To the indigenous community of Santa María Ostula,
Compas, we have read your communiqué published by the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) regarding the announcement by the government of Michoacán to disarm your communal guard.
“Ostula, the struggle for security is permanent.”
This announcement by Governor Alfredo Ramirez Bedolla is ridiculous, since he himself has not been able to maintain security in the state of Michoacan. Something that you as community have achieved in your territory through your communal guard. The same communal guard that received, supported and protected us the days we were able to visit you at the beginning of this year 2022.
This guard, together with the community, not only took care of us but also invited us to their homes, to their parties, to their spaces. We thank them from the bottom of our hearts for the treatment they gave us and we hope that someday we will be able to return the gesture when they visit us in our geography.
From the government of Michoacán, as well as from the federal government; by the way, both from the MORENA party and from the supposed fourth transformation; we do not expect much, because we know that this is Mexico. Rulers who betray the people to become servants of those who have the most, of those who give the orders, of those who pay and therefore command, that is to say, they are servants of capital. But we also know that there is another Mexico, one where the people organize from below and fight for a better world, that is, for life.
The sides are clear: Ostula and its communal guard fight for life, on the side of the people, while Governor Alfredo Ramirez Bedolla sells out and is on the side of capital.
The communal guard and the community of Santa María Ostula are an example that shows that it is possible to live in Mexico safely and in peace. A feeling that is increasingly scarce in the Mexican geography. But we know the cost that the community has had to pay in order to enjoy that freedom: 34 community members murdered and 6 disappeared between 2009 and 2015; and the death of the child Idilberto Reyes García by a stray bullet.
Your pain is also our pain, from you we learn that organizing with the people is the way to build a path for a better world. One where children can grow up without fear and without bullets.
That is why from Bonn, Germany, we thank you for receiving us, for showing us that another world is possible, we embrace you from afar and we stand in full support of the indigenous community of Santa María Ostula.
#OstulaVive
#OstulaFlorece
The community of Ostula on social media:
- Facebook: Comunicación Ostula
- Instagram: comunidad_ostula
- Twitter: @COstula