Sep 12, 2012

Afromexicans demand recognition of their rights


Americas Program Original Translation

El Universal: September 11th 2012

Chilpancingo, Guerrero. The Permanent Assembly of Indigenous and Afro-Mexican Organizations (APOYO) sued the government of Guerrero and President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto demanding an end to the discriminatory government policies against them.

They demanded that their communities be recognized in planning public works programming and production projects.

Benigno Garcia de la Rosa, of the organization of Afrodescendents in the Costa Chica of Guerrero, explained that the afro-descendent communities have not been recognized by neither state nor federal governments and have therefore sued the next president of Mexico and the governor Angel Aguirre Rivero demanding constitutional recognition.

He noted that Afro-Mexicans, like the indigenous communities of Guerrero, similarly face government discrimination, live in poverty and extreme poverty, and do not receive adequate attention from state and federal governments.

"They want to treat us like every other Mexican, but we have an origin, customs, and different ways of being and we demand to be recognized in the Constitution of the Republic."

So, on the third anniversary of the founding of APOYO, they have asked the governor to send a bill to Congress to be recognized as an official ethnic group in the state.

And they demanded the president-elect to do the same, "constitutional recognition".

Click here for original Spanish article.

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