Given the long history of dispossession, repression, and extermination suffered by the Yaqui people, President Claudia Sheinbaum continued the Justice Plan for this community, launched in 2021. Yesterday, in front of residents from their eight traditional communities, she signed a new decree to reclaim 239 hectares of land, bringing the total to 45,794 hectares that have been returned in seven years.
Shortly after noon, the president arrived in Bahía de los Lobos, in San Ignacio Río Muerto, south of the capital of Sonora.
In this region, which is part of the territory where this people has historically settled, she recalled that former President Lázaro Cárdenas signed decrees so that they could recover their lands, but not only were these agreements not honored, but the dispossession continued for several more presidential terms.
During her address, one of the region’s agricultural producers stated that this area has suffered neglect. In response, Sheinbaum recalled that during Carlos Salinas de Gortari’s presidency, the law was changed to privatize water and turn it into a commodity.
She emphasized that with the recent reform in this area, those who had been hoarding water “are now having it taken back and can redistribute it.”
“Mexico’s greatness comes from its Indigenous peoples”
After highlighting the legacy of Indigenous communities, she questioned why some Mexicans “recently brought in a Spanish woman, the president of the Community of Madrid, and recognized Hernán Cortés, the conquistador, whose legacy was, first, to invade the territories of this land, and second, to bring terrible discrimination, violence, slavery, and extermination.”
She added that “there are still Mexicans who think that Mexico began when the Spanish arrived.” He then argued that, in contrast, the Fourth Transformation “believes that Mexico’s greatness comes from its Indigenous peoples.”
Meanwhile, alongside the governor of Sonora, Alfonso Durazo, the director of the National Institute for Indigenous Peoples (INPI), Adelfo Regino, explained that there is a cumulative investment to date of 18.356 billion pesos in various projects that are part of the Yaqui people’s Justice Plan.
For her part, the head of the Ministry of Agrarian, Territorial and Urban Development (Sedatu), Edna Vega, emphasized that 2,588 hectares in the communities of Las Palomas and El Tigre are in the process of being recovered and could be handed over no later than next July.
At the same time, the President inaugurated the school cafeteria at the Miguel Jaime Buitimea Elementary School, where the event was held. This cafeteria will provide meals for 112 Yaqui children, for which 24 million pesos were allocated.
Earlier in the morning, the President led the inauguration of the Dr. Ernesto Ramos Bours IMSS Hospital in Hermosillo, a project that represents an investment of 1.0294 billion pesos and will benefit 122,578 insured individuals.
Source: jornada
