October 12, 532 Years of Resistance and Rebellion
“OUT OF RESPECT FOR THE AUTONOMY, DIGNITY, RESISTANCE AND REBELLION OF OUR PEOPLES,” WE TOOK OVER THE INPI, TODAY THE HOUSE OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND COMMUNITIES “SAMIR FLORES SOBEREANES.”
Dr. Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo
Head of the Federal Executive and Chief Executive of the 2nd floor of the Fourth Transformation.
From the House of Indigenous Peoples and Communities “Samir Flores Soberanes”, not the Otomi Indigenous Community residing in Mexico City….
WE DENOUNCE: The dispossession of water, territory and life; the militarization, the impunity of organized crime, the mega-projects of death and the capitalist war imposed from the economic and political power, against our Indigenous Peoples and Communities.
WE DENOUNCE: That the continuation of the second floor of the 4th Transformation, represents the continuity of the WAR AGAINST OUR PEOPLES.
Claudia Sheinbaum. You do not represent us and this is the only BATON OF POWER that you will receive today!
As a sample of your Obradorist heritage, we leave you the data of the last three presidencies:
“The first one, of Felipe Calderón, closed with 122 thousand 491 murders and 16 thousand 815 cases of disappearances.
Enrique Peña Nieto’s balance was 159,308 homicides and 32,590 missing persons.
López Obrador closes far exceeding his predecessors: 176,406 violent deaths at the end of August 2024, and 52,222 cases of missing persons, which triples Calderón’s legacy. A fourth part corresponds to missing women and girls, whose cases quadrupled from 2006 to 2024. In the same way, their violent deaths doubled, going from the 9 thousand 993 reported under Calderón, to more than 21 thousand cases at the end of August 2024.”
We, the Indigenous Otomí members of the National Indigenous Congress, CNI-CIG and members of the National Assembly for Water, Life and Territory, ANAVI, ask you, Sra. PresidentA”…
When will there be: TRUTH, JUSTICE AND THE PRESENTATION ALIVE OF OUR 43 NORMALIST OF AYOTZINAPA DISAPPEARED BY THE ARMY AND IN COMPLICITY WITH ORGANIZED CRIME?
When will there be: JUSTICE FOR OUR BROTHER SAMIR FLORES SOBERANES, MURDERED BY ORDERS OF THE 4th TRANSFORMATION AND FINANCIAL CAPITAL, FOR THE SOLE FACT OF OPPOSING THE MORELOS INTEGRAL PROJECT?
When will there be: JUSTICE AND THE PRESENTATION ALIVE OF THE THOUSANDS OF DISAPPEARED THROUGHOUT OUR COUNTRY?
When will there be: JUSTICE FOR THE SEEKING MOTHERS WHO GIVE THEIR LIVES TO FIND THEM?
When will there be: JUSTICE FOR THE FEMINICIDES, WHICH IN IMPUNITY BECOME FIGURES AND STATISTICS OF THEIR GOVERNMENTS?
When: WILL THE CAPITALIST AND COUNTER-INSURGENT WAR AGAINST THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND COMMUNITIES END, FOR THE SOLE FACT OF DEFENDING MOTHER EARTH, TERRITORY, WATER AND LIFE?
When: WILL WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO THE CITY AND TO A DIGNIFICANT AND DECENT HOUSING AS ESTABLISHED IN ART. 4o. CONSTITUTIONAL?
YOU DID NOT MENTION A SINGLE ONE OF THESE CASES AND MANY MORE IN YOUR INAUGURATION SPEECH. That is to say, you still do not listen to us, do not see us and do not speak to us!
WELCOME TO THE NIGHTMARE!
WE DON’T SELL OUT, WE DON’T GIVE IN AND WE DON’T SELL OUT
WHILE ABOVE YOU CELEBRATE, BELOW WE RESIST AND ORGANIZE.
Sincerely.
For the Integral Reconstitution of our Peoples
Water, Land and Freedom
Zapata Lives, the Struggle Continues
Samir Lives, the Struggle Continues
Stop the War against the Zapatista Peoples
Until Dignity and Justice become customary
Alive They Took Them, Alive We Want Them
Long Live the CNI, Long Live the CIG, Long Live the EZLN
Long Live the National Assembly for Water, Life and Territory
No to the Mayan Train
No to the Morelos Integral Project
No to the Interoceanic Corridor
STOP THE WAR AGAINST THE ZAPATISTA PEOPLES
Original text published by Congreso Nacional Indígena on October 1st, 2024.
Translation by Schools for Chiapas.
Expectations at the Dawn of Another Six-Year Term
After months troubled by the tensions resulting from the end of a six-year term that was not very careful with the ways of political coexistence, especially in a country as diverse and asymmetrical as ours, Claudia Sheinbaum has assumed the Presidency of the Republic in the midst of a festive and victorious atmosphere that underlines the resolution to give continuity to the Fourth Transformation (4T) project of the nation, a project that, as we have mentioned, has so far resulted in important achievements in the economy and social policy, but serious oversights and setbacks, especially in the area of human rights.
The Mexican context at the end of López Obrador’s six-year term has been turbulent. Violence -although it registered a marginal drop- nevertheless maintains a very high degree of impact in more and more areas of the country, and culminated with very disturbing expressions in Sinaloa and Chiapas. Similarly, tensions were felt as a result of the clash between the developmentalist mood of the 4T and the urgent imperatives of caring for our common home, evidenced in the expressions of resistance to the construction of the Mayan Train, the Interoceanic Train and the commitment to continue focusing national energy policy on fossil fuels. Meanwhile, in the field of human rights, contrary to expectations awakened at its beginning, the ambivalence and ambiguity that ended up characterizing the “first floor” of the 4T was deepened. The Ayotzinapa case being the ultimate expression.
For this reason, in light of the tensions and debts with which López Obrador closed his six-year term in the eyes of many Mexicans, the expectation for Sheinbaum’s inauguration was very high, as it was expected to begin to notice, both in its substance and in its manner, the continuities and discontinuities of her proposal with respect to her predecessor. As unanimously anticipated, the President cast evident signs of continuity with López Obrador’s project both in her inauguration in Congress and in the act of receiving the baton of office in the Zócalo, especially in the reiteration of the gesture of presentation of her 100 commitments to the people of Mexico and in their fulfillment. Such commitments address areas of the national reality; however, we propose to concentrate a first analysis on seven points that are unavoidable today: violence and pacification of the country, the climate change crisis, freedom of expression, the migratory crisis, the fight against inequality and poverty, education and substantive gender equality.
Regarding the crisis of violence , she announced that next week he will present her security strategy, although she advanced four axes of action that are not far from Lopez Obrador’s approach, especially the questionable strengthening of the National Guard and the plausible -although unclear and incomplete- approach of attention to structural causes. Regarding the environment, she promised that 45 percent of energy production will be obtained from renewable sources by the end of her six-year term, announced the construction of photovoltaic panels in northern states, greater reforestation and care of forests, the clean-up of the most polluted rivers and guaranteed access to water. As is usually the case, she did not express the means of achieving this, nor did she refer to the prevention of socio-environmental disasters; we will have to keep our attention on the measures to concretize these intentions.
In the areas of economic and social policy, where López Obrador’s six-year term had its greatest successes, she announced the continuity and expansion of social programs, while promising the autonomy of the Bank of Mexico and sending a message of confidence to local and foreign investors regarding the country’s financial security. She predicted the continuation of the increase in the minimum wage and the eventual reform in favor of a 40-hour work week.
She crowned her speech with the announcement of a national healthcare system that will be implemented gradually, she said.
On substantive gender equality, she announced reforms to be presented this week in Congress, as well as a benefits program aimed at women between 60 and 64 years of age, and based much of her narrative on the symbolic achievement of being the country’s first female president. In education, she announced the continuation and expansion of support to schools and students, and the increase of 300,000 additional spaces for enrollment in public higher education.
Finally, two of the notable omissions in her speech were freedom of expression and the migratory crisis. On the first point, she limited herself to assuring that freedom of expression, press, assembly, mobilization and human rights in general will be respected, and promised that there will be no repression. She did not however, announce any strategies in this regard, nor did she show any signs of reconsidering the dismantling of the autonomous constitutional bodies, nor of reestablishing the channels of dialogue with the political opposition, the media and civil society. On migration, she commended her countrymen residing in the US and promised to defend them, but not a single word was said about Mexico as a receiving country, a transit country and a country that expels migrants.
What we witnessed on Tuesday, as expected, was a celebration of electoral victory in which the enunciation of promises to give continuity to the second floor of the 4T prevailed. But this six-year term has just begun, and we will have to remain alert to see how this list of promises translates into public policy and government strategies that will make it possible, in reality, to strengthen our social and democratic rule of law, expressed in the guarantee and protection of human rights, in the opening of better channels of dialogue, in the respect for institutional and civil checks and balances, and in a style of leadership in tune with a woman of democratic, progressive and scientific credentials that the President emphasized in her speeches. As we said six years ago, this is the only way to speak of a true transformation of the country’s public life.
Original text by Mario Patrón published in La Jornada on October 3rd, 2024.
Translation by Schools for Chiapas.