The Judicialization of the Right to Self-government in Indigenous Municipalities of Mexico: Cherán, Ayutla, Oxchuc

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyse the de jure autonomous processes that are taking place in several indigenous municipalities in Mexico, in order to examine how indigenous peoples exercise their right to self-government at the municipal level. From a legal approach, the methodology is based on a comparative analysis of three case studies: the municipalities of Cherán, Ayutla and Oxchuc, in the states of Michoacan, Guerrero and Chiapas, respectively. These municipalities have elected new local governments in recent years, not through the traditional electoral-partisan system, but through their own normative systems that have managed to be legally recognized. The text is divided into eight sections: an introduction, a section on indigenous municipalities in Mexico, one section for each of the three case studies, another for the comparative analysis itself, a penultimate section with the results of this exercise, as well as some final thoughts. The main finding of the investigation refers to a process of judicialization of the right to self-government that places indigenous peoples before a paradox, typical of the contradiction that intrinsically strains de jure autonomous processes.