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News > Latin America

'Time to Reconstruct Country from Left': Mexico's Indigenous Candidate Marichuy

  • Maria de Jesus Patricio Martinez (R) is greeted by supporters after a meeting in Pijijiapan, in the Mexican state of Chiapas, Nov. 7, 2017.

    Maria de Jesus Patricio Martinez (R) is greeted by supporters after a meeting in Pijijiapan, in the Mexican state of Chiapas, Nov. 7, 2017. | Photo: Reuters

Published 29 November 2017
Opinion

"It’s time to reconstruct the country from below and the from the left," Marichuy said.

Mexican presidential candidate Maria de Jesus Patricio Martinez spoke in front hundreds of people at the Autonomous University of Mexico to rally support for her 2018 bid as the first Indigenous woman for the nation’s highest post.

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Marichuy, as she is known, said she came to “talk about the impossible because the ‘possible’ has been discussed too much.”

“Our proposal is very simple: together, we’re going to shake up the nation,” said Marichuy. "It’s time to reconstruct the country from below and the from the left," she added.

Patricio Martinez is particularly calling on women in Mexico to help in her effort to be the country’s first woman and Indigenous presidential candidate. “Now is the time for women, we’re going after everything.”

Referring to the killing of a 22-year-old UNAM student Lesvy Berlin Rivera Osorio, who was found dead close to where Marichuy spoke, she said “we have to find the energy to move past the pain and aggression so that there are no more deaths or disappeared.” Rivera Osorio’s mother was on hand to listen to the independent presidential candidate.

Ruben Albarran from the renown Mexican band, Cafe Tacuba, sang at the event saying, “Marichuy is in our hearts.”

Marichuy was elected in May by the National Indigenous Congress, with support from the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, to run for president. She formally registered as an independent candidate in October.

Coming from the Nahua community of Tuxpan, in the state of Jalisco, she is a traditional doctor in her community, founder of the health center Calli Tecolhuacateca Tochan in 1992 and a long-time leader in the Indigenous movement.

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