Mexico: Dissidents protest against gentrification in Oaxaca
During the demonstration, the first against gentrification in Oaxaca, police arrested community activists.
Share
On Saturday, January 27, various collectives organized the first march against gentrification in Oaxaca City. At the end of the protest-calenda (a traditional type of demonstration in this state), the police arbitrarily detained six activists, including women, non-binary individuals, and members of the Ayuuk community, who are dedicated to defending human rights and doing community work with vulnerable populations.
In Oaxaca, they have denounced that “gentrification and touristification are a process that has been occurring as part of the current and ongoing colonization,” explains Lencholx, a non-binary person who attended the protest-calenda and has been involved in community work with various communities.
"The march sought to highlight not only gentrification and touristification, but also cultural dispossession and the displacement of Oaxacans from the city. But also from their communities, the lack of water, because we see that all these problems are connected. The defense of the territory is not only in the communities but also in the cities," Lencholx added to Presentes .
At a press conference, Oaxaca Governor Salomón Jara Cruz called the protest "racist," downplayed the reasons for the demonstration, and compared the demonstrators to Hitler.
A government that does not protect
The six detained activists dedicate their community work to the projects La Comedora Comunitaria Nkä'äymyujkëmë , which provides food to migrants and other vulnerable populations; the La Campamenta , which provides support for abortions and other sexual and reproductive rights; and the human rights collective COJUDIDI , which provides legal and mental health support to dissidents and older autistic adults.
While the protest against the gentrification and touristification of Oaxaca was taking place, the state's tourism secretary, Saymi Pineda Velasco, signed a letter of collaboration in Spain to make the city a global "LGBT tourist destination." According to a statement from the ministry, "special emphasis will be placed on collaboration with the muxe community ."
In the last two years, Oaxaca has been among the top five places in the country for the most recorded LGBT-hate violence. We know this from various activist efforts and hate crime observatories that document violence in the face of the Mexican state's failure to collect information on these populations. Despite laws such as marriage equality and a transgender identity law, activists denounce the lack of protocols for their implementation.
Activists beaten, arrested, and investigated
On Saturday night after the protest, activist Meztli Jimenez, human rights observer Nizayeéjh Chavez, and members of La Comedora Filadelfo Desierto, Isla Céspedes, Ricardo Martínez, and Antonio Díaz were beaten and illegally and arbitrarily detained by Oaxaca state police.
Videos circulating online show four police officers subduing one of these individuals. Those who were trying to assist and document the attack were also arrested. Authorities asserted in a press conference that they were caught red-handed. But to this day, the activists remain unaware of the reasons for their arrest and the crimes they are accused of. They have not had access to their investigation files.
In an interview with Presentes , Meztli Jiménez, a member of La Campamenta, said that during their detention, police sexually harassed them and subjected them to psychological torture. They told them they were going to disappear. They beat them, prevented them from speaking to each other, and held them incommunicado for nine hours without access to their lawyers.
“As women, as dissidents, I was worried about being sexually abused. We've suffered physical and emotional trauma, and we've been through post-traumatic stress, including a lot of institutional harassment. There's a clear message to criminalize protest and those of us who support all forms of demonstration. They released us because they couldn't find any evidence in 48 hours, but we're still under investigation,” says Meztli.
Although investigations are underway against the six individuals, they even report that armed police have visited their homes to ensure the information they provided is true.
Political circles in Oaxaca continue to issue messages criminalizing protest.
The gentrification process in Oaxaca
“The issue of gentrification has been warned about for years. But this was the first time society took to the streets to protest. It's a citizen demand, because we feel the urgency more and more,” a member of one of the groups that called for the protest-calenda explained to Presentes. For safety reasons, given police harassment, he prefers to remain anonymous.
“Although the pandemic slowed things down a bit, we're now seeing waves of tourists coming,” he adds. “We're especially concerned about the people who come to live in Oaxaca, and how their presence displaces people from Oaxaca to the outskirts. We simply can't compete with the dollars or the salaries they have to afford a living. And the displacement of Oaxacans is because in the center of Oaxaca we can no longer afford even a house. In the outskirts of the city, life is more precarious in terms of services. Right now, there's a serious problem with water and garbage disposal.”
In this article , housing rights lawyer Carla Escoffié commented that there are no public housing policies in Mexico because housing is viewed as a market object, not a necessity or a right.
The high cost of housing
In addition to the housing issue, the people we interviewed for this article explain that in downtown Oaxaca, we can already see cafes, galleries, luxury hotels, and even signs in English. And the cost of living is increasing. This is even evident in the rising food prices and the disappearance of spaces that were once accessible to Oaxacans.
“We see this wave of gentrification coming from the government. It also comes from the state, as they remove migrants, precisely from the idea that the city shouldn't be filled with migrants and racialized people. The state is carrying out a kind of whitewashing, persecution, and harassment that isn't new to the collectives that do community work with these populations in the city's public spaces,” adds Lencholx.
Photos: Juan Elman
We are Present
We are committed to a type of journalism that delves deeply into the realm of the world and offers in-depth research, combined with new technologies and narrative formats. We want the protagonists, their stories, and their struggles to be present.
SUPPORT US
FOLLOW US
Related Notes
We Are Present
This and other stories don't usually make the media's attention. Together, we can make them known.