Incomindios UK launched a webinar featuring Flavio Ayuso, an Indigenous Activist and 2022 Incomindios-Lippuner Scholar. The webinar was a virtual informative and interactive session, allowing guests and participants to ask questions regarding Flavio's work with the Ejido communities in Mexico and the protection of Indigenous Peoples rights in the new energy transition.
Highlights of Flavio Ayuso’s Presentation
Flavio’s presentation focused on The Ixil, who are a Mayan community located in Ixil, a Municipality in the State of Yucatán in Mexico. The land upon which they live is rich in biodiversity and nears the coast, piquing the interest of businesses and the government to develop the area for commercial purposes. However, in recent years, many renewable projects have been introduced to the area which took rise through foreign investment and privatisation of the land. The impact to the local area has been catastrophic and communities like The Ixil need support to fight privatisation.
The Importance of El Ejido
'El Ejido' is a form of social, communal housing in Mexico where Indigenous Peoples feel a spiritual and ancestral connection to their land. Land is fundamental to Indigenous Peoples’ way of life, associated with their livelihood, worship, culture, history, and identity and has always been in danger ever since colonialism.
Land is even used as a form of resistance with activists like Emiliano Zapata, who during the Mexican revolution, worked to spread the notion that land belongs to the people that work it, arguing a legal connotation. As a result of land privatisation, The Ixil have been forcibly removed from their land, resulting in a loss of El Ejido and an integral part of their identity as a people.
Indigenous Peoples Rights & Violations
The development of private housing on Ixil land presents four violations to their rights as an Indigenous People: right to a healthy environment, right to health, right to self-determination, and right to consultation. Ixil communities therefore site violations against both domestic Mexican law and International law.
Information surrounding the type and extent of development is inaccessible for the local community, which is a government requirement they are meant to uphold. Communities cannot approve a project they know nothing about. However, given that these projects are supported by the government and local authorities in addition to the corporations, means there is constant violation of Mayan rights.
Consultation efforts are surface-level attempts to facilitate proceeding with development of a project. This is a direct violation of UNDRIP (UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples) and in particular FPIC (Free, Prior and Informed Consent). For example, consultation processes in the past have occurred in Spanish instead of in the local Mayan language. Also, local communities collect their own information as none are given to them. Lastly, corporations proposed to give Mayan names to their privatised developments, indicative of cultural appropriation and lack of prior consultation. There is an imposition as to what ‘development’ means. Mayan communities need land to produce, access to education in their own language, not capitalist projects of renewable energy or privatised homes.
Defences to Privatisation and Green Projects
Indigenous communities have developed two sources of defence: communitarian defences and legal defences. Communitarian defences involve meetings and seminars, through which information regarding the challenges are explained. Legal defences involve local effort to collect information about the project in question, organise a legal response, and challenge it. However, the Mexican legal system is influenced by economic and political interests, making their voices hard to be heard. Instead, they seek to make their legal battle visible to the public and to the media by holding banners and protesting. This was successful in Ixil, where they are about to receive a court verdict on whether the development will be stopped.
Q&A Session
After Flavio’s presentation, we opened the floor for participants and guests to ask questions.
Q: Are renewable projects also being supported by local industries?
A: No, the tourism industry has been exploiting these mega projects and are stating that these corporations and Indigenous People can live in harmony, but this is not the case, and not the view of the local people.
Q: Under what conditions, if any, would Indigenous Peoples be supportive of green projects?
A: This is a very difficult question to answer. It’s not something they can even entertain if the process of consultation isn’t properly carried out.
Q: Has there been any involvement with these cases at the UN level?
A: There was intervention at the UN level, but it was about a different community and a different project. However, it was not enough. The UN can make whatever recommendations they like to the Mexican government, but the Mexican government will feel attacked and not implement them. Still, the violations that the communities suffer are not clear enough in these recommendations. In fact, Indigenous communities can use the UN recommendations in support of their legal case.
Q: Is there conflict between farmers and Indigenous peoples over the use of the land?
A: Unfortunately, all these projects have had a huge impact on the relationship between communities. Organisations get into a community and bribe individuals, and this is how communities break. More violence and less social harmony. This is a major consequence of the rise in mega projects.
Q: Is there a consultation law in the state of Yucatán?
A: In the specific case of Yucatán there is no law requiring the government or corporations to consult communities on projects. However, there are specific protections for Mayan people and the right to self-determination still applies. Mexico is also part of the International Labour Organisation (ILO 169) which should enforce these rights. It was useful as it helped to stop projects in Mexico. This is the only body they have to hold onto to enforce consultations.
Q: Are the defenders of the territory in danger?
A: Yes, not only the Mayan communities but also other people who have defended the land have been killed in their attempt to defend the land. It is vital that we get justice for these people. It is alarming how local authorities do not pay enough attention to these threats against land defenders. Due to these threats, people have left their homes and communities.
We would again like to thank Flavio for his unwavering dedication to the hardships and adversities that Indigenous People face today in Mexico, specifically in Ixil. We hope that events like this continue to bring light to such injustices and raise awareness of the inherent wrongs being faced by Indigenous communities across the world.
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