Ocumicho 2024 Statement

To the Mexican and Michoacán State and Government
To local, national and international civil society
To local, national and international media

The Purépecha community of Ocumicho, located in the municipality of Charapan in Michoacán, Mexico, has been defending its territory for over a century. At the beginning of the 20th century, they were dispossessed of nearly 500 hectares of fertile land by self-proclaimed small landowners who donated the land to agrarian authorities. These authorities then granted the land to the community as a third expansion of the Tangancícuaro ejido, as they were considered land applicants. The efforts made by the community members throughout this time have been unsuccessful. These lands produce berries for export, have three irrigation wells, and yield three harvests a year. The community members now work as day laborers on their own land.

The community owns more than 7 hectares, 500 of which are cultivated. Until a decade ago, this land was used for corn cultivation; now it is used for potato farming, and most of the land, including the forest, is planted with avocado orchards. The replacement of the agroforestry system with the avocado monopoly has brought social and environmental costs. Through various illegal and forceful means, the communal territory has been appropriated, and the interests of these groups have been imposed. The community members have repeatedly reported the change in land use to the judicial authorities without receiving the necessary attention to stop the dispossession, which consists of starting fires, cutting down trees, and establishing orchards, along with the appropriation of runoff water to guarantee irrigation for the orchards. The presence of armed groups is also a problem.

Since 2021, Ocumicho has managed its own municipal resources, known as the direct budget. This was one of the actions the community undertook as part of a strategy to strengthen community life. They also organized their community patrol to provide security, especially after an armed group incursion that killed the secretary of communal property and wounded the president. However, they have faced a series of attacks, including the disappearance of the president of the Community Council, who fortunately reappeared alive the next day; the theft of a two-week payroll; incursions by armed groups on several occasions; the murder of one of the community patrol members; and the disarmament of the patrol. They have also experienced constant fires this year and the encroachment of avocado orchards into their forests. The community has repeatedly requested the presence of the National Guard or Civil Guard from the state government, but has received no response.

María Cruz Paz Zamora is part of the Autonomous Community Council of Ocumicho, responsible for the ecology and environment council, she has carried out sanitation and reforestation tasks, she has also confronted loggers in defense of the forest, for which she has received threats.

On June 5th of this year, María Cruz was arrested by the ministerial police, while she was heading to the city of Morelia to attend a meeting with various government agencies to follow up on the community's requests.

We demand the prompt safe return of María Cruz and hold the relevant authorities responsible for their actions in violation of human rights and individual guarantees, the right to life, to dignified treatment, to due process, to have an indigenous translator and defender, and to access to justice.

We are witnessing a global phenomenon of terrorism against the life of the land, the territories, and the people who inhabit and care for them. As the Working Group "Bodies, Territories, and Resistance," we highlight the struggles for autonomy of the P'urhépecha communities and peoples as struggles to create a world beyond monoculture and the violence it engenders. We call for the dismantling of the monocultural model that monopolizes and appropriates the territories that are rightfully theirs and have been liberated by communities that know how to care for the diversity of life.

SORORALLY

June 6th, 2024
Planet Earth
CLACSO Working Group
Bodies, territories, resistances

This text expresses the position of the aforementioned Working Group and not necessarily that of the centers and institutions that make up the CLACSO international network, its Steering Committee or its Executive Secretariat.