Without consulting indigenous peoples, mining companies obtain concessions in the Sierra Tarahumara

Fernando Camacho Servin

Newspaper La Jornada
Monday, June 20, 2022, p. 13

In addition to the clandestine logging of their forests, the indigenous communities of the Sierra Tarahumara face mining concessions that were granted without prior due process of consultation, which is why a meeting was held in recent days to denounce these activities and support the peoples who organize to reject them.

This was indicated by Isela González, director of the civil organization Alianza Sierra Madre (ASM), who pointed out that although there are optimism Due to the plan of the current government to intervene in favor of the native peoples of the area, the indigenous people and the groups that accompany them cannot rely solely on it or neglect themselves in the face of the dispossession processes that continue to occur.

in chat with the daythe activist recalled that on June 12 and 13, a meeting of indigenous communities was held in Coloradas de la Virgen, attended by more than 170 people from the Rarámuri and O’odam peoples, inhabitants of the municipalities of Guadalupe and Calvo, Guazapares, Bocoyna and Urique, Chihuahua.

The meeting was held there, he explained, because it has been in that town where more indigenous environmentalists have been killed in recent years, including Julián Carrillo (2018), Isidro Baldenegro (2017) and José Trinidad Baldenegro (2022).

Coloradas de la Virgen is a community heavily impacted by violent chieftainships. The last meeting where Julián was present, it was proposed to hold a meeting so that the people would organize not only against the caciques who want to exploit our wealth for forestry, but also to defend the territory from the mining concessions.Gonzalez noted.

According to the director of ASM, at this time there are four concessions that have already been granted in the Sierra Tarahumara region, without the authorities having first properly consulted the communities in order to inform them about the issue and ask for their consent. consent.

Of the aforementioned permits, he said, in one the exploration phase has already been completed and investors are now being sought to exploit gold and silver deposits.

Regarding the response of the authorities to this problem, González welcomed the fact that the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples has already made a diagnosis on the subject to carry out a justice plan for the Rarámuri and O’odam peoples, and although the communities see this effort with great optimismwarned that we should not trustbecause the dispossession of natural resources continues, facilitated by corruption.