PBI-Mexico accompanies activities in Amilcingo on the 6th anniversary of the murder of Indigenous Nahua defender Samir Flores Soberanes
On February 20, PBI-Mexico posted: “Today in Amilcingo #PBI accompanied the mass and the procession for the 6th anniversary of the murder of the defender and community communicator Samir Flores Soberanes. In the framework of the international accompaniment to the Front of Peoples in Defense of Land and Water – Morelos, Puebla and Tlaxcala, we remember the nonviolent work of Samir for his community, his territory, and the dignity of the Indigenous Peoples, and that violence against human rights defenders continues threatening their legitimate work in their fight for rights and justice.”
La Jornada San Luis reports:
“Around 8 a.m. a mass was held in the house of Samir’s children and his partner Liliana, near the home of his parents, and a few meters from where he was killed in 2019.
Afterwards, those present marched with flowers and candles to the center of the community; they made a stop and political act in front of the Amiltzinko community radio station, which Samir founded to organize the resistance of this town and others in the eastern zone of Morelos.
Around 10 a.m., the contingent arrived at the elementary school located in the center of Amilcingo, named after Samir Flores Soberanes. In this school the students sang songs to remember the struggle of the environmental defender.
In this act, the plastic artist Carmen Jiménez Cacho gave the school a painting in which she painted the body of Emiliano Zapata, with the face of Samir Flores; on the sides she placed the faces of Genaro Vázquez, Lucio Caballas, Rubén Jaramillo and Isidro Baldenegro [other social fighters who died to defend the land, the environment and life].”
El Sol de Cuautla further reports: “The march concluded at the municipal cemetery, where flowers covered his grave. As every February 20 in recent years, the community renewed the promise not to forget and not to forgive until justice is done.”
Photo by CNI (National Indigenous Congress) México.
Other commemorations
The Mexico Times adds: “As part of the day of struggle for the six years since Samir’s murder, the People’s Front in Defense of Land and Water of Morelos, Puebla and Tlaxcala and the National Indigenous Congress called for a march on February 21 [starting at 4 pm] in Mexico City.” Periodistas Unidos further notes: “[The massive mobilization] will depart from the Ministry of the Interior to the Zócalo.”
Diario de Morelos also notes: “On Saturday, February 22, at the cultural space La Bigotona, in Cuernavaca, there will be one more day of artistic and cultural activities, with Hugo Mazatl and Abril Luna (dance), Son de Chía, La Mosca con Smoking, El Viejo Luna, La Internacional Cananea and his Tiro de Piedra, who will continue to raise their voices for Samir.”
The demand for justice
El Sol de Cuautla also reports that the march took place “a day after President Claudia Sheinbaum said she would ask the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) to make progress in the investigation of the case.”
And La Jornada San Luis reports: “In an interview, Juan Carlos Flores, Jaime Domínguez and Jorge Velázquez, members of the [Peoples Front in Defence of Land and Water], complained that the investigations did not advance in the State Attorney General’s Office or in the Attorney General’s Office, which took the case. They assured that if they really want to clarify this, the main line of investigation must be that it was a ‘narco-political crime’, ordered from the highest spheres of power, and that it was carried out by members of an organized criminal gang that operates in the state.”
Educa Oaxaca adds: “Two of the probable perpetrators of Samir’s murder are said to be dead, one of the detainees is about to be tried and another is a fugitive from the law. Of the three main witnesses, two are also dead. ‘This shows the terrible network of power behind Samir’s murder’, the [People’s] Front said.”
Up next, El Sol de Cuautla reports: “On March 10, a hearing will be held in the Judicial City of Atlacholoaya, where alleged perpetrators of the homicide will be summoned.”
Further reading: PBI-Mexico accompanies the People’s Front at press conference demanding justice for Samir Flores Soberanes (PBI-Canada, February 15, 2025).
We continue to follow this.
LINK TO CANADIAN MINING COMPANIES
Alamos Gold and Zacatecas Silver
We would also highlight that the People’s Front has linked the PIM megaproject to Toronto-based Alamos Gold and its Esperanza mine. In November 2020, they posted: “[Mexican president] Lopez Obrador’s [support for the PIM] betrays the peasant and the promise of change of his government, to favour transnational corporations [including] Canadian miners like Alamos Gold.”
In February 2022, Toronto-based Alamos Gold Inc. announced “it has entered into a binding agreement to sell its non-core Esperanza Gold Project located in Morelos State, Mexico to [Vancouver-based] Zacatecas Silver Corp. for total consideration of up to $60 million.”
Avispa Midia has also reported: “Gathered [at the ‘First Assembly of the Nahua people of Morelos against mining and megaprojects of death’ in April 2022], the Nahua peoples denounced the mining project ‘paradoxically called Esperanza’, for the exploitation, in open-pit pits, of gold and silver. This concession, for the Canadian companies Alamos Gold and Zacatecas Silver, is located just 500 meters from the Xochicalco site [an archaeological site and UNESCO World Heritage Site].”
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