By Juan Carlos Partida and Fernando Camacho
Guadalajara, Jal., May 20. About 500 people, half of them indigenous wearing traditional clothes or Huichol wixárika, marched through the streets of this city to require state and federal governments to honor their commitment ensure that sacred sites ethnicity.
The main complaint was the defense of Wirikuta, in Real de Catorce, San Luis Potosi, where the Canadian miner First Majestic Silver (FMS) hits from 2009 silver mining in an area that the dissidents considered as the main ceremonial site and place that created the world.
As reported in these pages (La Jornada, 1 and March 5, 2011), the company obtained by the Ministry of Economy 22 concessions to mine gold and silver in a perimeter of 6000 acres, no prior consent of indigenous communities.
area where work is part FMS of a protected natural area since 1994, with a total area of \u200b\u200b140 thousand 211 hectares, including the Burnt Hill, one of the most important ceremonial sites Wixárika because there come every year on religious pilgrimages in search of plant sacred peyote.
In this region even attended by the President Felipe Calderón and the governors of Jalisco, Nayarit, Durango, Zacatecas and San Luis Potosí, to sign the April 28, 2008 called Manaka'a Haux Pact, a document committing themselves to respect the ecological integrity of the site.
Several citizen groups have warned about the environmental dangers posed by mines, because the springs in the area could become contaminated with chemicals from the mining industry, particularly with cyanide.
In Guadalajara, the protesters left shortly after 10 hours of the square of the Normal route to the south, reaching the main square, next to the palace of government of Jalisco.
march organizers held a ceremony that included burning of incense and the symbolic handover of a god's eye (art piece) to the concurrence, in the culminating moment of what they called Wirikuta procession.
"We express because one of our most important sites is affected by a mining company that has just buy at 3 million dollars less than what they paid for the Chicharito (Javier Hernandez, Guadalajara player bought by the English club Manchester United), "said Antonio Garcia Hayanueme Mijarez, who brought widespread laughter.
Young Wirikuta recalled that in 1999 was declared by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) one of the 14 natural sites in the world to be protected.
explained that this area is not only revered by ethnic wixárica, but also is considered a ceremonial site by other peoples, as Cora.
After the ceremony, The group gave the government palace in a letter to the local president, Emilio González Márquez, who requested his intervention to advocate for the completion of the mining concession, given the same year that he and President Calderón pledged defend all such sacred sites.
In Vancouver, the Canadian mining company headquarters and in New York, at the offices of the United Nations (UN), there were also actions to draw attention to the mining Wirikuta.
In the Federal District, a group of activists from various social organizations expressed with music and art events against the Canadian embassy to demand the withdrawal of the concessions granted to FMS.
the diplomatic front, a dozen people drawn eyes of God, set up blankets to protest the mining and read a statement in which he warned about the eventual demise of the holy places of the Huichol Indians, with the complicity of governments federal and local levels.
The protesters delivered a letter to Canadian Ambassador to Mexico Guillermo Rishchynski, in which he demanded that the government of his country to intervene in the withdrawal of work permits to FMS. Hazael
Olguin Zapata, a member of the group Others on the ground, said organizations to undertake a peaceful campaign to highlight the damage that can occur sacred territory where the company starts to work there.
The activist said the company tried to deceive the Front in Defense of Wirikuta, saying it would not work on the Cerro del Quemado, but warned that the area sacred to the Huichol extends beyond the site.
Olguin said that if the Mexican and Canadian authorities do not listen to their demands, demonstrations against the mine will continue to rise until the awards are canceled.
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