Multicultural Institutions, Distributional Politics, and Postelectoral Mobilization in Indigenous Mexico (original) (raw)
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Cambridge University Press eBooks, 2011
Drawing on years of field research and an original survey of more than 5,000 respondents, this book argues that, contrary to claims by the 1994 Zapatista insurgency, indigenous and non-indigenous respondents in southern Mexico have been united by their socioeconomic conditions and land tenure institutions as much as, or more than, by their ethnic identities. The prevalence of communitarian attitudes in rural Chiapas-as compared with neighboring Oaxaca-is the result of centuries of peasant repression, the form land tenure institutions take, and indigenous identity. Contrary to many analyses of Chiapas' 1994 indigenous rebellion, Todd A. Eisenstadt argues, using a comparison with Oaxaca, that structural factors like social and economic history can trump ethnic identity in the formation of individuals' attitudes regarding individual and collective rights. The book finds that in Oaxaca, where indigenous communities have been less repressed and where land tenure institutions emphasize individual property rights, indigenous and non-indigenous survey respondents adopt individual rights-favoring positions, rather than those favoring collective rights. Further evidence for this argument is found by comparing the non-indigenous 2006 anti-government social movement in Oaxaca to Chiapas' 1994 Zapatista insurgency, which acquired a strong indigenous rights platform, but only after an initial discourse of class-based revolution.
Bulletin of Latin American Research, 2004
A 'politics of recognition'-a process of political reform intended to recognise formally cultural diversity and indigenous peoples' rights-has developed in Mexico, both at the federal and at the state levels, since the early 1990s. The case of the state of Oaxaca stands out in this respect-the local constitution and nearly a dozen secondary laws were reformed during the 1990s, resulting in the conformation of the most comprehensive multicultural framework in Mexico. In this article, I attempt to explain the emergence and the particular development of Oaxaca's unique politics of recognition. Following an explanatory framework proposed by Donna Lee Van Cott, I conclude that the recognition agenda emerged in Oaxaca as legitimacy and governability was put under strain. In addition, I conclude that the (by Mexican standards) rapid and broad fashion in which it developed can be explained on the bases of the severity of the threats to governability and of the capacity of indigenous actors to influence the decision-making process and form alliances with key political actors-i.e. the state governors. Keywords: autonomy, governability, indigenous peoples of Oaxaca, indigenous peoples' rights, legitimacy, politics of recognition. Until quite recently, the political elite of Latin American countries-Mexico includedregarded cultural and ethnic diversity as a problem, as the main obstacle to the nation-state's consolidation. Throughout most of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, they strove to eliminate diversity and forge culturally homogenous societies (Díaz Polanco, 1991). 1 However since the early 1980s, these homogenising tendencies began to be challenged by the indigenous population and questioned in diverse social and political sectors. 2 The 1 The consideration of diversity as a problem for state-building and the resulting homogenisation are not unique to Latin America, but to the modern state which has aspired to found itself 'on a single set of constitutional principles and exhibit a singular and unambiguous identity' (Parekh, 2000: 181-185). 2 The homogenisation paradigm has been challenged around the world. The debates around recognition of cultural diversity are central in many countries (
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As a response to international pressure along with massive indigenous mobilization across Latin American countries over the last two decades, most of the governments in the region have undertaken the implementation of innovative laws to address indigenous collective demands regarding cultural and territorial rights. Thus, multicultural laws such as Usos y Costumbres, Rondas Campesinas and more recently Consulta previa, stand as the mainstream legal instruments created to redress centuries of exclusion. Framed within international standards established by ILO 169, these laws attempt to fill the gap between representative democracies and indigenous claims for autonomy and self-determination. However, their implementation by national governments has been uneven and conflicts between the states and indigenous populations persist across the region. By comparing two indigenous municipalities from Peru and Mexico, this paper aims to explore under which conditions multicultural laws can foster the realization of indigenous people's territorial rights while at the same time contravening the ruling capacity of the states over natural resources.
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The objective of this article is to propose a discussion on the role of multiculturalism and its implications within the Mexican nation-state from the methodology of legal studies, given the lack of legal and institutional tools to address the growing challenge of a multi ethnic society that aspires to a peaceful coexistence; where the indigenous peoples of Mexico uphold old demands on compliance with and respect for their Fundamental Rights, now based on international law and jurisprudence. The proposed analysis shows that despite the constitutional reforms of 2001 and 2011, it is necessary to introduce major legal reforms, including pluralism and interculturality in the public agenda and institutional space. The case of the Yaqui tribe is paradigmatic because they are waging a legal and peaceful struggle for their fundamental rights against the dispossession of their ancestral territories and its natural resources.
The judicialization of the right to self-government in indigenous municipalities of Mexico: Cherán, Ayutla, Oxchuc, 2023
Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law (IISL) Antigua Universidad s/n-Apdo.28 20560 Oñati-Gipuzkoa-Spain http://opo.iisj.net/index.php/sortuz The judicialization of the right to self-government in indigenous municipalities of Mexico: Cherán, Ayutla, Oxchuc (This text is a translation to English of an article published in Spanish: "Cherán, Ayutla, Oxchuc: la judicialización del derecho al autogobierno en los municipios indígenas de México." Revista d'Estudis Autonòmics i Federals, 36: 425-463 (December de 2022).
In the 1990s indigenous activists in Latin America mobilized to defend indigenous lands and traditional authorities. Governments responded by passing multicultural rights that were unevenly enforced or limited by structural violence and inequality. Indigenous activists and authorities are nevertheless testing the scope and meaning of multicultural reforms at the municipal level. The extensive literature on the relationship between culture and politics identifies feedback effects between the two, namely the role of national identity in state building and of values in the institutional origins of economic and political development. These institutional relations frame inter-ethnic relations in two ways: by allocating power unevenly among different (socially-constructed) groups and by motivating subaltern strategies to respond to these institutions. Colombian indigenous activists are shaping local governance using conflictive, cooperative, and competitive strategies of institutional accommodation. In Toribío (Cauca) the Nasa are occupying and changing local institutions, the Embera Chamí of Karmata Rúa (Antioquia) are using cooperative strategies and embedding ethnic legislation, and the indigenous groups of Riosucio (Caldas) are competing electorally to build-up their base.