Colonia Maya, Oasis and 20 Years of Resistance in San Cristóbal

San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas. With its struggle and resistance for more than 20 years to defend the territory, the Maya neighborhood has become an oasis in San Cristóbal and at the same time a thorn in the side of the authorities.

“They say that the inhabitants of the Maya neighborhood don’t like anything, that we protest against everything, that we are rebellious, but no, what happens is that we have learned to defend our rights, to not allow anything to be imposed on us,” said Eustasio Hernández, president of the board of directors.

Their first act of resistance, recalled Pedro Álvarez, one of the settlers, occurred in 1998 when the hotel and gas businessman, Oscar Liévano, tried to install a gas station on land bordering the Maya.

“We organized ourselves, we did a 15-day sit-in until the trucks left. They had already placed three tanks known as “sausages” to distribute the gas and they were already distributing it,” he added.

He said that the then president of the colony, Pedro Pinacho, was threatened, but the settlers supported him. “It was the first strong fight we had. We blocked the entrances and that’s how we managed to get the workers to leave.”

Martín López López, another of the neighbors, said that on that occasion they organized and marched, “including elementary school children, we went to the San Cristóbal council and they quickly revoked the permits.”

The entire colony, where more than 400 families live, joined in, according to Pedro Álvarez, who said that Liévano, a very powerful businessman, tried shortly after to build the subdivision called La Moraleja on the same land, with 268 houses, which led to new resistance actions.

He said that in response to the protests of the settlers he reduced the number to 200 houses and ended up proposing 60, but also “the project was brought down, thanks to an infiltration ditch that was built on the limits of the colony and its land.”

“If we had allowed the construction of a storm drain as had been proposed, we would already have the La Moraleja subdivision next to La Maya,” he said.
 
Interviewed in the multipurpose room, Lucía Moshán Moshán, another member of the board of directors, said that the businessman intended to build La Moraleja on three hectares owned by the Housing Fund of the Institute of Social Security and Services for State Workers (Fovisste).

Martín López explained that in 1991 Fovissste tried to build there, but because of the slope of the land it declined and decided to sell it, so it auctioned it off, “but we don’t know what its current situation is.”

He said that “the infiltration ditch was built so that the colony wouldn’t flood and to obstruct the passage of vehicles towards the land located at the foot of the hill. One day 40 trucks carrying material entered. The passage was closed and it was decided to make the ditch.”

Pedro Alvarez explained that the ditch can capture up to 120 thousand liters, since it is 65 meters long by 1.2 meters wide and 1.2 meters deep.

López added: “The water stays there. It has no drainage. It has only overflowed twice. That is the proposal we have made for the entire city that is increasingly flooded. That ditches or wells be made in the upper parts, no major works are needed so that the neighborhoods below do not flood and no cement is needed.”

He said that the infiltration ditch cost them three thousand pesos of diesel that they paid. “The first part was done by agreement with the operator of the machine which had gotten stuck there and it was agreed that he would make the ditch so that he could leave; he made the first 15 meters.”

He said that “that time Oscar Liévano sued us, but he did not accuse us of kidnapping, but of gang activity. Three times they denied the arrest warrant, but then he asked the operator of the machine who was detained to complete the complaint by adding kidnapping to accuse not only two people, but four more.”

Along with the resistance and political struggle, the settlers had to face the legal path, since Liévano Narváez managed to get a judge to release an arrest warrant against six directors and residents of the Maya neighborhood, but thanks to their struggle and resistance, they managed to get the State Attorney General’s Office to drop the criminal action against the charges of criminal association, organized crime, incitement to violence, attacks on communication routes and kidnapping last July.

La Maya was accompanied in her struggle by different organizations, including Amnesty International, which launched the campaign called “#ProtestingIsNotACrime, with which we made known that in Mexico defending the territory puts people’s freedom at risk.”

The executive director of Amnesty International (AI) in Mexico, Edith Olivares, said regarding the withdrawal of the criminal action that “La Maya has taught us that defending the territory is done with and for the community organization. By defending the territory occupied by their neighborhood, La Maya defends and strengthens their community.”

Thanks to their struggle, accompanied at various times by the priest Marcelo Pérez Pérez, murdered on October 20th in San Cristóbal, the neighborhood received the Mariano Abarca environmental award in 2022, from 230 organizations, becoming the first urban project to receive the award.

“We aspire to be a kind of Cherán that conserves differences differences. We want to be like a little light, not by being an example, but a stone that makes the authorities uncomfortable,” said Martín López, who recalled that the motto of the neighborhood is “La Maya Exists because it Resists,” and above all that “we do not sell out.”

Original article by Elio Henríquez at La Jornada, October 27th, 2024.
Translated by Schools for Chiapas.

Want to receive our weekly blog digest in your inbox?

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

Shopping Cart
Scroll to Top