The government of Yucatán “is on the side of the businessmen who are land grabbers,” assured the Assembly of Defenders of the Múuch’ Xíimbal Maya Territory, after issuing a statement on the police repression against the Mayan campesinos of Ixil this past August 17, when a security barrier of around 300 officers prevented the passage of the inhabitants in order to seize their communal lands and turn them over to real estate businessmen.
In a communiqué, the defenders of Múuch’ Xíimbal assured that the attempted dispossession of Ixil is a product of real estate speculation “caused by the construction of the ill-named Mayan train”, a mega-project considered a priority by the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
The Assembly also accused “this government of violating the individual guarantees and the physical integrity of the Mayan women and children of this community, whose only crime is to defend their land from the colonizers associated with the governmental power.
Finally, the defenders demanded an end to the aggressions and governmental violence against the Mayan community of Ixil, which defends its territory “from this government that belongs to the conquering and colonizing business class.
On August 17, around 300 police blocked the way in order to prevent the Mayan peasants from working their crops and grazing animals, while throwing stones, bullets and tear gas at the landowners, with the purpose of stripping them off 324 hectares of land.
Below is the full communiqué:
TO THE NATIONAL MEDIA.
TO THE PEOPLES AND COMMUNITIES WHO DEFEND THEIR TERRITORY.
The Mayan communities that make up the Assembly of Defenders of the Mayan Territory Múuch’ Xíimbal condemn the violence against Mayan inhabitants of the community of Ixil by state police belonging to the Yucatán State Government’s Public Security Secretariat last August 17.
Organized to defend their lands against dispossession and real estate speculation, the inhabitants of Ixil are once again being attacked and threatened for protecting the integrity of their territory from corporate interests.
In recent years the Mayan community of Ixil Yucatan has been the target of several attempts to dispossess them of their lands; first for the installation of large-scale wind energy projects, then for real estate speculation, under false pretenses entrepreneurs attempted to take their lands but the community have manage to recover them; now they are again trying to dispossess them of more than 300 hectares that are being used for community projects. Last August 17, the Yucatan state police prevented them from accessing their lands because of an alleged sale they had made, which the ejidatarios deny having sold.
The acts of violence that occurred in the community of Ixil on Thursday, August 17, 2023, show once again that the government of Yucatan, presided over by Mauricio Vila Dosal, is on the side of the businessmen who are dispossessors of land, as the state police assaulted citizens who are defending their lands. Because of the repressive acts exercised against our Mayan brothers and sisters of Ixil, the communities that integrate the Assembly of Defenders of the Mayan Territory Múuch’ Xíimbal DENOUNCE the physical aggressions that the state police of Yucatán exercised against the inhabitants of the Mayan community of Ixil, WE DENOUNCE the attempted dispossession of the lands of the community of Ixil as a result of real estate speculation caused by the construction of the ill-named Mayan train in our territory, which is a priority project of the federal government presided over by Andrés Manuel López Obrador, WE DENOUNCE the threats and any act of repression against the inhabitants of Ixil.
WE DEMAND the cessation of aggressions and governmental violence against women, children and the Mayan community of Ixil who defend their territory from this government which heads the conquering and colonizing businessmen.
WE ACCUSE this government of violating the individual guarantees and the physical integrity of the Mayan women and children of this community whose only crime is to defend their land from the colonizers associated with governmental power.
WE RESPONSIBILIZE the government of the State of Yucatan, the land speculators and the Yucatan Public Security Secretariat for the aggressions, threats and dispossession of the lands of the Mayan community of Ixil.
THE LAND IS NOT FOR SALE OR RENT, IT HAS TO BE DEFENDED.
Original Text: https://desinformemonos.org/gobierno-esta-de-lado-de-los-empresarios-que-son-despojadores-de-tierras-muuch-xiimbal/
English translation by Schools for Chiapas.