FEDERAL COURT ALLOWS STATE-RUN UTILITY TO PROCEED WITH CONSTRUCTION OF CONTROVERSIAL DAM IN GUERRERO STATE.

In an apparent setback to local communal landowners, a federal court has given the green light for the federal government to proceed with the construction of the massive La Parota hydroelectric plant in Guerrero state. In a decision handed down in early November, Judge Livia Lizbeth Larrumbe Radilla cancelled a moratorium on the project, which she had issued in early October (see SourceMex, 2007-10-03). Larrumbe did not explain her decision, which was announced by the Consejo de la Judicatura Federal (CFJ). The communal landowners, represented by the Consejo de Ejidos y Comunidades Opositoras a La Parota (CECOP), vowed to continue to fight the project, raising the possibility of bringing the case to Mexico's high court (Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nacion, SCJN).

The La Parota project, conceived during the administration of former President Vicente Fox, has been controversial from its inception. Many local residents have come out in support of La Parota because of the jobs it would bring to the area, but thousands of others oppose the project because it would displace about 25,000 area residents, many of whom make a living from agriculture.

Opponents to continue to fight project

Opponents of the project, which created CECOP to fight La Parota, won a moratorium in October 2006, forcing the state-run electric utility company Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE) to suspend all preparatory work on the facility (see SourceMex, 2006-10-04). In October of this year, Larrumbe issued the ruling upholding the moratorium, pending a final decision. That decision, announced in November, reversed the moratorium, allowing the CFE to proceed with the project.

CFE director Alfredo Elias Ayub said Larrumbe's decision gives the government the legal right to proceed with the project, which is also supported by the administration of Guerrero Gov. Zeferino Torreblanca, a member of the center-left Partido de la Revolucion Democratica (PRD).

Elias Ayub said that the utility company would not proceed with the project without first working out some agreement with the approximately 7,000 local landowners who opposed the project.

CECOP and others criticized Elias Ayub for declaring that the CFE has a legal right to proceed with the project.

"The judge's decision by no means resolves the CFE's right to gain control of the land," said CECOP's legal adviser Vidulfo Rosales. "There is still no expropriation decree and no agreement on land use between the CFE and the local agrarian communities."

Xavier Martinez Esponda, a lawyer at the Centro Mexicano de Derecho Ambiental (CEMDA), said his organization, which is also providing legal counsel to CECOP, will continue to file legal appeals, possibly bringing the case to the SCJN. "We still have a long way to go in the next phase of our legal battle," said Martinez Esponda. "If necessary, we will bring this case to the Supreme Court."

A coalition of human rights and indigenous-rights organizations, the Asamblea Popular de Pueblos de Guerrero (APPG), has pledged to take actions to defend the rights of the local landowners if the federal government proceeds with the project. The APPG includes the Ejercito Popular Revolucionario (EPR) and the Ejercito Revolucionario del Pueblo Insurgente (EPRI). A branch of the EPR earlier this year conducted acts of sabotage in various states against facilities owned by the state-run oil company PEMEX, which it said was part of a "national campaign of harassment against the interests of the oligarchy and of this illegitimate government that has been put in motion" (see SourceMex, 2007-07-25 and 2007-09-12).

"Our organizations will respond to any actions taken by the federal and state governments against poor people in our state," said APPG leader Nicolas Chavez.

In an editorial, the Mexico City daily newspaper La Jornada also criticized President Felipe Calderon's administration, and in particular the CFE, for assuming that the court's decision clears the way legally for the project. The newspaper, which noted that three deaths have already occurred because of conflicts regarding La Parota, urged the government to take into account the levels of inequality and poverty that have led some local residents to oppose the project. "The CFE should not assume an authoritarian position and should listen to the demands of those who oppose the project," said La Jornada. "The goal should be to find a way to reconcile the positions of the people and the authorities." (Sources: Agencia de noticias Proceso, 11/07/07; Milenio Diario, 11/08/07, 11/19/07; Notimex, 11/27/07; La Jornada, 11/08/07, 11/27/07, 11/28/07; El Universal, 11/27/07, 11/28/07; La Cronica de Hoy, Reforma, El Economista, 11/28/07)