The transfer of 2,471 hectares to the Wixárika community of San Sebastián Teponahuaxtlán and its annex, Tuxpan de Bolaños (Wuauta Kuruxi Manuwe) in Huajimic, Nayarit, was fully completed yesterday, ahead of the decree that will be issued and presented by President Claudia Sheinbaum this Thursday in the town of La Mesa de Huanacaxtle, municipality of La Yesca, Nayarit.
Although La Mesa de Huanacaxtle is in Nayarit territory, it is part of the communal lands of Wuauta Kuruxi Manuwe, located mostly in the municipality of Mezquitic, Jalisco. This small indigenous community is located in the heart of the territory returned to the Wixárika between Monday and Wednesday, by virtue of the decree that will symbolically reaffirm the restitution of the lands to their rightful ancestral owners.
Negotiations between the federal government, the mestizo landowners in Huajimic, and the Wixárika community took place months and weeks beforehand. With compensation of 158 million 264 thousand pesos, they finally achieved the peaceful return of those 2,471 hectares, as those who owned them refused to hand them over without receiving money.
Carlos González, a lawyer for the Wixárika community, said that the legal work carried out by María de la Luz Rodríguez Mendoza, the head of the Agrarian Unitary Court of District 16, greatly contributed to ensuring that the executions were carried out on time and according to the scheduled schedule on May 5, 6, and 7, before Sheinbaum’s arrival in this mountainous area located on the border between Jalisco and Nayarit.
With the transfer of the lands, 5,946 hectares have been restored to the Wixaritari in Huajimic since 2016, representing 56.7 percent of the claimed territory. Another 4,550 hectares remain to be returned to them to secure the return of the 10,448 hectares that are part of their territory, recognized with viceregal titles, which in turn have been the main evidence for obtaining enforceable rulings in their favor.
The decree that President Claudia Sheinbaum will present today at the Huanacaxtle Roundtable was drafted by Undersecretary Griselda Martínez at the Secretariat of Agrarian, Territorial, and Urban Development, in conjunction with the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples and the Legal Counsel of the Presidency.
These 2,471 hectares belong to 15 landholders, who signed the agreement on April 29. The first foreclosures occurred during Enrique Peña Nieto’s administration, one in 2016 for 184 hectares and another in 2017 for 63.
Another 42 hectares were returned in 2021, during Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s administration, but in those first five years, despite favorable rulings, only 300 hectares were returned.
Following the Wixárika community’s march to the National Palace in 2022 to demand the full restitution of the 10,448 hectares in Huajimic and the commitment López Obrador made to them, foreclosures began to flow, totaling 11 land deliveries between May and November 2023 and another two in 2024, totaling 2,925 hectares during that period.
On November 28 and March 27, 2025, already under Sheinbaum’s administration, another 260 hectares were handed over (130 and 130 on each occasion), to which are added those executed this week, leaving a total of 5,946 hectares in the last nine years.
Source: jornada
