Radio Mundo Real

Making the lives of indigenous peasant communities of Lacandona Forest visible is the way to deny the official version according to which the people who live in the forest are responsible for its destruction.

The logistic necessary to carry out an international event in the middle of Lacandona Forest was, in itself, a challenge. However, Enlace Comunicación y Capacitación, one of the main organizers of the Montes Azules Social Forum which took place in Chiapas Mexico, could overcome the obstacle as they understood it was crucial that the inhabitants of communities threatened with evictions could participate directly in the event.

This is what Miguel Angel Paz, director at Enlace, said to Real World Radio. “More often than not, the people who meet to discuss these issues are not the real actors suffering the situation”.

In the conflicts for land and territories there are “faceless” actors such as transnational corporations, which aim to capitalize the wealth of Lacandona Forest and the affected communities.

“The strategy of the government to divide communities to weaken the resistance has been successful, sadly”, said Miguel Angel. And he added that their decision to call a unified political coordination is the “first step” to reverse this fragmentation.

Once the stories of the communities and the ways the capitalist system aims to “privatize” the natural resources and biodiversity of the forest are known, we will be able to reverse the false accusation that there are the indigenous peasant families the ones who destroy the forest, said Miguel Angel.

Photo: Carlos Dardón