San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas. Various groups stated that it is “essential to listen to the complaints and demands of Indigenous peoples” regarding the construction of the Palenque-San Cristóbal highway, as “this is the first step toward building peace and justice.”
They added that President Claudia Sheinbaum’s statements during her morning press conference on Friday, September 11, in Tuxtla Gutiérrez—in which she claimed there is no social opposition— “the voices of Indigenous peoples are dismissed and silenced”—peoples who “have denounced the serious impacts on their livelihoods (farmland, springs, and sacred sites), as well as the socio-environmental damages that are being felt more acutely due to the lack of rain and which would worsen in the region if the project continues.”
In a statement, the group Caminos de Vida y Resistencia—composed of the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba), the Center for Indigenous Rights (Cediac), the Brigada Común Collective, the group known as Economic and Social Development of Indigenous Mexicans (DESMI)—and the Documentation Caravan for the San Cristóbal-Palenque Highway Project—stated that “the organized communities that make up the Movement in Defense of Life and Territory (Modevite) and other affected and organized communities have denounced that the promotion of this project has violated their right to self-determination, their right to access to information, and their right to free, prior, informed, culturally appropriate, and good-faith consultation.”
They said that for more than three six-year terms, various organized communities have opposed the San Cristóbal de Las Casas–Palenque highway project, currently renamed by the state government as the Route of the Maya Cultures.
They asserted that the president’s recent statements reflect misinformation, a lack of engagement, and/or a refusal to address the demands of the communities that inhabit and defend these territories.
They pointed out that the project—whose first section, Palenque-Ocosingo, is currently under construction—“not only destroys trees, but also ravages Mother Earth and the deep bond that connects Indigenous peoples to her.” Nor are its impacts limited to the 80-meter right-of-way, as there is an impact zone where approximately 94 percent of the deforestation associated with the roads occurs and where 966.03 hectares of primary forest, endemic species, and rivers still remain—facts that the published Manifesto fails to mention.”
In a statement, they asserted that the advancement of this project “not only tramples on the rights of Indigenous peoples, but also on the rights of Mother Earth, putting at risk the life, biodiversity, and relationships that sustain our communities.”
The groups recognized “the tireless efforts of Cediac, Modevite, and the community government to support their demand for respect for their rights as indigenous peoples affected by the San Cristóbal de las Casas–Palenque superhighway. We believe and affirm that their work and struggle are consistent and honest.”
We reject “attempts to defame their work, as well as the dissemination of false information regarding the ‘acceptance of the highway project,’” while calling for “the fair demands of the indigenous peoples of Chiapas—who are already being affected by this project—to be addressed. Yes to life, no to the dispossession of our land!”
Separately, the community government of Chilón and organized communities denounced drone flyovers, surveillance, and the entrance of engineers onto their lands without permission, as well as acts of harassment, pressure, and intimidation currently being experienced by those defending their territory.
They reaffirmed their collective decision to reject the San Cristóbal–Palenque highway, while demanding that their right to self-determination as indigenous peoples be respected.
Original text by Elio Henríquez published in La Jornada on September 19th, 2026.
Translation by Schools for Chiapas.