Indigenous Communities Denounce False Consultations in the Istmo de Tehuantepec, Oaxaca

Indigenous communities in the Istmo de Tehuantepec in Oaxaca denounce the false consultations being orchestrated by the three levels of government seeking to impose industrial parks in their communities as part of the Interoceanic Corridor Megaproject

To the Indigenous Peoples of the Istmo de Tehuantepec, Mexico, and the World

To the Official, Free, and Other Media

To the National Indigenous Congress/Indigenous Governing Council

To the Zapatista Army of National Liberation

To the Public

We reject the imposition and simulation of Indigenous consultations in order to pursue the Polos de Desarrollo para el Bienestar, industrial parks that are part of the Interoceanic Corridor Megaproject in the Istmo de Tehuantepec.

We denounce the imposition and simulation of the “free, previous, and informed consultations” in the Indigenous communities of San Blas Atempa, Ciudad Ixtepec, and Santa Maria Mixtequilla. These were carried out (in the order of mention) on May 1, May 9, May 15 and 16 of this year, with the intention of imposing the industrial parks.

We ask the media to properly inform the people by not reproducing the information distributed by the government and it’s bought off media outlets. There, they applaud and say that “the industrial parks have already been approved.” This is a complete lie. The communities have not endorsed any consultation. In this series of orchestrated consultations, not even 5% of the population of the communities have participated. Decision-making has remained in the hands of the municipal and agrarian authorities. These figures have previously spoken behind closed doors with the state and federal government, as is the case of Ixtepec, or have facilitated the falsification of agreements made in assemblies, as is the case in San Blas Atempa.

We denounce the seizing and destruction of communal lands in Jalapa del Marqués, endorsed by the Agrarian Attorney and Municipal Authorities in areas known as Tamazola, the hill of Tres Picos, La Calderona, La Mancha Verde, the hills of Yatii Grande and Yatii Chico. These are spaces of collective work, inhabited by endemic flora and fauna.

We hold responsible the director of the Agrarian Court of Tehuantepec, Luis Alberto Parades Jiménez, for using his public position to pressure and endorse the process of consultation and dispossession of the lands of Indigenous peoples. We also hold responsible the municipal government, along with state and federal agencies, who have participated in these orchestrated consultations, and have generated a climate of division, conflict, and violence inside our communities.

We hold responsible the municipal president of San Blas Atempa, and State Leader of the United Front of Oaxacan Communities (FUCO), Antonio Morales Toledo, for any threat, intimidation, or violence that might occur against our members and representatives of the Permanent Assembly of Puente Madera and the undersigned.

We also hold responsible the Director of the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples, Adelfo Regino Montes, for the violations of our rights as Indigenous peoples, carried out via orchestrated consultations in the communities mentioned above.

We call on the people, communities, districts, neighborhoods, social organizations, collectives and individuals in solidarity, to be attentive to what occurs in the region of the Istmo de Tehuantepec. We also encourage you all to stay informed of the situation via those of us who are resisting and struggling for our land and territories. We categorically reject the neoliberal development seeking to continue the industrialization of the region in the interests of national and international big business. Their promises of progress and well-being equate to dispossession, hunger, and injustice, making more precarious the lives of the people who inhabit the region, and the modes of life that we have carried out to resist/exist amidst all government and business attacks.

We make a general invitation to all of the people of the Istmo of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, and Mexico, who are being affected by the Interoceanic Corridor, megaprojects, and injustice on part of the bad government and businesses, that we get together on June 19 and 20, 2021, in the Binniza community of Puente Madera. In the following days we will release a public invitation.

The communities demand our right to free self-determination and to self-consultation without the intervention of the government and businesses.

Sincerely,

For the Integral Reconstitution of our Peoples

Never more a Mexico without us

Permanent Assembly of Puente Madera

Assembly of Jalapa del Marqués

Inhabitants in Resistance of Santa Maria Mixtequilla

Inhabitants in Resistance of Ciudad Ixtepec

Global Campaign “El Istmo es Nuestro”