(en) France, Alternative Libertaire AL #247 - Cherán K'eri (Mexico): From the community self-defense in the fight for independence (fr, it, pt)

 (en) France, Alternative Libertaire AL #247 - Cherán K'eri
(Mexico): From the community self-defense in the fight for
independence (fr, it, pt) [machine translation]

Cherán K'eri is a Mexican community of more than 15,000 people located in the state of 
Michoacán, in the heart of the Meseta Purepecha, a magnificent plateau covered with pine 
and oak forests. For over three years, following a popular uprising in 2011 against drug 
traffickers and their accomplices government, residents and inhabitants are fighting for 
self-determination that deserves to be known. ---- Compared with cities and surrounding 
villages, where the cartel Caballeros Templarios reigns, life in Cherán K'eri is 
surprisingly quiet. Day or night, women, men and children animate the streets of their 
presence, smiling. It has not always been the case: the calm that prevails in the 
community has emerged after months of armed struggle and popular organization.

By the early 2000s, organized crime was established on the territory cheranense . From 
2008, the presence of drug traffickers and their control over all activities - both 
political and economic - were considerably strengthened. Hundreds of truckloads of wood 
through the city every week, under the protection of masked and armed men. The illicit 
trade pine - a juicy industry - led to massive devastation of forests. Despite repeated 
requests from the public or municipal police, nor that of Michoacán, nor federal forces 
intervened. The people who tried to prevent the looting were subject to multiple threats, 
kidnappings and assassinations.

This situation continued until the population has decided to say "enough." April 15, 2011, 
a mainly women group decided to block access to the mountain, marking the beginning of a 
long uprising Community[1]. Having failed to find that the complicity that different 
levels of government had with drug traffickers, the people of Cherán had no choice but to 
take up arms and to organize itself.

Self-government

During this struggle, the indigenous Purépecha have not only got rid es drug traffickers: 
they also expelled all the authorities (police and political parties) that protected 
operations. Their struggle is not directed against an organized crime but isolated against 
a system in which drug dealers, politicians and transnational companies combine to sit 
their control over territories and plunder their natural resources. "We realized from the 
use that are narcotrafficking governments to achieve dominance and control of the 
territories, and all in the service of large transnational. With the narco, they submit 
that the peoples natural resources belong", denounces a resident of the community.

The people of Cherán has launched a process of organization for the defense of its right 
to self-determination, drawing ancestral forms Purépecha of self-government. It is using 
the knowledge of the past that Cheranenses undertook a long way toward reclaiming their 
present and their future. "It is often said that young people are the future, but I think 
that we are not the future but the present and the future, it will be our children and 
grandchildren, and for them that we must fight for future generations, " says a young 
particularly involved in the fight.

The popular assembly was reactivated to become the leading authority in the community. 
Residents and inhabitants meet first by neighborhoods and bring their proposals to the 
monthly meeting. Decisions are then applied by different boards: the Board of Governors, 
composed of twelve ancient and elders, K'eris, coordinates the actions of other boards and 
commissions. The security of the municipality, for example the responsibility of the 
Council of honor and justice. Community Round, consisting of about 90 members, monitors 
the entrances to the city and resolves problems within the community. Rural areas far from 
the center, on which lies the forest, on the other hand are under the supervision of 
Guardabosques . Every day, two teams of six men patrolling the entire territory in 4x4.

It is important to note that for the indigenous Purépecha, protection of the forest is an 
obligation both traditional and spiritual. It is therefore crucial that also includes an 
enormous amount of reforestation whose effects can already be observed.

Political parties are dead

Although their organizational work has already made considerable progress, people know 
they are not immune to attacks that could jeopardize the construction of their autonomy. 
The year promises to be particularly agitated happens: the municipal elections that will 
be held throughout the country may well encourage political parties to try to regain power 
over the community. The vast majority of the population is strongly opposed. As stated by 
a woman of about sixty years: "Here, for our people, political parties are dead. We give 
them power through elections, but what is the government realize, sadly? They abuse of 
power. And why? To manipulate us, we roll in flour by not offering us crumbs. They are not 
the appropriate form, they just scamming us. " A young man - who was part of those who 
took up arms in 2011 - says determined: "If I were told that political parties would come 
back, regain power and change things, what would I do? I would be the first to compare 
myself to them again and say "no, there's no way you come back." No parties, no. Better a 
popular system in which you know who represents you, what it does and does not do, who he 
is, how he lives.»

Community TV

Residents and inhabitants of Cherán not lack creativity. On November 29, a youth team 
opened with the support of the assembly, a new weapon: a community television. Strictly 
antiélectorale and antipartisane, it aims to strengthen their organization, while 
promoting local culture and traditions. In one of his first productions, you can hear: 
"The purpose of the community TV is to strengthen our independence and our organization. 
There is no discrimination, no institutional religion, no ads, no political parties or 
groups of power.»

This draft communication is also an opening on the outside and an invitation to follow 
their fight closer but also to organize and fight. "It is not enough to make 
demonstrations, shouting and criticizing the bad government, we must organize." "It is the 
people who give power to those who hold it, but it's also the people who may decide to 
remove them. I encourage the whole society to take notice. If we do nothing, they never 
stop to crush us" and declared in turn two residents of the community during the first 
transmission. The first productions are already available on the Internet via Youtube TV 
Cherán chain.

Text and photos: Eugenie (Subversiones and Network Tejemedios)

For more information you can write (Spanish or French) to: tejemediosmexico@gmail.com or 
tvcheran@gmail.com or visit the website tejemedios.espora.org


[1] On the uprising, see the documentary "Guardabosques" (VOSTFR) Manovuelta, 2013.


http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Cheran-K-eri-Mexique-De-l