Nestor Jimenez
Newspaper La Jornada
Thursday, January 12, 2023, p. 8
From 2012 to date, around 160 hectares of the Wirikuta region have been sold or affected, despite being considered sacred land for the Wixárika communities in San Luis Potosí. Said areas have been acquired by agro-industrial companies for the production of tomato and poultry, denounced ejidatarios.
At a press conference in Mexico City, they explained that they met with authorities from the Agrarian Attorney’s Office and the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples (INPI) to request actions that guarantee an end to the privatization processes.
They assured that there was a good response and outlined an eventual decree to safeguard this area, which, furthermore, they said, is a protected natural region.
There is a process that has grown for more than 15 years of land distribution, sale of commons, which has allowed the growth of an agro-industry that threatens to advance further.
indicated Eduardo Guzmán, ejidatario of Las Margaritas, a place where they are already knocking on the door
employers to press for an extension.
After also meeting with representatives of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) and the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat), as well as members of the Ministry of the Interior, they indicated that there is currently a state decree for the protection of Wirikuta .
Despite this, there are local authorities that have participated encouraging the distribution of land
for which they exposed the need for a national decree to invalidate assemblies that are obviously illegal
. We have obtained positive responses, warning that this process is going to be stopped
he added.
Guzmán stressed that according to the laws on the matter, ejidos with a high percentage of forests cannot be parceled out; they warned that there are mining companies lurking
that they have paid personnel who seek to convince the ejidatarios to sell.
