January 1, 2020
By Ángeles Mariscal
One year was enough for the Zapatista Army of National
Liberation (EZLN) to regain the bases of support from groups of collectives and
organizations that at one time, supported the political and government project
of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) in Mexico.
From the bleak tone “We are alone” of speeches in December
of 2018, the December of 2019 came to pass with the celebration of five massive
events with diverse social sectors; and with a renewed call of rising to the challenge:
the land will be defended against the imposition of government economic development
projects, "until death if necessary."
Thousands of people from different regions of the country
and the world, congregated the last month of the year with Zapatistas, during
events with themes of cinema and art, agriculture and territory, and women.
Throughout all of the discussions was heard the theme of the
economic projects of president AMLO of Mexico, being promoted as “mega development
projects”.
These are projects such as the Mayan Train, the Transístmico
Corridor, which are driven by the alliances made with entrepreneurs such as
Ricardo Salinas Pliego, Alberto Bailléres and Carlos Slim, who are linked to
mining, energy, hydraulic, and real estate projects.
One of the most significant meetings, the "Forum in Defense
of the Territory and Mother Earth", which was held in San Cristóbal de las
Casas on December 21 and 22, was convened in alliance with the National
Indigenous Congress (CNI), and attended by organizations and groups from the across
the countryside and urban areas with 24 states of the country participating.
In these gatherings groups were reunited that during the
2018 electoral process placed a bet on the López Obrador government, and who
today disappointed by the economic AMLO model, have returned to meet up as allies,
with the Zapatistas of the Ejercito
Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN).
During the gatherings, they accused the government of Andrés
Manuel López Obrador of subverting the popular will through “deceptive
consultations”, to “forcefully impose the so-called Mayan Train, which would deliver
the indigenous territories to service of the great capital interests of industrialists
and tourism. Instead, the attendees agreed
to articulate the defense of their territories, to be self-sustaining and
strengthen a systemic life plan via an economic model distinct from capitalism.
The meeting of “Women who Struggle” that was held between
the 26 and 29 of December, in one of the canyons of the municipality of
Altamirano, at the entrance to the Lacandon jungle, almost four thousand
attendees -women from 49 countries- also questioned the impact that the
capitalist economic model and projects based on the extraction of natural
resources have on the women of society.
In this context, on December 31, in celebration of the 26 years that the EZLN came to light, the leadership of the insurgent group, in the voice of Sub comandante Insurgente Moisés, vindicated the meaning of their struggle to create better living conditions, its rejection of the capitalist economic system, and the construction of new models of development based on self-government and a process of autonomy that recovers the knowledge of the Original Peoples.
This agenda is in direct confrontation with the course of the
previous and current government of Mexico.
In this context, before an audience consisting mainly of the Zapatistas
forces who have a military background - Moisés, said: “We have stood firm in attempting
to build something new. We have had failures and errors, it is true. Surely, we
will have more in our long journey ahead, but we have never given up, we have
never sold ourselves, we have never given up (...) and we are increasingly more.
We have a project of life, with schools and health clinics that flourish in our
communities, and the land is worked collectively.
“And collectively we support each other, we are thus we are community,
a community of communities. And we remain firm in the fulfillment of our duty
as guardian peoples of Mother Earth.”
This region of Chiapas, in the Altamirano gorge, one of the entrance doors to the Lacandon Jungle, where one of its eleven headquarters is located, the EZLN spokesman questioned the “mega development projects”, and the government's decision to carry them out. “Given this situation,” Moisés said, “We, the Zapatista peoples, take it as if AMLO is challenging us all, as if he is saying that he has the all the strength and the money, and to see who opposes his mandate. He is saying that what he says is what is going to be done, not what the people say and that he doesn't care about the reasons. So then we, the Zapatista peoples, shall take up our part of that challenge.
Then he spoke out to the assembled people: "Are the
Zapatista Pueblos willing risk to losing everything they have gained in the
struggle for autonomy?" The answer was "YES!"
“We are willing to give our lives to provide and alternative for society, we are willing as an organization, as Indigenous Peoples of Mayan roots, as guardians of Mother Earth, as Zapatista individuals. We, the Zapatista peoples, following our ways and our calendar, have made this offering only to communicate with Mother Earth that we shall defend her, we will defend her until our death if necessary.”
“We are willing to give our lives to provide and alternative for society, we are willing as an organization, as Indigenous Peoples of Mayan roots, as guardians of Mother Earth, as Zapatista individuals. We, the Zapatista peoples, following our ways and our calendar, have made this offering only to communicate with Mother Earth that we shall defend her, we will defend her until our death if necessary.”
“We were looking for a person who would be a Zapatista and who
was willing to do everything, everything. And we found not one, nor two, nor
one hundred, nor one thousand, nor ten thousand, nor one hundred thousand. We found
everyone called the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, willing to give all
to defend the land.”
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In our letter to the USMCA Working Group of the US House of Representatives on September 13th of this year, 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 is put to vote before the House of Representatives.
Specifically, we called for a full public hearing before the appropriate committees and/or Working Group formations of the US Congress for the purpose of informing the US congressional representatives on the right of Indigenous Peoples to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) as stipulated in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples regarding projects which impact their collective rights.
The purpose of this communiqué is to urge the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission to conduct a full public hearing on this issue before the vote of approval on the USMCA in the US Congress.
***************
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).
1.) The designation of Indigenous Peoples in the 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.
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 USMCA agreement was never published in Mexico or anywhere else until the date of December 5, 2018 when our 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 USMCA, much less taken into account with the opportunity to approve or DENY CONSENT.
In our letter to the USMCA Working Group of the US House of Representatives on September 13th of this year, 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 is put to vote before the House of Representatives.
Specifically, we called for a full public hearing before the appropriate committees and/or Working Group formations of the US Congress for the purpose of informing the US congressional representatives on the right of Indigenous Peoples to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) as stipulated in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples regarding projects which impact their collective rights.
The purpose of this communiqué is to urge the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission to conduct a full public hearing on this issue before the vote of approval on the USMCA in the US Congress.
Mayan Train in Mexico: Manipulated Consultation
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