La Parota
In 2003, the peasant farmers living in the region that would be affected by the construction of the hydroelectric dam, La Parota, located south of Alcapulco, founded the Council of Collective Land and Communities in Opposition to La Parota (CECOP).
In 4 years, they have succeeded in canceling a bidding process for the construction of the dam by private companies, which had already been opened by the Federal Commission of Electricity (CFE). They have also prevented the Mexican government from issuing a decree expropriating land in the region.
The Legal Front
Since 2005, various collective land assemblies have been held around whether to permit the beginning phases of the project. The CECOP, advised by the Montaña Tlachinollan Center for Human Rights, took legal action challenging the assemblies held in four communities (Cacahuatepec, Los Cuajes, La Palma y Dos Arroyos), in which the peasant farmers had supposedly agreed to the expropriation of their land. In 2006, the farmers passed several resolutions in favor of CECOP, which should have impeded the CFE and any federal or state authority from entering these communities to oversee any work related to the hydroelectric project while legal processes had not been finalized.
Despite the resolutions, the state government and the CFE continue to bring in machinery and engage in roadwork needed for the construction of the dam. On September 12, 2007 a federal judge ordered CFE to suspend work on the hydroelectric dam, which was seen as a victory for CECOP.
 The International Front
Since its creation, CECOP has also succeeded in bringing attention to their defense of land on a national and international level. For example, in March of 2006, CECOP presented its case in front of the Latin American Water Tribunal (TLA), an international authority on environmental justice and ethics, which positioned itself against the construction of the dam and advised suspending the project.
In various instances, the United Nations has demonstrated concern and has reported irregularities around the project. Rodolfo Stavenhagen, UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples, denounced the “abuses and violations of indigenous peasant farmers from the State of Guerrero who are opposed to the dam construction project, La Parota, on their territory, and which the state insists on completing without the free consent of the population.” (August 2006)
In May of 2006, the U.N. Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights expressed its concern for the lack of consultation with indigenous communities, as well as, the environmental damage implied in the project.
In the beginning of March, the representative for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Mexico, Amerigo Incalcaterra, visited the area of La Parota to meet with the people that would be affected from the communities of Garrapatas and Tasajeras, and confirmed the lack of information and transparency around the project.
Amnesty International has documented since 2004 the violence that has emerged around the dam project of La Parota, in particular the homicide of three persons, and death threats made against a local activist. The organization is unaware of any progress made in the official investigations of these incidences.
Carrizalillo
Carrizalillo is a community that belongs to the municipality of Eduardo Neri in the Tierra Caliente region. Ten years ago, mining companies began to show up on these collective lands (1200 ha). 970 hectares of land were soon in the hands of these companies. An abusive contract was made with collective landholders. In the first year, it was calculated that the company was going to make 126 million dollars. Meanwhile, many people in the municipality do not even have electricity, potable water, access to healthcare, schools…
The community began to realize that the benefits would be greater for the mining company than for the community.
 On January 8, 2007, the community decided to organize the Permanent Assembly of Collective Landholders and Workers of Carrizalillo and demand their rights. They set up a roadblock in front of the principal entrance of the mine exploited by the company Luismin (part of the multinational Goldcop of Canada that has mines in Mexico, Central America, Brazil, and Argentina).
On January 25, 2007, police forces attempted to remove protestors. Many were beaten and locked up for three hours. However, with little time, protestors once again blocked the road. As a result of the people’s determination, a process of negotiation was started.
On April 1st, a comprehensive agreement was agreed upon, which in principle is beneficial for the community of Carrizalillo, but above all sets the ground to construct a more equitable relationship between the company and collective landholders who own the land.
Ecologists of Sierra of Petatlán
 The ties between regional local bosses, authorities, and military officials, with the drug-trafficking in between, gives one an idea of the context in which ecologically minded peasant farmers of the Sierra de Petatlán and Coyuca de Catalán come up against.
The president of the Women’s Organization of Petatlán and Coyuca de Catalán, Celsa Baldovinos, is the wife of Felipe Arreaga, an ecologist and peasant farmer who was unjustly imprisoned in 2005. The women created an organization to fight against contamination and deforestation provoked by the secret and immoderate cutting down of trees. The organization is currently made up of 60 women from different communities.
The organization has various reforestation projects of red cedar, forest and river cleaning campaigns created to halt the fires that have devastated the region, and vegetable planting projects that involve all of the family, and which represent an effort to recuperate food independence. The organization has a “savings bank” by which they loan money at 5% interest in cases of necessity. For those who are not good at saving, they loan money at a bit higher interest rate and the borrowers are incorporated into the organizations projects.
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In 1991, the Guerrero Council of 500 Years of Indigenous Resistance, Black and Popular (CG5000ARINP) was formed, an umbrella of main indigenous organizations inspired by the protests against celebrations of the 500 years of the Conquest of America by the Spanish. The council made visible the struggle of the people in the State of Guerrero, attended international events, participated in positions of popular representation, and obtained positions within indigenous bureaucracies. The movement neared itself to the EZLN, and had great success in organizing marches, such as the “You Are Not Alone” march in 1994. In 1995, the movement incorporated itself into the Community Police in the region of Costa-Montaña and was the motivation behind the creation of the Indigenous University of Guerrero.
The community police were created in 1995 in face of high levels of delinquency in the region of Costa Montaña and an official judicial system considered to be corrupt and monocultural. The communities organized themselves so that they could have their own Community Public System of Security. Without limiting itself to the field of security, they are also generating their own justice system and re-education through the rescue of their own system of norms and without leaving aside the positive rights proposed in Mexico.
For several years amuzgos and nahuas communities from the municipality of Xochistlahuaca have focused on their struggle for their collective rights as indigenous peoples. In 2000 and 2001, Xochistlahuaca became known for one part of the communities’ decision to defend their right of self-determination and elect officials according to their customs. That began the construction of an autonomous structure in the autonomous municipality of Suljaa’, parallel to the official municipality. The then president of the municipality, Aceadeth Rocha Ramírez, pressured majority officials within the communities of the municipality for the purpose of obtaining and maintaining control. The rupture of the social fabric that this has generated and the confrontation between its members still continue to damage peaceful co-existence in the municipality.
About ten years ago, mixtec and tlapaneco (me’phaa) communities, belonging to the municipality of Ayutla de los Libres (the location of the El Charco massacre), began to organize themselves through the Independent Organization of Mixtec Peoples (OIPM) and the Organization of Indigenous Me’phaa Peoples (OPIM).
