Consultations on the System of Indigenous and Afromexican Communal Security and the Right to be Consulted in Mexico

Abstract

The right to be consulted is a legal institution that originated in 1989 in the United Nations Convention 169, requiring states to conduct a consultation process of Indigenous peoples and communities on issues potentially impacting them. The Mexican state has subsequently implemented the right to be consulted in its legal system. The consultation processes were often riddled with inconsistencies and the violation of the rights of Indigenous communities and peoples. In this paper I analysed the case study of the consultation process in Guerrero, by researching press articles, engaging in participant observation and conducting interviews. I looked for similarities between the Guerrero consultations and past consultations in Juchitán, Sonora, and Campeche. I identified several violations and manipulations consistent with the history of the right to be consulted. In the last part of the article, I compared the proposed acts and established their potential impact on security in Guerrero.