{"id":9202,"date":"2011-06-24T12:27:01","date_gmt":"2011-06-24T19:27:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elenemigocomun.net\/?p=9202"},"modified":"2016-10-13T20:00:12","modified_gmt":"2016-10-14T03:00:12","slug":"cheran-got-fed-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elenemigocomun.net\/2011\/06\/cheran-got-fed-up\/","title":{"rendered":"In Cher\u00e1n \u201cwe got fed up with keeping our heads down\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gloria Mu\u00f1oz Ram\u00edrez, La Jornada<\/a>
\nSaturday, May 28, 2011
\nTranslated by Scott Campbell<\/a><\/p>\n

Cher\u00e1n, Michoac\u00e1n, May 27.<\/strong> In the face of government indifference and\/or complicity, close to 20,000 community members have organized themselves for the past 42 days against illegal loggers who are supported by gangs linked to organized crime. Patrols, barricades of sandbags, trunks and stones at all the points of entry and 179 permanent bonfires in the four neighborhoods, have been in place since April 15.<\/p>\n

Since then, the population has armed itself with sticks, rocks, machetes, pickaxes, shovels and anything they could, in order to confront those who \u201cfor the past three years have devastated the community\u2019s forests, with the protection of armed groups and even the government, which has done nothing to stop them,\u201d said one of the thousands of community members who guard the barricade which covers the path to Paracho.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Far removed from their everyday life, the women, men, children and elders of this town on the Pur\u00e9pecha plateau live in a permanent tension around the barricades, guarding the entryways so that no unknown person passes through. Dawn yesterday brought the news that armed men in tens of SUVs were getting ready in Paracho. It was a false alarm, but the patrols were reinforced, \u201cjust in case.\u201d<\/p>\n

At two in the morning, one of the guards assures that: \u201calthough we don\u2019t sleep, we don\u2019t lose strength. The government must attend to our demands: security and justice, an end to the devastation and punishment for those responsible so that we may live in peace.\u201d
\nThe government\u2019s response hasn\u2019t arrived, while the harassment and the threats have intensified. On May 22, \u201ccommunity member Miguel \u00c1ngel Gembe was kidnapped in Paracho.\u201d Three days later he was able to escape \u201cby a miracle\u201d and returned to the community visibly beaten. It was confirmed then that which was suspected, that his kidnapping was due to his participation in the current mobilizations, as he shared that his captors interrogated him about the names of those who head the movement, warning him that \u201cthey\u2019re all on the list.\u201d As a result, the community members hold the state and federal governments responsible for whatever may happen to Miguel \u00c1ngel and the rest of the population. <\/p>\n

It all began on April 15, when an event stretched their patience to the limit: \u201cThe illegal loggers entered La Cofrad\u00eda spring, which supplies the entire community. A group of community members confronted them and kicked them out and since then we\u2019ve been demanding justice,\u201d says another of the indigenous from Cher\u00e1n. Not one gives their name or shows their face, as a security measure against the permanent threats.<\/p>\n

In this town, says another of the interviewees, \u201cit comes together – all the injustices, the impunity, the complicity of organized crime with the governments, the indifference and evasion of the authorities, the ambition of the powerful\u2026And also the organization of the people, who are angry, the defense of territory, the uniting of the women, the men, the children and the elders, all together to stop the logging of our hills, the kidnappings, the murders and the disappearances. Here, we are also fed up and we\u2019ve gone into action alone to defend ourselves and to do what the government doesn\u2019t want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

A group of women from the neighboring community of Cheranastico approach one of the bonfires in the lower neighborhood (ketzikua). In Pur\u00e9pecha they communicate with the women on guard and prepare enormous pots of coffee, beans and potatoes with eggs. They talk amongst themselves and later one translates: \u201cShe says that they are suffering in their town also, that they are cutting down the forests, that they are very afraid. She says \u2013 the translator continues \u2013 that in their community they can\u2019t go out to plant or let their animals out because they are stolen. She says that they are not free.\u201d<\/p>\n

The women, as in all popular struggles, take a leading role. They are strong and although they admit to being tired, they stand guard and make the food; they organize the cleaning, the supplies and the daily chores. With white hair, a blue scarf and weather-beaten hands, one of them replies to her anguished neighbors that they shouldn\u2019t be afraid, that they should organize themselves as they\u2019ve done in Cher\u00e1n, that only then can they put an end to the injustice.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere you are united,\u201d responds the elderly woman from Cheranastico, \u201cbut my town hasn\u2019t had the courage because it\u2019s small and they, the bad ones, are many and they\u2019re armed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHere,\u201d says another woman at one of the bonfires in the Paricut\u00edn neighborhood, \u201cwhat we want is peace and freedom. If we don\u2019t defend our forests, there won\u2019t even be one piece of firewood to leave for our children; there will be nothing left for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Resistance against the clandestine logging, although scattered, began in 2008 when devastation in the Pacuacaracua hill increased. As of now, they report, more than 80 percent of the forest (more than 15,000 hectares) has been completed destroyed through acts accompanied by the \u201csowing of fear,\u201d as the illegal loggers, from the towns of Capacuaro, Tanaco, Rancho Casimiro, San Lorenzo, Huecato, Rancho Morelos and Rancho Seco, savage the community with high caliber weapons.<\/p>\n

Before rising up, they state, they knocked on all the institutional doors: \u201cWe went to PROFEPA, to SEMARNAT, to everywhere and no one paid us any mind. We also filed reports of the kidnappings, extortions and threats, and similarly they didn\u2019t investigate anything. As a result they stretched our patience to the limit. We got fed up with keeping our heads down, as we saw nothing but hundreds of trucks filled with our trees and we didn\u2019t say anything out of pure fear. But not anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cher\u00e1n has 27,000 hectares of communal territory, of which 20,000 are wooded; of these, 80 percent have been burned and logged (totally destroyed), and the other 20 percent has also been logged, but still hasn\u2019t been burned.<\/p>\n

A trip through the San Miguel hill allows one to see the devastated area. Hundreds of trunks lie in the paths. \u201cIt\u2019s that the loggers only take the thick, lower parts, the rest they leave strewn around here,\u201d explains one of the members of the traditional patrols, who is now in charge of security.<\/p>\n

The roads into the forests are also under guard. Trunks and sandbags impede the path of the trucks, although, they say, \u201cthey still enter through other areas, because they\u2019re not going to give up this business from which they get so much money.\u201d How much? \u201cWell, just do an accounting. Organized crime charges each truck 1,000 pesos for protection. Around 180 trucks left daily loaded with wood, which generated 180,000 pesos just for protection.<\/p>\n

The big business, they explain, \u201cis headed by a man known as El G\u00fcero<\/em>. It\u2019s a double business, as he sends workers to cut the trees and then they take them to his sawmills. But when other illegal loggers want to enter, he sells them protection so that they can remove the wood. As for us, well, we just watched, cowering, while all this happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

In these six weeks, the life of the community has completely changed: Now the municipal president doesn\u2019t operate out of the government palace and the installations are practically in the hands of the community members. There are no classes in the elementary school or middle school, nor in the high school or in the Pedagogical University. A \u201cdry law\u201d is in place and they can\u2019t ingest or sell alcoholic beverages; vehicular traffic ends at eight at night and 24 hour security is maintained throughout the municipal seat.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the youth have taken charge of the cleaning and have organized a \u201cgood image\u201d commission, which during these days is cleaning the streets with paint donated by businesses. They have also organized general cleaning brigades in which the whole populous participates, and in the streets, patios or under tarps the teachers in the community have organized classes.<\/p>\n

In one of the improvised classrooms, Arly, a seven-year-old, says, \u201cThe bonfires are so that the bad guys who are taking our trees don\u2019t get in. Without trees we are not going to have water and because of that there are bonfires, so that they don\u2019t take away the forest.\u201d And also, adds Karen, 11 years old, \u201cwe organized ourselves so that they don\u2019t come to kill us. Now they are upset because they don\u2019t come in; so they are angrier and because of that we have to be careful.\u201d<\/p>\n

As of now, in each neighborhood they have organized commissions for security, cleaning, good image, health, education, supplies, agricultural production and media. With all this, explains one community member, \u201cthrough action, the traditional organization of the people is being exercised.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the government\u2019s response doesn\u2019t arrive. They\u2019ve gone to the state and federal governments. At the Interior Ministry, they say, \u201cthey ask that first we demobilize, that we deactivate our organization. And they don\u2019t give answers. We think that they don\u2019t have the ability to confront truly organized crime. We have given them names and places where they can be found, but as of now they don\u2019t do anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gloria Mu\u00f1oz Ram\u00edrez, La Jornada Saturday, May 28, 2011 Translated by Scott Campbell Cher\u00e1n, Michoac\u00e1n, May 27. In the face of government indifference and\/or complicity, close to 20,000 community members have organized themselves for the past 42 days against illegal loggers who are supported by gangs linked to organized crime. Patrols, barricades of sandbags, trunks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":9203,"comment_status":"open","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":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[317],"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\/2011\/06\/cheran-unido.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elenemigocomun.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9202"}],"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\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elenemigocomun.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/elenemigocomun.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elenemigocomun.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elenemigocomun.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elenemigocomun.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elenemigocomun.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}