Megaprojects are often defined as a form of extraordinary development with large investments of both public and private capital. They promise to positively transform a given area and thereby bring great benefits to the inhabitants of the territory in which they are to be implemented; they are spoken of as the great opportunity for economic growth of a region and its inhabitants.
The reality is that these megaprojects are always accompanied by dispossession, violence, contamination, precariousness and more negative consequences that end up altering the traditional way of life of the communities that in most cases are of indigenous peoples.
This is what different organizations and groups concluded last Saturday, February 26th, in the city of Juchitan in Oaxaca, in the Regional Meeting “Women and Dissidence in Defense of Territory. The Isthmus Is Ours.” It was organized by the Council of Autonomous Women of the Assembly of Indigenous Peoples of the Isthmus in Defense of Land and Territory (APIIDTT) and the Oaxatrans collective, as a way of exchanging experiences and knowledge on their path of resistance against various megaprojects.
During the meeting, the multiple struggles and violence that are experienced in communities in Oaxaca, Jalisco, Morelos, Puebla, Zacatecas and Mexico State were shared and how these permeate the lives of women and various dissidences.
All these territories have been strongly affected by the imposition of megaprojects, the granting of land by the State to large foreign companies, the presence of organized crime and the structural and patriarchal violence that permeates all areas of life and that make it harder to sustain.
Representatives of groups and organizations in Oaxaca shared how with the installation of wind farms in this area, they witnessed the destruction of large green areas and the contamination of land and water, which has caused a change in their way of life because activities such as agriculture and fishing, basic for their subsistence, are no longer possible. In addition, they have seen an increase in diseases in their population, also a result of the devastation that these projects cause.
As part of the activities, the video “The Trans-Isthmic Corridor in the War for World Power” was shown and the impacts it has on communities were discussed: dispossession, contamination, increased cost of services, trafficking and sexual exploitation, disappearances, militarization and precarious work among many others.
Finally they agreed on the importance of having these spaces for articulation and exchange to continue in the fight for the defense of the land and for a dignified life.
For more information in Spanish:
ENCUENTRO REGIONAL “MUJERES Y DISIDENCIAS EN DEFENSA DEL TERRITORIO”“EL ISTMO ES NUESTRO” (APIIDTT 13 de febrero de 2022)
El corredor transístmico en la guerra por el poder mundial ( Youtube Guerreros Verdes agosto 2021)
Panel informativo del Encuentro Regional Mujeres y Disidencias en Defensa del Territorio «El Istmo es Nuestro». ( Facebook Concejo de Mujeres Autònomas 26 de febrero 2022)
For more information from SIPAZ:
Oaxaca: Muxe’/trans Activists Reveal Discrimination in Tehuantepec Isthmus (October 19, 2020)
Oaxaca: Logro histórico para comunidades zapotecas: otorgan amparo contra eólica en el Istmo. (September 22, 2021)
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