“The Race for the Isthmus of Tehuantepec”.
National Security, National Inspiration and America for Americans.
“The neoliberal model is abolished” reads a communiqué issued by the foreman dated March 17, 2019. Reborn from the rubble then is the nineteenth-century liberalism, that which is characterized by a mixture of religious ideas and ideologies with that which they call humanism. A model where yesterday’s enemies are now friends; where the main beneficiaries of plunder are honest people; where the country’s billionaires have not stopped increasing their wealth; well, the same as yesterday.
In this new political panorama that Layú Nabe threatens, there is a saying that the defenders of the palace foreman defend at all costs -with or without foundations, that no longer matters in times of Transformation-: “at last a government turned to see the Mexican southeast”. That is why we wonder what is happening in the southeast?
Beyond the promises of development and progress, entrepreneurship, cooperative partnerships with powerful white men like Larrea and Hank, sustainable extractivism and friendly dispossession that the foreman babbles every morning on national television. To understand a little of the monster that is coming upon us, it is pertinent to remember the words of Wodrow Wilson, referred to by Galeano in 1970: “A country -he said- is owned and dominated by the capital that has been invested in it”. Trade routes throughout the length and breadth of the planet have been a constant in the long history of capitalist accumulation, and these strategic routes are evidence of Wilson’s premise.
Just look beyond our noses and we can see the emergence of Panama as a republic catapulted by the expansion of U.S. imperialism. Even go further and we will glimpse the disappearance of the Egyptian fellah (peasant communities) with the construction of the Suez Canal, which led Egypt to stick its head in the noose of European capital. Now we see Ukraine, as the scene of dispute between U.S., Russian and Chinese imperialisms, which in their quest for domination destroy and shape territories that are alien to them, above all, above all, above all. All geopolitical expansion is accompanied by a considerable military presence, which becomes a necessary factor for the economic and political control of capital in a given territory, this is how we see it too, this is how our Mayan sisters and brothers in the Yucatan Peninsula see it too.
Our territories are no strangers to this urgency and geopolitical rearrangement that, at the international level, are being disputed at this time on the chessboard called Ukraine, which before was Panama, Suez, Malacca, Iraq, Hormuz, and so on. And we know that at this point the classic “what rearrangement, what foreign presence, they are paid by Claudio X Gonzalez, Slim is an honest patriot, the 100 thousand disappeared are an invention of the opposition …” are formulated.
We continue. First point, in the last few months Ken Salazar, the special envoy of the financiers of the northern country, has announced that the United States (US) will invest 250 million dollars in the strategic states that comprise the Interoceanic Corridor and the Mayan Train, through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), yes, the same USAID that finances “Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity” and of which so much has been said that it pulls the strings of the “opposition”.
Second point, from May 7 to 21, the “Tradewinds 2022” military exercises were held for the first time in Mexican territory -surprise in the south-southeast- executed and sponsored by the US Southern Command -the same ones that have been in charge of rooting the Monroe Doctrine throughout the length and breadth of the continent-. With the participation of 1,500 military personnel from 23 countries, Tradewinds aims to strengthen their reaction capacity in the region and develop new standard operating procedures, as well as training for the dilution of protests or urban disturbances and the fight against Molotov cocktails.
Third, in recent months a total of 4,362 military elements have been sent and mobilized to provide security to the Inter-Oceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, this initial deployment comes after SEMAR announced that the insecurity and delay in the megaproject is a consequence of the presence of organized crime groups and antagonistic groups -organized indigenous communities- because of course, for “national security”, indigenous peoples and narco groups are equated.
Finally, the icing on the cake. Once again, Mr. Big News, not the morning news, but the news that comes from the outside, the news that really matters to the farmers, Ken Salazar, announced a little more than 10 days ago that the solution to the migration problem – a consequence of the dominant mode of production – is to implicitly move the northern border of Mexico to the waist of the country, to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Because, of course, it is easier to control militarily, politically and economically an 80-mile border than a 2000-mile border.
And so USAID, the Southern Command and SEMAR make their presence felt in this race for the southern region of the country, while we calmly watch the US, with its official spokesperson, go in and out of the National Palace, to announce and dictate the rules of the game, without having to walk days and miles and without having to knock on doors as our Wixarika sisters and brothers recently did, or the people displaced by paramilitary groups, or the repressed students and teachers, or the families in search of their disappeared. And so, the foreman, the spokesman and the farmers embark together on a journey to bring “security” (military) and “stability” (economic) to this strategic region, so convulsed, so rebellious, so indomitable.
From “Section 22 is the worst social evil in Oaxaca” to Operativos Agave Azul: Now we are all social fighters.
Representative democracy has returned to the streets and communities, with its garbage and electoral circus. What would representative democracy be without the clowns that make this season the circus, first there are the fillers, those who make us believe that there is a hard and arduous contest for your well being, then there are the others who dispute “popularity” points, those who make you believe that the electoral dispute is something serious. But of course your vote matters! Of course you are part of the change!
Without any difference, it is clear that the candidate who wins the governorship of the state of Oaxaca is aligned with the policy of dispossession/Transformation that privileges the private interests of national and international companies and organized crime.
It is also clear that whoever has the best alliances in this race for power will win, and there are murmurs about who this candidate is. Today it seems that the decree that put an end to neoliberalism also put an end to the historical memory of the Oaxacan people’s struggle, which is why yesterday’s criminals today present themselves blessed and as social fighters, who claim to have always walked on the side of the people.
Terror and impunity are just around the corner, they have names and parties, and they say that what is not named does not exist. As a platform there is MORENA, as a slogan “transformation is coming to Oaxaca”, as actors a list of stellar actors:
Salomón Jara Cruz, declared enemy of the Oaxacan teachers and who by magic – in a circus there are also magicians – disappeared a billion pesos from SEDAPA; Beatriz Rodríguez Casanovas, former Secretary of Tourism and Jorge Franco Vargas, former Secretary General of Government, both in URO’s time and all responsible for disappearances, assassinations and caravans of death in 2006; Arturo García Velázquez, accused of forced disappearance and carrying weapons for the exclusive use of the Army, murdered in a Christmas party -with narcocartulina- in Jalapa de Díaz in 2019 when he served as mayor, relieving his wife Fernanda Barbosa Sosa from her position; Lizbeth Victoria Huerta, who also knew how to disappear in her position, as president of Nochixtlán, 8 million 795 thousand 285 pesos and the activist Claudia Uruchurtu.
In addition we have the jugglers. “Nino” -as he is called-, leader of the municipal presidents emanating from Morena of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and main financial operator of Salomón Jara Cruz, for at least six years: Antonino Morales Toledo has been investigated by the Financial Intelligence Unit as part of an international investigation called “Agave Azul”, which revealed an immense network of illicit money laundering. Antonino as state leader of the FUCO organization and after the investigations of the “Agave Azul” operation for his links to organized crime, created the Antonino Morales Toledo Foundation A.C., and today he is a key player in the campaign of Salomón Jara as candidate for the governorship of Oaxaca.
In the middle of this track we have the acrobats, criminals of yesterday and today as angels of democracy and justice. In this clown race for the conquest of power, it does not matter that in these five months 50 women have been victims of femicide in the state, the Isthmus being the most violent region for women. It does not matter that in this same region a total of 96 people have been murdered (according to official data); or that dozens of journalists are being murdered for doing their work, one of them killed in Salina Cruz.
It is irrelevant that the country has more than one hundred thousand disappeared people, a figure that exceeds those registered in dictatorships such as in the Southern Cone. None of that matters, because since the inauguration of the 4th Transformation, the only ones attacked, criminalized, persecuted, singled out and threatened, are these new social fighters. All other data are legends of the neoliberal model, the only story that matters is the circus, the dispute between clowns that agglutinate in one or another political party, the rest is an invention of the non-social fighters.
Layú Nabe’s cast
In this narrow region shaped by water and wind, it is intended to install a large infrastructure consisting of: 300 km of railroad tracks, which will split Layú Nabe in two. This section will be joined by two more railroads, with lengths of 328 km and 459 km; a gas pipeline that will run from Tuxpan to Salina Cruz, where the North American companies Mirage Energy and Northern Hemisphere Logistics have already positioned themselves; 10 initial industrial clusters to which approximately 18 more will be added; the expanded ports of Salina Cruz and Coatzacoalcos; in addition to the wind farms and mining concessions already present in the region.
The first to arrive at this reorganization are those who are in charge of modernizing the railroads from Salina Cruz to Coatzacoalcos: Grupo Azvi of Spain, historical ally of the Salinas de Gortari family; Grupo Industrial Hermes owned by Carlos Hank Rhon, strategic ally of Oderbrecht; COPASA of Spain; Consorcio FERROMAZ which has as its main partner Grupo Mexico owned by German Larrea; Grupo SACMAG which has as its main clients Industria Peñoles, Nestle and FEMSA; COMSA corporation of Spain and Construcción y Maquinaria SEF which has as its main client Grupo Mexico. But we know, we have already heard them say “they will only modernize the roads and they will go away, we, the people, will use those roads”, of course, because German Larrea is an honest man.
In the final stretch of this race, on April 22nd of this year in San Juan de Ulua, Veracruz, the foreman of the palace met with the special envoy from the northern country, Ken Salazar, as interlocutor of the farmers who are interested in being part of the distribution of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec region. This space was attended by 22 transnational companies interested in turning the Isthmus into their route of passage. Accenture Ltd. & General Motors; those interested in wind energy production such as Applied Energy Services (AES Corporation) & EDP Renewables; the agribusiness, bioindustry and pharmaceutical industry magnates, CARGILL; also those interested in water extraction, Constellation Brands; the automotive industry with the presence of -plus the aforementioned- Daimler Truck North America LLC & Navistar (Volkswagen Group). There were also those interested in transportation and gas production and chemical industry such as Pacific Limited, Sempra Infrastructure & TC Energy, as well as Kansas City Southern, AECOM, INDEX, AT&T, INVENERGY, CUMMINS, FEDEX, Progress Rail, Rassini, UPS &VISTEON.
“When talking about the neoliberal model, I have come to argue that if the neoliberal model were applied without corruption, it would not be all bad. It could be the most perfect economic model”, was heard in the foreman’s voice on the morning show. 3 years after having decreed the extinction of the Neoliberal model, it has been decided that this economic and political system is also to be blessed… The curtain closes, the show ends.
In short, everyone comes for a piece of Layú Nabe, we know it, but THE ISTHM IS OURS, no matter how much they want it.
From Layú Nabe
Assembly of Indigenous Peoples of the Isthmus in Defense of Land and Territory