Original Americas Program Translation
Reunited on July 21st and 22nd at the base of the volcanoes - the guardians of our people - men and women from over a hundred organizations, networks, communities and groups from 14 states came together offer our voice to tell you that our country faces a serious danger. The ruling government seeks to serve large multinational corporations and give our country to foreign interests and thus canceling our rights won by our peoples through long and heroic struggles.
More than a third of Mexican territory has been given to foreign mining companies. The federal government currently imposes a series of measures that aim to exploit natural resources and the structural reforms imposed on labor, taxation, energy, agriculture and education, violate the rights of our people, of the workers and our national sovereignty. We protest strongly against the privatization of the energy sector.
We have agreed that, confronted by this serious situation, our priority is to build a unified movement to strengthen the struggles of our peoples because the isolation of resistance movements allows those in power to defeat us. It is essential to move forward in the coordination of the different struggles that take place across the country and therefore we make a call to the different movements to set aside differences and move forward in building a national platform that allows us to confront the serious dangers facing our people and our nation.
Faced with repression against our movements, it is essential to articulate actions to demand the safe return of our missing and the punishment of the murderers of our comrades Bety Cariño, Mariano Abarca, Alexis Benhumea, Bernardo Vazquez, Heron Sixto Lopez and the countless others who have fallen in the fight.
We demand the immediate release of all political prisoners in the country, including Alberto Patishtán and our comrades from Tlanixco, a municipality of Tenango del Valle, in the state of Mexico who were jailed for more than 8 years for defending our water rights. In this sense we demand the freedom of our Zapotec brothers and sisters who struggle against wind farms and we demand an end to the harassment and persecution of members of the Popular Assembly of the People of Juchiteco (APPJ). We will not allow any more intimidation, persecution or any form of aggression by the Federal Electricity Commission towards energy users.
We demand punishment for the perpetrators and masterminds of the repression suffered by the heroic people of Atenco in 2006, among them the then governor of the state of Mexico Enrique Peña Nieto, who since taking the presidential power continues imposing megaprojects, specifically the airport and highways. The humiliation and sexual torture suffered by our sisters of Atenco and in the State of Mexico are unacceptable and we will continue to fight for reparations nationally and internationally. Moreover, we will take firm steps to work together as women and men, side by side, to build a better world.
We demand the cancellation of the dams in Paso de la Reina, La Parota and the projects that threaten life in the communities of Sierra Norte de Puebla, Veracruz and Chiapas. We also demand the cancellation of the Isthmus wind megaproject and the parks that are planned for construction in Juchitan, San Dionisio del Mar, San Mateo del Mar and Union Hidalgo. We reiterate our rejection of the mining concessions that were granted without consultation and permission of our communities. We express our solidarity with the people of Morelos, Puebla and Tlaxcala who are fighting against the imposition of a pipeline, aqueduct and two thermoelectric power plants in Huexca, Morelos. We demand the definitive cancellation of the Morelos Integral Project. We call for the cancellation of the landfill in Tlaxiaca, Hidalgo promoted by the state and federal government.
It is a demand of our peoples that the right of our communities to timely and informed consent be upheld. Not one investment project more without the consent of the historical owners of any territory!
It is clear that since the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement 20 years ago, millions of Mexican families have been condemned to misery and our national resources and sovereignty has been handed over to foreign hands. The imposition of the Puebla-Panama Plan (now Mesoamerica Project) twelve years ago brought on dispossession and violence to the peoples of Mexico and Central America. Today the Transpacific Treaty poses a potential threat. The participants of this meeting demanded that the government of Mexico not sign the treaty mentioned, as it will only benefit big capital.
This meeting calls for nation wide mobilization on September 12 and October in a unified way to demand the federal government to respect the rights of our peoples, through the cancellation of mega projects, the decriminalization of social protest and the annulment of the structural reforms that threaten our people's economy, the rights of workers, our communities and our country.
People of Mexico: it is time for unified mobilization, with love and intelligence to defend what is ours. It's time to stand up for the defense and the free exercise of our rights. It's time to take the flag hoisted by our grandparents in defense of life and our communities. It is time that we walk together; it is time to move from resistance to the offensive. We will respect all our forms of struggle.
Enough of displacement, violence and injustice
Death to bad government
It's now or never.
Emitted July 21, 2013 in Santa Maria Zacatepec, Puebla, a state that is resisting deadly megaprojects and transnational capital and an example of solidarity economy.
NATIONAL MEETING IN DEFENSE OF LAND, POWER AND WORKERS RIGHTS
Translated by Nidia Bautista
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