WE HAVE NOTHING TO CELEBRATE IN THE FACE OF THE WATER CATASTROPHE IMPOSED BY THE CAPITALIST AND PATRIARCHAL
To the Zapatista Army of National Liberation
To the Sixth Commission of the EZLN
To the National Indigenous Congress
To the Indigenous Council of Government
To Ma. de Jesús Patricio Martínez, Spokeswoman of the CNI-CIG
To the Peoples of the World who resist the Capitalist and Patriarchal System
To the Original Peoples, Tribes, Nations, Communities and Indigenous Neighborhoods that were never conquered.
To the National and International Sexta
To the Networks of Resistance and Rebellion
To the Insubmissive, Dignified and Rebellious Europe
To those who signed the Declaration for Life
To the free, independent, alternative or whatever they are called?
What do we have to ask forgiveness for?
What will they forgive us for?
For not starving ourselves to death?
For not keeping silent in our misery?
For not having humbly accepted the historical burden of contempt and abandonment?
On March 22, World Water Day, the United Nations Organization “commemorates and recognizes this date to remember the importance of access to drinking water as a basic need of humanity”; in contrast to these declarations, our Indigenous Peoples and Communities face day by day, the dispossession, privatization and plundering of water, for the benefit of transnational companies such as Volkswagen, Audi, Bonafont-Danone, Junghans, Coca-Cola, Granjas Caroll, Hylsa-Ternium, among many other tourism and real estate companies. Likewise, we confront the privatization of water that past and present governments, through their legislative reforms and the militarization of our territories, impose as part of a Fourth Transformation.
In the framework of the agreements reached in the 2nd NATIONAL ASSEMBLY for WATER AND LIFE, “Tod@s por Ricardo y Antonio”, held on February 18 and 19 of this year, in Santiago Mexquititlán, Amealco, Qro. and with the participation of various Indigenous Peoples and Indigenous Communities belonging to the National Indigenous Congress, CNI-CIG; as well as collectives, organizations, networks and individuals from Mexico and the world, we agreed that in the face of the capitalist depletion of Water and Life, we would carry out coordinated actions that would allow us to articulate the struggles and resistances of Mexico and the world, in defense of Water and Life.
We live a WAR OF EXTERMINATION against our indigenous peoples and communities; we face a HYDROLOGICAL CATASTROPHE product of looting and plunder of the Capitalist and Patriarchal System; we resist the MILITARIZATION AND COUNTER-INSURGENCE imposed by the bad government to end the Autonomy and Self-Determination of the Zapatista communities and the peoples and communities members of the CNI-CIG; we denounce the impunity with which ORGANIZED CRIME operates to silence the voices of the defenders of Water and Mother Earth, as in the case of our brother “Samir Flores Soberanes”.
As an example of this war for water that we are facing, we will only mention a few cases:
The people of the Cholulteca region in Puebla, last March 22, 2021, in the framework of World Water Day, took over the Bonafot Plant of the Danone corporate, due to the extraction of 1,800,000 liters of water per day; the Ñhöñhö people of Santiago Mexquititlán, Amealco, Querétaro, on March 31, 2021, also decided to take over the water well in Barrio Quinto, because even though the well is located in their community, there is a great shortage of the vital liquid, as a consequence of the water being plundered by the State Water Commission, CEA, together with private initiative and taken to other towns and communities, leaving them without water in their own community; in the first months of 2022, in the north of the country, specifically in Monterrey, an “extreme drought” was registered, due to private companies extracting 1,600 liters of water per second, these figures are officially released by the Secretary of the Environment and the National Water Commission; the Mexicali Resists Movement, the main actor in the struggle and defense of water in Baja California, reports on the arduous battle against Constellatión Brands, a brewery project that in 2020 was cancelled in Baja California as a result of the Mexicali Resists struggle, and reinstalled in the State of Veracruz with the complicity of the State and Federal government, as if this would solve the water shortage crisis we are experiencing; the People of Xochimilco have denounced in recent months, the extraction and dispossession of water, therefore, the Coordination of Peoples, Native Neighborhoods and Colonies of Xochimilco state that this represents a grievance for the native peoples, as they point out that 50% of the water consumed in the CDMX, comes from the wells located in Xochimilco and operated by the Water System of the CDMX; recently, the people of Xoco have denounced that for weeks they have been facing water shortages due to the imposition of a shopping center and the Mitika Tower, with 267 meters high and 68 floors, which offers housing, commerce, services and “green areas” and has left the people of Xoco without water; no lesser has been the struggle of the comrades of the Asamblea de Pueblos, Barrios y Colonias de los Pedregales de Coyocán, who demanded the cancellation of a real estate project of the company Quiero Casa, located at Aztecas 215, which, in the construction process, has left the towns of Xoco without water.
During the construction process, it was denounced that the company was dumping 11 million liters of water into the sewage system.
Because of the above and because our fight is for Life, from the 2nd. National Assembly for Water and Life, we call for the following:
GLOBAL ACTION FOR WORLD WATER DAY
AGAINST THE PLUNDERING OF WATER AND FOR THE RIGHT TO LIFE,
NO TO MILITARIZATION
To be held on March 22, according to your time, calendar and geography.
You can register your activities to the following email: contacto@asambleaporelaguaylavida.org
In Puebla, we are calling for these activities and others, with the comrades in France:
– Saturday, March 18 – 9:00 Hrs. San lucas Nextetelco, Juan C. Bonilla.
Reforestation and cleaning of the Metlapanapa River.
– Sunday, March 19 – 10:00 Hrs. Santa Isabel Cholula.
Forum: Voices of Food Sovereignty and Water Defense. At the Second Seed Fair.
– Tuesday, March 21 – 10:00 Hrs. San Mateo Cuanalá, Juan C. Bonilla.
Sharing of the struggle and defense of water with the little school Krogerup Høskole from Denmark.
– Wednesday, March 22 – 10:00 Hrs. Forum at the Universidad Iberoamericana – Puebla.
Reflection on the privatization of drinking water and sanitation services. Impacts and resistance.
-Sunday, March 26th – 12:00 Hrs. Ameyal de Santa Bárbara Almoloya, San Pedro Cholula,
Water Ceremony.
Actions in France:
– Sunday, March 19 – 19:00 Hrs (France time).
Musical day in diffusion of the defense of water and life of the United Peoples of the Cholulteca Region.
– Friday, March 24 – 10:00 a.m. (French time)
March and International Forum on the defense of water with delegations from different countries and continents.
– Saturday, March 25 – 10:00 a.m. (French time) Poitou, France. Demonstration “Not one basin more”.
– Sunday, March 26 – 10:00 a.m. (French time) Round table discussion
“Agribusiness facing the future of farmers”.
In the CDMX, we are calling for two activities:
Tuesday, March 21, 16:00 Hrs.
FORUM: “The dispossession of Water, a War against our Peoples”.
House of Indigenous Peoples and Communities “Samir Flores Soberanes”.
Av Mexico-Coyoacan 343, Col. Xoco. Benito Juarez
Wednesday, March 22, 16:00 Hrs.
MARCH: Against the Despoilment of Water and for the Right to Life, NO TO MILITARIZATION
Angel de la Independencia to the Zócalo, CDMX
In Querétaro, Qro. we are calling for these Activities:
Wednesday, March 22, 10:00 Hrs.
On World Water Day, Global Action for Water and Life
Aula Magna, Faculty of Philosophy, UAQ
ATTENTIVELY
For the Integral Reconstitution of our Peoples!
Never again a Mexico without Us!
Zapata Lives, the Struggle Continues!
Samir Lives, the Struggle Continues!
Until dignity and justice become customary!
It’s not Drought, it’s Plunder!
Water is not for sale, it is loved and defended!
Because Alive They Took Them, Alive We Want Them!
No to the Mayan Train!
No to the Morelos Integral Project!
No to the Interoceanic Corridor!
Long live the EZLN, Long live the CNI, Long live the CIG!
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY FOR WATER AND LIFE
Congreso Nacional Indígena-Concejo Indígena de Gobierno; Concejo Autónomo de Santiago Mexquititlán, Amealco, Querétaro; Comunidad Indígena Otomí residente de la CDMX; UPREZ, Benito Juárez; Coordinación Metropolitana Anticapitalista y Antipatriarcal con el CIG; Pueblos Unidos de la Región Cholulteca y de los volcanes; UPVA 28 de octubre; Radio comunitaria Santa María Zacatepec, Puebla; Red de Resistencia y Rebeldía en apoyo al CNI-CIG del Puerto de Veracruz; Geo-grafías comunitarias; 8 SERXS; Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra y el Agua, Puebla. Morelos y Tlaxcala; Guardianes y Guardianas del Río Metlapanapa; Cuenca Río Santiago; Red en Defensa del Agua y la Vida-REDAVI; NODHO de Derechos Humanos; Mazatecas por la Libertad; Un Salto de Vida, Jalisco; Laboratorio Popular de Medios Libres; Coordinación de Pueblos y Barrios Originarios y Colonias de Xochimilco; Alternativa socialista; Concejo Regional Totonaco; Colectivo entre las cebollas; Red Universitaria Anticapitalista; Múuch Xiímbal