He smoked the last puff, put his hands on his knees, which were open, and released the message, an 18-minute statement announcing the protest was over. José Rivera, spokesman for a group of activists calling for the guarantee of “human rights related to the personal use of cannabis,” addressed the media and explained that the protest they have been holding in front of the Mexican Senate for three years is not more troublesome for the authorities and therefore a change of strategy was necessary. Some believed that after the announcement, the camp and the marijuana plantation set up there would be dismantled. But the sit-in will continue to be promoted by other groups.
420 sit-in next to Senate Republic of Nayeli Cruz
On this Friday morning, hours after the announcement, the camp was still intact. There were the marijuana plants – some almost two meters high -, the brown tents, the bathrooms, the still meager library, the kitchen, the signs with slogans like “Hasta la victoria verde” or “El cannabis, it also saves.” Life” were repeated. Also the panel with the rules of the coexistence of the space, which stipulates that one cannot buy or sell marijuana inside the camp, but only grow it; that they remember that the protest is peaceful and that they recommend “avoiding the use of other substances” on the fenced-off property.
The camp, called Plantón 420, was set up three years ago by the Movimiento Cannabico Mexicano and other groups to put pressure on cannabis legislation. The space has been defined as “the first non-secret plantation” and a place for free consumption. In 2021, the Mexican cannabis movement stopped engaging “in the governance and stewardship of the space,” the group said in a Facebook statement. The space continued to function, organized by other groups. Now, as Rivera explained to EL PAÍS, he and other members of the Advisory Board are leaving the room, fearing that “the protest will be violated”. “You kept everything. We face the demands,” he said.
A 22-year-old, who asked not to be named and says he has been an activist at the camp for a year, explains that the announcement came after “an internal dispute”: “The people who helped wanted to leave. They wanted to let it leave.” As he speaks, he manipulates a pink silicone pipe with a donut stamp. He then puts cannabis in the jar and crushes it with a screw. “We want it to be for everyone and we’re going to move on contribute to what they did,” he says. As the coordinator, the young man identifies a person who lives there and goes by the pseudonym Payácido.
The space is divided into a camping area, where the garden is located and where some activists sleep, and the consumption area, where workshops, concerts and other activities are organized. There, on a chair, Mario Talavera is playing with the sparks from the lighter. “It can’t die. Here you meet people, share experiences, knowledge, everything,” says the 25-year-old, who studies communication and works in a pulquería in the city. It’s cold and the morning is gray, but more people will arrive in the afternoon, he says. This is the dynamic of the room, which fills up especially after dark and during the holidays. The day before, celebrating the space’s three year anniversary, there was music and a party. On his phone, Talavera shows the speaker stacks that have been set up there for the music session. He also shows the press conference that Rivera gave the previous afternoon on his cell phone.
Marijuana plants in one of the sit-in’s common areas. Nayeli Cruz
“Mexican Senate owes fair laws to citizens who choose to use cannabis responsibly,” Rivera said. He then added, “If lawmakers see no electoral value in the cannabis issue, the likelihood of promulgating a law guaranteeing the right to free expression of personality is very slim.” For now, only one exists from the nation’s Supreme Court in the General Declaration of Unconstitutionality passed June 2021. It overturned the ban on growing, collecting, transporting, and distributing marijuana to individuals and pushed for the General Secretariat of Health to issue permits to allow adults to use cannabis for recreational purposes while Congress failed to enact adequate legislation on what else didn’t happen.
Rivera believes that after three years, the sit-in has become a “green ghetto,” a place where smoking marijuana is allowed but restricted. “It’s important to get out of the ghetto to practice civil disobedience,” Rivera claimed Thursday. Following the confusion caused by his announcement, another statement was issued from the social networks of a new platform called Defensores 420, which had 80 followers on Facebook this Friday: “If other groups want to stay in the room or have a different analysis reality, it’s okay. The letter also says that the group exiting the sit-in will continue their “training in human rights” and “support existing or new cases,” as they have already done with Oaxaca or are now doing with the Yucatán.
Harold Barrios, 22, was present during the announcement because he had come into the room to “listen, paint, smoke” and arrived around noon this Friday. It’s her day off at the call center where she works and she came here to smoke because if she smokes in her apartment, the neighbors complain and the street is not an option. “In several places I run the risk of the police taking my stuff and attacking me for using marijuana. Here many of us protest and the police don’t tell us anything. As if to say: We are not alone,” he says. Inside the fences that delimit the camp, the police do not come in and the crops are grown and grown in full view of the authorities. “We will do everything to ensure that it doesn’t close,” says Barrios, adding: “Rather, that they open more [espacios así], where we do not disturb those who do not consume. So we’re all happy.”
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