The Unfinished Conquest of the Indigenous Lands in Mexico.
The discovery of the Americas by European explorers sparked a tragedy of violence and dispossession that has never truly ended.
By Mirna Fahmy
The Discovery Was a Mistake.
The quest for new sea routes to India led European explorers to an unexpected discovery: the Americas. This “New World” was home to diverse indigenous populations, who were soon subjected to centuries of violence and exploitation.
European powers quickly divided the continent into spheres of influence: much of North America fell under the control of Great Britain and France, while Spain and Portugal dominated most of Latin America. This period of colonization brought immense suffering to the native inhabitants of these lands.
In the United States and Canada, indigenous peoples are often referred to as Native Americans, American Indians, or First Nations. In Mexico, they are known as pueblos indígenas de México and include numerous distinct ethnic groups, such as the Nahua, Maya, Mixtec, and Zapotec.
The arrival of Europeans was a catastrophic event for indigenous communities. The mass killings and violence began in the late 15th century, first in the Caribbean, and continued for hundreds of years, driven by the relentless pursuit of land, resources, and power. This violence was fueled by racism, the spread of deadly diseases, and the deliberate destruction of native cultures.
One of the earliest and most brutal examples occurred in the Caribbean, where Spanish colonists enslaved and tortured the Taíno people, leading to their near-total extinction. In Mexico, the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire from 1519 to 1521 was marked by targeted massacres, such as the Cholula massacre in 1519 and the massacre in the Great Temple of Tenochtitlán in 1520, which left thousands dead. These events set a tragic precedent for the centuries of conflict and devastation that followed.
Sources: Britannica and Study.com
The Mass Killings Are Endless.
Even after the nations of the Americas gained independence from their European colonizers—England, France, Spain, and Portugal—the suffering of indigenous peoples did not end. While state-sponsored massacres became less common in some regions, a new era of violence, land conflicts, and systematic oppression emerged, driven by unresolved historical injustices and the relentless pursuit of resources.
In Guatemala, the brutal civil war, which included genocide against the Maya people, officially ended with peace accords in 1996. Yet violence and land disputes have continued to plague the country, showing that a formal treaty does not always guarantee true security. In Brazil, the mass killings of the past have been replaced by a more insidious destruction: the gradual erosion of indigenous cultures through forced assimilation and the spread of disease. Still, targeted violence persists, particularly in the Amazon, where illegal loggers, ranchers, and land grabbers threaten isolated and uncontacted tribes. Despite rights enshrined in the 1988 constitution, these communities remain highly vulnerable to exploitation.
The horrific genocide against the Selkʼnam people in Tierra del Fuego, carried out by ranchers and mercenaries, ended in the early 20th century. Yet the Mapuche in both Chile and Argentina continue to face systematic persecution and land dispossession, underscoring the enduring legacy of colonial-era policies.
The violence against indigenous peoples is not confined to the past. In recent years, there has been a surge in targeted killings and forced displacement. Between 2023 and 2025, numerous indigenous leaders and environmental defenders have been murdered, particularly in states like Oaxaca and Chiapas in Mexico. These killings are often linked to resistance against large-scale infrastructure and extractive projects that threaten ancestral lands. Forced displacement is also escalating. From 1994 to June 2020, Chiapas alone experienced 37 documented cases, displacing over 115,000 people. As of July 2024, more than 3,200 Tsotsil people from Pantelhó and Chenalhó have fled their homes due to escalating violence, seeking refuge elsewhere and further highlighting the ongoing threat to indigenous communities across the Americas.
Sources: Context News, Rights and Resources, Swedish Fellowship of Reconciliation (SweFOR)
Land Defenders Scream for Respect.
For centuries since the arrival of European colonists, indigenous peoples have waged countless struggles to reclaim their rights to land and resources. These movements have taken many forms, from armed rebellions to non-violent political organizing, ranging from large-scale regional uprisings to local campaigns for community autonomy.
One of the most well-known is the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), which launched an armed uprising in Chiapas on January 1, 1994, to protest the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The EZLN champions indigenous rights and autonomy, and has since shifted its focus toward peaceful self-governance. Building on this legacy, the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) was created by various communities, organizations, and the EZLN. Today, it continues to advocate for the self-determination, autonomy, and rights of Mexico’s indigenous peoples on a broader scale.
Local and regional groups have also played vital roles. The Council of Popular and Indigenous Peoples of Oaxaca (CIPO-RFM), for example, fights for land rights, self-determination, and justice in its home state. In northern Mexico, the Yaqui Water Defense Movement has mobilized against government-backed aqueduct projects that threaten their access to water and violate their right to consultation.
Indigenous women have been at the forefront of these struggles, building support organizations to gain financial independence, confront gender-based violence, and push for change through national and international law. A powerful example is Lupita, a Tzotzil Maya woman and survivor of the 1997 Acteal massacre in Chiapas. She has transformed her trauma into resistance, becoming a voice for a new generation of activists. Her story is told in the film “Lupita, que retiemble la tierra (Lupita, Let the Earth Tremble),” which closely follows her fight for justice and the rights of her people. Beyond these individual stories, communities such as the Nahua and Totonaca in Puebla have organized to oppose mining and other large-scale development projects on their ancestral lands, showing a collective resistance to resource extraction that threatens their way of life.
Sources: Cultural Survival and Minority Rights Group
The crime is legal.
The violence against Mexico’s indigenous population is not a relic of the past; it is an ongoing crisis driven by a complex web of powerful actors. Today, the perpetrators are a combination of criminal organizations, illegal loggers, private interests in extractive industries, and, at times, state actors themselves. Their motives are rooted in a ruthless pursuit of control over territory and natural resources.
Drug cartels such as the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and the Sinaloa Cartel are heavily involved in territorial disputes that disproportionately affect indigenous communities. These criminal groups use indigenous lands to control drug trafficking routes and other illicit activities. They frequently use extortion and brutal violence to suppress any form of opposition from the local population, creating a climate of fear and instability.
Indigenous activists who defend their forests, land, and environmental rights are frequent targets of illegal loggers and private interests tied to large-scale projects. These perpetrators are often connected to organized crime or benefit from local political corruption. Many indigenous leaders have been murdered for their opposition to logging, mining, and other resource-intensive megaprojects that threaten their ancestral lands. The data is stark: between May 2021 and May 2024, at least 72 attacks, with 226 documented cases of aggression—including killings, forced displacement, harassment, and criminalization—were reported against indigenous land defenders.
Despite widespread awareness of the violence and forced displacement, the Mexican government’s response has been widely criticized as inadequate and, in some cases, complicit. While some attacks involve state forces, business interests, and private groups, the government’s primary response has been the militarization of indigenous territories. This approach often criminalizes indigenous resistance rather than addressing the root causes of the conflicts or effectively protecting the human rights of these vulnerable communities.
Sources: Cultural Survival, iwgia, Global Witness, Front Line Defenders
“We are here to shake the world, to let the people know that we, the people who they thought they had exterminated, are still here.“
– Lupita, a Tzotzil Maya activist and survivor from Chiapas
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