Pro-Indigenous Advocate Launches Zapatista Presidential Bid
María de Jesús Patricio, an indigenous activist and traditional healer, registered on October 7 to run in Mexico’s 2018 presidential election as an independent. Patricio, commonly known as Marichuy, is an Nahua aboriginal and spokeswoman for Mexico’s National Indigenous Congress, on whose website she announced her intentions. “We want to make clear that our mission is different – it’s a collective mission,” stated Patricio, as reported by El País. She later declared. “We will accept not one peso from the National Electoral Institute.”
Mexico has not seen an indigenous president in 145 years, and has yet to elect a woman to office.
Patricio’s platform appeals to Mexico’s working class and indigenous communities, and has garnered the public support of the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN), an indigenous rebel group that has remained fairly quiet since the mid-90s.
“To achieve this first step was a lot of work. We want treatment like the elite, like those who govern from up top. This structure is designed for them only, and not for the people beneath them, for working people, and much less for indigenous communities,” Patricio declared, according to TeleSUR.
Among the other presidential hopefuls are 10 first-time independents. According Reuters, the large number of candidates have made it difficult anyone to capture more than a third of Mexico’s vote in polls. Front-runner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the MORENA party claimed only 23 percent of voters in a September survey conducted by El Universal.
Patricio, like other independents, will have four months to gain 866,593 signatures, the equivalent of 1 percent of Mexico’s electorate, in order to qualify as an independent candidate.
The 53-year-old mother of three became a healer when she noticed a lack of medical care in her native state of Jalisco. “Back then, there was a shortage of doctors and medicine and the health department had no answers,” said Patricio in an interview with The Guardian.
Since then, Patricio has continued as an activist, promoting the rights of Mexican indigenous communities and raising awareness around their plight. She told The Guardian, “The government isn’t interested in supporting indigenous people – it sees us as people who get in the way… The political class only sees the earth and our natural resources as means of making money, not things that benefit the community and need protecting.”
EZLN’s support marks a significant turn in the group’s recent public activity, which has remained quiet. It is best remembered for violent clashes with government forces in 1994, which left 140 people dead in the southern state of Chiapas. EZLN rebelled after an enactment of the North American Free Trade Agreement marginalized indigenous populations in the region.
Marichuy is the second woman to enter Mexico’s presidential race. Her bid reflects an avid reaction against Mexico’s majority party, PRI – the party of incumbent President Enrique Peña Nieto which has not named a candidate, which may be a response to election of Donald Trump.
Patricio stated before her audience, “As a woman, a mother, and a worker, I tell you that you must fight against machismo. We must organize, and end this capitalist, patriarchal, and racist system.”