Amid intense violence over territorial disputes, President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo delivered property titles to part of their territory to the Rarámuri community of Mogótavo in the municipality of Urique and to the Ódami community of Mesa Colorada in the municipality of Guadalupe y Calvo, located in the Sierra Tarahumara of the state of Chihuahua.
On Saturday, May 17, Sheinbaum arrived by helicopter to Baborigame, located in the Golden Triangle on the border with the state of Sinaloa, amid a heavy security presence with dozens of Mexican Army units, including tanks and special units; the National Guard, as well as Public Security from the State of Chihuahua and the State Attorney General’s Office.
Guadalupe y Calvo has once again become a place of forced displacement due to the struggle between the Sinaloa and Jalisco Nueva Generación cartels, in alliance with the armed wing of the Juárez cartel, La Línea, whose main business is currently logging and other extractivism.
About five hours from Baborigame, in the town of Guachochi, two other criminal groups clashed in the heart of the town on Thursday night, shooting at homes, setting fire to a vehicle, and terrorizing the entire town.
On Friday the 16th, the telephone and internet signals were cut off. Dozens of federal government personnel and others who were staying in Guachochi on Thursday to travel the following day to Sheinbaum’s event witnessed the violence.
The confrontation continued that same day, around 1:00 p.m. In this context, the president arrived in the Sierra Tarahumara, welcomed with a matachín dance performed by girls from the Tepehuán Children’s Home.
At the event held on May 17, the president signed the decree approving Mesa Colorada, at Rancho Las Agujas, as the owner of 502 hectares of traditional communal property, as it was located on national land.
The other community that received a property title for 317 hectares was Mogótavo, belonging to the Rarámuri people in the municipality of Urique.
This achievement was achieved through the Agrarian Conflict Response Program (PADCA), as at least 12 business owners have purchased the land in fractions, despite the fact that the community has inhabited the area ancestrally.
This is Claudia Sheinbaum’s second presidential visit to the Sierra Tarahumara. The first was in December, when part of their territory was returned to the communities of Bosques San Elías Repechique in the municipalities of Bocoyna and Guasachique, in the Balleza municipality.
In an interview, the governor of Mogótavo, Luis González Rivas, who received the property title, said that this is a small step forward, because the owner who sold her share so the federal government could title it in the name of the Rarámuri community seemed to have done so solely for the money and not to truly recognize the Indigenous people who have lived there for decades.
Enrique Parra, second governor of Mogótavo, said that the granting of the titles is a small gain, “it’s a little after 45 years of struggle, of achieving what they are going to give us.” However, he said, they still need to be recognized for the entire territory they have inhabited, as well as other areas in the Sierra Tarahumara.
José Ángel Rivas Vega, an Ódami lawyer and resident of the Mesa Colorada community, said in an interview: “I still can’t believe it, although I know they (the chiefs) won’t be satisfied; they’ll continue to bother us. Knowing those people who are there, I’m still not that happy. It’s great that they’re recognizing it, but I think the whole context needs to be addressed because for them (the chiefs), papers don’t count; they see us as inferior to the indigenous people.”
She added: “Legally, with the document, other legal strategies can be used to assert our territory. What should happen is that there is no longer impunity. What should happen is a response from the authorities. The community is tired of filing complaints; we reached 18 for dispossession, disappearance, assault, threats, cattle theft, and all kinds of other cases. Many of these files expired, very few did. They are from common jurisdiction, and one is from federal jurisdiction for road opening and land use change. No authority has given us or informed us of any results. The State itself is doing this as a strategy to tire us out.”
During the event, a group of displaced women, who have formed the Odótame collective (Odami, Tarahumara, and Mestiza), delivered a letter to the president, requesting that they be guaranteed basic rights such as housing, food, work, education, and decent healthcare, among others, since the State cannot guarantee their safe return to their territories because of the increasing violence.
The Captain General of the Baborigame community, Carlos Rivas Herrera, welcomed the president, who was the first to visit his land by a government official, and called for an end to the constant plundering of the Sierra Tarahumara forest.
Rivas asked, on behalf of all the indigenous peoples of the Tarahumara, that the National Water Commission (Conagua) and the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) support them with programs to retain, protect, and distribute water to our families.
He also called for improved health services in Baborigame and throughout the mountains, with sufficient medicines, doctors and nurses who speak their language and respect their customs.
“We reiterate the need for effective coordination between the federal and state governments, with the establishment of a hospital in this town. We ask that primary education be guaranteed in the different languages of the people who live in the mountains. You don’t learn if you don’t understand what you’re teaching,” he added, requesting support for housing, road improvements, and electricity.
These and other requests were the result of a previous meeting of the Justice Plan, in which traditional authorities from the Sierra Tarahumara participate.
With the president, the heads of Agrarian, Territorial, and Urban Development, Edna Elena Vega Rangel; the Secretary of Welfare, Ariadna Montiel Reyes; the Director General of the National Institute of Public Works (INPI), Adelfo Regino Montes; the Secretary of Infrastructure, Communications, and Transportation, Jesús Antonio Esteva Medina; the Director General of the CFE (Federal Commission of the Federation of National Electricity and Energy), Emilia Esther Calleja; the Director General of the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS), Zoé Robledo; the Director General of Conagua (Conagua), Efraín Morales Lopez; Griselda Martínez Vázquez, Undersecretary of Agrarian Planning and Property Inventories of the Ministry of Agrarian, Territorial, and Urban Development; Víctor Suárez Carrera, Agrarian Attorney General; Carlos Torres Rosas, General Coordinator of Well-being Programs; and Ana Laura González Arreola, Chief Director of the National Agrarian Registry; as well as Ana Laura González Arreola, Mayor of Guadalupe y Calvo.
Sheinbaum highlighted the step they took with the delivery of property titles and affirmed that they will continue to deliver them to other communities that have requested them once their respective processes are completed.
The president also reported that the artisanal roads program began on May 17, with 16 projects for the region, and that more will be carried out each year. She also asked Emilia Calleja, Director of CFE (Federal Commission for the Development of the Federation … “Zoé Robledo, director of the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS), is also coming so that, together with the director of IMSS Bienestar, we can fulfill all the requests you are making regarding access to healthcare. With the agrarian prosecutor and Edna, we will continue to comply with territorial justice. Efraín Morales came to resolve the problem of access to water, and I ask him to tell the Secretary of Semarnat (SEMARNAT) to resolve forest restoration throughout the Sierra Tarahumara and this area.”
He reiterated that in addition to the Bienestar programs that already exist and are now constitutional rights, this year they will implement the Women’s Bienestar Pension program for those between 60 and 64 years old; the Universal Scholarship for girls and boys attending public school; and the House-to-House Health program.
Regarding the latter program, Baborigame proposed the creation of nursing schools so that this training would be part of the entire upper secondary education cycle, so that in three years, the community would have nurses from their own village who speak the language.
Our requests for support in the face of violence went unheeded: Mayor of Guachochi
During the event, the mayor of Guachochi, José Miguel Yáñez Ronquillo, released a letter to the president via social media, highlighting the state’s situation with criminal groups.
Ronquillo emphasized the importance of the state to criminal groups due to its centrality. He has carried out preventive work, such as investing in sports, urban development, tourism promotion, and community organization, which has maintained a harmonious coexistence.
He also noted that they have equipped the police, acquired patrol cars, and trained security personnel, among other measures. However, the violence continues, particularly referring to the events of the 16th and 17th of this month. Ronquillo denounced that his requests for support have gone unheeded.
“President, the fear you may have felt when visiting the Sierra Tarahumara, we feel here every day. The difference is that our families don’t have 200 security personnel at their disposal, nor helicopters, nor low-profile operations. And yet, with what little we have, we do so much.”
The mayor pointed out the Sheinbaum administration’s cuts in resources to states and municipalities, “further limiting our ability to act.” “The peace of mind of Mexicans cannot and should not be the subject of budgetary revenge,” he wrote.
“So, how can we understand the rhetoric that speaks of reducing crime rates and decreasing murders when fear is growing in our streets? Don’t you think it’s a contradiction to say there is peace when institutional support is lacking just when it’s most needed?”
Ronquillo concluded his letter with a “sincere call” to implement a “Tranquility, Peace, and Growth Plan,” accompanied by an increase in federal forces, as instructed by Sheinbaum.
Source: proceso
