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On August 15, 2019, communities of the Southern Sierra and coastal regions of Oaxaca held a press conference to announce their rejection of a new hydroelectric project promoted by a private company on the Río Verde. Authorities of six Indigenous and farming towns questioned the campaign promises of Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador to respect Indigenous rights and protect…

The Guelaguetza is a cultural event that draws thousands of national and international tourists to Oaxaca, Mexico each July. This year, Indigenous Zapotec communities recuperated the popular, collective spirit of the event with the "Guelaguetza against Mining", which celebrates 10 years of resistance to extractive projects in Oaxaca's Central Valleys region. Read their statement (original in Spanish): On July 22,…

In southern Mexico, a multi-ethnic network of towns has halted the construction of a mega-dam. Now they are organizing to manage their own natural resources and revitalize their culture as native water protectors. At dawn on March 14—celebrated internationally as the Day of Action against Dams and in Defense of Rivers—Afro-Mexican, Indigenous, and mestizo peoples met on the shores of…

In Oaxaca, the Indigenous community of Magdalena Ocotlán passed a prohibition on mining in its territory, and demanded the cancellation of the Canadian San José mine, which threatens residents' only source of water.   Magdalena Ocotlán, Oaxaca, 10 April, 2019 — On the 100th anniversary of the assassination of Emiliano Zapata, local authorities of the Zapotec town of Magdalena Ocotlán,…

Twelve days after the murder of Indigenous environmental activist Samir Flores Soberanes, Mexican authorities have neither determined a motive for the crime nor detained any suspects. Flores, an Indigenous Náhautl radio producer and member of the People’s Front in Defense of the Land and Water for the states of Morelos, Puebla and Tlaxcala (FPDTA), died on 20 February 2019, after…

Indigenous Náhuatl land defender and radio producer Samir Flores Soberanes was shot to death early Wednesday morning in the community of Amilcingo in the state of Morelos, Mexico. Flores was an outspoken opponent of a thermal-electric plant and gas pipeline that form part of the Integral Project for Morelos, originally proposed in 2010 but recently promoted by Mexican President Andrés…

  On June 19th, 2016, prolonged tensions due to the Mexican government’s educational reform came to a head in Asunción Nochixtlán, a Mixtec municipality an hour’s drive from Oaxaca City, where at least 8 people were killed and 226 civilian injured during protests. During this incident, the  government of Oaxaca—a southern territory known for Indigenous and popular resistance—once again proved…