Ostula, Michoacán: Community Members Reactivate Roadblock in the Face of Narco and Mining Threats

 

Translated and Submitted to It’s Going Down

Urgent Communiqué of the Indigenous Community Santa María Ostula:

To the people of Mexico and the world

The indigenous community of Santa María Ostula announces that September 4^th, 2016 a general assembly of the community members took place in which there was an agreement to revive indefinitely the roadblock that is installed on the coast highway 200, with the participation of community members and community police.

This is because the former templarios, through lieutenants like El Tena, El Tuco and Chuy Playas, have been regrouping and taking control of the entire region of the costa-sierra of Michoacán. There has only been silence from the armed marines of Mexico and the security forces along with the evident failure, everywhere in the country, of the single command police.

On the other hand, the mining concessions granted inside of our territory, all of which serve transnational firms like Ternium, have not been cancelled. The agrarian lawsuit 78/2004, being heard in the Unitary Agrarian Court Number 38 of Colima, has carried out all sorts of racket to modify the boundaries of our community with the intention of favoring the templarios of La Placita and the mining companies interested in our territory.

The Mexican state has also been incapable of fulfilling the elemental demands of justice made by our community. For this reason we invite the people of Mexico and the world to support our struggle in the fulfillment of the following demands:

• Demilitarization of the region of the coast-sierra of Michoacán, punishment of the command of the members of the military and the police that assassinated the boy Hidelberto Reyes García, injuring and beating other community members, and destroying the community property of Ostula. We also demand the repair of the property of community of Ostula and the return of the following items: four radios, the seal and identification of the security council, a registered pistol and four sets of keys
• Arrest of the bosses of the Templario Cartel in the region, Federico Gonzalez Medina, alias Lico, and Mario Alvarez López, alias El Chacal. We also demand the honest dismantling of this cartel and of its political and economic structure.
• Respect and the granting of guarantees for the liberty of the members and operation of the community police of the municipalities of Aquila, Coahuayana, Chinicuila and Coalcomán
• Presentation with life of the six community members disappeared, and punishment of the masterminds of the assassination of 34 community members of the community of Ostula within the last four years
• Respect to the territory that for time memorial has belonged to our community and the cancelation of the mining concession within our territory to people from outside our community

Xayakalan, Michoacán, September 6, 2016

Sincerely,

Never More a Mexico Without Us

Indigenous Community of Santa María Ostula