After 12 years of fighting, the Otomi community of San Francisco Xochicuautla, located in the state of Mexico, reached an agreement with the government and a subsidiary of Grupo Higa so that the toll highway Toluca-Naucalpan does not completely divide the Parque Otomi Mexica , and leave confined to the inhabitants of the upper area of Lerma and without being able to climb the mountain.
According to the company’s plan, the infrastructure work would split the nature reserve into two. What was left on one side and another would be connected only by two small steps. The Otomi community would no longer have free access to places in the forest, which for them are sacred, and the fauna of the region would be in danger, being forced to cross a highway, turn of a sudden frontier, where for them before there was free transit.
There is an agreement to suspend the works in Xochicuautla: inhabitants
In 2007, Enrique Peña Nieto, then governor of the State of Mexico, authorized the construction of the Toluca-Naucalpan Highway, to the company TEYA S. A. de C. V, a subsidiary of Grupo Higa.
“The project, as it was raised, affected forests, fauna, sacred places and the culture of our Otomi people, as well as important water sources, which even supply the metropolitan area,” he explained, in an interview with a political Animal, José Luis Fernandez, Member of the Supreme Indigenous Council of the Xochicuautla community.
Faced with this plan, the inhabitants of the area rebelled. No one consulted them about the project, alerted, and initiated the legal and social resistance struggle. This battle went into its final phase in 2016, when the settlers decided, in front of the advance of 93.7% of the total work, which had a viable option: to propose an alternative project that would allow them to keep their way through the forest and protect the fauna and all the Habitat.
Edomex policemen evict inhabitants of Xochicuatla, who oppose a project of Higa
The proposal follows the original outline of the highway but respects the subterranean natural runoffs, which feed the rivers and water sources of the community. “Our proposal also respects the human and wildlife movement, instead of cutting the pace,” the Indigenous council settled in its official position.
To achieve this, the Community’s alternative project considers 10 steps to be translated into bridges (one of which measures 260 meters); Multipurpose top steps with Flora, (which will serve to maintain the biological continuum of all species) and a higher vehicular step.
In addition, the community managed to impose a “comprehensive development Plan” with seven strategic axes: education, culture, health, sport, productive (sustainable and food self-sufficiency), forestry, (conservation and care of our forests) and Infrastructure. In each, the community will decide in a autonomous manner the contents and actions.
Another achievement is the creation of a trust, promoted by the CNDH recommendation 56/2016, so that part of the revenues of the Toluca-Naucalpan highway are destined for infrastructure works in the community, including wells for rainwater collection.
. @CNDH showed that the authorities and the subsidiary company of Grupo HIGA intimidated the people of Xochicuautla https://t.co/BIDR5dBbC3 pic.twitter.com/AHQGBlKBY0
— AnimalPolitico.com (@Pajaropolitico) December 16, 2016
Moral recognition is also important for people. “We are part of an indigenous community in resistance that managed to create a technically better alternative to that of the government and the company,” said José Luis Fernández.
The agreements, which were concluded in March, were the result of two years of technical tables with the company, and the federal and state governments of Mexico, in which the community was accompanied by witnesses such as the CNDH, the United Nations Organization and Services and counseling for peace.
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