Mexico City, May 23 (teleSUR-RHC)-- The Yaqui indigenous people’s National Caravan for the Defense of Water, Land, Work and Life arrived in Mexico City’s Xochimilco area on Thursday night after traveling 11 days to communities across Mexico in order to connect with and bring together different social struggles.

The Caravan convened a demonstration on Friday in Mexico City’s historic Zocalo square to deliver their final message.

Addressing a diverse crowd of indigenous peoples, farmers, human rights defenders, trade unionists, students, and other social organizations in Xochimilco, Yaqui Caravan leaders urged Mexican to resist water privatization and the robbing of indigenous peoples natural resources, La Jornada reported. “We are sad because we have seen many injustices,” the Caravan declared in reference to its cross-country tour. “It is time to struggle all together, the time has come to organize ourselves.”

The call to organize comes after the Caravan heard testimonies from communities fighting against land and resource dispossession that mining and energy companies use divisive strategies to break the resistance of communities in struggle.

The Yaqui indigenous tribe in the northern state of Sonora has been struggling for years against the concessions in the Yaqui River, which the indigenous people have relied on for survival for generations. Some 40,000 Yaqui people live in 55 communities in the region.

The caravan calls for an end to all mega-projects, like the Independence Aqueduct, that destroy life, water, land, and air. They also reject neoliberal policy reforms, militarization of the country, and demand a return of the 43 Ayotzinapa students, freedom for political prisoners, and strengthening of food and energy sovereignty.