Indigenous Communities Build Community Radios

This comes as part of an URGENT request to raise money to support the construction of community radios by the Popular Indigenous Council of Guerrero - Emiliano Zapata (CIPOG-EZ), in the mountain region of Guerrero, Mexico. The project is called: Radios Organising the Struggle for Autonomy (R-OLA) and needs to raise £10,000 / €12,000.

The CIPOG-EZ is a council made up 24 indigenous communities who have been organising themselves in defence of their communities' waters, territories and lives, against transnational mining projects, forced displacement and insecurity fostered by narco-paramilitary groups in their region.

Narco-paramilitary group "Los Ardillos", have for 30 years operated in their region. In several municipalities they control local governments, the municipal police, the state police and the army. They regularly use torture, homicides, disappearances, and the displacement of whole indigenous communities to spread fear amongst the population and to quash resistance to mega-projects. Since 2015, there have been 19 members of their communities who have been disappeared and 39 assassinated. The CIPOG-EZ says that mining companies pay Los Ardillos for 'protection', including displacing communities from their lands to impose new mining projects. The mining projects known to have been or are currently still working in the region are American, Canadian and British-owned companies.

The communities are confronting this violence by building autonomy, their own health systems, education systems, and agroecological schools. They stress that what they want more than anything is peace in their territory and for their rights to autonomy, sovereignty and self-determination to be respected.

They are launching this campaign to raise money for the radio to reach other isolated indigenous communities with education and news to secure their safety and ensure their rights are respected.

An example is the radio can teach people about the rights under the UN Convention 169 to Free, Prior and Informed Consent. This right allows Indigenous communities to give or withhold consent to a project that may affect them or their territories. Once they have given their consent, they can withdraw it at any stage. This rights-based knowledge gives communities the tools to resist mega projects like mining that often destroy their territories.

Furthermore, the radio can be used to recover and strengthen the communities' indigenous traditions, cultures, languages and knowledges. As well as an instrument for giving political education on the contexts they are living and the roots of those problems.

United, they are stronger. Radios are essential communication tools to build unity.

Join these efforts to raise money and support the strengthening of the CIPOG-EZ and its autonomous community processes.

This call has come directly from the CIPOG-EZ communities and is being brought by the National Indigenous Congress (CNI).

Let's upport this incredibly important process and continue to support communities in building their autonomy!