FROM THE EDITORS: In Mexico, as in many neoliberal and authoritarian governments, the discourse of national security has been used again and again as a pretext for developmentalist extractivist projects. The National Indigenous Congress has launched a national campaign to promote legal resources for the protection of indigenous communities, which is finally beginning to show results. On January 15 and 16, 2022, they organized the National Conference of Resistance against Gas Pipelines and Deadly Projects, and a call for a Caravan of Peoples for Life and Against Megaprojects that starts this March 22, and calls for national mobilizations. Below we share the statement on the first judicial suspension of the Mexican presidential decree.
The court in Mexico Blocks Federal Mandate that Declared Infrastructure Projects of “Public Interest” and “National Security”
To the people of Mexico
To the people of the World
To the media
We announce that the people and the indigenous communities of Jalisco, Querétaro, Puebla, Morelos, Veracruz, Oaxaca, Campeche, Quintana Roo, Yucatan, and Mexico City, participants of the National Indigenous Congress, have filed 17 writs of protection against the presidential executive order that deems all federal government infrastructure projects to be of “public interest” and “national security.” It dictates federal administration offices to confer provisional authorizations for executing these projects, with disregard for constitutional as well as international and regulatory agreements. This action violates the rights of our people with the purpose of imposing infrastructure and colossal megaprojects such as: the Interoceanic corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec Mayan Train, the new International Airport of Mexico City, and the Integral Project of Morelos. These projects will signify the dispossession and takeover of our territories and frontiers, affecting many populations in Mexico and Central America in favor of the US and large multinational capital and geopolitical interests.
Despite the profound legal aberration that this executive order represents, many judges declared themselves incompetent by casting aside our writs of protection, without consideration, or have solicited never-ending clarifications. However, the second district’s court in matters of Civil Protection, Administration, Labor, and Federal Trials from the State of Puebla awarded a provisional suspension of the presidential mandate, in contrast to several judges whose neglecting attitude shows complicit behavior.
This suspension temporarily hinders the neoliberal Mexican government’s intention to execute actions as stipulated per its illegal decrees, such as declaring infrastructure projects of “public interest” and “national security,” which reiterates its cynical decision of running over the rights of anyone. It makes use of its armed groups to suppress our rights, who also benefit from these neoliberal megaprojects. For example, the Ministry of National Defense has positioned itself as the beneficiary and operator of the Santa Lucía International airport and Tren Maya since the beginning. The federal executive order would make it easier for them to violate the rights of those who oppose it.
In other words, it will have no hindrances to protect its own business and capital, while stripping the nation and its people of national territories, using weapons and all faculties against indigenous people, peasants, and those in urban areas who might oppose them. They will do so by twisting arguments of “public interest” and “national security,” which they have been doing with or without the validity of the presidency.
We call the people of Mexico and the world’s geographies in rebellion to beware of the imposition of these deadly megaprojects and how judicial powers might carry out their ruling in the face of our people’s decision to defend our rights and territories.
Yours Sincerely
- Por la Reconstitución Integral de Nuestros Pueblos
- Nunca más un México sin nosotros
- Comisión de Coordinación y Seguimiento del Congreso Nacional Indígena- Concejo indígena de Gobierno.
