Video still: López Veja with PBI-Mexico accompaniment volunteers.
Australian-Mexican journalist, editor, activist and literary fiction author Tamara Pearson writes in Truthout: “Indigenous activists like Nahua grasshopper farmer Miguel López Vega describe the severe droughts, water scarcity, crop failure, and hunger that Mexico is experiencing as ‘signs of death’ of the planet, and say any solutions have to involve direct care of the land while stopping the harm.”
Pearson’s article continues: “López, who lives among volcanoes in the Cholulteca region [in the central highlands of Mexico in the state of Puebla], where the Spanish committed massacres in 1519, says, ‘We organize in this region because corporations have come here to plunder and pollute … which we don’t permit.’ He describes a giant sinkhole in the area, some 45 meters deep, that appeared overnight in 2021, following over-exploitation of local water, especially by companies like Danone, owner of Bonafont.”
“’These changes are signs of [planetary] death,’ says López. Describing things merely as ‘climate change,’ he argues, makes the process sound passive and abstract, whereas pointing to specific events like the sinkhole indicates that ‘our Mother Earth is screaming about the huge dispossession that is occurring to our people.’”
“López, in Puebla state, is experiencing [water scarcity that impacts the growing of food]. ‘The plundering, the trafficking of our water, we can see that reflected in our food. In my area, there are 10 hectares of land that now don’t produce anymore, we don’t have the food that we used to have.’”
“López describes … long-term direct actions. He says that in the Cholulteca region, they have stopped a toll road and a tourist project that ‘was distributing our land to a few people for profit.’ They also stopped the construction of high-tension electricity towers and industrial corridors, as well as prevented the contamination of rivers. And they camped outside a rubbish dump for two years, successfully shutting it down. In April this year, communities signed an agreement for the permanent closure of the plant and for the private company to carry out remediation for the soil contamination caused.”
“‘I’m convinced that just as our rivers in different parts of the country join together, if we join our struggles … our commitment to caring, defending, and loving [the environment] will prevent more harm,’ he says.”
The full article can be read at: Mexican Activists Are Fighting Climate Crises by Stopping Extractive Violence (Tamara Pearson, Truthout, September 12, 2026).
Accompaniment
Miguel López Vega is a member of the People’s Front in Defense of Land and Water of Puebla, Morelos and Tlaxcala. Peace Brigades International has accompanied the Peoples’ Front since early 2020.
Peace Brigades International-Canada coordinator Brent Patterson met López Veja in February 2026 in Mexico, including at the memorial service for Samir Flores Soberanes in Amilcingo (on February 20) and at the encampment against the (now closed) garbage dump in Puebla (on February 21).
Additional reading:
–PBI-Mexico accompanies acquittal of Nahuatl water protector Miguel López Vega criminalized for defending the Metlapanapa River (PBI-Canada, February 20, 2024)
–PBI-Mexico accompanies Nahua water defender Miguel López Vega at hearing for defending the Metlapanapa River (PBI-Canada, March 30, 2023)
–PBI-Mexico joins call for the release of Indigenous land and water defender Miguel López Vega (PBI-Canada, January 28, 2020).
