The President added, “Today we have started our vaccination scheme and it will not stop. We will move forward with the goal of vaccinating all people as per the pre-establishment priority.”
But there are already clear signs that not every Mexican is ready or willing to get a shot in hand.
“Why should I get vaccinated? I’m not sick. It’s not good if they try to force us to get vaccinated. I don’t know,” said Marie Madgalena López Santis, a resident of Aldama in CNN, Spain. .
Indigenous communities such as Aldama have a history of distrust of the federal government. In the best cases, community leaders say, they have been ignored. In the worst case, they have been subjected to land-grabbing, discrimination, abuse and assault. This time, it seems the lack of information and conspiracy theories that spread like wildfire in the area is to blame for the hesitation of the vaccine.
“People, including myself, strongly believe that the vaccine can do more harm than good,” Aldama town secretary Tomas Lopez Perez told CNN.
“People are not well informed about this. Because we don’t really know what vaccines are made, we believe they are involved. [Covid-19] The virus and that’s the main reason people don’t want to be vaccinated, ”Lopez said.
Since many people in those towns communicate in their native dialects, government information about its Covid-19 epidemic strategy is, in many cases, lost in translation.
But in a way, Aldama has also been lucky. Its inhabitants, mainly Tzotzil Mayens, rarely travel to large cities and very few people ever visit, and save the city from the worst of epidemics – and that means many residents do not see the need to be vaccinated.
Local officials proudly insist that no one here has been infected with the coronavirus, although health officials have not been able to confirm that claim. However, the city remained closed for several months, at the same time the federal government imposed nationwide sanctions.
Aldama town mayor Adolfo Victorio Lopez Gómez told CNN that he also credits traditional medicine for the low effect of Covid-19 on the city and believes in its effectiveness.
“Fortunately, there is a way of our hypothesis regarding traditional medicine and we asked our grandparents and great-grandparents for guidance and it helped us a lot,” said Le Fort Page.
Indigenous towns like Aldama are autonomous. The Mexican constitution allows towns like this to govern themselves under the principle of “traditions and customs.”
As of 2018, there were 421 municipalities in Mexico with this designation out of a total of 2,469 (17%). And it’s not the only city in southern Mexico where people are refusing to be vaccinated.
Earlier this month, Sia Juan Cincinnati Mayor Jose López L zpez, another indigenous city located in the Chiapas Central Highlands, sent a letter to state health officials, informing them of his municipality’s decision to deny him any vaccines.
The Chiapas State Health Department responded that it respects the autonomy of the indigenous population, although officials insisted they would encourage communication with those communities for the health of everyone.
“Everything is voluntary,” the president said. “I repeat: nothing by force, but everything by reason and right. [We must] Convince, explain, inform, orient, take awareness, without imposing anything. “
The report was contributed by Krupskaya Ales of Mexico City.
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