President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador this week met with indigenous Wixárikas (members of the Wixáritari or Huichol people), promising to help restore their lands grabbed by Nayarit farmers more than 50 years ago.
Around 200 Wixárikas had marched for 32 days from their communities in the isolated highlands of Jalisco to the capital to plead for the president’s intervention in their case.
Leaders in the communities of San Sebastián Teponahuaxtlán and Tuxpan de Bolaños are demanding the return of 10,500 hectares of “sacred” land appropriated by ranchers from Nayarit.
Despite having lands protected by titles since 1718, at the height of the colonial era, Wixárika communities have faced repeated threats to their way of life, not only from mestizo farmers, but also mining and agro-industrial companies, hydraulic projects commissioned by governments and tourism projects, as well as the police, who have frequently been accused of assaulting jicareros (pilgrims commissioned by their community) during their ceremonies that often involve the ingestion of peyote.
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