Jalisco Indigenous Woman Registers to Run for Mexican Presidency in 2018 teleSUR
go to original October 9, 2017

Maria de Jesus “Marichui” Patricio Martinez, the independent candidate for Mexican Indigenous communities in the 2018 presidential elections, has registered with the electoral authorities, despite numerous bureaucratic hurdles.

“In order to pass this first step, we faced a lot of obstacles. They wanted to treat us as if they were part of the elites. As if this institution was only designed for them, not for common people, from the working class, and even less for indigenous communities,” said Patricio Martinez.

She pledged not to accept any funding from the government to run her campaign.

“As a woman, as a mother, and as a worker, let me tell you something: we have to fight sexism,” she said. “For them, common people don't exist. We have to organize, and end this capitalistic, patriarchal and racist state.”

Marichuy was elected on May 28, 2017, by the National Indigenous Congress, CNI, the political arm of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, known by its Spanish acronym EZLN.

Coming from the Nahua community of Tuxpan, in the state of Jalisco, she is a traditional doctor in her community, founder of the health center Calli Tecolhuacateca Tochan in 1992 and a long-time leader in the Indigenous movement.

Read the rest at teleSUR

Related: 24 Independents Running for President (Mexico News Daily)

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