{"id":20323,"date":"2021-05-10T19:49:50","date_gmt":"2021-05-11T02:49:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elenemigocomun.net\/?p=20323"},"modified":"2021-05-10T19:49:50","modified_gmt":"2021-05-11T02:49:50","slug":"to-dismantle-a-gas-pipeline-and-sell-it-as-scrap-metal-a-story-of-yaqui-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elenemigocomun.net\/2021\/05\/to-dismantle-a-gas-pipeline-and-sell-it-as-scrap-metal-a-story-of-yaqui-women\/","title":{"rendered":"To Dismantle a Gas Pipeline and Sell it as Scrap Metal: A Story of Yaqui Women"},"content":{"rendered":"

For more information on the case of political prisoner Fidencio Aldama, visit fidencioaldama.org<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Text: Daliri Oropeza and Reyna Haydee Ramirez, Pie de P\u00e1gina<\/em><\/a>
\nPhotos: Daliri Oropeza<\/p>\n

The gas pipeline was already a foregone conclusion, at least that\u2019s what the company, the subsidiary, and the government of Sonora thought. They were wrong. Yaqui women narrate how they have stopped this project.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Loma de B\u00e1cum, Sonora: A gigantic metal pipe can be seen at the bottom of a hole in the earth. The family of Carmen Garc\u00eda look into the hole which was dug by the people of Loma de B\u00e1cum to remove the gas pipeline.<\/p>\n

The people used an excavator they seized from the company IEnova, affiliate of the United States transnational, Sempra Energy. The company was building the gas pipeline without the approval of those who live there. A consultation was never carried out. So, after an assembly, the entire community went to where the pipeline was being laid. There, they excavated and cut out with a blowtorch nearly ten kilometers of pipeline, which they then took to Ciudad Obreg\u00f3n to sell as scrap metal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe company complained, made a fuss, and sued. If you continue building the pipeline, we told them, we are going to continue selling it as scrap metal,\u201d says Guadalupe Maldonado Flores, a Yaqui who has accompanied territorial defense efforts of the traditional guard of Loma de B\u00e1cum.<\/p>\n

In August 2017, they began to remove the pipeline, but the energy megaproject began in 2012, with the signing of a contract between the then-president Enrique Pe\u00f1a and the company. Construction began in 2013. They failed to carry out a consultation with the Indigenous peoples, yet they knew that the pipeline route crossed Yaqui territory.<\/p>\n

The proposal was to build \u201cGasoducto Sonora\u201d for the importation of gas through Agua Prieta. In 2016, the company arrived to the eight Yaqui towns to promote the project offering money, water purifiers, and even new pickup trucks. IEnova had the acceptance of seven of the eight Yaqui towns. In Loma de B\u00e1cum, it was impossible.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Francisca Vazquez, Carmen\u2019s mother, had a dream in the sacred Bakatete territory. After this dream, the women got organized. Casilda was still alive, a well-known Yaqui woman and elder, who dedicated herself to convene and organize the women in order to stop what the transnational company was doing. It was women who led the land defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cEver since we were little, our ancestors, our grandparents, who never studied, who spoke our language, told us that our lands were going to be taken. \u2018The government says: everyone will study. Don\u2019t take their side. From today, you defend your territory. We are not going to be here anymore, and the day that the government wants, it will have you in its sights,\u2019\u201d says Francisca.<\/p>\n

The reaction in the community when they were told about the gas pipeline was to ask what would happen if the pipeline exploded being so close to the inhabitants of the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe remember the words of our ancestors, our grandparents, that we were going to lose our territories because our own Yaqui brothers were not going to denounce it.\u201d Like that, women from at least four of the eight Yaqui towns began to organize at the invitation of Francisca\u2019s close friend Casilda, who died in 2020 from cancer in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic. Casilda was a woman dedicated to singing at the church in Loma de B\u00e1cum. She committed herself to the struggle against violence toward women, and was always an advocate for women\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n

Thanks to the work of the women\u2019s group from B\u00e1cum, they won an injunction and the judge suspended construction in June 2017, also ordering the removal of the pipeline. But the company continued construction until the community of Loma de B\u00e1cum stopped it themselves.<\/p>\n

Now, every October 21, they celebrate the most recent defense of territory. They prepare food for the entire community, and they also do the deer dance with traditional music. The goal is that this day of resistance sticks in the memory of the youth, of the children.<\/p>\n

Also, to serve as a reminder of these acts of self-defense, the community left the burned cars which belonged to the pipeline company in the central plaza, in front of the church and traditional guard.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

According to an investigation from Avispa Midia, IEnova has investments of 8.769 billion US dollars in Mexico and a history of abuses. The company accused the Yaqui people of being a \u201ccriminal group\u201d that carried out acts of \u201cvandalism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inhabitants of this town and of the other seven Yaqui towns are now denouncing the entrance of mining companies for exploration in their territory. The traditional guard of Loma de B\u00e1cum detected at least seven incursions in the mountains of Bakatete seeking to begin mining projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have always been alert; now even more so,\u201d assured Guadalupe.<\/p>\n

Freedom of a Political Prisoner<\/h3>\n

A week after the Yaqui community of Loma de B\u00e1cum stopped the machinery, a group of armed Yaquis, the majority from Loma de Guam\u00fachil, entered the community to wreak havoc. Different testimonies say that the company paid them. The objective of the group was to come into town and replace the traditional authority that refused the gas pipeline, in order to impose an authority that would accept the megaproject.<\/p>\n

The day that the violent group arrived in Loma de B\u00e1cum, there were many people in the community, more than 600. The group said that they came to dialogue, to have a meeting, says Francisca, a woman with a firm tone, wearing a purple shawl and a traditional Yaqui skirt, who takes care of her father who has diabetes. She appears younger than she is. She is a woman devoted to singing in the community church.<\/p>\n

Carmen\u2019s family recognizes that other communities accepted the route of the pipeline, but the traditional authorities didn\u2019t consult with their respective people, to whom they are responsible. They only made a deal.<\/p>\n

In Loma de B\u00e1cum, rather, the people and the traditional guard decided to defend Yaqui territory, both from mining as well as from the gas pipeline. Part of that work is strengthening their traditions, language, and productive activities.<\/p>\n

But on October 21, 2016, there were gunshots. There were two attacks on the same day, in the first attack, Cruz Buitimea of Loma de Guam\u00fachil died.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were women there, like my aunt,\u201d says Carmen. \u201cMy aunt says that she was carrying sticks of firewood. She took them to the men so that they could defend themselves with the sticks and stones that she gathered in her blouse, because they didn\u2019t have anything with which to defend themselves.\u201d The violent group arrived armed, and Loma de B\u00e1cum defended itself in response, explains Carmen while drinking coffee with her family in the backyard of her house, where her two kids play and sing songs in the Jiaki language.<\/p>\n

She says that when they came to attack for the second time that day was when they blamed Fidencio from Cruz Buitimea\u2019s death. \u201cHe confidently told them: \u2018If you think that I killed him, we will see how that plays out legally.\u2019\u201d Carmen accentuates, \u201cAnd you see how corrupt this system is, this law, and this government.\u201d At that moment, Fidencio was pushed up against a tree. They beat him. He ran. They chased him, but he managed to escape by hiding in the brush.<\/p>\n

Fidencio is 32 years old. He is originally from Loma de Guam\u00fachil, although he lives with his family in Loma de B\u00e1cum. He has served various roles in the community. He has openly spoken out against the gas pipeline.<\/p>\n

When some of his relatives received money from the IEnova energy company, Fidencio said to them, \u201cWhy are you taking money if that money is going to eventually disappear in exchange for territory that will always be here, territory that is supposed to be ours. But if you are selling it, you are not going to have it for your families.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said that it was my husband.\u201d The two people that accused him presented a video where Fidencio is carrying a gun, the guns used by the community police of Loma de B\u00e1cum, which was Fidencio\u2019s position at the time. The guns belonging to the traditional guard are .45 caliber. Different than the caliber of the bullet that was found in the deceased Cruz, which was a .22 caliber. This is not mentioned in the case file.<\/p>\n

According to witnesses, on that day it was people from other Yaqui towns who violently entered the community alongside those from Loma de Guam\u00fachil who murdered Cruz. \u201cThe idea was that there would need to be deaths in order to justify the entrance of the state, so that the police would enter,\u201d Guadalupe Flores tells us as we take a tour of the agroecological garden of the Yaqui town.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cAMLO says that in the Fourth Transformation there are no political prisoners. Well, how are you going to say say that there are no political prisoners if my husband is a political prisoner? Then what does that make my husband?\u201d says Carmen, with anger in her eyes. She then gets up to prepare tortillas, and to continue talking in the backyard of her house.<\/p>\n

The Kidnapping of Fidencio<\/h3>\n

Six days later, Sonoran prosecutors arrived to interview members of the town\u2019s traditional guard about the murder. It was late at night. It was thought they were interviewing everyone in the community. They questioned them one by one. When Fidencio showed up, they restrained him. He came to give a statement, but they stopped everything and took him away. Along with him, they took the translator and lawyer, Anabela Carl\u00f3n, who they released before arriving at the prosecutor\u2019s office.
\nCarmen didn\u2019t know that they had taken Fidencio.<\/p>\n

There was no arrest warrant, nor were any reasons given as to why he was being taken. Since then, he has been imprisoned, with a number of irregularities.<\/p>\n

Pie de P\u00e1gina has his case file.<\/p>\n

Anabela filed a motion documenting the violations committed by the prosecutors. This was not included in the case file. When he went to give his statement before being taken away, they tied him up completely. When they arrived at Obreg\u00f3n, the charging documents had already been prepared the day before, and they already had Fidencio Aldama\u2019s voter ID card. But the judge dismissed Anabela\u2019s motion. In short, they have suggested in a veiled manner that Fidencio\u2019s freedom would be granted in exchange for the passage of the pipeline. Fidencio has consistently rejected this offer.<\/p>\n

For Carmen and her family, what they did was not an arrest, it was a kidnapping. Fidencio wasn\u2019t shown an arrest warrant until he arrived at the then-State Attorney General\u2019s Office based in Ciudad Obreg\u00f3n. Without the presence of lawyers or translators, he was processed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy didn\u2019t they show me the [arrest warrant] in front of my family, in front of the town\u2019s authorities, in front of the tribe? Why here, that is, where the mestizos are?\u201d wondered Fidencio. And they forced him to sign the arrest warrant.
\nFidencio Aldama has been imprisoned for four years. His eldest son, Ian, performs the deer dance at the town\u2019s festivals to demand his release.<\/p>\n

David Guadalupe Valenzuela, his most recent lawyer, died of Covid.<\/p>\n

In the privacy they barely have during visits at the prison in Obreg\u00f3n, Fidencio told Carmen, \u201cIf I had shot at Cruz, I would have hit someone else, not just him, because I had a .45.\u201d In that conversation, he reminded her that it is forbidden to shoot at people, only into the sky to scare them.<\/p>\n

Since his imprisonment, Carmen and her family have organized support campaigns, have changed lawyers four times, have raised funds, held meetings, and visited other communities in resistance to inform them about her husband\u2019s case. In seeking his freedom, Fidencio has given his all from the inside, from campaigns with other prisoners, sending letters to the governor and president, and going on hunger strike.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pipeline should not pass through here, nor in any part of the eight towns, because the lands are communal, they belong to everyone. When Loma de B\u00e1cum defends its part, it defends all of Yaqui territory, and that\u2019s how it should be, and that is how it has historically been recognized,\u201d explains Carmen, in front of her mother and children.<\/p>\n

For Carmen and her family, justice as presented by the INPI [National Institute of Indigenous Peoples] or the federal government is not legitimate, as the cancellation of the pipeline is not on their agenda.<\/p>\n

Carmen remembers that in the discussions held with these institutions to create a plan of justice for her community, those who attended were dual authorities and not the legitimate authorities of Loma de B\u00e1cum, so her town is not being taken into consideration. \u201cThey don\u2019t care about our authorities, our town, our people, our tribe.\u201d This means completely ignoring a community, says Carmen.<\/p>\n

For her, removing the pipes from her territory, not just Loma de B\u00e1cum but all Yaqui territory, is what justice looks like. As well, justice is freedom for Fidencio Aldama.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe beat the State, we took down the pipeline by legal, social, and physical means because we know that the State takes license with their actions. The State doesn\u2019t care about the laws, it enforces them at its convenience. Here we got an injunction against the pipeline, and they came in despite the injunction. The government didn\u2019t take any action against the company, on the contrary, it protected it,\u201d denounces Guadalupe Flores as he walks in the garden.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cNow [the company] wants to negotiate again\u2026 but no more. Here they already started off on the wrong foot and its going to be more of the same, and they\u2019re not getting in,\u201d he says. And he states that neither this company nor any mining company will enter Yaqui territory.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe company has to be paid because the pipeline is inactive. Well, you pay for it, not us. Who\u2019s in charge? Now, you already knew what you were going to face. Tighten your belt and pay them. Who is forcing you to pay? There\u2019s an international treaty, send them there over a pipe. Because if we start with those international treaties, tell the gringos to give back the territory they took, let\u2019s see if they hold up. Oh right, they enforce them when it\u2019s convenient. And we are not your subjects.\u201d<\/p>\n

Agroecological Planting<\/h3>\n

Guadalupe Flores has a mischievous smile, but his entire Yaqui demeanor is imposing. He enjoys walking through the agroecological garden created in Loma de B\u00e1cum, a few meters from the pipeline. In the distance, one can see the Ferromex train pass. Guadalupe explains that during the Porfiriato there was also repression for opposing the train. Later, it was used to deport them to Yucat\u00e1n to be slaves on the agave plantations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were born here, and we grew up here; these lands weren\u2019t given to us by the Mexicans, nor by the Mexican government, nor by anyone. They were given to us by our divine belief that we are from here, and that is the difference, that is what we are defending.\u201d<\/p>\n

Currently, Guadalupe Flores organizes agroecological planting work, in which youth, women, men, and also elders participate.
\n\u201cFirst we started planting up there [he points to the sacred Bakatete mountains] on about 500 hectares. It\u2019s totally organic, it\u2019s not contaminated, it\u2019s good soil. And we\u2019re starting here because it\u2019s close to town, so that the youth here can come as well.<\/p>\n

Agroecological planting has also worked to involve Yaqui children. They are brought to the territorial limits, the natural points that the entire Yaqui Nation recognizes as its territory, they are called linderos [boundaries]. According to Guadalupe, this has also served to strengthen their own identity.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s useless to have a lot if we don\u2019t know what to do with what we have. If this was given to us, left to use as a sacred inheritance, it is so that we can live and maintain ourselves from it,\u201d explains Guadalupe.<\/p>\n

This land they show us, with fig trees just beginning to sprout, the budding magueys from which they distill Bacanora, the dragon fruit, with a plot to grow vegetables in the cooler season, along with an irrigation line.<\/p>\n

The land is so fertile, Guadalupe says, just toss a seed on it and it will grow. Now they\u2019ve allied themselves with other Yaqui people who have been living in Arizona ever since their families were forced into exile during the Yaqui War.<\/p>\n

For Guadalupe, agroecological planting is not a temporary or six-year project, but has \u201ctransgenerational\u201d significance:
\n\u201cWe are thinking about those who have not yet been born. What are we going to leave to them? And they can\u2019t defend themselves because they\u2019re not here. But they will be, just as more than one hundred years ago those before us left this for us even though they didn\u2019t know us. They fought for it and here we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yaqui women are very important for the transmission of language and ancestral traditions. The people see them as reservoirs of knowledge \u2013 from historical to medicinal \u2013 and of strength. In an interview in 2017, before her murder, anthropologist and ethnohistorian Raquel Padilla Ramos said that the loss of traditions and the Jiaki language is related to the fact that women no longer live communally but have to leave to work in the maquiladoras, and this has impacted family and social life among the people.<\/p>\n

Guadalupe shares how his grandmother, a Yaqui woman, taught him the language, how to defend himself, and even how to fire a gun as a child.<\/p>\n

In the agroecological garden of Loma de B\u00e1cum, there are figs, mug wort, grains, yucca, ragweed, citavaro, bacanora agave, saguaros. The majority of medicinal plants have been planted by women. They obtained solar panels to create a sprinkler irrigation system. Seasonally, vegetables such as cabbage, lettuce, beans, corn, and squash are planted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what the Yaqui Oath says, and it applies to all the Yaquis, all the Yaquis who were born here. We were born here, we are from here, and from that basis we govern ourselves, we put it into practice because it is a sacred duty of all Yaquis to defend their territory and to do it no matter the consequences, to the very end, to defend their lives because this is practically our life. They take our land, and they take that from us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The gas pipeline was already a foregone conclusion, at least that\u2019s what the company, the subsidiary, and the government of Sonora thought. They were wrong. Yaqui women narrate how they have stopped this project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":20312,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[322,320,317,323],"tags":[],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":6}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/elenemigocomun.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/pdp_portada_yaquis_gasoducto_lomadebacum_familia_carmen_retrato_daliri_oropeza11.jpg?fit=992%2C661&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elenemigocomun.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20323"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elenemigocomun.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elenemigocomun.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elenemigocomun.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elenemigocomun.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/elenemigocomun.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elenemigocomun.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elenemigocomun.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elenemigocomun.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elenemigocomun.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}