YUCATÀN, (May 11, 2021).- “The political parties and their ‘hidden’ interests corrupt the Maya peoples with vote-buying. The peoples have been betrayed, community representation has disappeared, to become a model of partisan imposition … political parties have hijacked community power, ” said Bernardo Caamal Itzá, promoter of Maya culture in Yucatán.
For the also indigenous journalist, the Maya community has never felt represented, neither in this nor in other electoral contests. It indicates that there are false indigenous representations, characters that try to usurp figures that do not correspond to them, and others, although they do have a relationship with the indigenous people, obey other interests.
On April 23, the Xalapa Regional Chamber of the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Power of the Federation (TEPJF), annulled the candidacies for the federal representative for District I, with head in Valladolid, Yucatán, to Liborio Vidal Aguilar, Alpha Tavera Escalante, and Jorge Canul Rubio, for not having ties with the indigenous communities.
The Chamber reported that the magistrates revoked various agreements of the General Council of the National Electoral Institute (INE) with which the registers of the formulas to the federal councils were approved by the principle of relative majority, corresponding to Electoral District I; which are reserved for people who prove to be of indigenous origin, and who was nominated by the political parties Movimiento Ciudadano (MC), Acción Nacional (PAN) and Movimiento Regeneración Nacional (Morena), respectively.
Then, the state PAN reported that the Superior Chamber of the TEPJF admitted and immediately turned over for its study the appeal for reconsideration filed by the party to defend the registration of Vidal Aguilar as a candidate for the federal representative for District I, based in Valladolid.
According to Caamal Itzá, in recent decades international treaties have been made, modifications to the Constitution so that native peoples are consulted and not discriminated against, but in practice we see that political parties form their cadres usurping indigenous leaderships, ” taking advantage of the partisan effervescence by which many allow themselves to be carried away, thus usurping the opportunity for true indigenous leaders to govern and legislate in favor of the realities of indigenous peoples, so that extractive desk policies cease and true policies begin to be promoted for the common benefit and especially of marginalized peoples ”.
Today, he specified, political parties look for certain people they can manipulate, who is of Maya origin, but who represent their interests and do not look after the benefit of the community, nor the peoples; This tax model began to take shape in the 90s, he stressed. ” The one who wins the most is the one who wins, the bastard is the one who has power, not the most capable.”
Likewise, he points out, “the parties resort to buying votes in the communities, and in the end, the people end up corrupting themselves and selling to the highest bidder, whether it be the parties or the business interests, they take advantage of their needs; to decide for their territories ”.
Therefore, those who come to power, he said, end up ruling in a despotic way, which is accountable to no one. “The political system has become so corrupted that the election is going to be bought,” he commented; and in the end, these people grant land-use permits to large companies that pollute, he added.
“We can see a Maya governor, but they only respond to the hidden interests of the privileged class, not to the interests of the Maya community and they do not make decisions based on the consensus of the community,” warned the Maya leader.
Impersonation
In the case of the candidates who intend to run under the figure of indigenous candidates, he mentioned that some, such as those mentioned at the beginning of the note, are supplanting a figure that does not correspond to them, “because they have not shown to have a closeness and belong to the Maya people, they do not speak the language, they do not have Maya lastnames, they have not worked or have ties with the original people ”.
At the same time, in their speeches they never speak of the Maya people, he stressed, and when they speak that their candidacies were withdrawn, they accuse their political opponents, however, those who show them are the Maya people themselves; “So their adversaries are the Maya,” he said.
It is not enough to affirm that you are indigenous, or to recognize yourself as such. “Those of us who live in the Maya communities were born Maya speakers, we have not been speaking Maya for only two years, we live in the communities,” he stressed.
Indigenous self-ascription, that is to say, to go to the National Electoral Institute (INE) and affirm that I am such a person and I am a Maya speaker, but this, as he explained, is to ratify my original position as part of the Maya people, but I have a history that indicates that I am born in the community and practical interests of the people.
However, these characters are outside the community and must prove that they are Mayas who have belonging and relationship with the people.
In the end, Bernardo Caamal demands that the parties remove their hands and stop imposing false indigenous representations and that those who are elected watch over the rights of the Maya communities.
Source: La Jornada Maya
