A group of Rarámuri people has walked more than 200 kilometers to Chihuahua city to demand that the federal government comply with an accord signed by President López Obrador almost a year ago.

During a visit to the municipality of Bocoyna in late October 2109, López Obrador pledged that a range of government social programs would be offered in the Sierra Tarahumara of Chihuahua and that infrastructure projects would be built there.

But the residents of the region say that he has failed to keep his word.

About 250 Rarámuri men, women and children from Bocoyna, Urique and Guachochi set off from the town of San Juanito on Monday to take their grievances to federal government offices in the state capital.

After staying in community centers along the way, the group arrived in Chihuahua city on Thursday and camped out in a park opposite the offices of the federal Welfare Ministry.

Luis Carlos González Fierro, coordinator of the so-called Rarámuri March for Work, said the tree-planting employment program known as Sembrando Vida (Sowing Life), the Youths Building the Future apprenticeship scheme and a program that offers support to cattle ranchers haven’t arrived in the Sierra Tarahumara as promised.

The government has also failed to fulfill pledges to build water infrastructure and suspension bridges and provide materials for the construction of homes, he said.

González said the federal government’s development delegate in Chihuahua, Juan Carlos Loera, was supposed to ensure that the federal government’s promises were kept but has failed to do so.

He said the Rarámuris will remain in Lerdo park  in central Chihuahua city until federal officials meet with them and agree to fulfill their demands.

If that doesn’t happen, they will hire a bus to travel to Mexico City and set up camp in the zócalo, the capital’s central square, González said.

“If there is no dialogue with the … [Welfare] Ministry, we’ll go to Mexico City and set up a camp so that they attend to us. Let’s see if the president meets with us there.”

Source: El Diario de Chihuahua (sp), Reforma (sp)