[This struggle in the Mexican state of Morelos has become the CNI’s (National Indigenous Congress’) focal point for resistance to the government’s megaprojects.]

Protest against the Huexca thermoelectric plants.

By: Gilberto Lopez y Rivas

Manipulated consultations, marked by a political crime, like the one that took place on February 23 and 24 [1] in some arbitrary chosen or vetoed places in Morelos, Puebla and Tlaxcala, are not enough to bend the people’s will to stand against the death projects, like the one that it intends to impose in these three states with a thermoelectric plant, gas pipeline and aqueduct, whose fundamental purpose is to benefit the existing industrial enclaves and those to be built.

In the following days, representative organizations of the struggle against the PIM (Proyecto Integral Morelos, Morelos Integral Project) made public their decision to continue their resistance by legal, political and peaceful ways, as they have been doing over seven years, suffering the state’s institutional and clandestine violence, at the service of capitalist corporations, whose  last victim was Samir Flores Soberanes, outstanding communicator and indigenous leader, murdered February 20, a day after he questioned the federal delegate, Eric Flores, at an event in support of the PIM. February 19, people and citizens representatives of the three states. asked the CNDH (Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos, National Human Rights Commission) for precautionary measures for the PIM opponents, in ratification of a complaint regarding the fundamental human rights and collective indigenous rights that the PIM violates. Nothing stopped the henchmen.

The state attorney general, Uriel Carmona Gándara, a few hours after the attack, re-victimized Samir and his family, by declaring that it was an execution related to organized crime and to venture an unusual line of investigation that directs responsibility for this death to his movement´s compañeros!

On February 28, the Asamblea Permanente de los Pueblos de Morelos (Permanent Assembly of Morelos Peoples) disclosed their word and their decision to struggle, talking to the almost 20,000 people of that state that voted NO to the Huexca thermoelectric plant, facing the disinformation and manipulation of a consultation that violates the constitution and international jurisprudence regarding indigenous rights, in which the government was both judge and jury, and without an independent body that monitored the “democratic” exercise, in which not more than one percent of the electorate participated.

Even in these conditions, the Assembly highlights: “The results of the simulated, illegal and illegitimate poll are clear, the municipalities near the thermoelectric plant: Yecapixtla, Ocuituco, Tetela del Volcán, Hueyapán, Xacualpan, Temoac, Jantetelco, Ayala and Cuatla, aware that what´s at stake is the future of the territory and life itself, said a resounding NO: 11,409 to the thermoelectric and only 4,975 said yes. The dignified and rebellious town of Tepoztlán was forceful with it’s NO vote. The indigenous communities of Huexca and Hueyapan municipality with widespread community assemblies have joined the NO vote, as is it the way that the indigenous peoples and communities have to decide the path we want, which is recognized in the ILO-Convention 169, that the government disowns.”

Therefore, the Permanent Assembly of the Peoples of Morelos (Asamblea Permanente de los Pueblos de Morelos) addresses president Andrés Manuel Lópex Obrador to communicate that he disclaim the “supposed democratic exercise”; it also points out that he not trust his delegate in Morelos “because of his right-wing background and defense of murderers in Chiapas and the person towards whom they point lines of investigation for the murder of our brother Samir Flores Soberanes.” They also demand that the federal prosecutor´s office accept the case and remove the state attorney general. Based on the polling results from the affected municipalities, they demand the definitive cancellation of the Huexca thermoelectric plant and an end to the criminalization of social struggle.

Juan Carlos Flores Solis, a lawyer from the Peoples Front in Defense of Land and Water of Morelos, Puebla and Tlaxcala, jailed for ten months due to his activism against the PIM, made known the protections filed by the communities of Huexca and Anenecuilco and others ejidos of this region in order to make the Federal Electricity Commission abstain from disposing of contaminated waters into the Cuatla River and to stop using the water for their crops. Also, they made known the protections won in Puebla State against the gas pipeline and the interposition of new protections against the February consultation. The indigenous people know very well the limits of the judicial realm if it’s not accompanied by political mobilizations.

Tomorrow, March 9, Amalcingo will welcome delegates from all over the country, to agree on a plan of struggle against the megaprojects of the capitalist fourth transformation, and on April 10 there will be political acts all over the country in defense of life, autonomy, territories and against the official manipulation of Emiliano Zapata.

Zapata and Samir are alive, the struggle continues!

Note:

[1] The results of the consultation on the PIM and the Huexca thermoelectric plant were that 55,715 citizens participated; 59.5% voted Yes, 40.1% voted No and 0.1 votes were void. As López y Rivas points out, the communities close to the project voted overwhelmingly NO, while towns and communities farther away from the project voted Yes.

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Originally Published in Spanish by La Jornada

Friday, March 8, 2019

https://www.jornada.com.mx/2019/03/08/opinion/016a1pol

Re-Published with English interpretation by the Chiapas Support Committee