Jalisco villagers have set up camp against the bulldozers

El Daily Post: The grey mists of morning rise in the valley of Ahuisculco, bringing the new day to the roadside encampment where ten hardy villagers have spent the night around the fire, drinking coffee and sharing stories to ward off chill and exhaustion. One by one, reinforcements begin to arrive from the nearby village with chicharrones, chismes and good cheer.

It’s another day in the plantón, the protest encampment blocking the path of the bulldozers – where hundreds of villagers of this town of 5,000 have taken a stand for more than a month to protect their water supply from the excavations of a shadowy corporation that has yet to be identified. Here in the entrance to the construction zone that menaces their springs they’ve blocked the construction with their bodies, building a temporary encampment complete with kitchen, port-a-potties, sound system and now an open-air tent chapel with their beloved “Chaparrita,” the miraculous Virgin of the Ascension. Read more.

SANTA MARIA ZACATEPEC STATEMENT

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.