Oliveria Montes Lazcano is the Coordinator of the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples in the region of Huachinango Puebla. Member of the Nahua nation, she was born on March 29, 1990 in the indigenous community of Zoyatla de Guerrero, Pahuatlán (Puebla state) in the bosom of a family of coffee growers. At the age of 18, she moved to the city of Pachuca (Hidalgo state) to study the first years of her bachelor’s degree in International Commerce.
Since 2016 she participated in the defense of her community territory against the Tuxpan-Tula gas pipeline (part of the gas pipeline network TC Energy Pipeline) approved by the Federal Electricity Commission and the Secretary of Energy during the six-year term of President Enrique Peña Nieto and was supposed to be build by TransCanada to transport gas from Texas, United States to the city of Tula (Hidalgo state) in the central region of Mexico. This fight concluded with a change in the pipeline’s route, which favors the preservation of the way of life of the communities of Zoyatla, San Pabalgo, Tula, Hidalgo, San Nicolás and Cuautepec, among other communities in the Sierra Norte de Puebla.
In 2020, after being threatened by gangs linked to the gas pipeline construction company, she accepted an invitation from the Carlos III University of Madrid to participate in a residency program to get the University Expert Degree in Indigenous Peoples, Human Rights and International Cooperation. After the commitment of the President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, that the gas pipeline will not pass through the defended territory, Oliveria Montes participed in various processes of social struggle, attending forums, debates, congresses, etc. Her commitment led her to study law since 2021.
TransCanada is supported by Credit Suisse and received financing once by HSBC.