July 1999
Indigenous communities fight trans-Mexico canal
Zoila José Juan, an indigenous Mexican woman, spoke at Calles y Sueños in
Chicago on June 20. She discussed growing resistance to the "Trans Isthmus
Megaproject," a multinational effort to dig a canal between the Gulf of
Yucatan and the Pacific Ocean. Her visit was sponsored by La coordinadora
and the Chicago-Mexico Solidarity Committee.-Ed.
I come from Oaxaca state and my community is Boca del Monte. My
organization, the Union of Indigenous Communities of the Northern Zone of
the Isthmus, is based in Matías Romero. It was founded in 1985 and we're
growing. Our language isn't Spanish, it's Mixe. I work with the women's
commission of UCIZONI in the indigenous communities in Oaxaca, Guerero,
Chiapas, Veracruz, and Yucatan.
STATE'S MEGAPLAN FOR ISTHMUS
The present government has abandoned this whole area. We're afraid of being
marginalized and are resisting government repression. The biggest struggle
we have as indigenous people is abandonment and discrimination against our
communities-in particular the "Mega Project"-because we are in the isthmus.
It's not just our community. This is a problem for people in Oaxaca,
Veracruz, and so on. We have formed an alliance to defend ourselves and our
land. This program has invited foreigners to buy land, our "mother," a
state green and sweet. We still have our waters and our springs. These
people want to take over our riches, so we want to figure out how to carry
our struggle forward.
We don't have enough schools. As an organization we have struggled for
education. We are struggling to get high schools. They just want to give us
"satellite schools"-schools with a television. If somebody wants a higher
education, they have to leave the region, but one thing we know is that we
aren't going to abandon ourselves.
A railway and a highway go through the isthmus. One plan is to widen the
Trans Isthmus Highway and make it into a superhighway. They want to widen
the railway as well. Trains could benefit us since they are the cheapest
way to travel, but now there's no more passenger service between
Coatzacoalas and Salina Cruz. Since there's no benefit from this, it could
only hurt us by running through communities. It's another way to get us out
of there.
Now they are trying to deceive us with misery money into planting
eucalyptus trees, acres and acres of them. This plant is not from our
region. They want us to plant them for paper mills. The little money they
will give us we'll lose right away. This plant dries up the land and sucks
up the water table. Our water comes from streams and wells. We bathe in it
and wash in it. What's going to happen if we plant these trees? We are
going to end up like a dessert.
TAKING FROM EJIDOS
They also try to fool us, by saying there's going to be work for everyone
when the area is developed. It's a lie. When industry enters, mostly
petrochemicals, there will be some work, but with all the chemicals,
they're going to screw us. We don't have the money for taking care of
poisoned victims. In Torrejón chemicals affected women and kids. Where do
the chemicals come from? Our compadres work in maquilas [factories
producing for export], and they tell us about them. Without communication,
we wouldn't know what's happening to our communities.
Each person is a member of the ejido [communal land]. The agriculture
ministry wants to send engineers to measure these lands, and afterwards
they will give you an official title, for free, an agrarian certificate.
They tell us that these people will help you out by giving you a deed
because where the lands are held in common, you can't get loans to
cultivate them, but where they are held privately, you can get loans.
The tell us they're not there to take away or give to us any land, but the
commissioner of ejidos wants to know how big is your property and how much
is left over. They are going to take this extra piece and sell it to
someone else. A lot of people don't have land and they are not allowed to
cut wood on that extra land. You used to be able to do that, but now you
can't because it has an owner.
FORUMS OF RESISTANCE
In the struggle against the Mega-project we have forums about the isthmus,
and people from other states visit us. We also do marches and other
protests. This is why the project has not been carried out yet.
Last year we had a lot of repression. One hundred and twenty of us were
arrested. Women protested on March 8, International Women's Day in Oaxaca
City. We had worked up to a meeting with the governor of the state, and
finally he gave us a small amount of support.
But then they arrested one hundred of us, men and women in, Tepalcatepec,
in front of the justice department, when we protested about people already
in jail. Police went after the old people and women. Some of us ended up
with broken heads and broken feet. After the protests, 80 people were still
in jail. They wanted us to give 60,000 pesos per person to get them out of
jail. We got support from other organizations.
When we were in Chiapas, we asked when do we continue the work of the
Zapatista national consultation. Every news organization, every
municipality is going to have meetings to ask how far to carry it forward;
how we can keep in contact with Zapatistas; whether to have another
national gathering. So it's a another way to carry out resistance. We also
will hold a protest in Mexico City and will carry a letter to Congress.
Before we do that, we are going to find out what people want in our
communities.
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