Mexico: Indigenous Water Defenders Sentenced to 50 Years in Prison

from It’s Going DownIGD Editor’s note: For background on the struggle in San Pedro Tlanixco, see this article.

To the National Indigenous Congress
To the Indigenous Governing Council and our Spokeswoman Marichuy
To the Indigenous Clandestine Revolutionary Committee–General Command of the EZLN
To the Network Against Repression and for Solidarity
To the National and International Sixth
To the Compañeras and Compañeros that Struggle in This World
To the Compañeros of the Free, Autonomous and Alternative Media

The Movement for the Freedom of the Defenders of Water and Life of San Pedro Tlanixco, Tenango del Valle, Mexico State, denounces the sentences given to our indigenous Nahua brothers and sister, Lorenzo Sánchez Berriozábal, Marco Antonio Pérez González and Dominga González Martinez.As you remember, since 1989, San Pedro Tlanixco has been defending the water that is born from our forests.  We are defending this water against the capitalist hydra, taking shape here as national and transnational flower-growing corporations in Villa Guerrero that have been protected by the bad governments.  We have been defending our territory because they have imposed a private highway that goes from Tenando del Valle to Ixtapan de la Sal, causing our town to be split in half.

On April 1st, 2003, the president of the Texcaltenco river system and representative of flower-growing corporations of Villa Guerrero died due to a fall.  Since this day, our community has lived through constant attacks on the part of the bad governments and the paid media that have spread the false headline that we had lynched this man.  The truth is that he and his people were in our territory because they wanted to take our water.   It was there when, due to not knowing the trails, he fell and lost his life. Continue reading “Mexico: Indigenous Water Defenders Sentenced to 50 Years in Prison”