By Reynaldo A. Morales and Diana K. Elhard

After nearly nine years in preventive detention, on September 28, 2023, Herminio Monfil (Mazatec) and Jaime Betanzos (Mazatec), political prisoners from Eloxochitlán de Flores Magón, were released from prison. In 2014, 40 people from the municipality were criminalized and some of them imprisoned accused of the murder of Manuel Zepeda Lagunas.

PRONUNCIAMIENTO CONJUNTO

México: A tres años de su detención arbitraria, exigimos la libertad de Kenia Hernández

Ginebra-París-México, 20 de octubre de 2023

By Francesco Cricchio (CS Intern)

“We need to recover the places in which we once used to pray.” This strong voice comes from a small community of San Pedro Jilotepec, located in Oaxaca province, Mexico, where the Mixe Peoples are trying to restore parts of their traditional territory. They have lived with this land for more than 300 years, and recovering the areas in which they performed their ancestral ceremonies means rediscovering their identities as Indigenous Peoples. 

World Habitat Day 2023: Reimagining Sustainable Cities

By Association Zihuame Xotlametzin

In the historical records, one can find much information on the situation of inequality, discrimination, and gender-based violence against women in its different forms in the General Law on Women's Access to a Life Free of Violence. The central and mountain region of Guerrero is no exception. Every day, multiple social, cultural, economic, and political barriers hinder the full exercise of women's human rights.

Cultural Survival works tirelessly in support of strengthening Indigenous knowledge and building capacity within Indigenous communities. We aim for this to happen not only within community spaces but also through exchanges between other communities that provide participants an opportunity to broaden perspectives and learn about the processes of other Peoples, as well as to learn from projects being carried out in other territories.

Under the public eye, Mexico has shown itself to be a fervent advocate of Indigenous rights at both the international and domestic levels. In 2007 it voted in favor of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), and it is a signatory to the ILO 169 Convention on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples. In addition, its constitution lists a number of articles protecting Indigenous Peoples’ rights. Nevertheless, violence against Indigenous Peoples is prevalent in the country.

Every year around the 23rd of June, Mixtec people from the municipality of San Juan Mixtepec gather to celebrate their patron saint. The music echoes between their respective gathering places in Oaxaca and Lamont, California.

The $20 billion Maya Train project in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico has sparked division among locals, who, while eager for the promised economic benefits and increased tourism revenue, are also deeply concerned about the environmental destruction that will come with the railroad’s construction. The four-year megaproject has eschewed Environmental Impact Assessments and ignored scientists who say the railroad and the trainline will have harmful environmental consequences.

On February 20, 2019, Samir Flores Soberanes was murdered. He was one of the founders of Amiltzinko community radio where he was a communicator, a member of the Peoples’ Front for Defense of Land and Water for the states of Morelos, Puebla, and Tlaxcala (FPDTA); a land defender against the Morelos Integral Project (PIM); and a promoter of community education and Indigenous Peoples autonomy. 

San Manuel is a small Indigenous community of the Tseltal and Ch'ol speaking people, located in the first canyon that forms the first two mountain ranges in front of the plains of the Gulf of Mexico and at the height of the city of Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico. According to the 2020 census, the community is formed by 390 people. But in reality it has more than 700 inhabitants, because many inhabitants were not counted in the census for unknown reasons.