NEWS CENTER – In 2011, the inhabitants of the city of Cherán (Michoacán) in Mexico, tired of the violence committed by organized crime, started a process of self-defense and an unprecedented political project for their self-organization as a P’urhépecha Community, native and autonomous. Women are the engine of this self-management and self-defense movement. It was at dawn on April 15, 2011 that residents turned fear into courage and fought against cartels that not only ut down forest trees, but also destroyed crops, stole and killed animals, kidnapped and murdered residents.
The indigenous community of Cherán is the first legally recognized indigenous municipality within the Mexican State with an autonomous governmental structure. The process of self-determination to manage and conserve community resources was accompanied by the empowerment of women as defenders of the forest, considered by the indigenous community as the central point of their way of life and as part of the resources they ancestrally inherited.
Today, April 4, the women of Cherán in direct contact with the Revolution and the women of Kurdistan, present Ocalan with a beautiful mural that represents the union of revolutionary struggles led by women, thus opening paths between Abya Ayla (Latina America) and Kurdistan for the construction of an alternative world. The 4. Of April its the birthday of Rêber APO and within the Symbol of reborn and resistance for the Kurdish people and to honour this important day the People of Cheran send their Solidarity from Mexico to Îmralî and Rojava.
On April 15, 2023, the 1st online conference of the cycle “Escuelita Abya Ayla – Kurdistan” will take place, which is part of the Academy of Democratic Modernity developed by internationalist in Rojava and various Organisation’s from Latin America. Straight from Rojava and Chéran, the Conference will be attended by a internationalist from the YPJ and indigenous women in Chéran to share perspectives and visions on women’s self-defence and organizing.
