Under the current government of the so-called “Fourth Transformation” (4T), the south of Mexico has witnessed the ongoing pillage and plunder of its natural resources, a humanitarian crisis of migrants and refugees, an explosion of violence, organized crime and paramilitary activity, in tandem with the forced displacement and criminalization of individuals and collectives in resistance. In response to this catastrophic panorama, the Assembly of Indigenous Peoples of the Oaxacan Isthmus in Defense of Land and Territory (APIIDTT), together with other collectives in Mexico and abroad, announces the “International Caravan and Encounter The South Resists”, to be held from April 25th to May 7th .
COMMUNIQUÉ
FIRST CALL FOR THE INTERNATIONAL CARAVAN AND ENCOUNTER
THE SOUTH RESISTS!
2023
Caravan: From April 25th to May 5th (Mexican South-Southeast territory) International Encounter: May 6th and 7th (CIDECI/ Jacinto Canek Caracol, San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas)
To people of the South-Southeast of Mexico in resistance and rebellion
To national and international organizations of struggle from below to the left
To human rights organizations of the world
To the free, alternative media or whatever they are called
The organized peoples below and to the left of the South-Southeast of Mexico are calling for a broad network to resist the interconnected megaproject “MAYAN TRAIN – INTEROCEANIC CORRIDOR” and the megaprojects of death that the 4T government is imposing. This has been confirmed by those of us who were part of the first caravan held last August, with the participation of compañerxs from the Assembly of Indigenous Peoples of the Isthmus in Defense of Land and Territory (APIIDTT), the Ya Basta! Internationalist Association! Êdî Bese! of the Social Centers of Northeast Italy and the indigenous organizations who receive and share this journey.
This is the state of things, all levels of government and political parties supporting big companies and in alliance with organized crime are promoting, under the rhetoric of national security, public interest, progress and the fight against poverty, a new stage of colonization that goes beyond the interconnection of railways, roads and other infrastructure works, whose current construction has already generated great environmental, social and cultural destruction.
The new conquerors of corporate capital are being offered natural resources and territories of the South-Southeast of Mexico for free trade and imposition of projects in the energy, tourism, maquiladora, commercial and military industries; that would constitute a logistical corridor and the new geopolitical border that in turn reorders the territories of Central America and controls the migratory flow to the United States. The objective is clear, to build a wall of maquiladoras that mainly contains the migration of people from Central America, to be used as cheap labor – neo-slavery -, in a tax haven free of taxes and reprimands for human rights violations, all of this directed from the United States and its commercial allies in the Global North.
This neoliberal capitalist economic policy of the 4T “social democratic” government, reinforces the damage caused by previous governments through mass tourism, extensive livestock farming, monocultures, wind farms, solar plants, hydroelectric plants, the exploitation, transportation and transformation of hydrocarbons, in a global context of climate crisis that is currently directly having an impact on various territories, triggering crises of water, food, energy and the tension of armed conflicts.
Meanwhile, the population is suffering from the resurgence of the presence of organized crime cartels and the militarization of the region, causing an increase in threats and extortion, forced disappearances, murders, femicides, and gender violence in general; normalizing repression against communities, organizations and defenders of the territory and human rights, as well as journalists and all who raise their voices and fight for life.
All this is being done under the argument of “national security” and public interest with the imposition of a dictatorial and fascist decree (11/22/2021 DOF), violating the human rights of Mexicans, embodied in the Mexican Constitution, in international agreements and treaties, and particularly the right to self-determination and autonomy as indigenous peoples, and seriously regressing in agrarian, labor and educational rights, won by the struggle of the Mexican people in the last century.
This analysis and reflection was built throughout the journey through the territories of the South-Southeast of Mexico, where we met and shared with historical struggles, current resistance and dissident rebellions, but also, we recognized our processes of autonomy, construction of alternatives, as well as the recovery and construction of identity and collective memory that dignifies us as indigenous peoples.
After talking with the organizations that hosted the passage of this first caravan and the National Indigenous Congress (CNI), we joined the proposal to convene the Caravan (from April 25th to May 5th) and the International Meeting (May 6th and 7th) “THE SOUTH RESISTS”, with the purpose of joining the indigenous, agrarian, environmental, student, trade union, feminist and other struggles from below and to the left to jointly draw up very specific strategies of resistance against the interconnected megaproject “MAYAN TRAIN – INTEROCEANIC CORRIDOR” and all the megaprojects of death.
This is why we are now carrying out a Caravan for the Global South in rebellious Europe, informing, sharing, getting to know and inviting struggles, resistances, rebellions, autonomies and alternatives to participate in weaving realities and building the global struggle from below. All of us who fight against the Global North are standing in the South that Resists and it is essential to understand this to join together from diversity and in the face of adversity; there are more things that unite us than those that divide us, and, in the face of social cracks, we are the veins that unite.
We invite all of you to join this initiative and be attentive to the communiqués that follow.
For any information contact the email: elsurresiste@riseup.net
OUR FIGHT IS FOR LIFE!
LONG LIVE THE BLOSSOMING OF THE PEOPLE!
THE SOUTH RESISTS!
This was originally published in Spanish at https://tierrayterritorio.wordpress.com/2022/09/27/primera-llamada-caravana-y-encuentro-internacional-el-sur-resiste/ on 27/09/22. English translation by Schools for Chiapas.