Mexico City | Desinformémonos. Community members from San Pedro Atocpan and the Human Rights Network (Nodho) denounced the criminalization and threats made by Judith Vanegas Tapia, Morena representative for Tláhuac and Milpa Alta, against Carlos González, lawyer and defender of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI), whom she called a “historic enemy” and accused of being “behind the movement against Dr. Claudia.”Following the presentation by the Institute for Democratic Planning and Prospective Studies on its plan to design the General Development Plan (PGD) and the General Land Use Plan (PGOT), which have been described as instruments of dispossession by the indigenous peoples and neighborhoods of Mexico City, Vanegas Tapia said that “behind all this will come the name of Carlos González García […], historical enemy of everything that is being attempted […]. He went to stir up towns and neighborhoods […], he was behind the movement against Dr. Claudia [Sheinbaum], who at that time was our head of government.”
In a statement, the community members of Atocpan addressed the congresswoman to clarify that González has been involved in the movement against the PGOT and the PGD “because to date he is the legal advisor to San Pedro Atocpan” and that “at no time” did he “incite the indigenous peoples and neighborhoods,” much less “was he behind the movement against Dr. Claudia.”
“Congresswoman Judith Venegas, the community members of Atocpan want to clarify the following: When you were mayor of Milpa Alta on behalf of Morena, you never had the ability or willingness to engage in dialogue with the community members regarding the PGOT and PGD. Due to your negativity and for closing the doors of the mayor’s office to us, the decision was made to block the Xochimilco-Oaxtepec federal highway in December 2022. We would like to state that this was a movement that emanated entirely from the Community Assembly, in which the community members of the nine villages of the Agrarian Community of Milpa Alta participated,“ explained the community members, who held Vanegas responsible ”for whatever could happen” to González.
For its part, the Human Rights Network denounced that Vanegas presented the struggle in defense of the Milpa Alta territory “as if they were criminal acts” and “tried to twist the story of Carlos González,” who, among his work as a defender and lawyer, has supported the people against government plans for territorial reorganization.
With his statement, Vanegas, added Nodho, exposed González’s integrity “and opened the door for him to be criminalized, attacked, and treated as a criminal when his career has been precisely that of walking alongside the people and against petty, extractivist, and racist interests.”
“In a context such as the one we are experiencing in Mexico, stigmatization and criminalization campaigns pave the way for the commission of serious crimes, which is why it is necessary to be alert and make it very clear to those in power that if, from their perspective, the peoples who defend the territory, human and collective rights, and the commons are enemies, then there are many of us who are enemies of dispossession, plunder, simulation, and the development-racist policy that the self-proclaimed 4T has continued,” concluded Nodho.
Original text published in Desinformémonos on November 3rd, 2025.
Translated by Schools for Chiapas.
Milpa Alta, Threat of Repression
The urban sprawl advances voraciously and unchecked over the ancestral villages that today form the municipality of Milpa Alta. Real estate interests are eager to dispossess the communities of their lands. They want to make big business deals by devouring an important environmental reserve in the very center of the country. “Progress” at all costs is their beachhead for advancing territorial plunder.
Twelve indigenous and neighboring communities coexist within the municipality. They recognize themselves as descendants of the ancestral founders. Despite being in the very bowels of the monster, they preserve living normative systems, local culture, and assembly life for decision-making.
In the 1970s, they successfully fought to preserve their forests and water against the Loreto and Peña Pobre paper mills. They reclaimed their agricultural organizations and got rid of spurious representatives. They rebuilt their identity and have been reconstituting themselves as a people. They continue to confront loggers and clandestine timber traders.
But they are not alone. Their forests, farmland, and water are the dark object of desire for real estate capital. Large developers want this social property to be sold off and enter the land market. Their tool for promoting the massive expansion of Mexico City into the semi-rural territory of the municipality and conservation land is to build infrastructure. The route to increasing the urban population there is the growth of primary mass transportation routes and the densification of land use.
The towns have fought tirelessly for decades. They have also resisted mayors and politicians who act as their representatives. Both in the first term (2018-2021) and in the current one (2024-2027), they have clashed with Mayor José Octavio Rivera Villaseñor, originally from the Citizen’s Movement and now from Morena. In the previous administration (2021-2014), they clashed with Mayor Judith Vanegas Tapia, currently a Morena representative for Tláhuac and Milpa Alta.
A bird’s-eye view of these battles shows us the relentless nature of the confrontation. In them, lawyer Carlos González has accompanied the communities and provided them with effective legal advice. In 2020, the mayor’s office and the local water system sought to drill a well in San Jerónimo Miacatlán to bring water to other parts of the city. The community opposed this and took over the land where the drilling was to take place. To reinforce their action, they filed an injunction.
In 2021, local and federal governments wanted to build university facilities on land that the community had designated for a health center in the Santa Cruz neighborhood. They had already built much of the infrastructure, but the residents filed an injunction and continue to prevent the universities from operating to this day.
In San Pedro Atocpan, in 2022, the community managed to recover a sports center that Mayor Octavio Rivera had taken from them through the fraudulent use of a deed that corresponded to another property. Rivera intended to build an educational complex, backed by the Baillères family.
Also in 2022, they tried to impose the General Land Use Plan on them. They sought to expand Mexico City on conservation land by building centralities or development hubs. One of them was in the town of San Antonio Tecómitl (founded in 1140). It was illegal because it did not consider the community’s right to consultation or its agrarian rights. Finally, on December 9, 2022, a favorable negotiation was reached with the government, in which the official proposal was withdrawn.
As mayor, Judith wanted to build a market on communal land without the consent of the Tecómitl ejido. They filed an injunction and managed to get a suspension order. But the mayor didn’t care and went ahead with the infrastructure. She built two floors. The ejido members filed complaints with the district court handling the case. The appeals were declared unfounded. However, they filed a complaint with the 18th collegiate court in administrative matters, which ruled that the mayor and several other officials had violated the suspension. They were fined, and criminal and administrative proceedings were opened to remove them from office.
Now, in what is an application of piecemeal territorial reorganization, regardless of what the population wants, there are plans to install the Cablebús from Tláhuac to Milpa Alta. The project will accelerate urbanization and the dispossession of land. Protests have been swift. However, it was announced that construction will begin on November 21.
In this context, on October 30, at a working meeting between local deputies and officials from the Institute for Democratic Planning and Prospective Studies, in the context of the start of consultations for the drafting and approval of the General Development Plan for Mexico City, Deputy Judith Vanegas Tapia pointed an accusing finger at Carlos González, the people’s lawyer.
In the worst police style, she said: “Behind all this is Carlos González García. He has been a historical enemy of everything that is being attempted here. He went to stir up the indigenous peoples and neighborhoods. He was behind the movement against Dr. Claudia. Dr. Sheinbaum knows who he is.”
The legislator’s threat puts the lawyer in danger. Ironically, on that same day, October 30, the Governing Board of the Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders unanimously agreed to request, as it had done almost a year ago, that the governments of Jalisco, Nayarit, Michoacán, Colima, Morelos, and Mexico City protect his person and rights and ensure that his life, safety, and integrity are not affected. In other words, the Mexican state considers him to be at risk. Judith Vanegas’ accusation puts him in even greater danger.
Original text by Luis Hernández Navarro published in La Jornada on November 4th, 2025.
Translation by Schools for Chiapas.
Immunity as a License to Plunder
Five days ago, a video broadcast by the Mexico City Congress circulated on social media. It showed a working group meeting of the Mexico City Institute for Democratic Planning and Prospective Studies, analyzing the citizen consultation processes that mark the beginning of what they call the “good faith consultation” for Mexico City’s general development and land use planning programs.
In the video, Judith Vanegas, Morena representative for Tláhuac and Milpa Alta, can be seen hurling insults and threats at lawyer Carlos González, founder and member of the National Indigenous Congress. She warned that, surely, “I don’t know if whether living or or not living, and write this down, but he’s going to come out against everything that’s being attempted here, he stirred the indigenous peoples.” She gave a sort of “profile” in a threatening tone, highlighting that he accompanied the Zapatista movement when Marcos arrived in Milpa Alta; “he is a man who has influence, he is a man who can make things happen, and the president of the Republic, Claudia Sheinbaum, has had him well in her sights since she was head of government.”
Immediately, the Nahua Indigenous Communal Property Council of Santa Ana Tlacotenco issued a strong statement that said, among other things, that it “deeply regrets the unfortunate comments made by local representative Judith Vanegas Tapia against attorney Carlos Gonzalez Garcia during the October 30 working group meeting held at the Institute for Democratic Planning and Prospective Studies. In her remarks, she blamed the lawyer for being the ‘historic enemy’ of the processes currently underway in Milpa Alta. Such visceral accusations, in which she also accuses him of being the one who ‘stirred up’ the community against Dr. Claudia Sheinbaum when she was head of government, can only be the result of frustrated interests and her ignorance regarding the organizational processes and struggles that we, the people of Milpa Alta, have waged against the impositions of the government. This inflammatory, irresponsible, ignorant, and malicious discourse not only jeopardizes the bridge that Mayor Clara Brugada is trying to build with the indigenous peoples of Milpa Alta, but also puts at risk the physical integrity of the person she is accusing.” They added that attorney Carlos González García is the legal advisor to this council, and they are very proud of that.
They also pointed out in the document, dated October 31, that the community organizes itself, according to its own logic, methods, and timing, and does not need someone from outside to come and “stir” it up. Attorney González has only provided legal support for the defense of our rights, which have been violated by the authorities themselves.
Numerous organizations have questioned the statements made by the Morena representative and emphasize that Carlos González is a lawyer who defends the lands and territories of indigenous communities in different parts of the country, including the villages of Milpa Alta.
Without a doubt, the accusations made by Representative Vanegas are very serious. As mayor of Milpa Alta, she faced an amparo lawsuit successfully brought by attorney González, representing and on behalf of the aforementioned community.
Through her voice bitterness spoke, but beyond that, it is important to emphasize that the local Morena legislator, in a public speech and official event, with the backing of her immunity, knowing she would go unpunished, passed judgment on a defense attorney and his political positions. It is no coincidence that she uses the Zapatista connection as an example, which is, moreover, public and well-known.
It would be appropriate for her party to question her public intervention and for the Mexico City Congress itself to assess Representative Vanegas’ actions not only from the perspective of legality, but also of legitimacy, if it does not endorse the idea that immunity is a license to act with impunity.
On the other hand, in addition to attacking and discrediting the defense attorney, the legislator displayed discrimination and racism against indigenous peoples by pointing out that an outsider, in this case the aforementioned attorney, has the power to “stir them up.” The Nahua Indigenous Communal Property Council of Santa Ana Tlacotenco was quite right to point out that they have their own forms of organization and decision-making. This view, as we well know, is common among most members of the political class in the three branches of government, not to mention society in general, which unfortunately has normalized these practices and attitudes toward indigenous peoples.
It would be significant if the specific anti-discrimination commissions, both in Mexico City and at the federal level, addressed this case through official channels. Or, in fact, will it be considered that the Morena representative spoke in a personal capacity and not as a public servant?
Original text by Mágdalena Gómez published by La Jornada on November 4, 2025.
Translation by Schools for Chiapas.