2011- Indigenous communities reject mining in their territories

In 2010, Me’phaa and Na Savi indigenous communities in La Montaña and Costa Chica regions of Guerrero began to observe outsiders entering and surveying their lands and to hear of reports of concessions being granted by the authorities to international companies for mining exploration and exploitation on their territories.

San Miguel del Progreso, in the municipality of Malinaltepec in La Montaña region, is an indigenous agrarian community of 3,800 inhabitants, whose collective land title was granted in recognition of their existing ancestral title to common lands and possessions of the community. These are known as the bienes comunales or commons of an agrarian community. The 1992 Agrarian Law established the community General Assembly as the legal entity responsible for administering such an agrarian community and its bienes comunales, in accordance with its own internal procedural statutes registered with the National Agrarian Registry (RNA) (See Legal Action entitled 1992 Agrarian Law). The mechanism for officially recording the community decision-making is the statutory minutes taken of the General Assembly which are then registered with the RNA, granting them an important legal status. 

In 2011, the community decided to use this combination of customary practices as an indigenous community with the provisions of agrarian law to officially record its rejection of mining in its territory. On 17 April, the community held a General Assembly which agreed to reject mining exploration and exploitation in the territory of San Miguel del Progreso. The decision was then registered with the RNA, which officially recognised its registration on 13 September 2012 (CDHM Tlachinollan, 2014).

Between 2012 and 2014, 14 other Me’phaa and Na Savi indigenous agrarian communities and ejidos in these regions of Guerrero used the same strategy to resist mining. They held assemblies whose statutory minutes recorded the communities’ rejection of mining concessions in their lands. However, on seeking official registration of the minutes of their assemblies, the RNA refused registration to all but two community decisions (Zapotitlán Tablas and Zitlaltepec). The RNA refused to register the official minutes of the 12 other General Assembly decisions without providing a substantive justification (CDHM Tlachinollan, 2021: 27). 

In response, in 2015 indigenous communities resisting mining in La Montaña region developed a new strategy to secure official recognition of their position. This involved each General Assembly nominating women and men of the community to work in committee with representatives from CDHM Tlachinollan and the Mexican Network of People Affected by Mining (REMA), and accompanied by the Regional Council of Agrarian Authorities in Defence of the Land (CRAADET), to propose modifications to the internal procedures and statutes of each ejido or agrarian community. The proposed modifications were then presented to and agreed by the community General Assembly in accordance with the Agrarian Law, the rights of indigenous peoples and their community normative systems. The modifications recorded in the statutory minutes focused on legally establishing the community’s own norms and administrative controls over their territory and natural resources. This included the prohibition of mining activity in their territory (CDHM Tlachinollan, 2021: 28). 

At the time of writing (November 2021), six of the 12 communities which undertook this process have managed to secure official registration of their statutory minutes altering their community statutes with the RNA. 

In 2019, the community of San Miguel del Progreso translated its statutes into the Me’phaa indigenous language, this included the community’s prohibition on mining activity in its territory and submitted the document for registration with RAR. In 2021, RAR officially registered the statute in Me’phaa thus strengthening the legal recognition of community’s right to language and culture (for information on municipal level assemblies opposing mining, see Legal Action entitle 2016 Municipal assemblies vote against mining).