Yaqui Indians Agree to End Road-Blocking Protest Over Sonoran Aqueduct Agencia EFE
go to original February 17, 2014

Traditional Authorities and the Yaqui people during their road block of the international highway 15 (Mexico-Nogales) near the community of Vícam. (cipamericas.org)

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's federal government has achieved a breakthrough in a dispute between the Yaqui Indians and the government of the northern state of Sonora, securing an agreement from the Yaquis to end to a nine-month road-blocking protest over construction of an aqueduct.

In a statement Friday, the Government Secretariat said President Enrique Peña Nieto's administration would ensure full compliance with court rulings pertaining to the Independence Aqueduct, which the Indians have opposed on the argument that it will leave them without water.

The Yaquis in 2009 began their struggle against the 152-kilometer (95-mile) aqueduct, which was built to transport water from the Yaqui River to the booming manufacturing hub of Hermosillo, Sonora's capital, and began operating in April 2013.

The protest measures have included blocking a section of the Mexico City-Nogales federal highway since May, 28, 2013.

The Yaquis alleged the aqueduct, built at a cost of 4 billion pesos (some $300 million), would pose a serious threat to their way of life.

Read the rest at La Prensa

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