Translated by: Alexander Graham
On this day, the 15th of April, in the municipality of Cherán, Michoacán, they are celebrating the fifth anniversary of an uprising which saw the people take into their own hands control of the defense of their forests, community safety, and the very lives of their inhabitants. The uprising led to an autonomous process which saw the men and women of this courageous Purhépecha town successfully confront organized crime, political parties, and municipal, state, and federal authorities that all colluded in the same systemic structure of corruption and death.
We agree with Pilar Calveiro, in that the movement, with its origins in Cherán, looks to open new ways of conducting politics; in that it’s an example of
“…practices which overcome illegal violence – whether state, private, criminal or mixed – in order to act, overcome fear, and avoid a descent into terror so that action can take place. This enables them to formulate other political models”.
(“Rethinking and Improving Democracy. The case of the autonomous municipality of Cherán K’eri”. Argumentos, Vol 27, Issue 75, May-August, 2014)Cherán has shown that is possible to put a stop to the pillaging and violence of capitalist recolonization via the reconstitution of neighborhood-indigenous community organization, establishing a Community Assembly as the supreme body for decision-making and the reestablishment of uses and customs+ as a form of self-governance. All of which is legally supported by Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization, the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of the United Nations, Article 2 of the Constitution, and in particular, the operative paragraph of the Electoral Tribunal of the Federal Judicial Power in November 2011, ratified by referendum in December of that year.
From that date onwards, Cherán has elected, by custom and tradition, their own Governing and Operating Councils without the intervention of political parties. [Validated by the Supreme Court in June 2014.] Based on a unique municipal development plan, and starting with the restoration of an ethnic identity clearly expressed in symbolic and cultural revitalization, these decisions have seen community consensus.
They have re-taken control of the region and its natural resources, namely the forest and water sources; they have taken up the responsibility of environmental conservation and have also recorded a drastic reduction in crime, extortion, kidnapping, the consumption and sale of drugs, and all this against a backdrop of challenges and contradictions in, paradoxically, one of the most troubled regions of the country.
In terms of cases of autonomous governance that take place after the 1994 Zapatista Rebellion and the signing of the San Andrés Accords in February 1996, the Cherán case stands out as an example of legal and political triumph. One that should be highlighted for its importance and meaning to all the other towns, municipalities and indigenous communities of Mexico.
It is a credit to this movement to be able to preserve their autonomy despite the frequent dealings their authorities have with various political actors of a diverse nature and hierarchical level. They are able to do this because of their awareness of their role as community representatives, because they respond to scrutiny and because of the permanent ethical imperative that guides them to remain independent even in the face of other powers, however coercive they may be.
Moreover, since the beginning of the uprising, April 15, 2011, with initial crucial action of women and children, Cherán has shown that these contemporary autonomic processes democratize indigenous societies, politicizing and innovating their political and socio-cultural structures. Cherán evinces the transforming nature of these processes not only in its modus operandi, which most of the time conflicts with the existing national state, but also within its autonomous subjects.
Therefore, as we have been stressing, it is not just about traditional indigenous self-governments that developed during the Colonial period and after Mexican independence, and which lives on to this day in many communities across Latin America.
In Cherán, there is a continuity of traditional forms of organization, but one that is modernizing. Neighborhood organization, community solidarity (Jarhojperakua in Purépecha) and community labor is being renewed; community campfires (Parhangua in Purépecha), as an extension of the household kitchen at the community barricades; community patrols, made up of community members themselves, mostly young people, act as an effective form of territorial defense and public safety.
However, it is precisely because Cherán is celebrating another year of self-governance and that the community as a whole is dependent on the elder council's 'governing by obeying' [Zapatista principle that leaders follow the will of the community], that the various levels of government and the economic and political forces they represent haven’t stopped pressuring the municipal authorities.
One of these pressures is the insistence from the state government of Michoacán in relation to the Single Police Command initiative [combining municipal police into a single state police force]. However, in late March, by majority vote, Cherán's four districts determined to reject the proposal of the state government to join the Single Command, and to continue with their security system in accordance with the community patrols.
What should be kept in mind is the disastrous experience of Morelos as far as the Single Command is concerned; it does not guarantee an end to the collusion and corruption at the very hearts of the units that form part of unified security forces.
Also, remember the attacks of all kinds suffered by the Regional Coordinator of Community Authorities-Guerrero Community Police [CRAC] since its founding, as well as the numerous attempts at making them offical government forces, internal division and implosion, in an attempt to destroy the justice and security that the indigenous peoples of that state are notably experiencing.
Much autonomy to the Purépecha town of Cherán on the fifth anniversary of their uprising!
Spanish original
+ + +
*Gilberto López y Rivas, Ph.D. in Anthropology from U. of Utah, is an Anthropologist and Researcher for Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) in the state of Morelos. Active in Mexico's 1968 student movement, he has served in the federal Chamber of Deputies.
+MV Note: 'Uses and customs' is a legal term denoting indigenous customary law in Latin America. Since the era of Spanish colonialism, authorities have, to varying degrees, recognized local forms of rule, self-governance and judicial practice. Article 2 of Mexico’s Constitution recognizes the right of indigenous communities to choose self-government, which includes a system of justice. In indigenous communities following customary law, decision making is consensual, and the assembly (made up of the entire community) is the decision-making body.