Fabiola Martinez
Newspaper La Jornada
Wednesday, August 10, 2022, p. 4
We have witnessed a true fraud of the law by political parties
Judge Janine Otálora said yesterday, explaining the reasons why the Electoral Court ordered – after the 2021 elections – the preparation of guidelines to ensure that whoever aspires to an indigenous candidacy really belongs to an original group.
The court entrusted the construction of the guidelines to the National Electoral Institute (INE), which carried out a consultation last month and announced that it will issue this regulation for indigenous candidates no later than September 7.
Otálora spoke at a forum on the scope of the participation and political representation of indigenous peoples, which was held in Hidalgo in the context of the International Day of Indigenous Peoples.
The magistrate also referred to the legislative lag regarding the general law for consultation with this sector of the population, whose objective is to guarantee decision-making –including self-government– based on its own norms, uses and customs.
He explained that although in 2021 this law was approved in the Chamber of Deputies, it is still pending in the Senate, which is why to this day it’s a dead letter
lament.
The law, he stated, is a pivotal right that gives way to all the guarantees that indigenous communities and peoples must have.
In turn, Álvaro Esteban Pop, representative of the indigenous peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean, pointed out that it is not only about evaluating the challenges of the consultation, but also those pending on full democratic participation and compliance with the constitutional rights achieved through throughout 200 years of free life of the nations of Latin America.
Judge Felipe de la Mata declared himself in favor of the community itself resolving its problems, particularly those of representation, based on its rules, and it is desirable that there be specialized judges who are indigenous.
