The Community of Tocuila Continues in Resistance in Defence of the Earth

Across the entire country resistances are surging against the unjust grabbing of their natural resources and their territories, like in Xochicuautla and Cherán that defend their forests, Coyotepec that defend their right to water, Tajamar that hold back the destruction of their mangroves, and San Mateo Chipiltepec that defend their hill Tezontlalli, just to mention a few.

The people that are on the edge of the ex-lake Texcoco have continued in resistance since 2001, when we raised our voice and our machetes opposing the megaproject of death and dispossession of our lands.

This resistance has continued despite the events that took place 10 years ago when we were brutally repressed. Furthermore, we have been constantly harassed and intimidated by the government and businesses that purchase the wills of the people, destroying our social fabric because the government works with its dependents: the Agrarian Office, the National Agrarian Registry, CONAGUA, SEMARNAT, the courts, and in complicity with the ejidal commissions, they defend the interests of the oligarchy leaving the people immersed in hunger and misery.

On April 23, our struggle continued against the company CYPSA VISE, when their workers began the construction of the highway PEÑON-ECATEPEC in the ejidos of San Miguel Tocuila and the neighborhoods of Santa Cruz de Abajo and San Felipede. These works were carried out in an illegal manner that violates the protection granted on April 12 of this year by the Ninth District Court of the State of Mexico: 349/ 2016-III. Because of this it was decided that we would install an encampment to block the entry of machines into the territory, organizing committees of surveillance day and night to safeguard the ejidos because the workers of CYPSA VISE had already advanced 1 km filling the ejidos with materials like rock, plastic, and geotextile. Thus, the ejido members and the community decided to flood the ejido with residual water and carry out reforestation in the zone, in order to stop the passage of the company CYPSA VISE.

Once more is has became evident that the laws are only applied to the people who are organized while the companies remain unpunished because they work in complicity with the government while the people are repressed.

Our struggle is not only for the land, but also for the water, our traditions, our culture, our identity, the environment, our history, and the future of our families.

How is it possible that the government of Enrique Peña Nieto assumes that the construction of the new airport will be sustainable, when they have violated the international agreements that protect the habitat that is home to endemic and migratory birds?

How is it possible that Enrique Peña Nieto wants to lower pollution levels, when with this project they will increase toxic emissions?

How is it possible that the government talks of human rights, when in this country they disappear students, kill journalists, beat teachers, and take the right of a dignified life from us, incarcerate people that defend their land and let free rapists, narco-traffickers, and corrupt politicians?

No government in any another country has scrapped its original airport plan only to carry out another and we are convinced that our demand is just and our struggle is necessary. We will not negotiate, not even 5 centimeters of our territory, because we are not willing to sell our dignity. The slogan is clear: the land is not for sale, it is loved and defended. We will not step down. We already know the methods of repression, intimidation and harassment. We cannot be surprised. We are convinced that the organized and united people will never be defeated, and this motto is more than a slogan but is part of our reality.

For this we call on all social organizations and the people in general to join this struggle, to inform and to organize.

Never more the dispossession of our people, never more the barbarism in our territories!

The land is not for sale, it is loved and defended!

Atenco lives, the struggle continues!

Toquila lives, the struggles continues!

Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra