On 6 July, during a press-conference carried out in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, non-governmental organizations that oppose the cultivation of transgenic crops, among them Maderas del Pueblo del Sureste and the Center for Women’s Rights Chiapas, demanded that the Mexican government cancel the authorization for “the release into the environment of genetically modified soy” in several states of the country. They note that “the authorization for the transnational MONSANTO to cultivate soy in Chiapas and other state of the country would constitute a socio-environmental disaster of incalculable proportions for Mexicans.”
The groups demanded that the Mexican State “order MONSANTO to make public all its information regarding the contracts signed with regard to the cultivation in Chiapas and other states,” that “there be orders that the firm make public the environmental impacts it has caused against land and marine-coastal ecosystems and their flora and fauna,” in addition to “abstaining from using transgenic crops in Mexican lands.”
The groups report that different persons and organizations presented on 27 June a motion to the second judge of the district in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, against the permit granted by the Mexican government to Monsanto. In light of the risk that the firm continue with its plans to cultivate transgenic seeds, they finally called for the development of a network in defense of food sovereignty, the rights of the peoples, and the defense of life.
For more information (in Spanish):
Boletín de prensa completo (6 de julio de 2012)
Comunicado completo de las organizaciones civiles (6 de julio de 2012)
Piden frenar siembra de transgénicos (Cuarto Poder, 7 de julio de 2012)
Monsanto y la reconstrucción de los latifundios como en el periodo pre revolucionario. (Colectivo Pozol, 7 de julio de 2012)
For more information from SIPAZ (in English):
Chiapas: Visit by Oliver De Shutter, UN Special Rapporteur on Right to Food (21 June 2011)
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