“For us, any consultation to be realized now is illegal, because it should have taken place 10 years ago. Now we want respect for our common land, 68,154 hectares that we were recognized by presidential resolution in 1964”, complained Mariano Gómez López, spokesperson for the Popular Assembly of the Juchiteco People (APPJ). Currently, there are more than 15 wind farms in the communal lands of Juchitan, La Venta and other municipalities of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, all of them imposed without prior and informed consent, as the Convention 169 of the International Labour Organization (that was ratified by Mexico) requires. López Gómez reported that villagers from Juchitán filed a constitution protection demand, asking the companies to justify why they did not conduct prior, free and informed consultation.
For this reason, representatives of the Ministry of Energy, the Energy Regulatory Commission, the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) and the General Secretariat of the Government of Oaxaca will meet in Juchitán de Zaragoza. The APPJ spokesman expressed that “probably they want to design a strategy on free, prior and informed consultation for the energy reform laws. But for us it does not apply, as the 15 wind farms already installed; or the one that Mareña Renewable (expelled from San Dionisio del Mar), now called “Southeast Wind Power and South Wind-farms” wants to build in Juchitán; or the Bii Hioxio wind farm which Fenosa Natural Gas builds on communal lands in Juchitán and that has continued to be built illegally, when its construction should have stopped. “
Furthermore, a workshop around the theme “What and How is a Consultation?” was held in the city of Juchitan, took place on June 7, because “today we are surrounded by huge fans using wind to generate energy. But do you know where these projects come from and how they affect or benefit us? This huge project of energy production was installed without asking the communities that live in the region and without giving information. People from the Isthmus and from the country have the right to be consulted when a project of this type is to be installed in our territory. “
For more information (in Spanish)
Ahora cualquier consulta sobre parques eólicos en Oaxaca es ilegal: juchitecos (La Jornada, 6 de junio de 2014)
Taller informativo: El Derecho de los Pueblos Indígenas a la Consulta Previa, Libre e Informada (Blog Tierra y Territorio, 4 de junio de 2014)
Escucha en Vivo el Taller informativo El Derecho de los Pueblos Indígenas a la Consulta Previa, Libre e Informada (Blog Tierra y Territorio, 7 de junio de 2014)
For more Information from SIPAZ (in English)
Oaxaca: threats and attempted kidnapping against communal defender of the Isthmus (April 26, 2014)
Oaxaca: Opponents to wind-energy parks threatened with death in the Isthmus (2 March 2014)
Oaxaca: Denunciation of harassment and death-threats against human-rights defenders in the Tehuantepec Isthmus (9 December 2013)
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