COMMUNITIES SERVED BY SMA:
COLORADAS DE LA VIRGEN :
Agrarian Fraud in Coloradas de la Virgen

A summary of events written by Consejo EcoRegional Sierra Tarahumara A.C..

The Ejido Coloradas was created by presidential decree on December 14, 1953, with an area of 23,520 hectares, for the benefit of sixty-eight ejidatarios. The presidential decree imposed an ejido on Rarámuri territory, on what had been a single community, taking over the forest and the ceremonial center.

On May 10, 1976, some of the lands were handed out and on June 30, 1982, the rest of the parcels were turned over to the ejido.
From that time, our community has been divided. A subsequent gave the community (of about seven hundred persons) possession of the barranca. Among those who benefitted from the communal lands was Artemio Fontes Lugo, although he was originally from Mesa del Cobre.
On February 27, 1984, the Agrarian Reform Agency took a census which led to the agrarian fraud which was effected by means of the boundary demarcations and the assignment of ejidal rights, excluding the indigenous Rarámuri from their territory. Before this fraud, we are demanding that the Agrarian Tribunal nullify the works of PROCEDE (Program for Certification of Ejidal Rights and Providing Titles for Parcels).

On May 17, 2000, in a supposed assembly for the demarcation, destiny, and assignment of ejidal lands of the Ejido Coloradas, agrarian rights were assigned to persons who had left the area some six to twenty years ago and others who had died four to thirty-five years ago, and all of their fingerprints appeared on the document in question.

The order of the supposed assembly recognizes Iván Fontes Carrillo, nephew of Artemio Fontes Lugo, as president of the Ejidal Commission. The majority of those there recognized as ejidatarios are mestizos from nearby and others from the other side of the barranca, such as Los Pinos, La Dura, Piedras Verdes, etc.

On April 29, 2001, Mr. Ramón Trujillo Santillanes signs a contract with the Ejidal Commissioner of the Ejido Coloradas, for the extraction of timber from the pine–oak forest. The ejidatarios, Lino Martines Acuña and Martín N. Valdez Ramos, speaking for the Rarámuris of Coloradas de la Virgen, file a complaint against the Nucleus of Population called Coloradas in order to nullify the election of Organs of Representation and Vigilance in the assembly supposedly realized on February 20, 2001 in Ejido Coloradas in which appear the names Iván Fontes Carrillo, Jesús Carrillo Ramírez, and Francisco Molina Acosta as President, Secretary, and Treasurer, and members of the Council of Vigilance. They also demand the nullification of the agreement of the assembly of March 11, 2001, which permits the exploitation of the forests. The complaint is based on the fact that the majority of the persons who signed the order in question had died or their whereabouts are unknown, and the logging does not meet the legal requirements with regard to the environment.

Based on that order, SEMARNAT authorizes logging in our forest despite the fact that the program violates the requirements of applicable environmental law, as it fails to provide for the conservation and protection of the habitat of species of endemic flora and fauna of the forests which are threatened or in danger of extinction.

On September 24, 2002, we indigenous Rarámuri achieved, by means of a mobilization and the takeover of offices of SEMARNAT, the creation of a Working Group with the relevant government agencies, among them SEMARNAT and the Agrarian Agency, resulting in the suspension of the logging permits.

On September 30, 2002, an injunction is granted to the logger, Sr. Ramón Trujillo Santillanes, and logging resumes. The lawsuit takes its course. On January 21, 2003, the ejidal commissioner fails to appear. The plaintiff asks that the hearing be continued, for the purpose of attempting to come to an agreement with the ejidatarios who support Artemio Fontes, the local cacique. The hearing is postponed until February 7.

On February 7, 2003, the ejidal commissioner again fails to appear, and is declared in contempt of court, the Court takes judicial notice and proceeds to sentencing, which will be announced within the next four months. The plaintiff ejidatarios set aside their demand for the nullification of the election of representatives, given that their term will end on February 21, leaving the demand without basis. They ratify the demand for the nullification of the logging agreement, presenting two witnesses to the inexistence of the assembly which supposedly approved the logging.

In response to the plaintiffs, the government agencies organize a meeting with Artemio Fontes Lugo and the ejidatarios to attempt to come to an agreement which will permit the inclusion of the Rarámuri community of Coloradas de la Virgen in the ejido in question; the meeting takes place on February 13, 2003. The Rarámuris hope for a negotiated solution to the conflict, and that all of the Rarámuri of Coloradas de la Virgen will be included in the ejido. Nevertheless, the Ejidal Commissioner does not appear.
The Agrarian Court decrees the suspension of logging after finding defects in the ejidal assembly which had authorized it, and after various hearings which include the testimony of witnesses, among them Isidro Baldenegro López, who testifies against continued logging in the ejido. Meanwhile, members of the Ejidal Commission hide to avoid being notified. In a meeting, the people of Coloradas who live in Baborigame decide to stop the trucks which are carrying lumber, and decide to stop the chainsaws and not let them cut any more pine. And they stop the cutting of timber.

After that, the logger, C. Ramón Trujillo Santibáñez, goes to speak with the community of Coloradas de la Virgen, in an apparent recognition of the indigenous community and their rejection of logging. Isidro Baldenegro meets with him to reaffirm the position of the Rarámuri, “We do not want our forests cut.”