Mexico, June 12, 2020.
Dear Dionne and Denise
We hope that in this pandemic situation, you and your families are in good health and in good mood.
When we knew about the terrible murder of George Floyd at the hands of a police officer, and the protest movements against homicidal and racist violence by the American police, we remember a lot about you, about your “BLACK LIVES MATTER”, of your fight for your sons, for justice and the rights of the African American community, when you visited us at the Nahua community of San Juan Volador in the south of Veracruz, Mexico, at the meeting that we organized as women of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI), in late July of last year.
We want you to know that our hearts are with you in this great fight against racism, patriarcal and class power, and all forms of imperialism of who believe to be the owners of this world, that violate civil rights, women’s rights and peoples’ rights.
In Mexico, we also recently suffered the onslaught of police violence; On May 4 of this year, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, under the pretext of not wearing mouth covers on the street, the young Giovanni López was illegally detained, tortured, and killed by Jalisco state police; and on June 5, 16-year-old Melanie was kicked in the face by police elements in a protest demonstration against the murder of Giovanni in Mexico City. In addition to the long history of abuse of force and human rights violations by the Mexican police and army, having torture, femicide, and enforced disappearances as their usual practices.
In addition to the above, the Mexican government is taking advantage of these times of pandemic to impose, in a totally undemocratic way, the militarization of the country and its megaprojects of death such as the Mayan Train and the Interoceanic Corridor, with those seek to dispossession of our indigenous territories and destroy us as peoples.
We recognize ourselves as peoples of all the colors of the Earth, the Earth does not belong to us, we and we belong to Mother Earth.
From our territories we join you, and we will continue in the fight of the movement «Black Lives Matter», together with all the struggles against this patriarchal, capitalist and racist system.
We will always have you in our hearts!
We send a strong collective hug to you both, your families and all your sisters and brothers.
BLACK LIVES MATTER!
Never again a Mexico without us!
No to the Maya Train! No to the Interoceanic Corridor! #El Istmo es Nuestro
WOMEN’S GROUP OF THE INDIGENOUS GOVERNMENT COUNCIL
NATIONAL INDIGENOUS CONGRESS