The Community of Cherán is an Indigenous Purépecha town located in the state of Michoacán, Mexico, internationally recognized for its process of self-determination and community-based governance. In 2011, in response to illegal logging, organized crime, and state corruption, the community expelled political parties, police forces, and criminal groups from its territory. Cherán reconstituted its political life through traditional assemblies, neighborhood councils, and a system of collective decision-making rooted in ancestral knowledge and communal responsibility. Since then, it has governed itself autonomously, defending its forests as commons and exercising Indigenous rights to self-government, becoming a paradigmatic case of radical democracy, decolonization, and Indigenous-led social change.
| Creation date | 2011 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Commons, Democracy, Decolonization, Rights, Social justice |
| Context | Rural |
| Typology | Self-determination movement |
| Languages | Spanish; Castilian, ⧼rv-language-pua⧽ |
| Thematics | Radical Democracy |