The Movimiento Antorchista Nacional or Antorcha Campesina (National Torch Movement or Torch of the Peasantry) is a Mexican political organization whose main objective is the eradication of poverty in Mexico. In the Mexican state of Hidalgo, east-central Mexico, they held water protests:
Hidalgo’s Morenista government ignores requests for drinking water.
With ‘cubetazos’ (buckets), Antorchistas from the capital of Hidalgo protested in front of the Hidalgo government palace to denounce the lack of drinking water for hundreds of families in Pachuca.
“The priority of the Morenista government in Hidalgo is not the social needs of the people, but the comfort of their offices and the ‘beautification’ of the capital.”
For hours they stayed in the Plaza Juarez, rattling buckets and empty cans that they carried in allusion to the lack of the liquid they face, and they also displayed banners of denunciation with phrases such as ‘We want water’, ‘Water for all’, ‘Respect our right to drinking water’, ‘Hidalgo government does not solve’.
Since the beginning of the current government, led by Julio Menchaca, the citizens have been insisting on their demands for the installation of a drinking water network in the Ampliación Jorge Obispo, but to date they have received no solution.
For more than six years, the residents of Ampliación Jorge Obispo have been suffering from the lack of this essential service. In Jorge Obispo, water is a constant problem for families. Now, with the growing shortage of water in all urban areas, the situation has become even worse, as the cost of piped water has also increased.
They accused the Morenista government in Hidalgo of prioritising the comfort of its offices and the ‘beautification’ of the capital over the social needs of the people.
“For example, the Jorge Obispo Colony in Pachuca, according to the previous project, will require around 37 million, just over a tenth of what has been invested in the renovation of the David Ben Gurión Park, more than 330 million so far, because this work has been characterised by cost overruns. So they are telling us that there are no resources, while millions and millions are being spent on parks”, said Indalecio Mejia Mejia, antorchista leader in Pachuca.
The protesters also pointed out that they had been to the Comisión de Agua y Alcantarillado de Sistemas Intermunicipales (Caasim), the body responsible for supplying water to the capital, on several occasions to follow up on projects to introduce drinking water. But no progress has been made.
“It is unacceptable for CAASIM to be so insensitive to such a need, arguing that it is an irregular settlement, and not to respond to the demands of the affected families, despite the fact that on countless occasions we have requested the conditions for the projects to go ahead”, Mejía Mejía insisted.
The Movimiento Antorchista in Hidalgo will continue to protest in the face of the Hidalgo government’s refusal to meet these demands, as well as those it has been making for the past three years, including the provision of basic services in communities and neighbourhoods throughout the state.
