Peoples, communities, and organizations from the states of Chiapas, Guerrero, Oaxaca, and Puebla gathered to share our struggles and pain, and to deepen territorial defense strategies for the south-southeast region that strengthen joint actions against the mechanisms of dispossession that cause suffering and death.
This meeting represents a source of hope and strength for our communities in the face of the imposition of megaprojects. Therefore, we decided to share our word on September 13th and 14th, 2025, in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, marked by a context of criminal violence and conflict in the region. We affirm the following:
1. We, the Indigenous and campesino peoples, who have historically protected and cared for our lands, rely on our own forms of political organization, an ancestral heritage inherited from our ancestors, to protect life and Mother Earth.
2. There is a historical continuity in the dispossession of our peoples’ territories, from colonization to the current imposition of development centers implemented by governments in complicity with corporations and organized crime.
3. Despite the attacks, violence, and dispossession we have suffered for decades, big capital, organized crime, and governments have not been able to subdue our peoples. Thanks to community organizing, we have stopped megaprojects, evictions, and acts of violence.
4. The defense of our territories has come at a very high cost: compañeros committed to social justice have suffered murders, disappearances, threats, and attacks. The machinery of repression continues to operate in governments of all stripes.
Today we denounce that governments, corporations, and organized crime have formed a power triad to impose megaprojects and dispossess territories, operating with total impunity in the south-southeast region. Examples of this include:
• In Oaxaca, the so-called development centers and the interoceanic project have led to the criminalization of human rights defenders, militarization, and the strengthening of organized crime.
• In Chiapas, mining projects aim to cover more than 85,000 hectares of Zoque territory, with serious environmental and social impacts. In addition to the construction of the San Cristóbal-Palenque “Mayan Cultures” Highway, the Southern Border development center seeks to manage the international movement of people and promote strategic industries (tourism and energy) through terror and dispossession.
• In Guerrero, the imposition of mining and tourism projects has torn the social fabric and increased violence against communities organized in defense of life.
• Furthermore, tourism, the construction of highways, and new infrastructure have only served to deepen extractivism and guarantee profits for corporations, at the cost of the division and displacement of our communities.
• The federal government, through social and assistance programs, has weakened the community organization built over decades and has also attempted to co-opt our community assemblies and leaders. The Fourth Transformation has proven to be a continuation of the plundering of territories: mining concessions and extractive megaprojects have not been canceled; on the contrary, they have been deepened to benefit big capital.
The imposed “development” model has only generated dependency, cultural and identity erosion, inequality, and environmental devastation. This model is also permeated by patriarchy and colonialism: it reproduces violence against women, children, and adolescents and reinforces historical inequalities.
In the face of this, we raise our voices clearly:
• Stop the territorial dispossession against our compañero Miguel Sánchez Hernández at Salchi Beach.
• Stop the development centers of the Oaxacan Isthmus.
• Stop the dispossession against our compañeros in Loma San Jacinto, Oaxaca.
• We demand justice for the disappearance of Sergio Rivera Hernández in the Sierra Negra of Puebla.
• We demand justice for Vicente Suástegui, who disappeared on August 5th, 2021, and Marco Antonio Suástegui, who suffered a fatal attack on April 18th, 2025, and died seven days later. These leaders are members of the Council of Ejidos and Communities Opposed to the La Parota Dam, who sowed community struggle and organization.
• We demand justice for Marcelo Pérez Pérez, executed on October 20th, 2024.
• We demand that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) issue a thorough report on the Acteal case.
• We demand peace in our territories.
• We say NO to the Margarita Maza de Juárez dam in the Central Valleys of Oaxaca.
• We say NO to the deadly megaproject of the Coyolopa Azula Hydroelectric Plant in the Sierra Negra district of Puebla.
• We say NO to mining projects in the Mixteca region of Puebla and Oaxaca, as well as in the Central Valleys of Oaxaca, where they intend to impose the extraction of lithium, rare earths, silver, and gold for corporate profit.
• We say NO to palm monocultures and mining extraction in Chiapas.
• We say NO to the fracking project Round 2.2 in the Zoque region, which once again threatens the territory with its reactivation.
• We say NO to gentrification.
• We denounce the imposition of simulated consultations to legitimize megaprojects.
We reaffirm that the two pillars that sustain our community life, autonomy, and resistance are territory and collective organization. From these, we will continue to walk alongside the people, from where we draw direction and strength.
We denounce the imposition of deadly megaprojects and organize to defend life! All peoples and communities have the right to raise our voices and not be repressed! Together we are stronger!
Signatory territorial defenders from municipalities, communities, and organizations:
San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Ocosingo Chiapas, San Francisco, Ejido Adolfo Ruiz Cortínez, Ejido Arroyo encanto municipio de Salto de Agua, Campamento 4 de agosto de Agua Clara, Tecpatán, Oaxaca de Juárez, La Cumbre Puebla, Zapotilán Salinas, Santiago Xanica, , Nahilte, Cerro de las Huertas, San Matías Chilazoa, Monte del Toro, Tlapa de Comonfort, Colectivo de Defensores del territorio, Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas, OIDHO, Xinich, Parroquia San Antonio de Padua, EDUCA A.C., Movimiento en defensa de a vida y el territorio, Sinal, Organización Sociedad Civil Las Abejas de Acteal, Movimiento Agrario Indígena Zapatista, Centro de Derechos Humanos Tepeyac, del Itsmo de Tehuantepec, A.C., Gobierno Comunitario de Chilón, CODEDI, Frente No a la Minería por un Futuro de Todas y Todos, Centro de Derechos Humanos de la Montaña Tlachinollan.
Original article at Frayba, September 17th, 2025.
Translated by Schools for Chiapas.