For the safety of Cherán and the communities in resistance

We demand real guarantees from the federal and state governments for the safety of Cherán and the communities in resistance, absolute respect for the right to self-government and self-determination, and justice for those who have been attacked.

On the morning of July 2nd of this year (2025), an armed group entered the community of Cherán K'eri. They advanced through the hills to avoid community checkpoints, killing one community member and wounding another. Following the violent events of April 2011 (illegal logging, assaults, kidnappings, extortion, and other criminal activities), the community organized itself to protect its life and territory. Since 2011, they have achieved recognition of their authority, electing their leaders according to their own normative systems, establishing a municipal government represented by the Communal Council of Government, and forming their own community security force (patrol patrols).

Over the past fifteen years, violence has increased in Michoacán and throughout Mexico. In the region where Cherán is located, the conflict is over control of territories and natural resources belonging to the indigenous communities of Michoacán. Approximately 350 hectares are communally owned by the Mazahua, Hñahñu, and P'urhépecha peoples, 200 hectares are in the hands of avocado growers, and 20 hectares are dedicated to the production of berries.

Mexico ranks first in the world for exports of these fruits, and Michoacán is the national leader. This extractive agribusiness concentrates land and water resources through sales, rentals (many of them forced), legal wells, clandestine taps, and illegal water reservoirs. Its expansion has been achieved through various practices such as fires, logging, changes in land use, and the establishment of orchards, as well as the displacement of the population through methods of intimidation and terror, supported by armed groups involved in illegal economies.

These processes of dispossession cannot be explained without the participation of a state complicit with these criminal economies. There are more than 33 National Guard barracks, plus detachments of the Civil Guard (state police), the army, and the navy, in addition to all the intelligence agencies distributed throughout the state, none of which act against the presence of these armed groups that operate with complete impunity. All of this demonstrates, once again, the limitations of the National Security policy proposed by successive governments.

Today's attack on Cherán, July 2, 2025, is not an isolated incident; it is part of an escalation of violence against the indigenous peoples of the P'urhépecha Plateau and other regions of Michoacán, in a context where organized crime, extractive interests, and political actors intertwine to threaten the territorial autonomies that have been won with dignity, struggle, and memory.

Cherán is an example of Indigenous self-governance, community organization, and defense of common resources, having withstood deforestation, political violence, and territorial dispossession. Defending Cherán is defending the right of Indigenous peoples to live in peace, to decide their way of life, and to care for their territory.

Faced with the silence, omission, and complicity of the State, we raise our voices and take action.
an urgent appeal:

• To social organizations, collectives, sister towns and citizens in general, to actively show solidarity with Cherán.
• To spread this and other statements, breaking the wall of indifference that allows violence to advance.
• To defend the achievements of indigenous autonomies, which today more than ever are under attack.
  

We demand real guarantees from the federal and state governments for the safety of Cherán and the communities in resistance, absolute respect for the right to self-government and self-determination, and justice for those who have been attacked.

We demand a Justice Plan for the P'urhépecha people that includes security.

The violence against the people of Cherán is not a mere coincidence. Cherán and the K'eris live and will continue to live defying the world of the State, extractive capitalism, and dispossession.

We express our solidarity with the community of Cherán K'eri and with all the communities that fight in defense of their lands, territories, natural resources and the lives of their members.

From our university, territorial and organizational spaces, we join in the defense of life and territories.

The struggle is for life, for territories with peace and justice.
Not one step back in the defense of autonomy!
For the life, dignity and memory of the native peoples!
Cherán lives on, the struggle continues. Cherán is not alone!

Planet Earth, July 2, 2025
CLACSO Working Groups Bodies, Territories, Resistances

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