| Summary: | In 2011, the Cherán community carried out an uprising “for the defense of the forest and life”, in response to the looting of its community forests by criminal groups and violence towards its population. This process resulted in the legal recognition of their right to be governed by uses and customs, in accordance with the human rights of self-determination and autonomy recognized for indigenous peoples, which opens different questions in relation to the exercise, conception and construction of these rights. How is autonomy conceived by the political subjects themselves? Under what forms is it specified and how is it related to the state and/or other territorial actors? In this case, the exercise of direct democracy that allows public discussion on the use of resources and the creation of their own institutions, including armed forces for citizen security and forest surveillance, have been fundamental. Likewise, there is an understanding of power as part of an ethic and politics within their p’urhépecha worldview. The case of Cherán is about a de jure autonomy that accompanies a community process, within its own history and with different repertoires for confrontation.
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