Mobilization to demand an end to the war against the Zapatistas

As part of the Declaration of the Third National Assembly for Water and Life, a "national mobilization against the war faced by the Zapatista peoples and all the indigenous communities of Mexico" will be called for October 12.

In this regard, Carlos González García, follow-up coordinator of the National Indigenous Congress-Indigenous Council Government (CNI-CIG) told La Jornada that on that day "activities are generally carried out to make clear the resistance of our peoples, and the opposition to the whole process of conquest and historical domination that has been imposed on the original peoples.

He specified that the CNI was founded on October 12, 1996 (it will be 27 years old) and that is why the proposal is to carry out "a day of struggle to demand a halt to the war against the Zapatista peoples and the original peoples of the country, and this includes the context of privatization and dispossession of water". In the CNI, "it is only going to be discussed at the beginning of September, but the idea is that it will be a national day".

In a press conference, members of the National Assembly for Water and Life (ANAVI) also demanded a "halt to state repression and drug trafficking crimes directed against the people of Santa María Ostula", as well as an end to the "systematic violence in Querétaro" against those who defend water, springs and territory, mostly ejidos".

Hortensia Telésforo, who was one of the coordinators of the sit-in held at the end of last year by residents of San Gregorio Atlapulco, Xochimilco to demand the removal of 1.6 kilometers of pipeline, said the National Water Commission (Conagua) is one of the entities that contributes to the current situation of unequal access to water in the country, because "it allows it", and in this sense the Third Assembly also agreed to hold a national demonstration against the Conagua on September 25.

"It has become very clear who is implementing this situation throughout the country. We call on all citizens to demonstrate that the Conagua is the main responsible for the institutionalization and instrumentation of the dispossession of water in our territories".

Also in the assembly, held on August 12 and 13, it was agreed that the Fourth National Assembly for Water and Life will be held in the communities that defend the territory in Tlaxcala between February and March of next year.

González García explained that "specifically this National Assembly in Defense of Water and Life, what it promotes is that beyond modifying legal frameworks, to carry out a self-managing exercise of water, because we do not see the will or interest on the part of the government or legislators to respect the right to water".

Since the government of Enrique Peña Nieto, organizations and collectives have pressured for "the enactment of a water law, in accordance with the constitutional reform that recognized the right to water as a human right; it is a pending issue that was not addressed by the previous government, that was not addressed by Congress during the previous six-year term, and that has not been addressed today either.

No progress has been made in this area, because "the interests behind water are enormous", close to "60 percent of water rights are in the hands of soft drink companies, breweries, and some mining companies; and another part goes to domestic consumption in urban areas", among others.