A caravan of 14 farmworkers, indigenous and popular organizations originating in Chiapas arrived in Puebla Thursday. The goal of the Benito Juárez Caravan is to defend territory from invasion by transnational companies.
The caravan staged protests at various locations in the city of Puebla, including the Puebla Human Rights Commission, which the protesters accused of failing to protect citizens’ human rights.
Local popular organizations from Puebla, including a union of street vendors, joined the protests.
The caravan will continue to Mexico City, where it will stage protests opposing budget cuts by the federal government which they say will damage the countryside.
The protesters lamented the fact that large foreign companies are supplying food to Mexico, arguing that Mexico should produce more of its own food. They also complained that farmworkers and indigenous people are being dispossessed of their lands, their natural resources and even their wind.
“We are fighting resolutely to end the imperialist domination of Mexico, to end exploitation and oppression by the bourgeois landlords,” said the protesters. “We are fighting to take power into our own hands, to create a Mexico that is truly independent, sovereign, democratic and popular.”
