This past weekend was an intense and frightening one for many here in Western Mexico — at least among the people who care about the land and Indigenous people: high-profile Wixárika land defender and attorney Santos de la Cruz Carrillo had disappeared on Friday along with his wife and two children, including a three-month-old baby.

The community of San Sebastian Teponahuaxtlan declared they will boycott this year's elections if the government doesn't return their ancestral lands to them. The Wixarika people of San Sebastian Teponahuaxtlan and Tuxpan, installed checkpoints around their communities to stop any candidate, politician or electoral authority to come into their territory until the Mexican government returns them the Huajimic ancestral lands that were seized by ranchers in 1952.

Traditional, civil, and agrarian authorities from the Wixárika communities that make up the Regional Council held a press conference at the Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Center (Prodh), where they emphasized that the Council, along with its allies, has worked for years to achieve this international recognition and to publicize the importance of this work. Furthermore, this recognition “does not mean surrendering our ancient culture, but rather protecting it to prevent its plundering, commodification, and extinction.” The inscription, in turn, “commits the Mexican State more than ever to providing sustainable development options for local inhabitants to prevent the exploitation of the territory by agribusiness and extractive projects.”

On November 26, at approximately 5 p.m., an armed attack occurred at El Caracol, a property belonging to the Wixárika and Tepehuan autonomous community of San Lorenzo de Azqueltán, in the municipality of Villa Guerrero, Jalisco, Mexico (https://bit.ly/3XwSKPl). Following the attack, the murder of Marcos Aguilar Rojas, the community's agrarian representative, was confirmed. Gabriel Aguilar Rojas sustained gunshot wounds. The news was released in a statement issued by the National Indigenous Congress.

The inscription of the Wixárika Route through the Sacred Sites to Wirikuta as a UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage Site, on July 12, during the 47th session of the World Heritage Committee, is “a strategic tool that strengthens the protection of Wirikuta and many other sacred places along our ancestral routes to prevent their deterioration and destruction,” stated members of the Wixárika Regional Council for the Defense of Wirikuta.

Fernando Benítez (1912-2000) was a journalist, anthropologist, writer, editor, historian, and a distinguished professor at the Faculty of Political Science, where one of the auditoriums bears his name. His work has been little studied in the 21st century. Benítez is considered the "father of cultural journalism" in Mexico.

Article detailing the hydrological history of the region of Wirikuta in the high plateaus of Wirikuta and the reasons why mining and agroindustrial concessions are further endangering the water table. Includes maps and photographs.

Article summarizing the research conducted by Dr. Iracema Gavilán about lithium concessions in Wirikuta.

 

Read full Spanish-language article here.

Article detailing the historic removal of barbed wire fencing by a coalition of small farmers and allies from the Las Margaritas ejido in the heart of Wirikuta. Read Spanish-language article by Alfredo Valadez Rodríguez in the link.