Oaxaca: Death by gunfire of opponent to wind-energy project promoted by multinational Fenosa Natural Gas

Photo @SIPAZ

Héctor Regalado Jiménez, opponent to the wind-energy projects and sympathizer of the Popular Assembly of the Juchiteco People (APPJ), died on 1 August in the city of Juchitán de Zaragoza as a consequence of the injuries he sustained due to the six gunshot wounds he received on 21 July.

According to a denunciation from the APPJ, Héctor Regalado and other members of the organization were fired upon by hitmen working for the multinational energy firm Fenosa Natural Gas, being accompanied also by units of the Auxiliary, Banking, Industrial, and Commercial Police (PABIC), a police institution that has been contracted by the firm to safeguard the construction work of the wind-energy park Bii Hioxho.

Weeks before the attack, persons identified as hired gunmen threatened Héctor Regalado with death and warned him that they would fire on the APPJ camp on the Playa Vicente access road, which is the location of the site where the multinational is building the Bii Hioxho wind-energy park.  Furthermore, days after being threatened with death, Héctor Regalado warned that representatives of the multinational had attempted to coopt him by offering him work, in exchange for his abandoning the APPJ campaign.On 24 February, indigenous residents and Binniza fisherfolk founded the APPJ in the fishing village near Juchitán de Zaragoza.  This organization asserts as its principal objective the struggle against the construction of megaprojects on their lands and territories.  As a first action, APPJ members blockaded an access road in Playa Vicente so as to impede the movement of workers and vehicles owned by Fenosa.  The residents denounce that the rented lands are of communal use, and that the contract signed between them was illegal.Since its founding, the APPJ has denounced the constant death-threats and attacks suffered by its members at the hands of the state police and private hitmen hired by the firm.The APPJ “holds the state government of Oaxaca and the State Attorney General’s Office responsible for the wave of death-threats and aggressions that we as members and sympathizers of the [APPJ] constantly suffer.”For more information (in Spanish):

Fallece opositor a proyecto eólico que fue baleado por sicarios de Gas Natural Fenosa (Kaos en la Red, 06 de agosto de 2013)

Comunicado Urgente: Sicarios de Gas Natural Fenosa asesinan a simpatizante de la Asamblea Popular del Pueblo Juchiteco (APIITDTT, 05 de agosto de 2013)

Muere simpatizante del movimiento en resistencia de la APPJ (Informativo, 02 de agosto de 2013)

Con sicarios se busca imponer proyecto eólico en Oaxaca, denuncian (Proceso, 22 de julio de 2013)

Comunicado urgente: Agreden a balazos a tres simpatizantes de la APPJ (APIITDTT, 22 de julio de 2013)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Oaxaca: “The Isthmus at the Crossroads” Seminar (20 August 2013)

Oaxaca: Attacks on those opposed to the wind-energy park in the Tehuantepec Isthmus (4 August 2013)

Oaxaca: Denunciation of wave of attacks against journalists and activists (21 July 2013)

Oaxaca: Meeting of Peoples in Resistance for the Defense of Territory in the Tehuantepec Isthmus (17 May 2013)

Oaxaca: Confrontation over supposed “approval” of wind-energy park in San Dionisio del Mar (8 January 2013)

Oaxaca: judge concedes motion against wind-energy project in San Dionisio del Mar (21 December 2012)