Article by PBI-Canada

“In Ayutla the right to water is denied”

On May 21, the Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project tweeted: “We join the call for @CNDH [the National Human Rights Commission] and @DDHPO [Human Rights Oaxaca] to comply with the precautionary measures in favor of the community and defenders in #AyutlaMixe.”

Codigo DH, a group that PBI-Mexico accompanies, had also tweeted: “Three years without water, three years without justice in #AyutlaMixe. We urge the @CNDH and @DDHPO to comply with the precautionary measures issued in favor of #AyutlaMixe to prevent further violence and criminalization of women’s struggle #defenders.”

Educa Oaxaca, which is also accompanied by PBI-Mexico, has previously tweeted, “Indigenous Mixe community of Ayutla has suffered without water, due to land grabs by an armed group from neighboring Tamazulápam. Threats to Ayutla continue, yet the state government asks Ayutla to cede more territory.”

Furthermore, Mexico Daily News has reported, “The municipalities of San Pablo Ayutla and Tamazulapam del Espíritu Santo in the Mixe region of the state have disputed the boundaries of their communities for 50 years, fighting over 3,600 hectares of land between them, on which there is only one spring.”

“Authorities from Tamazulapam say that according to their documentation the spring belongs to them, but residents of the neighboring town beg to differ.”

A clash between the communities broke out over this issue on May 17, 2017.

Proceso adds, “The armed group from Tamazulapam took the spring, cut off the supply of drinking water and destroyed the hydraulic infrastructure of the community (two water tanks and pipes that connected 70% of the indigenous population).”

“That situation was denounced as a crime against humanity. However, state and federal officials, with knowledge of the risks and facts, did nothing to avoid major problems.”

And it notes that the (then) UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Victoria Tauli-Corpuz has received the file related to this collective violation of the human right of access to water committed against the entire Ayutla community.

To read the Civil Observation Mission Report (March 2020) on this issue, please click here

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