Santa Maria Community relocated in Montes Azules
Since the beginning of the summer the government of Chiapas has begun their campaign to remove, once and for all, the communities that have settled in the Montes Azules Bioreserve.
Everyone held their breath, waiting for violence to erupt, but relocations of several communities went "smoothly" all through July. The community of Santa Marta was relocated to what is being called a model community with potable water system, solar energy, new houses and roads. The hope is to bait the hook for other communities who are refusing to negotiate or still in negotiations with the government.
But the displacement efforts have hit an inevitable obstacle: resistance in the areas communities are being relocated to. The land that is being given to those moved from Montes Azules is, for all intents and purposes, the land of other people.
The government program PROCEDE works with individuals to draw land ownership boundaries and grant new land titles. Land that was formally owned communally -- land granted to the ejido as a whole but not recognized as property of an individual family -- converts to national property and is divied up to other communities.
This land however, though not owned by anyone on paper, is land that the community has been using for a generation. Statements have been issued denouncing this as "land stealing" and tension is building between those who have been relocated into someone else's backyard. A coalition of human rights organizations has mobilized to gather and disseminate information, and to support organizing in the region.
The Peace House will be involved in this coalition, and will continue to give updates as the situation develops.
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