Los flujos del agua y las luchas en defensa de la vida en la Sierra Norte de Puebla

Embraced by wide rivers, constant rains and recurrent fogs, Puebla’s North Range and its extremely biodiverse territory represent one of the most important freshwater reserves in Mexico. This precious liquid is today at the center of an unprecedented struggle that the peoples who live in this region – Maseual, Totonaku and Mestizo -, have waged for more than a decade. This is being done in order to stop a multiplicity of extractive projects: hydroelectric plants, open-pit mining, fracking and electricity transmission lines. All of them threaten to disrupt the complex socio-ecological interdependence webs that are woven around the water flows that cross their territory. In this article, we present the struggles in defense of the territory in Puebla’s North Range based on one of its main articulating elements: water.