On the Coast of Oaxaca, Afro and Indigenous Communities Fight for Water Autonomy

Credit: NACLA/COPUDEVER

At dawn on March 14—celebrated internationally as the Day of Action against Dams and in Defense of Rivers—Afro-Mexican, Indigenous, and mestizo peoples met on the shores of the Río Verde to participate in a ritual of gratitude and resistance.

They were gathered for the Río Verde Festival, organized each March by the Consejo de Pueblos Unidos en Defensa del Río Verde (Council of Peoples United in Defense of the Río Verde, COPUDEVER). This water protector movement was formed in 2007 when dozens of communities organized to stop the Federal Electricity Commission from building a hydroelectric dam on their river, which they say would flood their homes and contaminate their only source of water.

Read more: https://nacla.org/news/2019/05/07/coast-oaxaca-afro-and-indigenous-tribes-fight-water-autonomy