The Writ of Amparo and Indigenous Consultation as Instruments to Enforce Inclusive Land Management in San Andrés Cholula, Mexico

Melissa Schumacher, María Guizar Villalvazo, Anne Kristiina Kurjenoja and Pamela Durán-Díaz ()
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Melissa Schumacher: Department of Architecture, Universidad de las Américas Puebla, Cholula 72810, Mexico
María Guizar Villalvazo: Department of Architecture, Universidad de las Américas Puebla, Cholula 72810, Mexico
Anne Kristiina Kurjenoja: Department of Architecture, Universidad de las Américas Puebla, Cholula 72810, Mexico
Pamela Durán-Díaz: Chair of Land Management, Department of Aerospace and Geodesy, Technical University of Munich, 80333 Munich, Germany

Land, 2022, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-21

Abstract: In 2019, residents of the rural district of San Rafael Comac in the municipality of San Andrés Cholula, Mexico, challenged the implementation of the 2018 Municipal Program for Sustainable Urban Development of San Andrés Cholula (MPSUD), a rapacious urban-planning policy that was negatively affecting ancestral communities— pueblos originarios —and their lands and traditions. In 2020, a legal instrument called the writ of amparo was proven effective in ordering the repeal of the MPSUD and demanding an Indigenous consultation, based on the argument of self-recognition of local and Indigenous identity. Such identity would grant them the specific land rights contained in the Mexican Constitution and in international treaties. To explain their Indigenous identity in the writ of amparo , they referred to an established ancient socio-spatial system of organization that functioned beyond administrative boundaries: the Mesoamerican altepetl system. The altepetl , consisting of the union between land and people, is appointed in the writ of amparo as the foundation of their current form of socio-spatial organization. This paper is a land-policy review of the MPSUD and the writ of amparo , with a case-study approach for San Rafael Comac, based on a literature review. The research concludes that Indigenous consultation is a key tool and action for empowerment towards responsible land-management in a context where private urban-development impinges on traditional land uses and customs, and could be beneficial for traditional communities in Mexico and other Latin American countries.

Keywords: land management in Mexico; writ of amparo; pueblos originarios; indigenous consultation; altepetl; San Andrés Cholula (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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