On November 21, the Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project posted on social media:
“In the last few days we accompany the People’s Front of Morelos Puebla Tlaxcala (FPDTA) in their activity to support the fight for water defence in Xoxtla, Puebla.
During the community assembly, more than 400 people voted to suspend the excavation of new wells, supporting the court ruling ordering to temporarily halt extraction.
We express our concern for the environment of risk faced by members of the FPDTA and the community of Xoxtla for their legitimate defense of the territory. From PBI we recognize your struggle and will continue to follow this organizational process.”
That community assembly took place on November 11.
At that time, El Sol de Puebla reported: “Residents of the municipality of San Miguel Xoxtla demanded that the municipal authorities return to the citizens the control of the wells based on uses and customs. Therefore, they created a drinking water committee so that it is in charge of ensuring that the vital liquid stays in the demarcation and no longer profits from it.”
Community radio station FM Cholollan has commented: “The struggle of the people of Xoxtla represents a historic watershed in the defense of water as a common good. Through community organization and the strategic use of legal tools, they have shown that it is possible to confront the extractivist interests that have profited from this vital resource for years. The public assembly and the refusal to dialogue behind closed doors show its commitment to transparency and participatory democracy.”
Notably, the community assembly came just days after Animal Politico reported on November 6: “A federal judge ordered the temporary suspension of the excavation of the Pavigi well, known as the Bienestar well, located in the municipality of San Miguel Xoxtla, Puebla. In the same ruling, the judge also ordered the cessation of operations at wells 4 and 5 in San Miguel Xoxtla, as well as prohibiting the issuance of any extensions to the concession or the granting of new ones.”
That article then highlights: “In a statement, the community of Xoxtla emphasized that federal justice ‘comes after the justice of the people and sides with the community, not the governor,’ regarding the administration and allocation of water in their territory. They also emphasized that this legal victory is the result of a long struggle by the community, as the residents of Xoxtla themselves halted the preparation of well number 5 more than a year ago, and that of well number 4 in May of this year.”
That Animal Politico article further provides the context: “According to data from the Committee in Defense of Water of San Miguel Xoxtla, Puebla ranks fifth in the exploitation of illegal deep wells, and this exploitation comes not only from water truck drivers, but also from real estate companies, industries, and primarily from criminal transnational corporations like Agua de Puebla.”
In July 2025, La Jornada de Oriente also reported: “The companies Ternium México S.A. de C.V. and Concesiones Integrales [a private water company that holds the concession for the drinking water service in Puebla] currently exploit just over 89 percent of Xoxtla’s groundwater, while 5 percent corresponds to agricultural purposes and the rest for services and domestic activities, reveals the Public Registry of Water Rights (RPDA) of the National Water Commission (Conagua).”
That article adds: “Ternium, the company considered the largest steel producer in Latin America, with one of its plants in Xoxtla, extracts 3,162,342 cubic meters of water per year, that is, 66.31 percent of the total of the 14 water concession titles that are registered in the municipality.”
The Guardian has also previously reported: “Relatives of two missing Mexican environmentalists [human rights lawyer Ricardo Arturo Lagunes Gasca and Aquila Indigenous community leader Antonio Díaz Valencia] are pointing the finger at a transnational mining company [Ternium] which they claim is responsible for environmental destruction and violence in the rural community, and may have links to the criminals who abducted their loved ones.”
Accompaniment
Following the court ruling on November 6, Citizens’ Council for the Defence of Land and Water in San Miguel Xoxtla posted about: “The criminalisation, not only on social media and the false rumours that our comrade Pascual had been murdered, but also direct attacks from the State Governor and Secretary of the Interior, who claimed that the water did not belong to a leader, but to the nation, and that Xoxtla had water and would supply it to the city of Puebla.”
Educa Oaxaca has also explained: “[Their] resistances [in defence of the right to water] have provoked a wave of violence and criminalization against water and territory defenders such as Pascual Bermúdez and Renato Romero, in addition to a campaign of lies and public attacks against the movement by the Governor of the State and an attempted aggression with a firearm against people who remained on guard at wells 5 and 4 in the early morning of October 30.”
PBI-Mexico has accompanied the Peoples’ Front in Defence of Land and Water – Morelos, Puebla and Tlaxcala since early 2020.
We continue to follow this.
