On May 19th, members of the Council of Ejidos and Communities Opposed to the La Parota Dam (CECOP) demonstrated before the Senate of the Republic in Mexico City to demand the cancellation of the construction of the La Parota hydroelectric dam. Some 300 demonstrators from 28 communities of the Center of Cacahuatepec and the ejidos of Dos Arroyos and Huajes, of the Acapulco municipality, stood in front of the Senate while a delegation of 10 members of CECOP attended to an audience which included deputies Agustín Guerrero and Avelino Méndez, of PRD, and the PRIsta Silvio Lagos. The demonstrators demanded respect for the voice of the people, as expressed in the 12 August 2007 assembly, when the plan for the hydroelectric dam was rejected. On May 12th, CECOP also presented a demand before the United Agrarian Tribunal (TUA) requesting the annulment of the 18 April 2010 assembly, in which supporters of the project approved the expropriation of land for the construction of La Parota while the presence of more than 600 police prevented opposition from entering the assembly.
On May 19th there was also held a press conference in Mexico City about the 2002 rape cases of indigenous Me’phaa women, Valentina Rosendo Cantú and Inés Fernández Ortega. Due to lack of appropriate response from the Mexican state, the abuses went unpunished and so in 2004, the women decided to bring their cases before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR). On April 17, a hearing of the Inter-American Court for the case of Fernández Ortega took place in Lima, Peru. The press conference on May 19th occurred a few days before the hearing of the case of Rosendo Cantú (May 27 in Costa Rica). A press release was signed by several human rights organizations, among which were the Tlachinollan Mountain Center for Human Rights and Amnesty International-Mexico. It stressed the paradigmatic character of these two cases to make visible “multiple discrimination and the high level of violence faced by indigenous women – particularly when they have been victims of sexual violence by state agents – who seek to improve access to the justice system and health services in Mexico. “
For more information (in Spanish):
Case of La Parota:
– Press release: “CECOP members demand definitive cancellation of La Parota before the Permanent Commission of the Congress of the Union (19 May)
– CECOP takes its movement to the Senate (La Jornada de Guerrero, 20 May)
Caso of Valentina:
– Press release: Valentina Rosenda, another Me’phaa woman of Guerrero who will accuse the Mexican State before the IACHR (19 May)
– Mexico, in the dock of the accused, this time for the rape of the Me’phaa Valentina (La Jornada de Guerrero, 20 May)
For more information from SIPAZ:
Guerrero: resurgence of conflict over the possible construction of the La Parota dam (27 April)
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