On September 7th, a discussion took place at the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences of the UNAM around the 30 years of organization, struggle and resistance of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI), with the significant presence of its spokesperson María de Jesús Patricio Martínez, Marichuy, representatives of indigenous peoples and members of the academy committed to these libertarian causes.
With an auditorium overflowing with enthusiastic and supportive young people, the CNI celebrated its first 30 years of its eventful journey, beginning with its founding on October 12, 1996, and marked by the founding commitment set forth in the landmark resolution of its first National Assembly, held in Milpa Alta on November 20 of that year, in which it pledged to “uphold and defend the implementation of the Agreements of San Andrés Sakamchen de los Pobres, as well as to continue walking together to grow in unity and to put into practice the consensus and agreements already reached.”
In that historic meeting, the CNI reiterated “that our way of being and understanding life, as indigenous peoples, does not seek to reproduce the forms of domination or control with which power groups in the country have oppressed us for so many years, but on the contrary, to establish new ways of living democracy, based on the following principles: 1. Serve and not be served. 2.- Build and not destroy. 3.- Obey and not command. 4.- Propose and not impose. 5.- Convince and not conquer. 6.- Go down and not go up. 7.- Link and not isolate.”
In this assembly, it was resolved to integrate ten working groups that would be dedicated to essential issues based on the monitoring and verification of the San Andrés Accords, such as indigenous legislation, land and territory, justice and human rights, economic self-development and social well-being, culture and education, communication, women, youth and indigenous migrants.
As a reminder to the State neo-indigenists who today, once again, from the National Institute of Internal Colonies (INCI) promote and impose– in rigged assemblies that violates national and international law — controversial and dense documents that purport to be the basis of an initiative for constitutional and legal reform in matters of indigenous rights, the Legislative Technical Commission of the CNI, on November 6th, 1996, proposed the reform of 20 constitutional articles, based on the recognition of the autonomy of indigenous peoples as the concrete exercise of their right to self-determination in the territories they occupy, and the recognition of said peoples to decide and exercise their specific forms of political, legal, economic, social and cultural organization, to freely designate their community and municipal authorities and, as indigenous peoples and regions, in accordance with their own institutions and traditions. In this proposal, the second section of Article 3 of the Constitution is added to stipulate that the education to be provided, in addition to the national content, will take into account that which refers to the specific cultural, social, economic and legal conditions of the indigenous peoples and, therefore, will promote for all Mexicans the knowledge, respect and promotion of the diverse cultures existing in the nation, particularly the culture of the indigenous peoples, and will guarantee them a bilingual and intercultural education, at all levels. Regarding universities and other research centers located in regions where indigenous peoples live, they will promote bilingual and pluricultural education, and will establish curricula that respond to the interests of indigenous peoples.
In April 2001 I published a text in La Jornada with the significant title of “Treason in Congress”, in which I denounced the approval of a law that violated the agreed upon accords by: a) reducing the recognition of peoples and communities and their rights of self-determination and autonomy to the correlation of forces in the states; b) cancelling the exercise of autonomy at the level of one or more towns, and at the levels that make it valid; c) deterritorializing indigenous peoples and dening the collective use of their lands; d) sneaking in a lock that legitimized the forms of property of the Salinas counter-reform to constitutional Article 27, which by agreement of the parties would be discussed at the third round of dialogue; e) denying communities recognition as subjects of public law; f) minimizing the right of peoples to political participation, by establishing government actions that negate autonomy due to their distinctly welfare-oriented approach, and by considering Indian peoples as “victim subjects” and passive objects of State action.
Three decades after its founding, the CNI continues to be the national reference for the struggle and resistance of indigenous peoples.
Original article by Gilberto López y Rivas, La Jornada, September 18th, 2026.
Translated by Schools for Chiapas.