López Obrador promises to address traditional authorities' requests to install National Guard barracks to guarantee the region's security. Photo: Government of Mexico.
On Saturday, in a call to end racism, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador led the presentation of the Justice Plan for the N´ayeri (Cora) people in the municipality of Nayar, Nayarit. There, he promised to address the request made by traditional authorities for the installation of national guard barracks to guarantee the region’s security.
During a visit to the town of Jesús María, López Obrador received requests and demands from the traditional authorities of the indigenous communities in the Sierra Nayarita asking him to install National Guard barracks in Guadalupe Ocotán in the municipality of La Yesca; Mesa del Nayar, Huaynamota, Potrero de la Palmita and La Cumbre in the municipality of Del Nayar; and San Pedro Ixcatán in the municipality of Ruiz.
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López Obrador said that he and Secretary of National Defense Luis Cresencio Sandoval, who was present at the event, took note of the request and that barracks for the federal forces will be installed.
Representatives of the indigenous communities made requests that paid attention to historical lags in the region, such as the construction and rehabilitation of roads necessary to deliver medications to hospitals.
They asked the federal government to continue and expand social programs, particularly pensions for older adults, single mothers, people with disabilities and scholarships for students of all levels.
They also requested the support of federal and state governments for the construction and modernization of the region’s communications infrastructure to bring internet to schools, as well as the protection of sacred places and support for artisans, among other demands.
“We want to remain what we are, Indigenous, but we also want to live according to the times we are living,” said Martín Valentín Vargas, one of the traditional governors who delivered the communities’ requests to López Obrador.
López Obrador, who was accompanied by various officials from his government, said that all requests will be addressed and that it is time for, “racism to be put aside so that no one feels superior to another. We should be ashamed to be racists.” He affirmed that his government is allocating “more support to indigenous municipalities; because justice is giving more to those who have less.”
Previous governments, he said, committed the “social sin” of allocating the budget to attend to the most privileged sector of the population. “These scoundrels said that if things went well for the one above, things went well for the one below. A great falsehood, because wealth is not contagious.”
Now, declared López Obrador, “we are sending them very far away with that lie, and we are trying to ensure that the budget is allocated to serve the people most in need.”
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He expressed that he is very pleased that there is at least one beneficiary of federal social programs in each household in the Del Nayar region.
Miguel Ángel Navarro, the Morenista governor of Nayarit, said that López Obrador approved the immediate design of a communications program for the Del Nayar region. Roads and highways will be improved with this program, additionally, the Federal Electricity Commission will install antennas to bring internet to the smallest and most isolated communities in the state.
(La Jornada) with information from Arturo Sánchez Jiménez
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/FV/SF/EF
