Press-conference @ Cencos
On 12 October, representatives from the indigenous Binni’zaa (Zapotec) community from Juchitán de Zaragoza reported that, due to the legal motion they had submitted against the construction and the operation of the megaproject advanced by the Southern Wind-Energy Corporation on their lands, a judicial order has been made to suspend all the authorizations, permits, approvals, licenses, and land-use changes awarded by local and federal officials. The demand for the motion had been presented by 1,166 Binni’zaa indigenous people, and the suspension was approved on 30 September 2015.
“We demand that all the authorities and firms involved in the Southern Wind-Energy project observe with the demand made by the judge to suspend this work, meanwhile we wish to denounce that as a consequence of this judicial resolution, harassment has increased against the people who had advanced the legal motion,” they indicated in a press-conference. Beyond this, they added that “there was no public consultation, given that last January the project had been approved by the Regulatory Commission on Energy and the Environmental and Natural Resources Ministry, but it was not until June of this year that the consultation was carried out. In any case, it was mere simulation.” Beyond this, it was recalled that the Southern Wind-Energy Firm belongs to the same groups of capitalists that in 2012 comprised the Mareña Renewables firm, against which the indigenous had won a different legal motion two years ago. But it has returned now with another name.
For more information (in Spanish):
Pueblo indígena detiene megaproyecto eólico en Istmo de Tehuantepec (Cencos, 13 de octubre de 2015)
Ordena juez frenar obras de megaproyecto eólico en Oaxaca (Proceso, 12 de octubre de 2015)
Logran amparo para evitar construcción de parque eólico en Juchitán (El Imparcial Oaxaca, 13 de octubre de 2015)
Análisis de la Manifestación de Impacto Ambiental y del Resolutivo del Proyecto “Eólica del Sur” (Unión de Científicos Comprometidos con la Sociedad, agosto de 2015)
For more information from SIPAZ (in English):
Oaxaca: Indigenous Zapotecos mobilize themselves over grave violations to right to consultation (11 September 2015)
Oaxaca: Beginning of consultation regarding wind-energy park in Juchitán (12 November 2014)
Oaxaca: Various denunciations in the Tehuantepec Isthmus from community assemblies organized against wind-farms in their territories (6 September 2014)
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