Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker 45-year-old forest warden José González can practically touch the clouds Located roughly 3,000 metres above sea level the village of 1,000 small houses is surrounded by corn and chilli plants José always wears boots and takes naps in his car with his cowboy hat over his face hard-to-reach valley in the heart of the Sierra Madre in the northern Mexican state of Durango Durango is known for its rich deposits of gold and silver which cover 87 per cent of the state’s territory four-by-fours and unpaved roads that lead through its majestic forests filled with pumas Wide trucks carrying timber and minerals wind around narrow mountain roads that jut out over the abyss one of the icons of the Mexican Revolution Durango is also a land of extremes and inequality from which José wanted to flee as long as he can remember attempting multiple times to cross into the United States he was detained at the border and sent back to Mexico José had worked in the fields with his mother and He worked hard and even took a chance on growing poppies (an illegal business that was flourishing between the US and Mexico at the beginning of the new century) in the steep mountains of his valley José was finally able to save up enough money to cross the US border for good He was one of many from his region to do so Poppy cultivation in Mexico continued to increase reaching a peak of some 44,000 hectares cultivated nationwide in 2017 the total area of poppy cultivation in Mexico is estimated at 24,000 hectares according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Many of those crops are concentrated right here on the steep slopes of the mountains where the states of Durango In some communities with no other sources of income planting and harvesting poppy is the only economic activity As is the case in many parts of the Americas Durango’s natural riches have not benefitted the local population encouraged by US companies in order to obtain Mexican hardwoods at low prices had become such a problem that the government decreed a ban and set aside two million hectares of forest for protection the government created a public company called Productos Forestales Mexicanos (PROFORMEX) which received the exclusive right to exploit Durango’s forest resources the public company lacked oversight and transparency It ultimately became corrupt and consolidated a quasi-feudal regime The company’s director lived in Mexico City and travelled to the area by private plane He controlled not only the forest but also the roads and the population was powerless to stop it The lack of opportunities forced many people to abandon their communities to look for work in the United States From the ages of 23 to 35 he worked countless jobs a gardener in Los Angeles and a house painter in Tucson self-sacrificing people was for a long time the stronghold of Chapo Guzmán leader of the Sinaloa Cartel and Mexico’s main drug trafficker until his arrest in 2016 When former President Felipe Calderón (2006 to 2012) declared war on the cartels during his six-year term in office Durango was one of the states most impacted by violence and insecurity people in Durango began to make some important changes The members of the community who remained increasingly organised themselves into ejidos a form of communal land ownership in Mexico that allows for cooperative use of forest and crops while maintaining individual plots for inhabitants and a town centre Ejidos represent one of the best reforms to emerge from post-revolutionary 20th century Mexico The Mexican ejido system was inspired by the way of life of the region’s Indigenous peoples though its legal form has undergone some changes There are some 103 million hectares of ejido land in Mexico representing 55 per cent of the total area of the country according to the National Agrarian Registry (RAN) While José was painting the facades of houses in American suburbs organised within the Unión de Ejidos y Comunidades Forestales General Emiliano Zapata (UNECOFAEZ) were working to change their present and future assemblies and communication campaigns between ejidos increased their hyperlocal form of diplomacy and politics began to have a greater and greater national impact Men and women in boots and cowboy hats took on the PROFORMEX company and took over the management of a million hectares of forest land They would go on to buy PROFORMEX’s wood processing plant and former plank factory And so the Grupo Silvindustria General Emiliano Zapata a Rural Association of Collective Interest (ARIC) better known as Grupo Sezaric Today it provides direct and dignified work for 2,500 people in the area with a board of directors that is accountable to ejidos like the one in Topia Its furniture factory employs hundreds of workers and exports to other parts of Mexico Sezaric has become the first company in the country to use the waste from its production (biomass) to generate electricity The 24-year-old forestry engineer was born and raised on a local ranch two hours up the mountain from Santiago Papasquiaro the departmental capital on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Madre “The best part is that I was able to study for a while in the city of Durango and then come back and work close to home and nature,” Karina explains Other community enterprises that provide services to the industry have grown out of the group These include the Unidad de Conservación y Desarrollo Forestal Integral Topia where forestry engineers like Chea Soto provide technical advice to small-scale producers Most of these ejidos and communities earn their income by felling forest trees allowing them to regenerate in planned intervals of 15 People like Claro Oropesa continuously plant native seedlings This ensures the sustainability of natural resources and the livelihoods of local residents who are able to make a living working in the area’s traditional economic activities Community restructuring allowed ejidatarios to receive a fixed salary at the end of the year as a cooperative This has in turn allowed them to plan their economy in 15-year cycles members of the ejido had Topia internationally certified by a German-based non-governmental accreditation and certification organisation the Council is governed by three independent assembly chambers with equal voting weight José was in the United States when he received word of his mother’s death He returned to Durango immediately and took care of her funeral arrangements he saw the changes that had taken place: there was a new community sawmill operating in the area he could choose from several nature-related jobs he could be close to his family and childhood friends and could once again look out over these mountainous landscapes and feel the cool and having access to the ejido cooperative changed José’s life for the better overnight The fighting of Calderón’s “war on drugs” has subsided and along with it the violence The community assembly voted for José to become a forest warden He no longer wants to return to the United States “I had a lot of support in the assembly when I won so I’ve put a lot of effort into this work so as not to disappoint I have my radio with me and people let me know about any fires they see I have very good contacts and we’re getting ahead I’m happy here and I try to take care of the forest as much as possible There’s been very few fires since I’ve been here This year there hasn’t been a single one,” he says with a smile sitting on a tree trunk in front of a wooden-walled grocery store sells the prepaid satellite cards that allow people here to connect to the internet for a short while While the Topia Valley is a much more peaceful place today the presence of army pick-up trucks with machine guns serves as a daily reminder that the conflict with drug traffickers continues to affect the area as it does so many places in Latin America “The people are afraid because of what they are told No one bothers us and no one steals anything here,” says José and that’s enough to buy a little truck and clothes for the kid,” he says His salary is complemented by the money he receives for being part of the ejido This secure salary has allowed him to live well Equal Times is a trilingual news and opinion website focusing on labour politics and the economy from a social justice perspective Forest warden José González in his valley in the mountains of Durango Share on FacebookShare on X (formerly Twitter)Share on PinterestShare on LinkedInCHARLOTTE NC (WBTV) - The Federal Bureau of Investigation is offering a reward of up to $100,000 to track down a man who they say murdered his new bride less than 24 hours after marrying her has been added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list According to a release by the FBI was found dead in the bathtub of her Burbank still in the dress she wore to her wedding reception in the early morning hours of May 12 Police and the FBI believe Jimenez and his bride got into an argument as they left the reception “We believe she was stabbed in the vehicle and then dragged back into the apartment and left bleeding in the bathtub,” said Special Agent Steve Barnard who is working the case out of the FBI’s Chicago Field Office Arnoldo Jimenez is wanted for allegedly murdering his new bride less than 24 hours after the wedding. He may have fled to Durango, Mexico (Santiago or Papasquiaro) or Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico. Call 1-800-CALL-FBI or send tips to https://t.co/4K5EO3PlUN https://t.co/Y5uGgcZRnT pic.twitter.com/MUQLcxJdbI Carrera’s family asked law enforcement to perform a wellness check when she did not arrive to pick up her children during which Carrera’s body was discovered The suspect was added to the list of the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives because of his violent nature his alleged involvement in his wife’s killing specifically in the area of Santiago Papasquiaro A reward of up to $100,000 is being offered for information leading to Jimenez’s capture Arnoldo Jimenez is wanted for allegedly murdering his new bride less than 24 hours after the wedding. He may have fled to Durango, Mexico (Santiago or Papasquiaro) or Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico. 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