Justice for the Cherán K’eri community!

The Paul K. Feyerabend Association condemns the armed attack to the indigenous community of Cherán K’eri, Michoacán (Mexico)— recipient of a 2023 Paul Feyerabend Award.  On July 2, 2025, a criminal group attempted to enter the communal territory and was repelled by the Ronda Comunitaria, the local security body of the Cherán self-government, resulting in one community member (rondín) being killed and another wounded.

The attack constitutes a direct aggression against the autonomy of Cherán and is not an isolated event. As the Cherán Communal Government maintains, it is rather part of a scenario in which organised crime operates with impunity in different territories of Michoacán, threatening and attacking the community political projects that confront it as an obstacle to the concentration of  economic and political power. Similar abuses that took place in other communities in the Purépecha territory are proof of the same dynamic.

We call on the Mexican state at federal and state level to take responsibility and offer justice and reparation for the attack to Cherán K’eri and the other communities.  The Mexicans government can and should respect the rights to self-determination and autonomous security of its local and indigenous communities.  Our condolences to the people of Cherán for their loss and our renewed solidarity in support of their steadfastness and courageous autonomy.