Political Changes

Since 2011, the community governance structure in Cherán has been reconfigured and its current composition has been the result of the integration of traditional forms of decision-making such as tenure courts, commissariats of communal goods or civil order officers (Aragón, 2019). Before the uprising, the segmentation of the town by "barrios" or districts already played an important role for local politics, and from the moment of rupture with the municipal government the base level for decision-making has been the "fogatas" –– namely,  citizen groups that precede decision-making in neighborhood assemblies and general councils.

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Shortly after the uprising, the comuneros formed operative commissions that were created first to guarantee the security and basic needs of the population, and later to represent the community and attend to its negotiations with the Mexican State through the general council. 

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This organization of community government is an account of political innovation as a strategy to achieve community justice, since, after the insurrection, there was never a vacuum of authority, but rather a self-institutionalization of the community itself. Through the operative commissions, the inhabitants of Cherán participated in the political life of the community, from their "fogatas" and their "barrio" (district) councils. They also took up traditional practices such as the rotation of positions and unpaid community work to reforest damaged forests, which in other indigenous communities in Mexico is known as "tequio". This type of tradition was abandoned mainly during the 20th century, due to the policies of acculturation of the indigenous people, the abandonment of the countryside, discrimination and migration.