“The Sierra is divine, the forest is precious… but it is being taken away from its people and communities.”
Lupita Hernández of the Alianza Sierra Madre discusses the increasingly critical situation for the Indigenous community of Coloradas in the Sierra Tarahumara region of Chihuahua, Mexico.
The Alianza Sierra Madre (AMSAC) has accompanied Indigenous communities of the Sierra since the 1990s, supporting human rights defenders experiencing extreme violence for defending their territory and the natural resources of this spectacular mountain area. Members of AMSAC are also being targeted for calling out human rights violations against the Indigenous Rarámuri.
Below, our conversation with Lupita Hernández about ASMAC, the Sierra, and human rights
Could you start by introducing yourself and telling us your name and role in the organisation?
My name is Guadalupe Hernández, I am an anthropologist by profession, and as part of the organization ASMAC I coordinate a project sponsored by the Norwegian Fund for Human Rights to strengthen the capacities and abilities of human rights defenders from the community of Coloradas de la Virgen.
When did you get involved with ASMAC and start working on these issues?
I joined AMSAC in February of 2022 and have previous work experience in educational, cultural, youth and community projects, within the federal and state government, as well as in civil society associations. I approached the communities of the Sierra through training in the school of anthropology here in the city of Chihuahua.
I was always very directed towards the Sierra and the Indigenous groups, so my passion began from this time. Later I had the opportunity to work at the Consejo Nacional de Fomento Educativo and carried out 10 years of fieldwork in the communities. I spent a year in the Sierra coordinating educational services so I have always felt a closeness and affinity with these communities.
Then the opportunity to work at ASMAC came along and I took advantage of it to be able to contribute my grain of sand. In my previous jobs I was working in a framework of government processes that are very slow. Here too, the processes take a long time because we continue working with the government and need their intervention, but we have the opportunity to work directly with the people of the community.
What are the aims and focus of the program that you coordinate at ASMAC, and why is it necessary?
We aim to strengthen the capacities of community defenders, and there is a big part that focuses on taking action against gender violence. The communities are very traditional, and the intrusion of mestizos and organised crime groups have impacted upon them, with women in the community experiencing gender-based violence for defending their rights, defending their territory. This manifests in the loss of family members, physical and sexual aggression towards them and their relatives and through forced displacement, which is also a very strong issue that we are working on within the project.
Another of our themes has to do with the administration of justice and its promotion through consultancies that support us, such as the civil association Transforma, which is made up of lawyers who advise us in cases of crimes committed against community members. We also develop protection manuals and last year one was made with the support of Amnesty International. However, violence in the community has increased and this training plan has needed to be updated. We meet with authorities and members of the community to carry out risk analyses, to identify the actors involved and how emergencies can be responded to.
What are the factors driving this increase in violence in the region and in this community?
Coloradas de la Virgen is located in the Sierra, in the municipality of Guadalupe and Calvo. It is also part of what is called the Golden Triangle, having neighbouring municipalities within the states of Chihuahua, Sonora and Sinaloa. The Sierra Madre is an inaccessible region and fertile territory for the planting of narcotics.
Coloradas is an Indigenous community, home to the Rarámuri, and has been in constant struggle for the recognition of its ancestral territory. Since the 1990s the community has been in litigation, fighting in the agrarian courts, targeted by a mestizo community and organized crime cartels. Every time there is progress in favour of the Indigenous community, the mestizo community begins to attack. Coloradas has lost several community leaders and traditional authorities through murder. It is a pattern where good news will come from the courts for the community and the attacks against them by the mestizos suddenly begin again.
In recent months, aggressions have increased because, although it is true that the environmental and forestry authorities have put a stop to logging permits, mestizo groups have colluded with organised crime groups to cut down trees. Community leaders and traditional authorities get in their way by defending the forest and because of this they are threatened and attacked. In recent months, the traditional governor along with the commissioner, have had to leave. They do not agree with the logging and the presence of hit men. Other members of the community have experienced an increase in death threats and attacks. Coloradas is made up of several ranches. The main ranchería that is Coloradas de la Virgen is currently almost deserted. The houses have been set on fire and people have had to flee.
What are the main demands of ASMAC and what has the state's response to the situation been?
Colorada’s leaders are beneficiaries of the federal protection mechanism for human rights defenders and journalists, meaning that there are protection measures that the state is supposed to guarantee. However, these measures have not been implemented. One of the greatest losses for the community has been the assassination of Julián Carillo Martinez, the president of community resources. As a result of his murder, his family have been displaced from Coloradas. They were removed by the protection mechanism, however, the measures they have received are lacking. They are staying in a security shelter in terrible conditions of overcrowding, insufficient food, with extreme climatic conditions.
The Executive Commission for Attention to State Victims – the entity that should attend to people in these cases – has responded inadequately. Thanks to the pressure that ASMAC has been exerting, the Commission made a comprehensive detention plan for the children and adolescents, after four years of displacement. These children, who make up more than half of the inhabitants of the shelter were able to attend a regular school. They are just beginning to receive medical and psychological care from other agencies, but not from the state. The state's care for these people is totally idle and insufficient.
What are the risks and conditions for you and other civil society organizations that accompany the communities?
Above all the risk has risen for our executive director who is the face of the association. As a collective we are also within the federal protection mechanism for human rights defenders and journalists. We carry out our work accompanied by security forces from the Human Rights Prosecutor's Office. However, due to the increase in violence in recent months, we have not been able to assist the communities. When a response is needed though, the one who launches the caravan to reach the communities is ASMAC, not the security forces – they say they don't know the terrain. We are constantly impeded by the violent situation. Threats have increased both from the aggressors who are in Indigenous territory and from political actors in the city of Chihuahua who continue to attack with smear campaigns, promoting erroneous information about what is happening in the communities that we accompany.
What does PBI's accompaniment mean to AMSAC?
For us, PBI's accompaniment is a great strength. The advocacy PBI carries out with the authorities of the state of Chihuahua, the support PBI provides us in many security situations, in terms of international incidence, this is all invaluable. When we have a meeting with authorities, we always request the presence of PBI because the authorities take us more seriously when they realize that there is international observation.
What would be your message to the international community, about your work, about the situation here and about how they could show their support?
I would tell them that the situation in Mexico is not as the government says it is, it is not what appears in the media. The situation in Mexico is delicate, in Chihuahua it is very violent and in the communities of the Sierra Tarahumara it is of extreme emergency. People are dying. They are leaving their homes, having to abandon their customs, their territory, their language. Children in the Sierra are dying of hunger because Indigenous communities are denied their territory, they cannot plant crops, they do not have access to water. Organized crime groups are in collusion with the government.
I would tell people to turn to the Sierra, take action, investigate, see who they could influence, and confront the government. We have already seen it, we have already experienced it. I would tell people come, but do not come just to take the train from Chihuahua to the Pacific. Come and talk with the people who live in the communities, who are displaced by tourism, come and see what the reality is. The Sierra is divine, the Sierra is beautiful, the forest is precious… but it is being taken away from its people and communities.
PBI has been accompanying ASMAC since 2018 due to the risks they face in their legitimate work in the defence of Indigenous communities of the Sierra Tarahumara in northern Mexico. Visit our donate page to learn how your contribution can support the work of the Alianza Sierra Madre and strengthen the movement for Indigenous rights in Mexico.
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