debate concerning the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples in the context of the proposed US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), the systemic disregard for the human rights of Indigenous Peoples is blatantly discriminatory, unacceptable and must be addressed before the agreement be put to vote. Completely disregarding this message, the House of Representatives passed the USMCA on December 19th, and the Senate Finance Committee then passed the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement on January 9, 2020. On January 16th, the full US Senate advanced the legislation for signature into US law by US President D.Trump.

During the entire process, there has been no substantive and responsible participation of Indigenous Peoples, in full and complete recognition of the right to Self Determination, as Indigenous Peoples equal to all other peoples, and not simply rubber stamp "Feathered Folk" working to diminish the Inherent Human Rights of the Original Nations of Indigenous Peoples under the development agenda of the corporate-state cartels for whom the USMCA-CUSMA-TMEC was designed to serve.

WE DENY CONSENT.

Continental Commission Abya Yala

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The Monroe Doctrine of 1823 is the US government’s continental extrapolation of the 1823 Johnson v. M’Intosh decision of the US Supreme Court which established the Doctrine of Discovery of Christendom as the fundamental law of the entire juridical system of the United States of America. All US property law, which also includes the possession of US citizenship as a property concept tied to the institutions of American “white” supremacy, is based on this legaloid doctrine. Under the tenets of the Monroe Doctrine, Uncle Sam replaced the Vatican as the Chairman of the Board for the corporate state regimes in the ongoing colonization of the Americas.

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UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007) Article 18

Indigenous peoples have the right to participate in decision-making in matters which would affect their rights, through representatives chosen by themselves in accordance with their own procedures, as well as to maintain and develop their own indigenous decision-making institutions.

From the text of CUSMA-USMCA-TMEC:
Subject to Legal Review for Accuracy, Clarity, and Consistency
Subject to Language Authentication
32-1
CHAPTER 32 EXCEPTIONS AND GENERAL PROVISIONS
Section A – Exceptions
Article 32.5: Indigenous Peoples Rights

“Provided that such measures are not used as a means of arbitrary or unjustified discrimination against persons of the other Parties or as a disguised restriction on trade in goods, services, and investment, nothing in this Agreement shall preclude a Party from adopting or maintaining a measure it deems necessary to fulfill its legal obligations to Indigenous Peoples.”

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With the adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP 2007) which affirms the international right of Indigenous Peoples to Self Determination, equal to all other peoples, the purported claims of dominion of the colonial states over the inherent human rights of the Original Nations of Indigenous Peoples comes to its demise as a legitimate principle in the rule of International Law. The Original Nations of Indigenous Peoples are free to determine their own future in their own terms on their own territories in our continent of the Great Turtle Island Abya Yala.

Since UNDRIP, no state, no matter how benign, can legitimately delegate, define or diminish these collective Indigenous Rights. It falls to the states to recognize, respect, and institute guarantees for the Protection of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples with effective restorative consequences for the violation of these rights.

In this sense, the critical question of historical context that emerged in contrast and contradiction in the Zócalo of Mexico City on December 1, 2019 was punctuated by the signing in approval of the final draft text of the USMexicoCanada Agreement 2018 (USMCA) on the evening of November 30, the night before, by exiting Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto. The USMCA is being promoted as a revised and “modernized” version of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between Canada, the USA, and Mexico.

Just as on January 1, 1994 with the original NAFTA, December 1, 2018 marked the latest updated version of the colonial project of corporate capitalism riding south from the Rancho Grande of North America. Now disguised as a development strategy in alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals 2030, the US-Mexico-Trade Agreement is being unleashed.

Of the three countries engaged in the CUSMA-USMCA-TMEC, Canada was the only government that provided reference of context for this operative Article regarding the rights of Indigenous Peoples. This implies that the Canadian interpretation of standards regarding Indigenous Peoples Rights across the entire CUSMA-USMCA-TMEC market zone will prevail.

The events unfolding in the present Standoff at Wet’suwet’en are a defining moment that will set the precedent and process for how conflicts involving the rights of Indigenous Peoples to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent will be addressed and resolved. A telling narrative in the ongoing struggle is also unfolding concurrently in Pahuatlan, Puebla, Mexico where the Indigenous Peoples have also faced off against the same TC Energy petrochemical corporation (previously TransCanada) who operates seven pipelines in Mexico.

In fact, when Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) announced in January 2020 that in consequence to the demands of the Indigenous Peoples of Pahuatlan, Mexico invoking their rights to FPIC that one of the TC Energy pipelines would have to be rerouted, the violation of the Right of Indigenous Peoples to Free Prior and Informed Consent regarding economic development projects that impact their Human Rights and territories became an issue of FINANCIAL LIABILTY for the constituencies of the states, and shareholders of the corporations operating in complicity and collusion behind the view of public oversight.

BNN Bloomberg cites analysts as saying the action by AMLO in Mexico could create a risky precedent for indigenous communities that are already protesting a number of pipeline projects. This has already led to a decline in investments.

Final Clarifications:

1.) The designation of Indigenous Peoples in the CUSMA-USMCA-TMEC is definitive, in terms of the recognition of Indigenous Peoples as “peoples”. In the context of the 2007 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which was not yet in place in 1994 during the original NAFTA agreement, the recognition of Indigenous Peoples in an international commercial agreement necessarily is accompanied and contextualized by the recognition of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as articulated and affirmed in the principles and articles of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

2) The principle of non-discrimination is a preemptive norm in international law. Therefore, the recognition of Indigenous Peoples as “peoples” in USMCA Article 32.5 Indigenous Peoples Rights must be taken as an affirmation and commitment to uphold, recognize, respect, and institute guarantees of protection for the collective rights of Indigenous Peoples, equal to all other peoples, without illegal or arbitrary discrimination, including effective consequences in the form of legal remedies to address the violation of these rights. Colonization must not be disguised as development.

3) Consultation is not the same as consent. The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples affirms the right of Free, Prior and Informed Consent in culturally appropriate manner for all economic development projects that impact the territories and human rights of Indigenous Peoples.

4) The official text in Spanish (or any indigenous language) of the CUSMA-USMCA-TMEC agreement was never published in Mexico or anywhere else until the date of December 5, 2018 when our sister organization TONATIERRA requested an official copy at the offices of the Mexican consulate in Phoenix, Arizona. Without having the text of the USMCA agreement in advance, there is no legitimate or rational narrative that can explain how the Indigenous Peoples of Mexico have been consulted at least with respect to the protection of their particular and collective rights in the CUSMA-USMCA-TMEC, much less taken into account with the opportunity to approve or DENY CONSENT.

We call for the public constituencies of Mexico-US-Canada to raise their voice of protest and in denunciation that the public institutions of government are being subverted to the criminal and dehumanizing service of the international corporate cartels of PETROPOLIS.

We demand an accounting and moratorium on the approval of the CUSMA-USMCA-TMEC until the right of Indigenous Peoples to Free, Prior and Informed Consent is recognized, respected and effective mechanisms of protection are instituted to correct the violation of this right, as is now happening in the Standoff at Wet’suwet’en.

We call for all Original Nations of Indigenous Peoples to stand in defense of the Territorial Integrity of Mother Earth.

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Message to the US Senate

USMCA and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

January 10, 2020

Honorable Members of the US Senate,

Good greetings. On December 12^th of last year we submitted a communique to the email address of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission requesting a public hearing before the commission for the purpose of informing the US Congressional representatives regarding the right of Indigenous Peoples to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) as stipulated in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007).

Of critical and timely importance to this request has been the attempt by Indigenous Peoples, thus far unsuccessfully, to have this issue addressed before the final vote of approval in the US Senate on the US-Mexico-Canada-Agreement (USMCA).

In this context, also in December of last year, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination issued a statement expressing concern “by the refusal to consider free, prior and informed consent” in regards to large-scale development projects in Canada, and “alarmed” by the escalating threat of violence against Indigenous Peoples the Committee urged the government of Canada to guarantee no force will be used against them.

These concerns were highlighted in a recent article in The Guardian that reported the RCMP were prepared to use lethal force against Indigenous protesters blocking workers from clearing the Coastal GasLink’s natural gas pipeline route a year ago in unceded Wet’suwet’en territory. On January 4^th 2020, Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs evicted Coastal GasLink corporation from their territory in exercise of the right of Self Determination as Indigenous Peoples. The eviction notice applies to “Camp 9A” on Dark House territory, as well as the neighbouring Gidimt’en, Tsayu, and Laksamshu clan territories.

Meanwhile in Mexico, on December 19^th 2020, the Mexico office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (ONU-DH) said that the consultations on the government’s Maya Train project failed to meet all international human rights standards. Such international standards establish that a consultation process with indigenous communities must be carried out prior to a project being executed in a manner that is culturally appropriate, serves to inform and allows free participation.

Yet during information meetings regarding the Maya Train observed by the ONU-DH in Campeche, Yucatán, Quintana Roo, Chiapas and Tabasco, community members asked questions about the possible negative impacts of the project on several occasions “without obtaining a clear and complete response,” the statement said. The ONU-DH said that the absence of studies about the potential impacts or “the failure to disseminate” the studies made it difficult for people to reach an informed opinion about the Maya Train project.

The Mexico office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (ONU-DH) said in a statement that during the month-long consultation process in southeastern states it observed that the information presented to indigenous communities only outlined the potential benefits of the project and not the negative impacts it may cause. According to public reports from Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), US President D.Trump has offered support and financial backing for the Maya Train project, in spite of the concerns over Human Rights violations and the unawareness in the general American public of the role of their government in the scheme.

Going back to the fast tracking of the Dakota Access Pipeline in the Treaty Territories of the Oceti Sakuwin by President D.Trump as soon as he got into office in 2017, the current administration in Washington has blatantly disregarded the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples, including freedom from discrimination and the right of Free, Prior and Informed Consent. The proclamation of a National Emergency at the US/Mexico border in order to circumvent domestic civil rights and environmental justice protections to facilitate building the Trump Wall at the border is also yet another example of the systemic violation of the Indigenous Peoples right to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent.

The Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Esto'k Gna, whose traditional territories lie on both sides of the Texas, USA/Coahuila, Mexico border have consistently expressed their denial of consent for the D.Trump Border Wall project which in addition to bringing environmental destruction to the territory, will desecrate an ancestral burial site at the location of the Eli Jackson Cemetery. The cemetery also holds the final resting place of US veterans from WWI, WWII, and Korea.

Previously, in our letter to the USMCA Working Group of the US House of Representatives on September 13^th 2019, we informed the Working Group members and House Speaker Pelosi that upon review of the public record of debate concerning the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples in the context of the proposed US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), the systemic disregard for the human rights of Indigenous Peoples is blatantly discriminatory, unacceptable and must be addressed before the agreement be put to vote. Completely disregarding this message, the House of Representatives passed the USMCA on December 19^th, and the Senate Finance Committee then passed the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement on January 9, 2020.

On January 1^st of 2020, having received urgent and direct testimony and witness from the Indigenous Peoples of Mexico on how the normalization of Human Rights violations under the USMCA will exacerbate an already very dire situation, where Indigenous Human Rights Defenders such as Samir Flores are being openly assassinated, we reissued our initial call to the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission. As of today January 10^th 2020, we have received no confirmation nor response to our messages.

The call a public hearing for the purpose of informing the US congressional representatives, trade representatives, and the public at large regarding the right of Indigenous Peoples to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) in the context of the USMCA is a call to conscience, and to the rule of law.

The USMCA has been promoted as a necessary "update" of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). In distinction from NAFTA which was adopted in 1994 thirteen years before adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007), the signatories of USMCA must comply with the minimum standards of FPIC or the corporate consortia investing in any development project in violation of FPIC will immediately become financially liable and exposed to the risk of legal challenges and financial penalties that must be presented before their constituencies (states) and shareholders (corporations).

This principle is now well established, having been the subject of the Soft Woods Lumber Dispute (1982) between the US and Canada which acknowledged the proprietary rights of Indigenous Peoples over territories and resources in the international trade tribunals. Recognizing this fact, the World Bank has restructured its procedures, protocols and practices regarding Indigenous Peoples and the right of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent under the Environmental and Social Standard 7 to shield its interests.

The designation of Indigenous Peoples in the proposed text USMCA is definitive, in terms of the recognition of Indigenous Peoples as “peoples”. In the context of the 2007 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which was not yet in place in 1994 during the original NAFTA agreement, the recognition of Indigenous Peoples in an international commercial agreement necessarily is accompanied and contextualized by the recognition of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as articulated and affirmed in the principles and articles of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

There can be no approval of USMCA without recognition, respect, and effective mechanisms for the equal protection of the internationally recognized Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples in the trade zone encompassing the three countries, specifically the right of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC). Consultation is not consent.

Without the full and effective participation of Indigenous Peoples, as Peoples equal to all other peoples, there can be no legitimate approval of the USMCA.

Tupac Enrique Acosta

TONATIERRA

Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC)

All Peoples have the right to self-determination. It is a fundamental principle in international law, embodied in the Charter of the United Nations and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

The standard, Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), as well as Indigenous Peoples’ rights to lands, territories and natural resources are embedded within the universal right to self- determination. The normative framework for FPIC consists of a series of international legal instruments including the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), the International Labour Organization Convention 169 (ILO 169), and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), among many others.

FPIC is a specific right that pertains to Indigenous Peoples and is recognized in the UNDRIP. It allows them to give or withhold consent to a project that may affect them or their territories. Once they have given their consent, they can withdraw it at any stage. Furthermore, FPIC enables them to negotiate the conditions under which the project will be designed, implemented, monitored and evaluated.

Consultation is not consent.

January 14, 2020

MEXICO: Maya Council obtains Order of Protection against AMLO Mayan Train

United Nations

Preliminary Study on 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.

YouTube:

Continental Commission Abya Yala: USMCA and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Thursday, January 23, 2020

Nahuizalco: Message from the Elders upon the 88th Anniversary of the Genocide of 1932

January 22, 2020

THE NAHUAT INDIGENOUS GRANDPARENTS AND GRANDPARENTS OF NAHUIZALCO, CUZCATLAN [EL SALVADOR] AND OTHER COMMUNITIES TODAY UPON THE 88TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE GENOCIDE OF 1932,
WE DECLARE:

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That this day, we commemorate eighty-eight years of a terrible genocide, whose terror and pain still dwells in our memories and whose stigma is still in felt in our youth and children. This genocide totally changed the life not only of we Indigenous Peoples but of the entire country. It is necessary therefore, a clarification of the facts and a process of reparation. We are still waiting for this gesture from the Salvadoran State.

On January 22, 2019, we filed a Habeas Corpus lawsuit in the case of the forced disappearance of three individuals from our community during the Genocide of 1932 before the Supreme Court of Justice. This legal petition before the Supreme Court of El Salvador has now been acknowledged as an order for protection, in an emblematic decision.

This has been the very first time in 87 years, that attempts have been made to resort to the justice system to address the genocide of 1931. Until now, we have been intimidated by the fear of reprisals since in the past we have frequently been marginalized from access to the legal guarantees of our rights.

With this decision, the Supreme Court establishes a watershed: it is an act of justice that reintegrates us with the rest of the country and consolidates us as a nation. We hope, then, that this process of issuing an order of protection arrives at a resolution of the issues that will lead us to find the truth and that we have achieve a proper reparation.

In the same manner, on November 27, 2017, we presented a draft Law on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples before the Legislative Assembly, which reflects our expectations in order to be recognized as Indigenous Peoples, an effective tool to change our difficult reality.

We know that the Justice and Human Rights Commission of the Legislative Assembly is discussing this proposal, but we also know that there are dark interests at work on the part of a group of people who have always taken advantage of our position, acting as oportunists and profiteering from the issues of indigenous peoples. We therefore call on the deputies of the aforementioned Commission, that they should not be manipulated in their good faith, that they carry out a transparent and honest process, without allowing the twisted maneuvers in favor of those indigenous NGOs that do not represent us. All in all, our hopes are that this proposed law will become legislation that establishes national norms to the benefit of our indigenous communities.

We are mindful that the Plan Cuscatlan of the present Government contemplates the issue of Indigenous Peoples, namely the National Policy of Indigenous Peoples and other programs. We highlight the work of the Ministries of Public Works, Local Development and the Ministry of Culture, which have taken important steps in favor of our rights, promoting projects for our benefit and emphasizing the need for the direct involvement of communities. We hope that this effort will continue for the benefit of our communities.

We are concerned that in our municipality, dam projects on the Sensunapán River are being developed without properly consulting indigenous communities, allowing companies to violate our free consent with miserable token gifts, even using the aforementioned Indigenous NGO to attempt to convince us to accept these projects.

We demand the direct intervention from the Government protecting our rights, such as the right to a territory where we carry out our activities, the right to our sacred places, all prescribed in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and in the Municipal Ordinance of Indigenous Rights of Nahuizalco, the very same municipal ordinance which the honorable father of our President, Dr. Armando Bukele Kattán (RIP) had the good conscience to support. Therefore, we call for no more concessions of permission from the government to build more dams on an already overexploited river system.

We send greetings to Dr. James Anaya, an indigenous brother of emblematic stature whom we had the honor of receiving in 2012 in Nahuizalco when, in his capacity as Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of the UN, he visited El Salvador to prepare an important report that is still a relevant aide today for the fulfillment of our rights. We receive with gratitude in our hearts, Dr. Anaya’s offer of continued support to the Indigenous Peoples of El Salvador.

On this 88th anniversary of the 1932 genocide, we are determined to look forward, we want a country integrated in our diversity, where interculturality is in force, where young people, all children, take pride in their ancestral heritage and participate in our still unfolding history, cultural manifestations and the worldview that we have preserved for them. We want, then, to return to the harmony that emanates from the ancient wisdom of our grandmothers and grandparents.

Sisters and brothers, we have no doubt that we will defeat the death and darkness of genocide: we will ignite the light flame of truth and justice.

Sisters and brothers, let's walk together!

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Izalco, Sonsonate, El Salvador

9 de Agosto 2012

La Palabra y Sentimiento del Pueblo

IZALCO

Transcripción

Tátul Tecpan Itzalco

Commemoration for the Historical Memory of Salvadorean Indigenous Peoples

January 25, 2020

4:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Downtown UCLA Labor Center

675 S. Parkview Street

Los Angeles, CA

YouTube:

Nahuizalco, Cushcatlan [El Salvador]

23 January 2020

Wednesday, January 22, 2020

Solidarity Message to the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs and Clans

January 22, 2020

Message to the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs and Clans
Defenders of the Land, Truth Campaign, Idle No More Networks

from the

Continental Commission Abya Yala

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Nohuanyolqueh: Amixpantzinco, amixtlamatque

Good greetings relatives,

In September of 1995 our Continental Indigenous Commission was invited to the territories of the Secwepemc Nation to serve as Human Rights observers during the Ts'Peten/Gustafsen Lake Standoff. At that time, we joined with our relatives from the sister nations on the northern side of the Medicine Line and crossed over the military police perimeters surrounding the Ts'Peten Sundance camp to deliver in person a request to William “Wolverine” Jones Ignace on behalf of the Continental Commission Abya Yala.

Previously, the Continental Indigenous Commission had traveled to the war zone of Chiapas, Mexico in January of 1994 to extend the prayers and powers of our Indigenous Nations in solidarity with the struggles of the Indigenous Peoples in Mexico. January 1, of 1994 marked the first day of the coming into effect of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which has now been modified and “updated” under the Canada-US-Mexico Agreement CUSMA, known in the US as USMCA and in Mexico as TMEC. This international trade agreement among the governments of the three countries is at the moment pending an imminent vote of approval in the US senate.

Today, on January 22, 2020 the 88^th year anniversary of the Genocide of the Indigenous Peoples in El Salvador in 1932, we extend once more our original commitment of Continental Indigenous Solidarity and Alliance in the struggle for Self Determination as Original Nations of Indigenous Peoples, “Equal to all other peoples…”

Today we extend our international recognition to the Territorial Protocols of the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs and Clans in full recognition and respect for having the force of International Law among our Confederations of Original Nations of Indigenous Peoples, and demand that these protocols of Indigenous Self Determination be ascribed to as the only future looking path to a just and peaceful relationship with the settler state systems as they now exist in North America, including Canada.

This message is sent to you today from Nahuizalco, in the Nahuat Pipil territories of Cushcatlan, generally known as El Salvador, in Central America. It was here in Nahuizalco on January 22 of 1932 that one of the most horrendous acts of open genocide against Indigenous Peoples in the history of the continent occurred. Known as “La Matanza”, the massacre of the Nahuat Pipil on January 22 in Nahuizalco in El Salvador was one of a month-long series of massacres across the country by the military apparatus of the state in a pogrom of genocide that eventually totaled 30,000 to 35,000 Indigenous Peoples killed and buried in mass graves.

What is especially significant today as the ceremonies of commemoration of the “La Matanza” are being realized by the Indigenous Peoples of Cushcatlan in El Salvador is the political and historic connection with your struggle there at Wet’suwet’en against the INTERNATIONAL AGRESSION of the Canadian government, both provincial and federal, in the unlawful and Machiavellian attempt to normalize colonization and genocide. All of this with both the open and implicit collusion, coordination, and cooperation of other European American “white” colonizing political interests across the continent that combine in the elite power structures of the corporate settler state apparatus in the Americas. Without exception, all of the settler states of the Americas base their purported claims to territorial jurisdiction on this continent as political successors to the nefarious Doctrine of Discovery of Christendom 1492.

In the genocide of the 1932 in El Salvador, it was the military and paramilitary forces of El Salvador that committed the massacres of Indigenous Peoples, but the US and Canadian governments also played a role in support of the Anglo-American oligarchies that had been exploiting the economy of the country for decades. In classic gun boat diplomacy of the age, two Canadian and three US warships took position off the Pacific Coast of El Salvador, deployed in support action for the military dictatorship of General Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez, who came to power after a coup d’état in 1931. The blood of the genocide committed against the Indigenous Peoples of El Salvador is on the hands of the dictator General Martinez, but the regime of impunity that persists for the genocide of 1932 is propped today up by the same European American (Hispanic American-Anglo American) consortia of elites and their henchmen who first appeared on our shores on October 12, 1492.

South of the US Mexico border, the Civil Law settler state republics are known as the “Estado Criollo”, the Hispanic-Portuguese equivalent of the US and Canadian systems of the English Common Law that serves as the legaloid colonial infrastructure of States and Realms of Dominion, such as is the case of British Colombia [Canada]. It is why there is a “sheriff” of Maricopa County in Arizona, a title that derives from the name of an official of the English Crown who is charged with carrying out the will of the King in a “shire” under the Realm of the Crown.

Since making the break with direct rule under the Crown Families of Europe as colonies, the cartel of internationally recognized American states continue to operate in collusion and competition simultaneously for positions of geopolitical advantage in order to exploit and expropriate the natural resources and labor of the Original Nations of the continent.

However, today’s world sees the emergence of China and the Asian economies as major players in the global economic colonizing contest. And just as Spain and Portugal turned to the Vatican (king of kings) in 1492 for assistance in ordering the profile of pillage for the “New World” to the benefit of the Old World, the international trade agreements of today take the place of the Papal Bulls that sanctified the colonies, plantations, and haciendas of the earlier colonial instrumentalities of dominion and patriarchy. Today colonization is normalized, promoted, and formalized as “economic development” within the context of the UN Development Goals 2030. It is an age of supranational and corporate empire with the global fossil fuel industry in lead position: The Empire of Petropolis.

Although by 1931, Canada had achieved the status of equality within the British Commonwealth under the Statute of Westminster, and the Canadian navy technically was not under the orders British Crown, it was the urgings of the British consul in El Salvador that led to Canadian forces making landfall during the uprising of 1932. The presence of the American warships off the Pacific coast was a US power play to reinforce the tenets of the 1823 Monroe Doctrine, and bring to bear the interventionist policy of the 1904 Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine with the “Big Stick” of US economic and military might to protect the American corporate interests.

The Monroe Doctrine of 1823 is the US government’s continental extrapolation of the 1823 Johnson v. M’Intosh decision of the US Supreme Court which established the Doctrine of Discovery of Christendom as the fundamental law of the entire juridical system of the United States of America. All US property law, which also includes the possession of US citizenship as a property concept tied to the institutions of American “white” supremacy, is based on this legaloid doctrine. Under the tenets of the Monroe Doctrine, Uncle Sam replaced the Vatican as the Chairman of the Board for the corporate state regimes in the ongoing colonization of the Americas.

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UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007)
Article 18

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The reference of context for this chapter of the CUSMA-USMCA-TMEC was given in a footnote that reads:

“For greater certainty, for Canada the legal obligations include those recognized and affirmed by section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 or those set out in self-government agreements between a central or regional level of government and indigenous peoples”

Before the question is asked regarding the mechanisms to enforce legal obligations for Indigenous Peoples whose rights under International Law are impacted by CUSMA-USMCA-TMEC, rights that are inherent and inalienable in equality to all other peoples, beyond the qualifying constraints of section 35 of the Canadian Constitution, the US Constitution, or the Mexican Constitution - it is critically important to face the fact that the government of Justin Trudeau has already established a limiting framework of preconditions to constrict the debate and define the context of legal responsibilities:

“The Government of Canada recognizes that meaningful engagement with Indigenous peoples AIMS TO SECURE their free, prior, and informed consent when Canada proposes to take actions which impact them and their rights, including their lands, territories and resources."

Canada 10 “principles” on government’s relationship with Indigenous peoples (July 14, 2017)

These are the same guys who took aim at William 'Wolverine' Jones Ignace during the Ts'Peten/Gustafsen Lake Standoff in 1995. They fired 77,000 rounds of ammunition into the camp, yet Wolverine walked out of the Ts'Peten/ Gustafsen Lake Standoff on September 17, 1995 in full command of all of his physical and spiritual powers as an unbroken warrior of the Ts’Peten and all Original Nations of Indigenous Peoples of the Great Turtle Island Abya Yala.

Wolverine did not walk out of the Ts'Peten/ Gustafsen Lake Standoff to surrender to the RCMP nor submit to the jurisdiction of the Canadian courts. Wolverine walked out of the Ts'Peten/Gustafsen Lake Standoff to deliver an INDICTMENT on behalf of the Original Nations of the Continental Commission Abya Yala denouncing the criminal violation of Human Rights and Territorial Rights being committed by Her Majesty the Queen in the Right of Canada as an act of INTERNATIONAL AGRESSION against the Secwepemc Nation.

A recent article in The Guardian that reported the RCMP were prepared to use lethal force against Indigenous protesters blocking workers from clearing the Coastal GasLink’s natural gas pipeline route a year ago in unceded Wet’suwet’en territory. On January 4th 2020, Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs evicted Coastal GasLink corporation from their territory in exercise of the right of Self Determination as Indigenous Peoples. The eviction notice applies to “Camp 9A” on Dark House territory, as well as the neighbouring Gidimt’en, Tsayu, and Laksamshu clan territories.

In December of 2019, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD): issued a statement calling for the Canada to:

"immediately halt the construction and suspend all permits and approvals for the construction of the Coastal Gas Link pipeline in the traditional and unceded lands and territories of the Wet’suwet’en people, until they grant their free, prior and informed consent, following the full and adequate discharge of the duty to consult;"

Meanwhile in Mexico, on December 19th 2020, the Mexico office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (ONU-DH) said that the consultations on the government’s Maya Train project failed to meet all international human rights standards. Such international standards establish that a consultation process with indigenous communities must be carried out prior to a project being executed in a manner that is culturally appropriate, serves to inform and allows free participation.

Final Clarifications:

2) The principle of non-discrimination is a preemptive norm in international law. Therefore, the recognition of Indigenous Peoples as “peoples” in USMCA Article 32.5 Indigenous Peoples Rights must be taken as an affirmation and commitment to uphold, recognize, respect, and institute guarantees of protection for the collective rights of Indigenous Peoples, equal to all other peoples, without illegal or arbitrary discrimination, including effective consequences in the form of legal remedies to address the violation of these rights. Colonization must not be disguised as development.

5) Before his death William 'Wolverine' Jones Ignace wrote to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in December of 2015, calling for a national public inquiry into the Ts'Peten/Gustafsen Lake Standoff. Today on January 22, 2020, anniversary of the genocide of the Indigenous Nahaut Pipil in El Salvador, the Continental Commission Abya Yala reiterates and extends this call for accountability and inquiry, including investigation of the role of the Canadian government in the genocide of 1932.

As Original Nations, acting in the spirit and responsibility of Self Determination as Indigenous Peoples, equal to all other peoples, we call for an International Inquiry and prosecution on the systematic violation of Indigenous Peoples rights by the government of Canada in complicity with other states and entities of finance such as the World Bank.

We demand an end to the complicity and collusion in the colonization and genocide of Indigenous Peoples on this continent by the consortia of extractive industries whose main base of operations are in Canada.

We call for all Original Nations of Indigenous Peoples to stand in defense of the Territorial Integrity of Mother Earth.

TIME IS NOW.

NAHUACALLI

Embassy of Indigenous Peoples

www.nahuacalli.org

August 12, 2019

How Indigenous Mexicans Took on Big Energy and Won

A natural gas pipeline was scheduled to go online in 2017, but TransCanada wasn’t counting on indigenous resistance.

By Martha Pskowski

Nahuizalco: January 22, 2020 Message from the Elders upon the 88th Anniversary of the Genocide of 1932

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YouTube:

Nahuizalco, Cushcatlan [El Salvador]

23 January 2020

January 1, 2020

Zapatistas celebrate 26th Anniversary:

“We shall defend Mother Earth with our lives if necessary.”

January 7, 2020

Mexican President Decides To Re-Route Crucial Pipeline

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Action Network Online Petition

USMCA: Indigenous Peoples Call for Public Hearing on Free, Prior, and Informed Consent

Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, House Committee on Foreign Affairs

With the vote on the USMCA now pending in the US Congress, there has been no substantive debate on the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples to be impacted by the modification of the NAFTA multilateral trade agreement (1994). This is not acceptable, and in fact is a violation of the right of Indigenous Peoples to Free, Prior and Informed Consent in good faith as is articulated in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007).

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Self Determination and Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples inthe New NAFTA Trade Zone of North America [Canada-US-Mexico]

For those who have yet to become aware of the Maya Train project in the Yucatán, it is a megadevelopment project that has been broadly denounced by the Maya communities of the region, national and international associations of environmental and Human Rights defenders, and very significantly a growing alliance of Original Nations of Indigenous Peoples that stretches from Mexico, across the USA and into Canada. The Maya of the Yucatán have called the project the “Train that Tramples the Maya” and are moving towards an international boycott campaign and call to divest.

For comparison, the unilateral and subversive approval of the Maya Train project in the Yucatán by AMLO can be understood as the Mexican version of the underhanded and unscrupulous manner which Donald Trump gave the fast track approval to the permit of the Dakota Access Pipeline when he first took office in 2017. In Canada, under the government of Justin Trudeau, the same scenario is being played out across the country in different levels of conflict such as the resistance to the TransCanada Pipeline projects in the unceded territories of the Secwepemc Nation and the battle of the Unist’ot’en Camp [British Colombia] against the Tar Sands Gigaproject. In the east, the fight against fracking by the Elsipogtog First Nation [New Brunswick] is one of the many ongoing active resistance efforts of the Indigenous Self Determination movement north of the “Medicine Line”, the US-Canada international border.

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A Concept of Native Title by Leroy Littlebear

A CONCEPT OF NATIVE TITLE

By Leroy Littlebear (1982)

If justice and fairness are underlying goals of today’s government and court system, then the concepts and the philosophy of Indian people should certainly be taken into consideration and given as much weight as British concepts and philosophy. But if justice and fairness are not underlying goals, then we should stop covering ourselves with a false aura of sacredness and bring out things in the open, so everybody knows where they stand. In other words, if we cannot be bothered with justice and fairness, we should, at least, be truthful.

Continental Commission Abya Yala

TONATIERRA

Secretariat

tonal@tonatierra.org