La Parota Dam Project – Determination to Prevail

May 2nd, 2005

DECLARATION FROM THE COUNCIL OF EJIDOS AND COMMUNITIES IN OPPOSITION TO THE LA PAROTA DAM

For nearly two years, we, the peasant farmers of twenty agricultural communities, have blocked the construction of the La Parota hydroelectric dam. We have fought against the Federal Electricity Commission’s plans to rob us of our land and move us out of our homes and villages. Our struggle has grown to include the defence of the Papagayo River basin and of the water resources of our region.

We will defend, even at the cost of our own lives, the land that was left to us by our parents and grandparents.

The proposed La Parota dam would have drastic effects on the lives of 25,000 residents of five municipalities in the state of Guerrero, Mexico. It would flood 17, 300 hectares of land, obliterating 24 rural settlements. It would wipe out endemic species of plants and animals that are unique to the Papagayo River basin. It would dry up the subterranean water sources, thus bringing about a water shortage in the Port of Acapulco. The increasing dryness, and consequent desertification, of the area downstream from the dam would lead to the displacement of another 50, 000 rural residents. In the part of Mexico that is most at risk from earthquakes, the dam would constitute an added element of uncertainty and danger. Its reservoir, ten times the size of the Bay of Acapulco, would produce greenhouse gases affecting the adjacent farmland and the general area.

The La Parota dam is an unsustainable and dangerous project that would have very serious economic, social, cultural, and environmental repercussions.

We have formed the Council of Ejidos* and Communities in Opposition to the La Parota Dam (CECOP). Our resistance is grounded in our decision to refuse to sell our land. We say NO TO THE DAM. We demand that the Federal Electricity Commission leave our land. We do not want them there. They must not continue to create discord within our communities.
We have sustained our civic resistance movement for nearly two years. Our principal means of struggle has been the mobilization of our fellow citizens. Furthermore, we have not neglected the legal channels that are open to us for the defence of our human rights especially our rights as peasant farmers and the defence of our social and natural environment. In the face of the whole apparatus of government, municipal, state and federal, we have strengthened our movement. Our unity is centred on our basic principle of dignity and justice: THE LAND IS NOT FOR SALE!

THE COUNCIL OF EJIDOS* AND COMMUNITIES IN OPPOSITION TO THE LA PAROTA DAM (*The ejido is a form of communal landholding established after the Mexican Revolution.)

STRATEGIC ACTION ON THE PROPOSED LA PAROTA HYDROELECTRIC DAM IN THE STATE OF GUERRERO, MEXICO

The above appeal comes from the Council of Ejidos and Communities in Opposition (CECOP) to the La Parota dam. The campesinos who form the Council are seeking support for their long and difficult struggle.

BACKGROUND ON THE LA PAROTA DAM:

The Mexican Federal Electricity Commission’s proposed La Parota hydroelectric dam is situated in the state of Guerrero, at a distance of approximately fifty kilometres from the city of Acapulco. Its dimensions are of such a size that its reservoir will be ten times larger than the bay of Acapulco and it will actually inundate an existing hydroelectric dam. From the beginning, the project was challenged by the local residents whose lands and livelihood will be directly affected. It has also received very serious criticism from Mexican environmentalists. Because some local residents have accepted the Federal Electricity Commission’s message that it will bring jobs and other material benefits to the area, the dam has also become a source of social discord.

A CHRONOLOGY OF CIVIC RESISTANCE TO THE LA PAROTA DAM:

In early 2003, the Federal Electrical Commission began the first steps in the construction of the dam, without prior consultation with the communities that would be directly and indirectly affected by the dam, and without having obtained the required government authorization for re-zoning. In July 2003, local residents formed their first picket line to block the entry of the Commission’s heavy machinery. They have been largely successful in preventing the construction of the dam. At the end of June, 2004, the authorities responded to their blockade by issuing warrants for the arrest (based on what the CECOP claims were spurious accusations) of six opponents to the dam. At the end of July, two members of CECOP, Marco Antonio Suástegui and Don Francisco Hernández were arrested; they were released in early August, following a national and international campaign on their behalf. (La Parota dam opponents believe that this arrest may have been related to the fact that the two arrested persons had been delegates to the Third Mesoamerican Assembly against Dams, which took place in El Salvador in mid-July.)

On more than one occasion, the CFE has been involved in what appear to have been rigged community assemblies, which were only attended by a small minority of residents and which were allegedly marred by important procedural irregularities. The opponents to the dam subsequently filed legal challenges to the (favourable to the dam) decisions made by these assemblies. At the present time, there is active opposition to La Parota in twenty-six campesino communities.

In mid-august 2004, opponents to the dam formally organized themselves as The Council of Ejidos and Communities in Opposition to the La Parota Dam (CECOP). The organization has played an important role in the creation of Mexico’s national anti-dam movement. At the end of September 2004, it hosted the first meeting of persons and communities affected by dams. In early 2005, it took part in the planning meeting for the second assembly of the Movimiento de affectados por las presas y en defensa de los rios (Movement of persons and communities affected by dams and in the defence of rivers).

At the end of August 2004, the opponents to La Parota and their supporters organized a public consultation that was attended by campesinos and researchers from across Mexico. As a result of the civic challenge to the credibility of the Federal Electricity Commission’s environmental impact study, the Ministry of the Environment gave the Electricity Commission three months in which to submit additional information. However, in mid-November the Ministry of the Environment blocked the page on its web-site on which this additional information should have appeared thus preventing members of the public from responding to the Commission’s final submission. Then, on December 16th, 2004, the Ministry of the Environment gave official approval to the Federal Electricity Commission’s Environmental Impact Manifesto. As stated above, since that time, the CECOP has continued its opposition to the La Parota dam.

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

Please write to the government of Mexico and to the elected governor of the state of Guerrero to request the immediate suspension of the La Parota dam project. Please stress that, although it will no doubt provide a number of short-term construction jobs, this project, cannot be of long-term benefit to the region; by depriving peasant farmers of their land and livelihood, the proposed dam will create further social dislocation and joblessness in one of the poorest and most troubled states of Mexico.
Please write to the Canadian government in order to make them aware of the socially and environmentally detrimental effects of the La Parota dam project. You may wish to express your concern over the impact on the rural areas of Mexico and Central America of the large-scale development projects, such as dams and mines, that appear to be an integral part of the actual or proposed commercial agreements to which Canada is a party.

ADDRESSES:

FOR MEXICO:

Lic. Vicente F
ox Quesada
Presidente de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos
Residencia Oficial de Los Pinos
Col. San Miguel Chapultepec, Mexico D.F., C.P. 11850, MEXICO
FAX: 011 52 55 522 4117 or 011 52 55 516 9537 or 011 52 55 515 1794
presidencia@gob.mex vicentefox@presidencia.gob.mx

Whenever possible, please send a faxed rather than an e-mail message.
In case of difficulty in sending faxes, please request the Embassy of Mexico
(or the Consulate if there is one in the area where you live) to forward your letter
to President Fox.