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Saturday, October 12, 2019

2 DTOs Plunder the Forests of the Sierra Tarahumara

Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: Vanguardia y ElDiario y Arestegui
          Two cartels plunder the forests of the Sierra Tarahumara and the government does not act:

"Narco Tala" , ie illegal logging by Drug Cartel groups; Citizens, mostly indigenous peoples have been displaced from their ancestral lands. 

What happened only in some communities began to spread through several regions of the Tarahumara, especially since 2008, when the federal government of then President Felipe Calderón undertook what he called the "war" against drug trafficking. 

From that moment, the mountain region of Chihuahua became a zone of dispute for different groups that, in addition to seeking control in poppy planting, have also dedicated themselves to stripping communities of their territory and natural resources.

The Cartels are motivated by economic resources for the illegal sale of the timber obtained, said the head of the State Attorney General's Office (FGE), César Augusto Peniche Espejel.
Two organized crime groups, one linked to the Sinaloa cartel and the other to La Línea, practice clandestine logging in two regions of the Tarahumara mountain range and use the resources from the illegal sale of the timber obtained, the head of the State Attorney General's Office (FGE), says César Augusto Peniche Espejel.

In the last three years, the agency secured 10 clandestine sawmills and made 15 people available to the federal authority for the crime of illegal logging. In addition, nine members of both groups have lost their lives in the clashes they have in their dispute over wood. Sawmills and legal timber truck drivers report acts of intimidation and extortion. ( NOT mentioned are the 15 defenders of the lands that have been murdered or disappeared between 2009 - 2018).

A criminal group led by Eddy Zafiro Ibarra, "El Zafiro", related to the Sinaloa cartel, operates in the municipality of Guachochi and the communities of Creel and Cusárare, mayor of Bocoyna, while another directed by César Daniel Manjarrez Alonso, "El H2", is linked to the La Línea group and is responsible for illegal logging in the forests of San Juanito, Bocoyna municipality. The "rapamontes"  operate with impunity for the inaccessible area and the little punishment for crime.
The State Government Forest Development Directorate identifies the municipality of Bocoyna as one of the most affected by the illegal exploitation of the forest.

From 2014 to date, he says in one of his reports, only in the area of ​​San Juanito, municipality of Bocoyna, have been felled by organized crime between 13,000 and 15,000 hectares.

The illegal logging includes the appropriation of sawmills to process timber and sell it. The owners of legally established sawmills are extorted.

Most of the illegal timber is extracted from ejidos that face agrarian conflicts, where land boundaries are not clear, and from indigenous communities that are defenseless and demand a security strategy that confronts drug traffickers operating in their territory.
                           
Last December, indigenous communities in Bocoyna requested the intervention of Alejandro Encinas Rodríguez, head of the Under-Secretariat for Human Rights of the Ministry of the Interior ; In addition, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) and the National Forestry Commission offered to design a plan to reforest and restore the affected areas. 

To date, the Rarámuri ethnic group is still waiting for a response and knowing the federal government's strategy to face clandestine logging.

Without territory we are nothing: defenders of the Sierra Tarahumara fight against dispossession
They face drug trafficking, local caciques, the imposition of extractive projects and government indifference. The defenders, mostly indigenous, refuse to clear their forests and have their springs go dry.

Chihuahua, in the northern part of Mexico, is the state with one of the most important forest areas in the country: 16.5 million hectares, of which 7.6 million are coniferous forests and deciduous forests, ecosystems that are concentrated in the mountains, ravines and valleys that shape the Tarahumara.

In the south of the state of Chihuahua and the Sierra Tarahumara, in the municipality of Guadalupe and Calvo, there is Coloradas de la Virgen: a territory of more than 49,500 hectares shared by Raramuri indigenous people and, to a lesser extent, Odami, who live dispersed in about 50 small ranches.
The complainants warn that in the Tarahumara mountain range at least 200 truckloads circulate, which without permits transport timber and receive protection from organized crime, despite multiple complaints filed before Semarnat and the state prosecutor's office.

Ejidatarios and indigenous people ask that the routes of illegally harvested timber be investigated, from sawmills to points of sale, punish the entire criminal chain and guarantee protection measures for those who denounce these illegal practices.
                                        Those logging trucks just keep coming and going
In the Municipality of Bocoyna, in the State of Chihuahua, the indigenous community of Bahuinocachi is located, which has suffered since the month of February this year the illegal logging of its forests. This deplorable practice is maintained in this community despite the multiple complaints filed with PROFEPA, SEMARNAT, the PGR and the State Government. The authorities have full knowledge of the criminal acts, including by recent visit to the community, having deployed some actions, especially State Government, as operational and accompaniment to the community, but have not been effective in inhibiting the action of logging mountains and guarantee security in the community.

Illegal logging of the forests of the Sierra Tarahumara is a growing problem that affects different indigenous communities such as Bahuinocachi fully known by the aforementioned authorities, which at the time have been omitted from their obligations to protect forests and the environment, allowing those responsible remain in total impunity. To date, hundreds of hectares of forest from this and other communities have been devastated, seriously deteriorating the conditions that constitute the primary source of survival of the villages, undermining biodiversity and support for ecosystems, especially water, that the Forest provides the grassland area and the desert of the State of Chihuahua and contiguous States (Sonora and Sinaloa).

Before the constant denunciations, in recent days he went to the community of Bahuinocachi, a delegation headed by the Governor of the State of Chihuahua and the head of the State Commission for the Indigenous Peoples of the State of Chihuahua (COEPI), accompanied by the next holder of the Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT), and the next head of the National Forestry Commission (CONAFOR). During the visit they listened to the problems presented by the people of the communities in this area and announced strategies to combat the illegal logging of the Forest in the Sierra Tarahumara.
However, the communities are very concerned that after the aforementioned visit, the perpetrators of illegal logging with impunity continue to cut and extract wood in the community of Bahuinocachi, without any authority preventing them.

Organizations of society and indigenous and mestizo peoples of the Sierra Tarahumara, denounce the ineffectiveness of the system of procurement and administration of Justice to prosecute and punish the crime of illegal or clandestine logging, as well as the omission of the instances of the Mexican State responsible for protecting the forests and the environment,

PROFEPA, SEMARNAT, PGR and State Government, whose omission and neglect have not been guarantors of social and environmental justice.

Therefore, the undersigned demand of the  individuals and organizations to the competent authorities of the Municipality, the State and the Federation to:

FIRST : Guarantee the integrity of the forests and the environment in the communities of the Sierra Tarahumara, as well as the security and full exercise of the Human Rights of the indigenous people and peoples that inhabit it, such as the right to life, to conditions for a dignified life, the protection of the environment and a healthy environment, access to water, among others, recognized in the Mexican Political Constitution and in international treaties to which the Mexican State is a party.

SECOND : Immediately implement the measures that are required to inhibit the perpetrators of the crime of illegal logging in the community of Bahuinocachi, including those consisting of the deployment of police operations in order to carry out permanent surveillance in the area, guaranteeing the security, protection and tranquility of the community preventing possible displacements.

THIRD : Implement and operate a strategy for the prevention and sanction of the crime of illegal logging, stipulated in article 419 of the Federal Criminal Code that sanctions with one to nine years in prison and three hundred days of fine, transportation, marketing, storage , storage or processing of roundwood, charcoal chips, as well as any other timber forest resource, or land from forest soils in quantities greater than four cubic meters or, where appropriate, to its equivalent in sawn timber. Penalty that will increase with up to three more years in prison if timber forest resources come from a protected natural area. Crime also sanctioned in the Penal Code of the State of Chihuahua, in its articles 358 and 359.

FOURTH : Clarify and ensure with rigor and promptness, justice for the persons responsible for the killings of the defenders of the forest, in particular those responsible for the recent murder of Mr. Julián Carrillo and his relatives, occurred in the community of Coloradas de la Virgen , of the municipality of Guadalupe and Calvo, as well as to guarantee the safety of their families.

Organizations and individuals who subscribe are numerous ! Go to El Diario link if so interested

9 comments:

  1. Yaqi what happened to our beloved Chivis?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Our beloved Chivis is on a little sabbatical, She WILL return !
    In the meantime , please remain patient and you will have to put up with me, jaja.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sol Prendido, donde esta mi mano ??

    ReplyDelete
  4. Alot of these resources are going to chinese organizations just like the illegal iron mines in michoacan. Chinese boats would load up in Lazaro Cardenaz and pay a fraction (Caballeros Templas) of what they would have to pay the government.

    Wouldn't be surprised they involved in this too.

    -Anubis

    ReplyDelete
  5. Is el jaguar really dead?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes and so is el tigre

      Delete
    2. Pero quedan los salgueiro de Guadalupe y calvo, los Salazar de chinipas, los Chavez de parral, los Perez de Batopilas, el Guero Manco de Urique, los Mendoza de guachochi y varios más de la Gente Nueva

      Delete
    3. Asi es, por eso no tenemos Miroslava, que malo y triste.
      Si tiene noticias tu podemos ponerlos aqui, por favor !!
      Necessitamos mas Noticias de la gente por today’s sus lados.
      Puro anonímo.

      Delete
    4. 6:34 siguen ellos. La Linea anda arrastrando a todos los contras

      Delete

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