Photo by El Diario Chihuahua.

On May 31, the Peace Brigades International - Mexico Project tweeted: “Team in Chihuahua observes the mobilization of indigenous communities affected by the tourist projects in Barrancas del Cobre, who defend their territory.”

This follows this tweet from the Sierra Madre Alliance (ASMAC) that notes: “The peaceful protest of the Mogótavo community continues in the company of 10 other Odami and Rrámuri communities in defense of their territories.”

Defensa Tarahumara has also tweeted: “Entrepreneurs intend to deprive their territory of 80 Rarámuri families. For this reason, a peaceful march is being carried out where the communities of the Sierra Tarahumara are asking for respect for their territories and their human rights.”

News reports

On May 26, La Jornada explained: “Four businessmen and a PRI deputy filed criminal charges for ‘aggravated dispossession’ against three indigenous governors. Legislator Omar Bazan Flores and businessmen Ricardo Orviz Blake, Agustin Lopez Daumas, Jesus Alberto Cano Velez, and Ricardo Valles Alvelais argue that Mogótavo’s lands were purchased for more than $2 million from Odile Sandoval in 2008 to turn ‘the area into tourism development’.”

Then on May 30, El Diario Chihuahua reported: “Businessmen intend to evict them from their community of Mogótavo. They claim community that they will not leave their lands where around 400 people from 100 families have lived.”

“’We are not going to move from our land, here we were born, here our parents were born and they are not going to take us away’, were the words of Enrique Parra, indigenous governor of the community of Mogótavo, municipality of Urique.”

That article adds: “This was during the demonstration on Saturday morning in the Copper Canyons, where more than 100 inhabitants of the aforementioned community demanded that their rights be respected and not stripped of their lands where they have lived since ancient times.”

And La Opcion reported: “Through social networks circulated photographs of the Rarámuri people protesting the defense of the forests of San Elías Repechique. Dozens of Indigenous peoples issued their messages through tarpaulins, banners, and cardboard in defense of the territory that belongs to them and of which they want to strip them.”

That article continues: “’They want to strip us, they want to run us, but here we are going to stay because it is our territory’, ‘because the land is our mother’, ‘respect for the rights of the Rarámuri people’, ‘we do not want a treatment plant’ and ‘justice for all the defenders of the territory’ were some of the messages that the Rarámuri people presented through posters.”

PBI-Mexico has accompanied the Sierra Madre Alliance since 2018.

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