Siege of the Yaquis | Article

Alberto Vizcarra Ozuna

WITHIt was hoped that with the implementation of the Plan for Justice for the Yaqui Peoples ordered by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador at the start of his administration, the ethnic group’s territory would enjoy basic security conditions and federal government action. at the very least, they will prevent attempts by neo-liberal governments to deprive them of their natural resources, especially the water that is stolen from them as a result of the illegal exploitation of the Aqueducto Independencia; work imposed by blood and fire during the extraordinary government of Guillermo Padres, with the support of the governments of Felipe Calderón and Enrique Peña Nieto.

But it’s not like that. Although the government has promised to roll out aid and charity work throughout the Yaqui with a projected investment of more than 11 billion pesos, requiring the continued presence of state and federal officials, conditions of insecurity and violence have risen sharply. during this administration. Over the past four years, as part of this wave of violence, they have killed important members of the tribe and prominent opponents of water deprivation, such as Tomas Rojo Valencia.

The members of the tribe did not cease to condemn this controversial fact. How is it possible that violence continues when the presence of the government in a territory occupied by 35,000 indigenous people is so dense. On Friday, February 3, authorities in the city of Potam, the second capital of the Yaqui cities, along with other representatives of this ethnic group, condemned the threats from criminal groups stationed with impunity in the territory and ordered terrorist measures, imposing “curfews” on the city, making arrests and disappearances of people who travel during times prohibited by criminal gangs. The same applicants accuse the state and federal authorities of not intervening under the guise of respect for territorial autonomy.

According to these denunciations, the usual siege by the authorities over the past decade for the tribe to surrender and relinquish legitimate protection to the waters of the Yaqui River and the Independencia Aqueduct now has the added chilling component of a rampant gang advance. groups that are resuming their persecution of the Yoremes, identified with the protection of water.

The persecution of the Yaquis is led by the directors of the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples (INPI), who support two fronts of the offensive: the completion of a consultation with the tribe by order of the Supreme Court on the consequences caused by the Independence Aqueduct, crowning the efforts initiated by the government of Peña Nieto, which managed to legalize the illegal. Establish de jure that they act by force. The other front is the surrender of the Yaquis, who refuse to accept the disappearance of Lázaro Cárdenas’ decree issued in 1940, which gives them primacy in the use of water from the Yaqui river basin and gives them jurisdiction over the middle and upper parts. basin where the aqueduct operates illegally. This would be a consequence of the decree of López Obrador, which lowers the tribe to the status of concessionaires, depriving them of the protection of the Cardenista decree, which guarantees them a certain amount of water and gives them priority over other users of the basin.

Lázaro Cárdenas is revered in the gallery of heroes that are the emblem of the López Obrador government, but in practice he is outraged when the government succumbs to pressure and tries to repeal the cardenist decree protecting the Yaqui tribe. During his 2006 election campaign, Andrés Manuel López Obrador repeated in his speeches that he would not achieve the presidency of the republic by entering into agreements that would endanger his government with interests unrelated to the general welfare.

The rhetorical expression went something like this: I will not leave a shred of my dignity on the way to the presidency. The refrain lost color in the 2012 election campaign, and in 2018 it completely disappeared from his speech, while agreements were made with public figures (previously criticized by him) that compromised the alleged dignity of the president. Someone convinced him or convinced himself that there is no other way to take the post of President of the Republic.

Undoubtedly, some of that dignity was thrown away in Sonora when the President decided to support all the lawlessness and abuse committed around the introduction of the Independence Aqueduct. A job whose technical impracticability, social and economic appeal is overwhelmingly documented. Diverting the waters of the Yaqui River to the city of Hermosillo from the hydrological basin, which is in poor condition, increases the hydraulic load of the entire southern Sonora, while the withdrawals pumped by the aqueduct system are carried out from the basin, negatively impacting the users of the lower part, where the Yoreme territory and the valley are located. Yaki, one of the main regions for the production of basic grains.

The president knows that the Independencia aqueduct is operating illegally, and he also knows that it affects the Yaqui tribe and productive activities in southern Sonora. But none of this evidence was sufficient to act in accordance with legality and technical rationality. Private interest engagements that convened in the capital of Sonora to exploit the big real estate deals governed the president’s behavior. It is planned to turn the city into a fat mass with millions of inhabitants, which requires huge amounts of water. The city is considered the national vanguard of real estate speculation.

The most vulgar part of these commitments was exposed when prominent representatives of the political and economic interests of Guillermo Padres were accepted as the protagonists of the fourth transformation in Sonora. The social cost of subjugating a water policy that favors a rate of return in managing resources and neglects to use them to produce staple crops and benefit the Yaqui tribe is immeasurable.

The completion of the imposition of arbitrariness begun by the governments of Calderón and Peña Nieto required that government to systematically lay siege to the Yaqui tribe.