[Lead photo: Claudia Paola López Ramírez, a community member of Cruz de Ocote, inherited land from her mother in the Ejido de Cruz de Ocote, which is threatened by a Canadian mining company. Courtesy: Consejo Civil Mexicano para la Silvicultura Sostenible]
Claudia Paola López Ramírez still remembers the times of her childhood when she would go for water to one of the springs that was in her community of Cruz de Ocote, located in the northern mountains of Puebla, Mexico.
There are already two springs that have dried up in the town that belongs to the Nahua Indigenous community. López Ramírez’s face lights up as she tells the story of how her grandfather managed to obtain his ejido and how he had to fight to partially found what is now Cruz de Ocote.
It is a struggle to defend the ejido territory whose heavy responsibility now falls on the descendants of that generation. A responsibility that might also be inherited to the next.
On Feb. 16, the Nahua Community and the Ejido de Tecoltemi of the northern highlands in the state of Puebla celebrated a victory over the mining concessions of the Canadian mining company Almaden Minerals. It is the first time that the First Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) grants protection to a community and withdraws the concession of 14,000 hectares of land to the mining company.
“These concessions were issued without having considered the opinion of those who inhabit this territory, and there was no prior consultation or consent,” said Diana Pérez, the attorney who handled the case.
An ejido, as it is known today, is land that is used communally for agricultural purposes. These lands were granted to individuals after the Mexican revolution so that rural populations would have a way to support themselves and cultivate from them. The ejidos were protected under the agricultural law but all that changed with the agrarian reform of 1992.
Under this reform in article 27, the owners of ejidos, ejidatarios, can sell their land and said land can be incorporated into urban development, things that previously they were not allowed. However, under current agricultural laws, it is necessary to consult and receive permission from the ejidatarios and the indigenous community to legally receive the concessions, something that the Almaden mining company never did according to the case.
“These are lands where they live, work and plant. They have grazing land, they even have forest…they have cared for, reforested and harvested from it sustainably,” said Pérez, explaining the importance of the ejido land for the communities involved in the case.
Pérez is a member of the Tiyat Tlali Council, one of the organizations that has been supporting Indigenous communities to protect their ejido rights and environmental rights. She comments that the victory in the SCJN was a bittersweet moment for her team and for the affected communities. They are aware that as long as the mining company manages to convince the ejidatarios to reach an agreement or even sell their land, the concessions could be granted in the future.
López Ramírez has been fighting for five years against mining laws from her community of Ejido Cruz de Ocote. She is part of the community organization Defensores Acolhua and is equally happy to have won the case, but she knows personally how this fight for the ejidos has created a great division between the multiple ejido communities.
“This came to separate us, there are people who no longer speak with us… there are families where brothers do not speak to each other.”
López Ramírez inherited the plot of land from her mother, which is located in the Ejido de Cruz de Ocote. She hopes that her daughters can grow up in the land where she and her ancestors were born. She is determined to make sure that the legacy of her grandparents Isidro Ramírez and Lorenza Sosa is not buried under any mining project.
“I’d like for them to talk about me like I talked about how my grandfather fought to get the ejido parcels. He was a founder of the community. There is a lot of pride. Maybe they’ll say ‘despite being a woman, my grandmother could.’”
It pains her to admit that the environmental change caused by global warming has been erasing the beauty and the natural resources from her community. It is also for this reason that she is against the mining company, since the consequences of opening a mine on those 14,000 hectares could exacerbate environmental problems in the communities.
Pérez, like her other colleagues, are worried about what may come after this victory. If the mining laws continue to give preference to the industry, it could mean even more legal proceedings, and more battles for the indigenous communities, the ejidatarios, and environmentalists.
