Oaxaca: Mareña Renewables to cancel wind-energy project in San Dionisio del Mar

San Dionisio del Mar (@sipaz)

On 7 January, Maurice Wilbrink, spokesperson for the Dutch pension fund PGGM, confirmed to the Dutch daily newspaper De Telegraaf that the transnational corporation Mareña Renewables plans to cancel its wind-energy megaproject of 396 MW it had intended to build in Santa Teresa, San Dionisio del Mar municipality, in the Tehuantepec Isthmus of Oaxaca. This decision was made because the firm believed it no longer enjoyed the conditions to install such a plant in the region.

Regardless, according to the same source, the project will be transferred to another two sites in the zone: in El Espinal where Wilbrink said that consultations with local residents have more or less been finalized, as well in the city of Juchitán, where work will begin shortly.

Adelfo Reigno Montes, Secretary for Indigenous Affairs in Oaxaca, called for the creation of better conditions so that these types of project “be taken in the mark of juridical certainty and social peace.” He expressed his faith that the federal government could intervene together with state institutions for a dialogue among the involved parties to find adequate solutions, including a process of consultation with the communities that could be affected by such projects.

For more information (in Spanish):

Muerto, proyecto eólico en San Dionisio, Oaxaca: De Telegraaf (La Jornada, 9 de enero de 2014)

Retira su inversión Mareña Renovables; pierde Oaxaca (Oaxaca hoy, 7 de enero de 2014)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Oaxaca: Closing off of communal paths and police operation over construction of wind-energy park (9 December 2013)

Oaxaca: New threats of displacement from Playa Vicente (25 October 2013)

Oaxaca: Death by gunfire of opponent to wind-energy projected promoted by multinational Fenosa Natural Gas (20 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)

Oaxaca: Protests continue in the Tehuantepec Isthmus (9 November 2012)