Alert: Repression and Eviction of the “El Sur Resiste” (The South Resists) Caravan in Guichicovi, Oaxaca
Below is a translation of a statement issued on April 28 by the National and International Caravan “El Sur Resiste” (The South Resists) regarding the repression and eviction of the "Tierra y Libertad" (Land and Liberty) protest camp, which was located in the Mogoñe Viejo community, Huichicovi, Oaxaca. Mexico. Read the original Spanish statement.
Friday, April 28, 2023
From Oteapan, Veracruz
Caravan The South Resists!
Urgent Press Release
Mogoñé Viejo, municipality of San Juan Guichicovi, Oaxaca.
Early this morning, the Mexican Navy, the National Guard, and the Oaxaca State Police have evicted the Tierra y Libertad Camp, which the Mixe indigenous community of Mogoñé Viejo had been maintaining for 61 days, on the railroad tracks that are part of the “Interoceanic Corridor” megaproject. Since Thursday night, around 10: 38 PM, the National Guard surrounded the Tierra y Libertad Camp and detained six of our comrades: María Magdalena Martínez Isabel, Fernando Hernández Gómez, Adela Severo Teodoro, Esperanza Martínez Isabel, Elizabeth Martínez Isabel and Eliodoro Martínez Isabel. Their whereabouts are still unknown.
In addition, comrade Adela Severo was beaten by elements of these military groups. The attack she and others received was a violation of a space composed primarily of Indigenous women in the defense of the territory. This is a violent, misogynistic, classist, racist and patriarchal attack for which we hold all three levels of government (municipal, state and federal) responsible. We are talking about the actions of a totalitarian and repressive military government that is following ecocidal interests.
We repudiate this criminal action of detention and physical repression against women. It is a patriarchal act that aims to dismantle those who are giving strength and dignity to the struggle for life and the defense of Mother Earth in the face of these projects of death.
Yesterday, Thursday, April 27, we traveled as part of the Caravan “The South Resists" to the territory defended by the sisters and brothers of Mogoñé. They told us about the state of tension they were living under, due to the threats of eviction by the federal government. We, as part of the Caravan, have also experienced the harassment that comes with the constant presence of the Navy, the National Guard and the officers of the National Institute of Migration, who have followed and monitored us during our journey.
We demand an end to the repression and persecution of the comrades who defend the Territory. Stop the intimidation of the Caravan and the struggles of the peoples who resist the Interoceanic Corridor, the misnamed Maya Train and all the death projects of this bad government.
We demand the immediate appearance of the detained comrades.
We hold the Federal Government, headed by Andrés Manuel López Obrador, responsible for this climate of strife and for the violence generated against our comrades and against all the organizations that are fighting these projects of death.
If they touch a village, we all respond!
Know that we are not intimidated. Just like our sister Betty Cariño, who was murdered 13 years ago by a criminal act of the state against a humanitarian caravan, similar to the attack that we experienced today in Mogoñé Viejo, taught us: they are afraid of us because we are not afraid of them.
National and International Caravan “El Sur Resiste” (The South Resists)
English translation provided by Tzintzun Aguilar Izzo. Images provided to Weave News by activists on the ground in Oaxaca.
