Before Yaquis, AMLO authorizes payment to restore 30 thousand hectares

Alonso Urrutia and Cristina Gomez

Envoy and correspondent

Newspaper La Jornada
Sunday May 22, 2022, p. 9

Loma de Guamuchil, Son. It is the least we can do in the face of the suffering suffered by their ancestors due to the mistreatment of authoritarian governments. Do not forget that the extermination of the Yaqui peoples was reachedPresident Andrés Manuel López Obrador was sincere in a new meeting with the representatives of the eight towns of this ethnic group, to whom he announced the restitution of 30 thousand hectares of land.

The President toured indigenous Sonoran communities ratifying their commitments to justice in the last stage of his government. In Sahuaripa, with representatives of towns on the border of Sonora and Chihuahua, he expressed his intentions towards the end of his six-year term: “we still have two years and five months left (…) I am a Maderista and Francisco I. Madero said ‘effective suffrage and no reelection’. I want to close a cycle, not feel irreplaceable, because he later becomes a vice. You don’t have to be too attached to money or power.”

Around noon, in Cajeme, the traditional governors of the eight Yaqui towns listened to Lopez Obrador in the evaluation of compliance with the justice plan agreed upon in September and implemented by a presidential commission. In the past – he reminded them – they only gave them crumbs, but “that is over, although he – he acknowledged – there are still powders of that mud”.

But now, he added, there is a commitment to fulfill the offers, That is why I authorize the 30,000 hectares of land to be paid for as soon as possible. Here is the Undersecretary of the Treasury, Juan Pablo de Botton, who is going to transfer the funds to you..

An acquisition that is one of the main Yaqui claims, since it is part of the territory that Lázaro Cárdenas gave them in 1940. Throughout these years, this territory was gradually lost, acquired by small owners in various conditions. Today, the Yaquis ask for his restitution.

Onesimo Buitimea, secretary of the town of Vicam, explained the complexity of making the plan a reality, in particular, that this restitution be fulfilled through the purchase of all the small properties that add up to 30,000 hectares, now subject to negotiation with those who acquired them. since then.

Buitimea described the complicated framework around the property and the difficulties in returning it to the Yaquis, even though the Secretary of Agrarian, Territorial and Urban Development, Román Meyer, optimistically anticipated that the construction of agreements has intensified, so in June the operation could be completed.

And in this logic, López Obrador promised that he will return soon: I return on August 21 and I already want to hand over the land. It’s a compromise.

The territories to be purchased are located mainly in the Moscobampo trenches and the Moscobampo peak, emblematic places in the struggle for the land of the Yaqui communities.

The meeting also included the offer to start work on the new aqueduct associated with the formation of irrigation district 18 to guarantee the supply of water to the eight Yaqui towns. A commitment also besieged by 15 protection claims against him, despite which 2,191 million pesos have already been budgeted for the work, which is estimated to be completed by the end of 2023.

Upon his arrival in Loma de Guamúchil, the President was met with a protest by half a dozen young people who asked for more opportunities to enter the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Sonora. They argued a drastic reduction in enrollment, which allows only 80 of a thousand applicants to access the race.

The president channeled them to Governor Alfonso Durazo so that he resolves the request and, in his case, if it is unfeasible in Sonora, he offered scholarships to those who are rejected in other institutions.

On his way to the event, they also addressed him about the disappeared persons in Cajeme: we will not rest on that. We will continue to do justice.

$50 million to build roads

In the afternoon, López Obrador went to Sahuaripa for a new meeting with indigenous communities, with whom he also spoke about a specific justice plan. After a brief summary of the federal social programs in force for these towns, López Obrador made a new announcement to finance each of the 13 municipalities involved with an initial 50 million pesos for the construction of roads, fundamental works to communicate these towns.

As they progress, he added, they will be given more resources until they are completed, committing Durazo to supervise the completion of the works.