Complications in Mexico
The cliché is that the devil is in the details. As this report from the San Diego Union Tribune suggests, the devil in changing Mexico's political system is in the culture. Things are rarely as straightforward as we'd like them to be.In Mexico, a gain for Indian civil rights is a loss for some women
"SANTA MARIA QUIEGOLANI, Mexico – Women in this Indian village high in the pine-clad mountains of Oaxaca rise each morning at 4 a.m. to gather firewood, grind corn, prepare the day's food, care for the children and clean the house.
"But they aren't allowed to vote in local elections, because – the men say – they don't do enough work...
"Eufrosina Cruz has launched the first serious, national-level challenge to traditional Indian forms of government, known as 'use and customs,' which were given full legal status in Mexico...
"'For me, it's more like abuse and customs,' Cruz said as she submitted her complaint in December to the National Human Rights Commission. 'I am demanding that we, the women of the mountains, have the right to decide our lives, to vote and run for office, because the constitution says we have these rights.'...
"In Mexico, many local governance rules date to before the Spanish conquest and weren't given national legal recognition until a 2001 Indian rights reform was enacted in the wake of the Zapatista rebel uprising in Chiapas.
"The law states that Indian townships may 'apply their own normative systems ... as long as they obey the general principles of the Constitution and respect the rights of individuals, human rights, and particularly the dignity and well-being of women.'
"Despite this specific protection, about a fourth of the Indian villages operating under the law don't let women vote, putting human rights groups in a dilemma: Most actively supported recognition for Indian governance systems, and few have therefore taken up the women's cause..."
Labels: change, Mexico, political culture
posted by Ken Wedding @ 8:40 AM
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