SANTA MARIA ZACATEPEC STATEMENT

Original Americas Program Translation 

Reunited on July 21st and 22nd at the base of the volcanoes - the guardians of our people - men and women from over a hundred organizations, networks, communities and groups from 14 states came together offer our voice to tell you that our country faces a serious danger.  The ruling government seeks to serve large multinational corporations and give our country to foreign interests and thus canceling our rights won by our peoples through long and heroic struggles.

More than a third of Mexican territory has been given to foreign mining companies.  The federal government currently imposes a series of measures that aim to exploit natural resources and the structural reforms imposed on labor, taxation, energy, agriculture and education, violate the rights of our people, of the workers and our national sovereignty. We protest strongly against the privatization of the energy sector.

We have agreed that, confronted by this serious situation, our priority is to build a unified movement to strengthen the struggles of our peoples because the isolation of resistance movements allows those in power to defeat us. It is essential to move forward in the coordination of the different struggles that take place across the country and therefore we make a call to the different movements to set aside differences and move forward in building a national platform that allows us to confront the serious dangers facing our people and our nation.

Indigenous vs. Multinationals in Mexico Wind Power

AP By Mark Stevenson

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico is putting up wind power turbines at a breakneck pace and the expansion is pitting energy companies against the Indians who live in one of the windiest spots in the world.

The country is posting one of the world's highest growth rates in wind energy, and almost all of it is concentrated in the narrow waist of Mexico known as the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, where winds from the Pacific meet winds from the Gulf of Mexico, spawning places so wind-blown that one town's formal name is simply "Windy."

The largely indigenous residents of the Isthmus complain that the wind farms take control of their land, affect fish and livestock with their vibrations, chop up birds and pit residents against each other for the damage or royalty payments. They also claim they see few of the profits from such projects.

President Felipe Calderon has made the inauguration of wind parks one of the main focuses of his administration's ambitious pledge to cut Mexico's carbon emissions by 30 percent by 2020, and on Tuesday — as he has done before — he stopped by the state of Oaxaca to inaugurate a new clutch of wind turbines, praising the extra income they provide for some farmers.

"Yes, you can fight poverty and protect the environment at the same time. This is a clear example," Calderon said at the opening ceremony. Read more. 

Indigenous Groups Protest Mexico's Biggest Wind-Energy Project

Fox Business, October 17, 2012.

Mexican fishermen and indigenous groups from the southern state of Oaxaca protested Wednesday in front of the Mexico City offices of participants in a wind-energy project that would be one of the largest ever in Latin America, targeting Coca-Cola bottler and convenience-store operator Femsa (FMX), the Inter-American Development Bank and the Danish government, among others.

The few dozen protesters called for the cancellation of the Marena wind-farm project in a windy area of Oaxaca known as Tehuantepec on the grounds that construction and operation of the 132 windmill towers would hurt the livelihoods of local residents by damaging a delicate ecosystem in which fishermen eke out a modest living.

The energy project is part of a sustainability initiative by Femsa to provide clean energy for its operations and for that of its former beer unit, Cuauhtemoc Moctezuma, which is now owned by Heineken NV (HEIA.AE), according to Femsa's 2011 annual report.

Femsa didn't have an immediate comment on the protest, which was made symbolically outside the Mexico City office of the Coca-Cola Co. (KO), since Femsa's corporate offices are in the northern city of Monterrey. Read more.