“Indigenous Otomí-Ñätho communities in Mexico exercise their autonomy to defend their lands”, 7 Feb 2016

…Huitzizilapan…currently encompasses 12 indigenous Otomí-Ñätho communities living in the area between the two large cities of Mexico City and Toluca…The Ñätho worried that the local government…would impose another parallel authority instead of the authority which the people already had elected…In Huitzizilapan, there are 904 comuneros who make decisions involving the land. Since then, all kinds of projects have been imposed…without any prior consultation with the people…Huitzizilapan faces the construction of the Toluca-Naucalpan highway, which was contracted to a corporation owned by…one of the businessmen most favored by Mexican President…At the beginning of 2015, the former town commissioner…passed a supposed “forest exploitation plan” without notifying the people…Their case has led them to file protection orders against an expropriation decree on their land…