International Mayan League 1201 K St. NW Washington, D.C. 20005
Phone: (202) 827-6673 Email: info@mayanleague.org www.mayanleague.org
ON THIS INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY, WE DEMAND THE RELEASE OF OUR SISTER, JUANA ALONZO SANTIZO OF THE MAYA CHUJ NATION, ARBITRARILY DETAINED IN MEXICO FOR SEVEN YEARS! #LIBERTADPARAJUANITA #FREEDOMFORJUANITA On the sacred lands of the Piscataway Nation, we give thanks to Heart of Sky and Heart of Earth, Heart of the Wind and Heart of the Water. We give thanks to Grandfather Sun and Grandmother Moon and to the Heart of these sacred lands and all ancestors of the Piscataway Nation who walk these sacred lands and mountains and live by these sacred waters. Thank you, brothers and sisters of the Piscataway Nation, for welcoming us and giving us the chance to rebuild our lives after being forcibly displaced from our own ancestral lands. We of the International Mayan League, the only Maya women led organization in the United States, stand in solidarity with our sister, Juana Alonzo Santizo and her family of the Maya Chuj Nation in the fight for her freedom from unjust arbitrary detention in Mexico that has spanned for seven years. We are honored to support our brothers and sisters of the Promotores de Liberación Migrante (PLM) who have been fighting to make Juana’s story visible. Today the PLM also mobilized in Guatemala and continue to accompany Juana’s family during these difficult moments. On this International Women’s Day, we remember the terrible histories of genocide, forced removal, residential schools, family separation, Indigenous language exclusion as a story that is woven across generations, colonial borders and is a thread in all of our collective histories as Indigenous peoples. For women and girls, the levels of violence and violations we have lived in all sectors of our lives and continue to live, are multiplied because of our Indigenous identities, our original languages, and gender. In 2014 Juana Alonzo Santizo of the Maya Chuj Nation “was forced to leave Guatemala, cross into Mexico to find work and a decent life for herself and her family.”1 In Mexico Juana was detained “by police at a safe house, discriminated against by members of the security forces of the state of Tamaulipas, tortured and interrogated in Spanish, a language she did not speak then, without legal representation or consular assistance, or even an interpreter to help her understand what was happening.”2 Juana has been arbitrarily detained for seven years in Reynoso, Tamaulipas, Mexico, and not offered any protection despite her vulnerable condition. We know Juana’s story is not an isolated case and are too familiar with the discrimination and racism faced by our peoples. “Indigenous peoples’ migration experience is characterized by unique vulnerabilities, which stem from our Indigenous identity and the intersection of discrimination, racism, and language.” 3 Juana, like so many of our peoples, was forced to migrate because Guatemala has failed Indigenous peoples. Guatemala is an Indigenous majority country with 22 distinct Maya Nations, Xinca and Garifuna peoples and is characterized by a plurality of cultures, cosmovisions and languages. Yet despite being the majority, Indigenous peoples are the most discriminated by the state and live within Promotores de la Liberación Migrante. “After seven years of arbitrary detention, we demand the immediate release of imprisoned Maya-Chuj Migrant Juana Alonzo Santizo in Reynosa, Mexico. January 31, 2022 2 Ibid. 3 Juanita Cabrera Lopez, Patrisia Gonzales, Rachel Rose Bobelu Starks, and Lorena Brady. 2019. “Indigenous Peoples’ Right to Exist, Self-Determination, Language and Due Process in Migration.”www.mayanleague.org (March 7, 2022). 1