U.S. is Dynamiting Kumeyaay Sacred Mountain for Border Wall Expansion

U.S. is Dynamiting Kumeyaay Sacred Mountain  for Border Wall Expansion

Under the pretext of national security, Trump's wall expansion is destroying Cuchumá, a sacred mountain of the Kumiai people. ByIsabel Ortega in Avispa Midia. https://avispa.org/bajo-pretexto-de-seguridad-nacional-ampliacion-del-muro-de-trump-esta-destruyendo-cuchuma-montana-sagrada-del-pueblo-kumiai/ 

Kumeyaay leader Norma Alicia Mesa said, "That mountain has a life of its own, a breath of its own, a spirituality of its own, and its own energy." 

Video at Al Jazeera https://www.youtube.com/shorts/WURO9ysWza0

Video https://www.bastillepost.com/global/article/5833741-u-s-border-wall-expansion-destroys-sacred-indigenous-site

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, May 15, 2026

The United States government is dynamiting the sacred place of Kumeyaay, who live on both sides of the border, and blasted two sacred monoliths that were 60 to 120 million years old southeast of San Diego, California. The U.S. began blasting Cerro Cuchumá in early April, a historic and sacred site where Kumeyaay medicine people carry out ceremonies. The blasting was done without consultation as required by U.S. federal law.

Marcos Opens 'Resistance and Rebellion' in Chiapas

Marcos Opens 'Resistance and Rebellion' in Chiapas

Capitan Marcos photo by Alejandro Melendez

Marcos describes the system collapse, and inspires with his poetic words the Zapatistas vision of solidarity and global organizing

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, December 28, 2024

"Our word survives in Palestine, although it is small, because it comes from the heart," Capitan Marcos said, speaking on the genocide in Palestine, the rubble of hospitals, deaths of infants and media, and the blood that runs through social media.

Marcos said the system has made a victim of humanity.

"In the war against the earth, the destruction of nature spreads, the atrocious crime is against humanity and the planet. The increase in domination has led to a civilization crisis."

Indigenous Women Sterilized by Governments Thwarted on Slow Road for Justice

Jean Whitehorse, Dine', spoke at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in 2019 and described the forced sterilization of Native American women by the Indian Health Service. Photo courtesy Yvonne Swan, Colville Nation, AIM West delegation.

Indigenous Women Sterilized by Governments Thwarted on Slow Road for Justice

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, July 1, 2024

Indigenous women were sterilized by governments throughout the Americas, lawsuits and testimony reveal from the United States, Canada, Mexico and Peru. In the United States, Jean Whitehorse, Dine', described how the Indian Health Service in Gallup, New Mexico, carried this out in secrecy. In Peru, Indigenous women were brutalized in villages during massive sterilization campaigns. In Canada and Greenland, Inuit women were targeted with both forced sterilizations and contraceptive devices as young girls.

Indigenous women tell their stories.

Yaqui Disappeared and Assassinated Not Included in New UN Human Rights Report

Tomas Rojo, spokesman for Vicam Yaqui Traditional Authority, assassinated

Yaqui Disappeared and Assassinated Not Included in New UN Human Rights Report

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, Sept. 11, 2023

Tomas Rojo was someone I knew. In his gentle way, he explained how Traditional Vicam Yaqui were protecting the Yaqui River water from being stolen for an aqueduct for the city of Hermosillo. Tomas was the spokesman for Traditional Vicam Yaqui, and they maintained a highway blockade for years to protect their water.

Tomas was bludgeoned to death and left in the desert.

Nearby, Loma de Bacum Yaqui were going for a cow for a traditional feast, when 10 community members were disappeared. They were traditional security guards opposing a gas pipeline in their village.

It is sad to see that these, and the other assassinations and disappearances in Mexico, south of the Arizona border, are not included in the new report on militarization to the UN Human Rights Council.

The United Nations has failed to take seriously the epidemic of assassinations and disappearances of Indigenous Peoples, by mining and development corporations based in Canada, the United States and Australia, and to hold the governments, military and law enforcement responsible for their crimes -- including Mexico.

Mexico's Government Spy Files on Yaqui and Zapatistas in Europe Leaked by Hacker Collective

Mexico's Secretary of Defense spy files include the photos shown above: Zapatistas in their communities; Zapatistas tour in Europe, and aerial images. Mexico's government spy files include profiles on Zapatistas and their supporters, Indigenous movement leaders, professors, farmers, and women leaders.

Mexico's Government Spy Files on Yaqui and Zapatistas in Europe Leaked by Hacker Collective

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

A hacker collective leaked the spy files of Mexico's Ministry of Defense, revealing spying on the Zapatistas and their supporters during the Journey for Life in Europe in 2021. The spy files include Mexico's targeting of both powerful Indigenous women and Indigenous movement leaders in Mexico.

The files were released by the hacktivists Guacamaya.

The leaked files reveal the Mexican government spying on the Yaqui Traditional Authority in Vicam, Sonora, where Vicam Yaqui spokesmen have been kidnapped, imprisoned, and assassinated.

Vicam Yaqui protested the theft of their water for an aqueduct taking Yaqui River water to the city of Hermosillo. Vicam Yaqui have maintained highway blockades for years in defense of their water on a major highway, slowing down the flow of commercial trucks to the U.S. and elsewhere.

Top photo: Vicam Yaqui Spokesperson Tomas Rojo, a soft-spoken agricultural engineer, was kidnapped and brutally murdered in 2021. Tomas was found buried in the desert outside the village. Photo 2: International Water Forum hosted by Vicam Yaqui Traditional Authority in Vicam, Sonora in 2012. Photo by Brenda Norrell, Censored News. https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2012/11/video-yaqui-foro-internacional-del-agua.html

The new spy files of Mexico's Defense Department on Yaqui in Vicam are especially chilling since the exposure follows a series of assassinations of Vicam Yaqui.

Remains in Desert Believed to be Kidnapped Yaqui of Bacum Pueblo

Photo 1: Family members hold photos of the missing. Photos 2, 3 and 4 are from the press conference of the Attorney General of Sonora today.

Sonora State Attorney General reports bodies found in desert appear to be Yaqui from Bacum Pueblo

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
Attorney General Report in English and Espanol

Sept. 22, 2021

CHICHIQUELITE HILL, Sonora --  Six bodies found in the Sonoran desert are believed to be those of Yaqui from Bacum Pueblo who were kidnapped when they went for a cow for a traditional feast. There was no news of the other four Yaqui from Bacum who were kidnapped. The Attorney General in the State of Sonora, south of the Arizona border, released the information late today.

Family members of three of the men have identified some of the belongings found at the camp where the bodies were found in shallow graves at Chichiquelite Ranch in Cajeme municipality. Clothing, belt buckles, thread bracelets and a USB memory device were found.

When government criminal investigators approached the desert camp, heavily-armed men fired on them. The two assailants were shot and killed.

The Mexican government in Sonora has identified the armed camp as drug runners. However, with the collusion between the government, energy corporations and the cartels -- the truth may not be this simple, or obvious.

During today's press conference, Sonoran Attorney General Claudia Indira Contreras said that as a result of the investigations, last Sunday, September 19, personnel of the Ministerial Agency of Criminal Investigation (AMIC), of this Prosecutor's Office, were attacked with projectiles of large caliber weapons, specifically AK-47 and R-15, and were shot by two unidentified assailants in the vicinity of the Chichiquelite hill, where the agents located a makeshift camp.

When repelling the aggression, Claudia Indira Contreras continued, two unidentified assailants were killed in the vicinity of the Chichiquelite hill, where the agents located a makeshift camp with food and maps.

"The seizure of an AK-47 weapon, an AR-15 rifle, three .22 caliber rifles, percussion casings, two backpacks with tactical equipment, breastplates, a helmet and a Toyota Tacoma pickup vehicle with a theft report in Phoenix, in 2019," she listed.

Report from the Attorney General of Sonora today, Sept. 22, 2021

English and Espanol

'Laberinto Yo'eme' premieres: Yaqui battle corporations as water and land defenders are kidnapped and assassinated

Indigenous Rights Defenders Battle to Their Deaths in Mexico

Simon Perez, David Valdez, Tomas Rojo, Luis Urbano

Indigenous Rights Defenders Battle to Their Deaths in Mexico

By Brenda Norrell

Censored News

MEXICO CITY —  Indigenous Rights Defender Simón Pedro Pérez López, Tzeltal, was murdered by a gunman on a motorcycle in southern Mexico. Simon was the fourth well-known Indigenous rights defender to be assassinated in Mexico since May.

Simon was gunned down outside a market in Simojovel, a town in Chiapas state, on July 5. He was known better as Simón Pedro and had been active in a social justice organization born out of the 1998 massacre of 45 Indigenous people in the nearby town of Acteal.

Simon, shown on the screen, was honored in Paris, as the Zapatistas delegation arrived in Paris this week. Simon was assassinated in Chiapas on July 5, 2021.

Assassinated Tomas Rojo: Yaqui was a defender of water rights, not interested in petty disputes

Tomas Rojo, Assassinated Yaqui Water Rights Defender

Motive for Tomás' crime, simplified conjecture

The coordinator of the Citizens' Movement for Water, Alberto Vizcarra Ozuna, questions the versions of the Sonora Prosecutor's Office about the conflict over the installation of a toll booth as the motive for the murder of Tomás Rojo, because that was not on the list of priorities of the Yaqui leader.

His fight was not against the criminal underworld, he says, but against the criteria of a water policy. "It is evident that the motivations for this crime transcend the simple dispute over a toll booth in Yaqui territory," says Vizcarra in the text we share here.

Yaqui Water Protector Tomas Rojo Identified in Shallow Grave: Third Assassination

Yaqui Water Protector Tomas Rojo Identified in Shallow Grave: Third Assassination

The assassination of Yaqui Water Rights Defender Tomas Rojo was confirmed on Monday. It was the third assassination of Yaqui Water Rights Defenders.

By Brenda Norrell

Censored News

Sadly, our friend Yaqui Water Protector Tomas Rojo was identified today as the one found in a shallow grave near Vicam Pueblo, Sonora. Tomas was identified by DNA and fingerprints.

Tomas is the third Yaqui Water Protector to be assassinated since May. Agustin Valdez was assassinated in May. Luis Urbano was murdered by gunshots on the street in Obregon in June.

Vicam Pueblo hosted Water Rights Forums that were covered by Censored News.

For years, Yaqui maintained highway blockades on a major highway through their land, which stalled semis, in protest of the theft of Yaqui River water for an aqueduct for the City of Hermosillo.

Tomas was a spokesman during the Water Forums and blockade.

Agustin served as head of security during the water rights highway blockades.

Luis, who is featured in a new film defending Yaqui water rights, accompanied the Traditional Authority of Vicam.

Tomas, an agricultural engineer, spoke on Yaqui water rights in a video interview with Censored News in 2012. https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2012/11/video-yaqui-foro-internacional-del-agua.html

The Traditional Authority of Vicam hosted international gatherings of the Zapatistas, upholding Indigenous rights.

Vicam Pueblo is located on Yoeme (Yaqui) ancestral land in the state of Sonora, near the Pacific Coast of Mexico, about a six hour drive southwest of Tucson.

(Above) Yaqui Water Protectors Agustin Valdez, Luis Urbano and Tomas Rojo.

AP: Mexican police identify corpse of Indigenous activist

June 21, 2021 11:46 p.m.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Prosecutors in the northern Mexico border state of Sonora said Monday tests have confirmed that a badly decayed corpse is that of an Indigenous rights leader who disappeared almost four weeks ago.

The office said DNA tests and fingerprints were used to identify Tomás Rojo Valencia, a leader of the Yaqui indigenous community. His body was found last week near the Yaqui town of Vicam, Sonora.

Rojo Valencia disappeared May 27 following tensions over Yaqui roadblocks protesting gas ducts, water pipelines and railway lines that have been run across their territory without consulting them or giving them much benefit. Rojo Valencia served as the Yaquis’ spokesman during past conflicts over land and water rights.

The confirmation came on the same day a 25-year-old Yaqui woman was reported missing after she left her home in Vicam to go to work, but never arrived. She was last seen June 17.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has made it his special project to bring justice to the Yaquis, who he has described as Mexico’s most persecuted Indigenous group.

In February, the conflict over the highway blockades came to a head with the death of an Indigenous man killed when a trucker plowed through a Yaqui roadblock, hitting a member of the group.

Article copyright Brenda Norrell, Censored News.

Zapatistas Global Resistance Begins May 31, 2019: Stop Militarization in Chiapas, Guerrero and Oaxaca

Zapatistas Global Resistance Begins May 31, 2019: Stop Militarization in Chiapas, Guerrero and Oaxaca 

"Unite to protect the Strongholds," said Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham, in response to today's announcement. Rivas testified in May on the militarization of her homelands in both the US and Mexico, and the criminalization of Indigenous Peoples, at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Jamaica.

by Ñaní Pinto

CNI_CIG
Censored News
May 29, 2019

On May 9, several collectives, organizations, adherents to the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona and networks of support of the Indigenous Council of Government (CIG) met to agree on actions against the increase of the military presence and paramilitary in Zapatista territories.
These groups also spoke out against the recent increase in aggressions that include the assassination of members of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI), particularly in the state of Guerrero and Oaxaca.
For these reasons, the organizations agreed to hold a Global Action on May 31 against militarization in Zapatista territory and in defense of the land, territory and autonomy of the indigenous peoples and communities of the CIG-CNI.

On the Border, the United States Has Forgotten Its Name

On the border, the United States has forgotten its name

Article and photos by Brenda Norrell
Censored News
French translation by Christine Prat

SAN YSIDRO BORDER, Calif. -- It is calm and peaceful on the border today. All the hustlers are in Washington.
It is usually calm on the border -- except when U.S. Border Patrol agents are harassing, beating and killing people of color.
If the U.S. Border Patrol agents could find a reason to beat or shoot someone today, they would be doing this.
On the footpath to Mexico, women with gallons of milk and groceries in their carts are headed home. Young people eat pizza and shop for cell phones.
There are no hordes of migrants rushing the border, as President Trump would lead people to believe in his acceleration of racial hatred, his push for racial violence, in the United States.
At the end of the Blue Line Trolley from San Diego, on the border here, there are no "We Hate Trump" banners.
There are no posters here to remind all that "First Lady Melania Trump is an Immigrant."
Perhaps no one could welcome refugees better than First Lady Melania Trump, who is herself a migrant.
In this quiet calm, the foot path to Mexico is busy, there seems to be more interest into getting into Mexico, than in getting out of the United States today.
But just a few feet away, on the other side of the border in Tijuana, Mexico, migrants desperate for safety have reached the border on the migrant caravan.
It is cold and sprinkling rain today. They have no food or shelter.
Many have walked long distances, some across countries, some with infants in their arms, fleeing violence in Honduras and elsewhere in Central America, some fleeing domestic violence, others fleeing terrorism.
Those who live along the border, with their groceries today, show the burden of the real life awaiting the migrants who wait for asylum in the United States.
Those who have come from the south, and spent their lives here in the United States are weary. Their backs are bent from a life time of scrubbing floors, picking vegetables, mending roofs, and lifting the loads that no one else wants to lift.
Another terrorism awaits many who do come to the United States now, seeking a better life -- imprisonment in the U.S. prisons-for-profit system, filled with migrants.
The only drama today is the ocean. It is churning, thrashing its waves, and crashing into the shoreline.
Perhaps the ocean knows, remembers, the tenets of the ancients -- to welcome weary souls, to harbor the desperate, feed the hungry, shelter the dispossessed, and give safety to the women, the life givers, and the little ones.
The water has its memory.


Copyright Brenda Norrell, Censored News

PARIS Solidarity with Standing Rock Water Protectors and Mexico's Indigenous

Solidarity with Red Fawn, Standing Rock Water Protector
Concert Oct. 15, 2017, Paris
CSIA-Nitassinan
Solidarity Committee with American Indians

Solidarity with National Indigenous Congress of Mexico, Oct. 13, 2017

October 7, 2017 Galerie Orenda, Paris

Concert de solidarité avec RED FAWN, militante sioux-lakota incarcérée pour son combat contre l’oléoduc DAPL aux USA (CICP, le 15/10/17)
Dans le cadre de la tournée européenne des Water Protectors : « Decolonize America ! Water is Life ! » :
Concert de solidarité avec RED FAWN militante amérindienne incarcérée pour son combat contre l’oléoduc DAPL aux USA
Le dimanche 15 octobre 2017 - de 17h à 22h
au Centre international de culture populaire (CICP), 21ter rue Voltaire, Paris 11e (Métro : Rue des Boulets / RER : Nation)
Projection - débat avec des représentants autochtones ayant participé à la lutte contre l’oléoduc DAPL aux côtés de (...) Lire la suite

37e édition de la Journée internationale de solidarité avec les peuples amérindiens du CSIA-Nitassinan - « Décolonisons les Amériques - Hommage aux protecteurs de l’eau et de la Terre-Mère » » (Paris, le 14/10/17)
Réservez votre 14 octobre prochain : 37e édition de la Journée internationale de solidarité avec les peuples amérindiens du CSIA-Nitassinan
Comme chaque année depuis 1980, le CSIA-Nitassinan célèbre en région parisienne, la Journée internationale de solidarité avec les peuples amérindiens. Journée décrétée en 1977 par les représentants autochtones des Amériques rassemblés pour la première fois au siège des Nations Unies à Genève. Ce sera encore l’occasion pour les adhérents et les sympathisants du (...) Lire la suite

Soirée de solidarité avec le Congreso Nacional Indigena (CNI) et le Conseil indigène de Gouvernement (CIG) au Mexique (Paris, le 13/10/17)
Soirée de solidarité avec le Congreso Nacional Indigena (CNI) et le Conseil indigène de Gouvernement (CIG) au Mexique
Vendredi 13 octobre 2017 - à partir de 19h
au 33 rue des Vignoles, Paris 20e
Lieu déclaré "Aguascalientes" zapatiste en 1995 par Amado Avendaño Figueroa, ex-Gouverneur du Chiapas en rébellion— Métro : Buzenval ou Avron
Mots de bienvenue par le Secrétariat international de la CNT et inauguration de l’exposition ;
Projection d’une courte vidéo retraçant l’histoire du Congreso (...) Lire la suite

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Yaqui Water Protector's Car Fire Bombed

Yaqui Water Protector's Car Fire Bombed 

Article by Brenda Norrell

Censored News

Mario Luna, spokesperson for Vicam Yaqui, was kidnapped and falsely imprisoned for one year after the Vicam Traditional Authority manned a highway blockade on Yaqui land to protest the theft of their water. Now, his partner's car was fire bombed on June 27, at their home.

Just two days earlier, Mario was among the speakers at the Havasupai Gathering to Oppose Uranium Mining in the Grand Canyon.

Earlier, Vicam Yaqui manned the highway blockade for years, disrupting coastal truck transport in Sonora, to protest the theft of Yaqui water for an aqueduct for the City of Hermosillo, Mexico. Mario was kidnapped and falsely imprisoned as he served as a spokesman for Traditional Vicam Yaqui water protectors. Since his release from prison, he has presented their case to the United Nations.

Mario also was among the water protectors at Standing Rock in 2016.

Censored News provided live coverage from Vicam Pueblo of the Vicam Yaqui's water struggle and blockade in Sonora. Earlier, Zapatistas gathered at Vicam to show their support for water rights to Rio Yaqui and Indigenous rights here.

Amnesty International issued the following statement concerning the fire bombing of the car and the risks that Mario and his family face.

Amnesty International
URGENT ACTION

ASSAILANTS BURN HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER’S CAR

Unidentified intruders entered the residence of Mario Luna Romero, leader of the Indigenous Yaqui community in Sonora state, northern Mexico, and set fire to his partner’s car. To date, no protection measures have been provided at the defender’s house and investigations are advancing slowly. Mario Luna and his family remain at risk.

In the morning of 27 June, Victoria Anahí Ochoa Domínguez, the wife of Mario Luna Romero, observed smoke rising from their garage and ran outside to find her vehicle on fire. A few hours later, when her husband arrived home from an overseas trip, he reported the incident to the federal Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists, from which he receives protection measures as a defender of the Indigenous Yaqui community’s territory in Sonora state. Representatives of the Protection Mechanism assured him that state security police would promptly be sent, but the police never arrived. In turn, Mario Luna called the local investigative police who came to inspect the scene that same day. They found evidence of a glass bottle filled with gasoline and wrapped in cloth that had been thrown under the car, clearly signaling an intentional attack.

This is not the first time that Mario Luna and his family have faced security incidents. Anahí Ochoa told Amnesty International that in the weeks prior to the 27 June incident, unfamiliar vehicles were stationed outside of their home on repeated occasions. Mario Luna has carried out a number of activities in defense of collective rights of the Yaqui community, especially in relation to the right to water in light of the Independence Aqueduct, a project which could threaten the community’s access to water and cultural survival.

1) TAKE ACTION
Write a letter, send an email, call, fax or tweet:

Calling on authorities to urgently ensure effective implementation of the protection measures owing to Mario Luna and his family under the Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, especially regarding patrols by Sonora State Police and security cameras in his home;

Calling on them to ensure a prompt, impartial and exhaustive investigation into the incident of 27 June, especially in relation to forensic evidence including the analysis of fingerprints found on the burnt vehicle, to make the results public and to bring those responsible to justice;

Calling on them to urgently and publicly recognize the legitimate role of Mario Luna as a human rights defender in order to send the message that attacks against him and his family are unlawful.

Contact these two officials by 21 August, 2017:

Governor of the State of Sonora

Claudia Pavlovich Arellano

Palacio de Gobierno

Comonfort y Dr. Paliza S/N, Colonia Centenario

Hermosillo, Sonora, México, C.P. 83260

Contact form: http://www.sonora.gob.mx/contacto.html

Twitter: @claudiapavlovic ‏

Salutation: Dear Governor/ Estimada Señora Gobernadora

Ambassador Geronimo Gutierrez Fernandez

Embassy of Mexico

1911 Pennsylvania Ave. NW

Washington DC 20006

Phone: 1 202 728 1600

Email: mexembusa@sre.gob.mx

Twitter: @EmbamexEUA, @GERONIMO__GF

Salutation: Dear Ambassador

2) LET US KNOW YOU TOOK ACTION

PLEASE EMAIL UAN@AIUSA.ORG TO LET US KNOW YOU TOOK ACTION— PLEASE INCLUDE: THE UA NUMBER; CASE NAME AND COUNTRY; AND THE EXACT ACTIONS THAT YOU TOOK, E.G. “UA 166.17; IDIL ESER. TURKEY; 2 LETTERS; 1 CALL; 1 TWEET.”