LOCATION:

The state of Oaxaca borders the states of Guerrero and Puebla, to the north; the states of Chiapas and Veracruz to the east; and the Pacific Ocean to the south. Oaxaca has a surface area of 95 364 km2, which represents 4.85% of the country’s total area.

REGIONS & MUNICIPALITIES:

The state of Oaxaca is divided in 12 regions:  Cañada, Mazateca, Mixteca Baja, Mixteca Alta, Chinantla, Sierra Zapoteca, Región Mixe, Valle de Oaxaca, Mixteca de la Costa, Sierra del Sur, Istmo and Chimalapas. The capital is the city of Oaxaca de Juárez. The state has 570 municipalities (a great number compared to the 118 in Chiapas). Of the 570 municipalities, 418 have a predominantly indigenous population. 412 of the municipalities elect their authorities through a traditional system of assemblies. Oaxaca is one of the states with the lowest population density, with 34 people/ km2, while Chiapas has 52 people/ km2 (INEGI 2000).

INDIGENOUS POPULATION:

The state of Oaxaca holds the tenth place, nationally, in population with 3,438,765 inhabitants, of which 32.5% are indigenous (1,117,722 people). 53% of the total indigenous population in Mexico lives in Oaxaca.

The indigenous population is divided into distinct ethno linguistic groups, which include:

Microethnicities (less than 10,000 speakers of the language):  

• 5.282 Zoques (0.7% of the indigenous population)
• 4.819 Amuzgos (0,43%)
• 4.617 Chontales (0,41%)
• 524 Chochos (0,05%)

Mesoethnicities (10,000 to 100,000 speakers):

• 40.004 Chatinos (3,58%)
• 15.203 Triquis (1,36%)
• 13.678 Huaves (1,22%)
• 12.128 Cuicatecos (1,09%)
• 10.979 Nahuas (0,98%)

Macroethnicities (more than 100,000 speakers):

• 377.936 Zapotecos (33,81%)
• 245.755 Mixtecos (21,99%)
• 174.352 Mazatecos (15,60%)
• 107.002 Chinantecos (9,57%)
• 105.443 Mixes (9,43%)

The languages with the greatest number of speakers are Zapoteco and Mixteco.

INDIGENOUS USES & CUSTOMS

“The indigenous communities continue to practice their own forms of government, organizing by their normative systems, known as uses and customs. This term does not refer to an informal system of religious, social and cultural beliefs, but rather to a system of collective norms that has been developed in the indigenous communities through the centuries. This system is not infallible, however, its flexibility, coherence, and capacity to coexist with the modern system of government has been tested. One of the fundamental axes that governs the current situation of the indigenous population of Oaxaca is the community assembly. In this system, the participants recognize one another, face to face, as members of the community.  All of the heads of family, both men and women, attend the meetings, and actively voice their ideas about the issues in the community to reach a consensus.  The assembly is headed by elected authorities. There are different levels of assemblies that exist: the broad domestic assembly, the neighborhood or area assembly, the town council, the civil assembly and the agrarian assembly. The community assembly is the product and culmination of the previously mentioned assemblies, and is the maximum indigenous authority. Political life in the indigenous communities of Oaxaca is organized by a system of charges. This system dictates that all the men, throughout their lives, are obligated to lend their service, periodically, as volunteers, within the municipal organization.”

(Source : www.gobiernodeoaxaca.gob.mx)

On August 30, 1995, the State Congress approved a reform to the Code of Political Institutions and Electoral Proceedings of Oaxaca. The objective of this reform is to recognize the possibility of electing the municipal authorities through the indigenous system of uses and customs. In March 1997, articles 25, 29, and 98 of the Local Political Constitution to make the recognition of the electoral rights of the indigenous peoples of Oaxaca more explicit. Finally, in 1998 the Law of Indigenous Communities and Peoples’ Rights in Oaxaca was passed. This is considered to be the most advanced law in the country with regards to indigenous rights.

SOCIAL INEQUALITIES:

INCOME

According to the socioeconomic indicators of the National Council of Population (CONAPO), Chiapas, Oaxaca and Guerrero form the triangle of extreme poverty in the southern part of the country. (2000)

29.5% of the municipalities are considered to live in conditions of high marginalization and 46.5% in very high marginalization. The most affected regions are the Mixteca, the Sierra Sur, the Cañada, and the Coast.

The current minimum wage is approximately 43 pesos a day (the equivalent of $4 USD). 71.93% of the employed population earns less than 70 pesos a day.

HOUSING

A high percentage of homes do not meet the minimum conditions of humane housing:

• 34.5% of houses do not have running water;
• 54.4% do not have plumbing;
• 12.7% do not have electricity;
• Only 37.8% of houses have all three of these basic services;
• 40% of houses have dirt floors.

(INEGI 2000)

EDUCATION

 SCHOOLING

• 34% of children over five years old do not attend school.
• The average grade of education is 6th grade (equivalent to elementary school).

(Source : www.gobiernodeoaxaca.gob.mx)

ILLITERACY

• 21.5% of the Oaxacan population is illiterate.
• 26.7% of Oaxacan women are illiterate, compared to 15.5% of men.

(Source : INEGI 2000)

MONOLINGUISM

Almost 20% of the population over 5 years old that speak an indigenous language do not speak Spanish.

HEALTH 

MALNUTRITION

• 76.9% of the population es de alta prioridad nutricional and only 10% of the population does not suffer from malnutrition.
• According to the National Institute of Nutrition, 337 municipalities are considered to suffer from severe malnutrition. Of the 100 most malnourished municipalities in Mexico, 45 are in Oaxaca, and are primarily indigenous.
• Malnutrition is also directly related to those regions where there are high levels of violence due to drug trafficking or political conflicts.

MORTALITY

• In 2004, Oaxaca held the first place in the country for mortality rates, with 5.2 per 1,000 people.
• The infant mortality rate in 2003 was 9.7 for every 1,000 live births (INEGI).
• Oaxaca has high levels of maternal mortality, 36.7% higher than the national average, due to the deficiencies in medical attention and lack of access to public health services.

ACCESS TO HEALTH SERVICES

• In the indigenous areas of Oaxaca there is 0.13 doctors for every 1,000 people. This contrasts with the 0.94 at the state level and 1.38 at the national level.
• t the national level, for every ten thousand people, there are 0.79 hospital beds, while among the indigenous populations of Oaxaca that rate is 0.07.

(Source : http://cdi.gob.mx/)

LAND

Oaxaca is a predominantly rural state, with 60.5% of the population living in rural areas. 90% of the indigenous population works in agricultural and livestock activities.

CLASH OF WORLDVIEWS

The concept of land for indigenous peoples is distinct from that of the mestizo population. The indigenous communities continue to consider the land something integral (the “mother earth”), sacred and collective, that cannot be sold. In Mexico, the systems of ejido and communal property are predominant:

• Ejidos: each ejido member receives a parcel of land, and all decisions related to the land of this group must be considered by the entire ejido assembly.
• Communal lands: the land belongs in whole to the members of a community, and as a result the benefits of the land are distributed among the collective.

Due to the historic and symbolic relationship between the indigenous peoples and the land, the majority of rural production units in Oaxaca are collective:

• 44.1% of farmed land is within the communal land system.
• 27.4% is within the ejido system.
• Only 28.5% of the land is privately owned.

AGRARIAN CONFLICTS

The existence of various systems of property has contributed to the proliferation of agrarian and territorial conflicts. In Oaxaca, there are 656 documented agrarian conflicts. Of those cases, 53 are considered to be “hot spots,” or at great risk of developing into armed conflict. The state already has a high level of deaths, injuries, displacements and imprisonments, provoked by the agrarian conflicts.

The agrarian conflicts emerge:

• Due to lack of land;
• Due to ambiguities and legal voids with regards to the land rights and titles for centuries;
• Due to imposed plans, which result from the submission of documents altered by the agrarian authorities;
• Due to disagreements over territorial limits;
• Due to monopolization and illegal occupation by cattle ranchers and loggers that are protected and backed by the authorities;
• Due to inadequate responses by the authorities in the resolution of conflicts.

It is reported that the agrarian issue has been exacerbated by various factors:

• Due to the presence of caciques (local political bosses) protected by guardias blancas (“white guards”- independent armed guards)that are dedicated to the, often illegal, harvesting of lumber;
• Due to the cultivation of illegal drugs (primarily marijuana and opium poppies);
• Due to the presence of armed groups connected to the Ejército Popular Revolucionario (EPR: Popular Revolutionary Army);
• Due to the vengeance born from historically rooted agrarian conflicts;
• Due to the application of the Program of Certification of Ejido Rights (PROCEDE), which can further intensify preexisting conflicts over territorial limits and undefined borders. (See “Legislation regarding the Land: Fragmentation and Privatization” on the SIPAZ website about Guerrero).

Massacre of Agua Fría

On May 31, 2002, 26 campesinos from the community of Santiago Xochiltepec, in the municipality of Santiago Textitlán, in the Southern Sierra of Oaxaca, were ambushed and later murdered with more than 100 bullets in the region of Agua Fría. There were shot execution-style either in the head or the genitals with large caliber weapons, in addition to robbing them of the money they carried. 16 residents of the nearby town, Santo Domingo , were detained.

In this region, one of the poorest in the state, there are six towns with old disputes over thousands of hectares of forest and fertile farm lands. In fact, the conflict had already left over 300 people dead in the years leading up to the Agua Fría massacre.

Agrarian- Forestry Conflict in the Chimalapas Region

This conflict dates back to March 1967, when 28 Chiapan communities were resettled on historically Oaxacan- controlled lands. Through a presidential resolution the Chiapans were granted 594,000 hectares of land.

In 1991, the community members of Chimalapas initiated a process of agrarian reconciliation “from campesino to campesino.” The Chiapan ejido members who had arrived in the region after 1967 were invited to stay in the area provided they recognized the Chimalapan communities and agreed to become communal landholders. The state and municipal authorities, primarily in Chiapas, were accused of boycotting this negotiation process, by pressuring the majority of the ejido members to continue being part of Chiapas.

On the other hand, the federal environmental authorities have attempted to establish a Chimalapas Biosphere Reserve. This contrasts with the interests of the communal landholders in the creation of a Campesino Ecological Reserve, which includes policies designed by them and with the support of environmental organizations. This could advance once agrarian conflicts and territorial disputes are resolved.

Today the conflict continues without resolution. It is particularly complex because of this agrarian conflict is situated on the Oaxaca-Chiapas border.

NATURAL RESOURCES

The State of Oaxaca is an area rich in natural resources. The 95,364 square kilometers make up 4.85% of the national territory. The state has a varied climate because of the unevenness of the land: the pacific coastal region is hot and arid, the pacific littoral and the slopes of the Sierra Madre are hot and humid, and the rest of the state is temperate with the exception of the areas that are above 2,000 meters, where the climate is colder.

(Source : SEMARNAT)

WATER/ELECTRICITY

The Chimalapas region is the source of 40% of the rivers in Mexico. The state of Oaxaca has various dams that provide for irrigation and the generation of hydroelectric power. Among the most important are those of Temazcal, el Cerro de Oro, del Marquéz and Yosocuta.

With regards to the production of electricity, the La Venta Wind Power Plant has been in operation since 1994. In the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the construction of another wind power plant, that would include more than 2,000 wind turbines, has been proposed. Campesino and indigenous organizations from the region oppose this project because of the environmental, economic, social, and cultural implications.

MINERALS

Currently, mining is a somewhat irrelevant industry in Oaxaca (particularly the extraction of gold and silver in the Sierra Norte and part of the Central Valleys and the Isthmus has dwindled). Nevertheless, in the Sierra Sur, there are iron deposits. In the Mixteca, there are also carbon and magnesium deposits.

AGRICULTURE

According statistics from INEGI, 14.22% of the state territory is used for agriculture and 8.27% for pasture. For the extraction of wood resources there are forests that make up 39.82%, of which 37.06% is jungle and 1.53% is for other uses such as the extraction of palm. 51.93% of the employed population works in agriculture.

Corn is the main crop grown in Oaxaca. The state produces approximately 14% of the national total of coffee. Other major crops include beans, wheat, sugarcane, and agave or maguey (which is used for the production of alcohol and employs about 20,000 families).

BIODIVERSITY

Oaxaca is among the states of Mexico with the greatest biodiversity. Oaxaca includes the following ecological zones: humid tropical (44.4%), sub-humid tropical (35.5%) and temperate (about 20%).

VEGETATION

It is calculated that 9,000 species of plants exist in Oaxaca (more than 50% of the national total).

The 1994 National Forestry Inventory (INF) indicates that Oaxaca holds the third place national for forested surface area, with 5,105,020 hectares of forest and jungle, which include a wide variety of ecosystems. Forestry is part of the potential richness of the state, primarily in the Sierra Norte and Sur regions as well as the lower Mixteca, and with precious woods in the Chimalapas region.

FAUNA

The fauna of Oaxaca is varied and the following have been registered:

• 264 species and subspecies of mammals (50% of the national total)
• 701 species of birds (63%)
• over 467 species of reptiles (26%)
• over 100 species of amphibians (35%)

(Source : National Ecology Institute)

The Chimalapas region itself includes 31.3% of the mammal species in Mexico, 32.3% of the bird species, and 44.5% of the butterfly species.

PROTECTED NATURAL AREAS

The Protected Natural Areas are land and aquatic areas of the national territory, that are representative of the diversity of ecosystems, where the original environment has not been essentially altered and where the ecological benefits are increasingly recognized and valued. These Areas are established through a presidential decree and the activities permitted in these Areas are determined in accordance with the General Law of Ecological Balance and Environmental Protection, its regulations, the management program and ecological ordinances. The Areas are subject to special regulations of protection, conservation, and development, according to categories established by the aforementioned law. The National Commission of Protected Natural Areas currently administers 150 federal natural areas that include over 17.8 million hectares.

The state of Oaxaca has one Protected Natural Area: the Cuicatlán Reserve that includes 490,186 hectares, covering 31 municipalities of Oaxaca and 20 in Puebla.

There are also two national parks: Benito Juárez National Park and the Lagunas of Chacahua National Park.

The National Institute of Ecology emphasizes another interesting fact: in the case of Oaxaca, “the conservation of natural spaces can emerge from other normative orders in the management of natural resources, such as the Forestry Management Programs, the establishment of Communitary Statutes and Agrarian Laws, and productive strategies, such as traditional coffee cultivation, the management of secondary vegetation, ecotourism, as well as the symbolic concepts of the indigenous and campesino communities that favor the conservation of important natural areas. This is reflected in the figures of forest areas protected by community initiatives (67,916 hectares) and informal conservation efforts (47,742 hectares) (…) which total just over 115,000 hectares, which represents 32% of the total surface area protected by formal initiatives.”

Although it is one of the states with the greatest biodiversity in Mexico, Oaxaca has high rates of destruction of its natural resources: it is estimated that there is an annual loss of 30,000 hectares of forest and severe erosion of 20% of the state. This is primarily due to the unmoderated harvest of trees and the illegal trafficking of wood, forest fires that are recorded annually, the pillaging of protected species of flora and fauna, mineral extraction, and the capitalization of fresh water.

MIGRATION

• Approximately 150,000 Oaxacans migrate to the North every year (to the USA and northern Mexico)
• Remittances are the third source of income for Oaxaca, after tourism and coffee.
• The main reasons for migration include the search for opportunities in the face of poverty, though there are also cases of people expelled from their lands or fleeing legal problems, revenge or loss of reputation.
• In the last 30 years, the state of Oaxaca has been characterized by high levels of migration among its indigenous population. The Mixteca region has the highest levels of migration with an uninterrupted increase since 1940.
• Migration often happens with the recognition that the home community is no longer the base for one to development their work and education. This implies great change because education becomes school-based, and work becomes paid. These two changes are significant because they have only become part of the life of the indigenous communities in the last two or three centuries.

MILITARIZATION

GUERRILLAS

It has been reported that there are at least four guerrilla groups present in Oaxaca: the Popular Revolutionary Army (Ejército Popular Revolucionario- EPR), the Popular Revolutionary Army of the Insurgent People (Ejército Revolucionario Popular del Pueblo Insurgente- ERPI), the Revolutionary Indigenous Army for National Liberation (Ejército Indígena Revolucionario de Liberación Nacional), and the Clandestine Indigenous Command for National Liberation (Comando Clandestino Indígena de Liberación Nacional). (see in CIEPAC)

The EPR appeared for the first time on June 28, 1996, coinciding with the commemoration of the anniversary of the massacre at Aguas Blancas, Guerrero. The Manifesto of Aguas Blancas, which was presented in Spanish and Náhuatl, stated that “in the face of the institutional violence, armed struggle is a legitimate and necessary recourse for the people to restore their sovereign will and reestablish the State of law.” On August 28, 1996, the EPR carried out attacks in six states: Tabasco, Guanajuato, the State of Mexico, Chiapas, and Oaxaca.

In Oaxaca, these actions provoked a repressive response against the population, primarily the Zapotec population, with the pretext of accusations of possible collaboration with the EPR. The situation in the Loxichas region is an example of this repression.

• “The attack by the EPR at the tourist center of Crucecita Huatulco in the Loxichas region in the sierra of Pochutla, brought with it the militarization and paramilitarization of the communities. Since then the communities have witnessed the incarceration of more than one hundred people and selective assassinations, arbitrary detentions, torture, and other human rights violations increased. Here the Zapotecos live in a state of military, paramilitary, economic and social siege. Three years after the EPR uprising, there are still more than ninety valid arrest warrants.”

• “In the Loxichas region there are four Bases of Mixed Operations: in the Portillo de las Flores, Magdalena Loxicha, La Sirena Miramar, Loxicha, and Agustín Loxicha. A double heliport was installed in La Cruz to facilitate the movement of troops to the region.”

 (Source : http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2000/03/13/oja-oaxaca.html)

MILITARY PRESENCE: THE ARGUMENTS

Roadblocks, patrols, fly-overs… The military presence in Oaxaca has increased significantly in the past 12 years, particularly in the rural areas. There are various arguments to explain this:

• The implementation of Plan DNIII which is applied in emergency situations and natural disasters: a 7.4 earthquake in 1999 and constant rain in the region.
• The presence of armed groups: it is worth noting the increased military presence after the EZLN uprising in 1994, and since 1996 with the appearance of the EPR.
• The fight against drug trafficking.
• The protection of strategic resources. For example, for the Regional Human Rights Center of Tepeyac, the main reason for the militarization of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec is that “it is considered a strategic area for the development of the ambitious mega project that is opposed by social organizations, non-governmental organizations, and the communities. The military is located in strategic points where the project will be or where it has already been started. The military works to make the population feel controlled.”

(Source : http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2000/03/13/oja-oaxaca.html)

Human rights organizations and civil society have accused the police and the military of practicing arbitrary detentions and other human rights violations.

POLITICAL PARTIES

The hegemony of the PRI party in Oaxaca was practically absolute until the electoral process of 2004, when the PRI candidate Ulises Ruiz Ortiz won the election, over the PRD candidate, by a very slim margin amidst rampant accusations of fraud. Nevertheless, in the federal elections in July 2006, the vote of protest against Ruiz allowed the PRD to have a historic victory in Oaxaca, with twice as many votes as the PRI.

DRUG TRAFFICKING

Poverty and a lack of opportunities provoked by the fall of the prices of other crops have led many communities in Oaxaca to become involved in the cultivation of drugs. The isolation of certain areas, for example the Sierra Sur, has facilitated the use, by drug traffickers, of lands opened by lumber harvest for the cultivation of marihuana and opium poppies.

According to figures estimated by the US government, the southern states, mainly Guerrero and Oaxaca, produce enough opium poppy to generate between 2-4 tons, annually, of processed heroin, as well as about one thousand tons of marihuana.

(Source: World Bank, 2003)

The increased production of opium poppy and marihuana in the Sierra region places Oaxaca as one of the states with the greatest growth of drug-trafficking in Mexico in the last decade.

The fight against drug-trafficking has not limited the growth of this industry. The cultivation and the trafficking of illicit drugs that originate in South America and are headed for the USA continue to grow.

PRESENCE OF TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS

In 2000, there were 69 corporations registered in Oaxaca as Direct Foreign Investment (Inversión Extranjera Directa-IED). This equals 0.4% of the total number of corporations with IED in Mexico. These investors participate with majority capital in 55 businesses and minority capital in 14. They are based in the US (24), France (10), Canada (9), Italy (8), Germany (5), and Switzerland (4). In total, there are 15 countries with IED in Oaxaca. The 69 businesses are mainly in the municipalities of Santa María Huatulco (25 businesses), Oaxaca de Juárez (16), San Pedro Mixtepec (14), and Santa María Colotepec (5).

(Source: Centro de Investigaciones Económicas para la Acción Comunitaria- CIEPAC)

Of the eight initiatives that the Plan Puebla Panamá (PPP, presented in 2001) was supposed to promote, five were set to be carried out in Oaxaca:

• Sustainable Developmeny: Indigenous Consultation, like the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor project.
• Tourism: strengthening the airport security in Huatulco.
•  Transportation: Pacific corridor and the Trans-Isthmus Salina Curz- Coatzacoalcos Highway.
• Energy Initiative: the wind power corridor in the Isthmus.
• Telecommunications: support for the regional network of telecenters.

Source: 5th Report of the Oaxacan Network of Human Rights (RODH, 2005)

Even with the PPP “frozen”, several of these projects have continued to advance. In the case of the wind power corridor in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, campesino and indigenous organizations of the region have denounced that transnational corporations (in particular Preneal, Iberdrola, Gamesa Eólica, Endesa and the French CIF) have been present in the communities attempting to negotiate with the campesinos (See La Jornada: October 2005)

The 5th Report of the Oaxaca Network of Human Rights lists the main transnational corporations- tied to the energy sector, the exploitation of natural resources, and biotechnology, as well as the major construction firms- with interest in investing in Oaxaca:

• ENDESA, a Spanish corporation, the main investor in the inititaive known as the System of Electrical Interconnection of the Countries of Central America ( see SIEPAC)
• Harken Energy, Applied Energy Services (AES), Duke Energy and Harza, US energy corporations with investments from Mexico to Panama in the construction of hydroelectric dams and the privatization of the energy sector.
• the following corporations are involved, in the production of wind power in La Venta, Oaxaca: CISA, GAMESA, DEPROE, ENDESA ITALAISE.
• The US paper corporations, International Paper and Boise Cascade, are pruchasing land in Oaxaca and Chiapas to convert them into planations for wood pulp.

The mining sector also has interests in Oaxaca: Altos Hornos of Mexico (AHMSA) and Canadian corportaions such as Continuum Resources Ltd., Wheaton River Minerals and the US corporation US Gold Corp, to mention just a few. The presence of the Mexican corporation CEMEX, the third cement corporation in the world, and their interests in the Isthmus, also stands outs.