On March 11, PBI-Mexico tweeted:

“On March 13, at #Puebla, in the municipality of Juan C. Bonilla, one will take place: Consultation with the indigenous community of Santa María #Zacatepec to determine the election system they wish to use to elect authorities: “Uses and customs” or “Polls and Elections””

Their Twitter thread adds:

“The @trielecpue [the Electoral Court of the State of Puebla] issued a statement ordering the following: “A prior, free, informed and good faith consultation with the inhabitants of the Auxiliary Board of Santa María Zacatepec” after the @INAHmx [the National Institute of Anthropology and History] made an anthropological opinion.

Since days past, the @Puebla_IEE [State of Puebla Electoral Institute] have prepared the way for the query to be carried out. And that, as @trielecpue points out, it is based on the recognition of the “indigenous character with which they self-ascribe” in #Zacatepec, that is, the right to self-determination

The right to self-determination is not a minor issue to guarantee peace and respect for #ddhh [human rights] as the Convention on Indigenous Peoples of the @ONU_es [United Nations] points out, there is an “urgent need to respect and promote the intrinsic rights of indigenous peoples”

However, in Mexico and Latin America there is a special concern in this regard: “HRDs [human rights defenders] of the right to land, the environment and the rights of indigenous peoples were the object of attacks in 40%” in cases documented by @FLDAmericas [Front Line Defenders]

For this reason, we want the consultation on Sunday to be “free, informed and in good faith”, without coercion or violence. We call for the security and protection of defenders of #ddhh who advise and who are members of #Zacatepec to be guaranteed

And we also urge the authorities involved in the process to generate the necessary conditions to guarantee the free exercise of collective rights that will take place in Santa María #Zacatepec.”

The PBI-Mexico Facebook post on this.

For more background, please see PBI-Mexico accompanies Indigenous consultation in community of Santa Maria Zacatepec.

Last month, PBI-Mexico commented: “Both the Mexican constitution and international treaties indicate the right of indigenous peoples to self-determination, autonomy and/or self-government. In this sense, we express our concern about the intimidation against the traditional authorities and their legal advice to the community that occurred in a meeting with the Electoral Institute of the State of Puebla on February 5.”

Photo: PBI-Mexico at the February 5 community meeting convened by the State Electoral Institute (IEE) was held at the “Francisco Villa” elementary school.

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