4. CHALLENGES
The challenges faced by the Centers put their operation at risk.
4.1 SUSTAINABILITY
An important challenge faced by PDCs is sustainability. Although each Center has its own history and arose from a specific context, there is a shared concern about how to overcome the different economic and human resource needs for its operation.
Zinacantepec Peace and Dialogue Center
Pueblo Nuevo, the longest-running PDC open since 2019, has managed to subsist over the years because of the commitment of individuals operating it in the past and who continue to do so, including the support provided by PJEdoMex’s mediator Guillermo Martínez.
In the case of San Juan Atzingo, the PDC has been in operation for over six months and has assisted more than 50 people, according to records. However, given the constant lack of gratification, the person operating the Center has expressed concern over their continuation. In the cases of San Miguel Almaya and Zinacantepec, the uncertainty is greater due to their recent opening and lack of regular operation. An additional challenge is the dissemination of Centers, as well as the services they offer, as often times, people do not approach them because they do not know about them.
4.2 KEY PARTNERSHIPS
A key aspect are the connections of Peace and Dialogue Centers with different institutions, as well as with the community from which they emerge, because these linkages allow us to understand the degree of presence, or the absence of support, visibility, legitimacy, recognition, and appropriation.
The link with the community does not mean that the CPD is assumed as their own since in none of the interviews did the people from the communities state that the CPD belonged to the community.
San Miguel Almaya community authorities
As for the links between the Centers and other institutions, other challenges exist. Although the impulse provided by the PJEdoMex has been a determining factor for the creation of these Peace and Dialogue Centers, through accompaniment, logistics, and support with necessary furniture to set them up, and training for their operation.
Assistance without formal recognition leads to uncertainty about the Center’s sustainability needs. This includes concerns about economic compensation for mediators and the legal clarity of the work performed, such as which matters should be mediated and the legal standing of the agreements reached. These issues represent significant challenges. The absence of legal recognition of the agreements implies, in turn, the lack of validation of the very community mechanisms that are part of the ethnic identity and social and political organization of these people. This lack of validation highlights the ambivalence of the PJEdoMex’s support and the need to clarify or recognize the legal scope of the Centers’ work, as well as the budgetary commitment sustaining it and, to a larger extent, determining its operation.
The link between the Centers and communities can be seen in their location. All of them, except for the one in Zinacantepec, are located in the offices of a community authority. Similarly, those who operate the Centers have community validation due to their track record. They were awarded their positions by the Assembly, based on their community work and recognition. A close relationship between the community and delegates is clear -except in Zinacantepec- and the delegates are directly or indirectly involved, either because they operate the Center, as is the case in Pueblo Nuevo, or because they refer cases to them, as in San Juan Atzingo, or because they were participants in opening the Center, as in San Miguel Almaya with the PJEdoMex. Furthermore, users in San Juan Atzingo speak positively of the Center, in the words of Pilar González said: “This is progress; we find it surprising to have one here in town”.
The connection with the community does not mean that the PDCs are assumed as their own. None of the interviews stated that PDCs belong to the community. In contrast, the PJEdoMex perspective is that: “the PDCs belong to the community and therefore the community needs to run them” (Iris Pérez Maruri, PJEdoMex mediator). The idea that PDCs belong to the communities is even more distant in recently inaugurated Centers. For example, in San Miguel Almaya, one of the potential and future facilitators at the Center, Óscar Alejandro, President of the Council of Elders of San Miguel Almaya, stated that he was unclear about the objective of opening a space to resolve community problems. He added that, in his communities, over time and as a result of ancestral practices, conflicts have always been solved through dialogue.
The latter highlights, on the one hand, that communities have their own mechanisms to resolve their conflicts and, on the other, the effort of government institutions to formalize these practices and mechanisms through the PDCs. In other words, it involves formalizing the original practices of the communities within an institutional framework. This formalization is reflected in the communities’ lack of ownership or acceptance of the institutionalization. Furthermore, this lack of appropriation is also evident in the sustainability challenge, as communities overcome difficulties and obstacles to maintain services that they understand as their own and that are validated in assembly. In this case, and from the perspective of the interviewees, the Centers belong to the Judicial Power.
For example, In San Miguel Almaya and San Juan Atzingo, the relationship with the municipal seat has been undermined by various conflicts exacerbated by discriminatory treatment that dates back decades and has led them to reaffirm themselves as autonomous communities. Two of the Centers, Zinacantepec and Pueblo Nuevo, do maintain some kind of link with the municipality's town hall, either for political reasons or because of commitments by the town hall to host the PDC. In the case of Zinacantepec, the municipal president secretary mentioned the possibility, provided there was consensus between Otomí and Náhuatl ethnic groups, of integrating and hosting the PDC within the municipal organic structure. To date, this has not occurred. In the case of Pueblo Nuevo, initially there was closeness with the municipality, primarily with the goal of promoting the PDC’s creation, but it is not part of the municipal structure of Acambay and its operation is in the hands of the community. The linkage or lack thereof with municipalities does not determine whether PDCs prosper or fail, although it could be beneficial for them.
