translated from Spanish: ‘We face dirty government campaign,’ CSOs respond to AMLO

“We have been here for a long time, more than 15 or 20, since long before its bad call Tren Maya, working for the defense of territories and human rights. We’re not environmentalists in disguise, nor right. We have been offended and criminalized by their statements, in a country of high risk for defenders. We demand a public apology from the president,” said Sara López of the Indigenous and Popular Regional Council of Xpujil (Cripx).
The activist’s statement summarizes the response that civil society organizations gave during a press conference on Monday to the signs of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador last Friday, at their morning press conference, that they receive funding from international foundations, such as Ford and Kellogg, to oppose the Maya Train project. 
Read: AMLO government accuses Animal Politician and OSC of receiving resources to attack Maya Train
“The president asked for clarification regarding the funds we received and are giving it, we tell him that he is very ill-informed. It is clear that we are facing a dirty campaign, clearly orchestrated from the federal government. It’s immoral to use the presidential pulp to hit with lies. We noticed a lot of ignorance on the part of the president. Because one differs with the way he thinks and acts, disqualifies without foundation,” said Gustavo Alanís, executive director of the Mexican Center for Environmental Law (Cemda), another of the organizations pointed out by the representative. 
Alanís also said that it seeks to disqualify the work of activists, smear, defame, delegitimize, censor. “We have seen how many of these verbal aggressions have become a patron by the Mexican state in cases such as the Maya Train. This can lead to physical assaults and killings of defenders. In Mexico, since 2012, in Cemda we have documented 500 assaults on defenders and in 2019 alone, they killed 18 environmentalists according to Global Witness data.” 
Cemda’s director stressed that what they do is legal. “What we do is lawful, we report annually to the Ministry of Finance (the funds they receive) and audit us annually, in the case of us, well-known and internationally prestigious firms. And we do protect interests: those of nature, indigenous territories, the environment, legality, the natural resources of the region.” 
The organizations also clarified that although they do receive funding from international foundations, they are not labeled to go against the Maya Train, as the president noted. 
“Our funding comes from national and international funders. The data is public, the reports are on the SAT and since the presidency they have used it to put together this scandal. But this money is not labeled to oppose the Mayan Train, it is to enforce our mission and vision,” Alanís said.  
Find out: CSO demands public apology from government apology for accusations over media and organization financing
For his part, Sergio Madrid, executive director of the Mexican Civil Council for Sustainable Forestry (CCMSS), said that they are not disguised environmentalists, nor conservatives. He explained that they have been working more than 15 years in the training of indigenous interpreters, on projects to curb water and agribusiness pollution, the impact of mining and energy projects, and on the defense of common goods, forests and forests.
“The information presented by the government is misleading and out of context, organizations are accused of receiving resources to oppose the Maya Train, when the figures presented relate to income accumulated in the past 14 years, and what we do is legal, is a right,” Madrid said. 
Edith Olivares Ferreto, head of Amnesty International Mexico’s Human Rights Unit, said they are concerned that the government is dedicated to time, human and technological resources, particularly in a crisis process like this, to investigate how and why civil society organizations are funded. 
“It is worrying that this has been directed to a particular work that is in the interest of the government and against organizations in the southeast area of the country. We call on the government to clarify what the information is and what its sources are to say that this is against the Maya Train and why it discredits organizations in one of the most dangerous countries for the defense of human rights and journalism, we would hope that the government does not contribute to this.” 
As a joint positioning, the organizations criticized the signals and demandedthey held a public apology from the representative, and held him responsible for any aggression they or their relatives suffer. 
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Original source in Spanish