Since 2003, when the Federal Commission for Electricity (CFE) undertook preparatory steps in the construction of the hydroelectric dam La Parota on the territory of 35 peasant communities in Guerrero, 25,000 inhabitants have faced displacement and loss of livelihoods.

The Council of Ejidos and Communities Opposed to the La Parota Dam (CECOP), a resistance movement uniting peasant farmers, both male and female, was launched on 28 July 2003.

After nearly 10 years of struggle, Mexican peasants fighting to protect their lands from the planned La Parota hydro-dam on the Río Papagayo won a definitive victory, with Guerrero’s Gov. Ángel Aguirre Rivero and CECOP signing the Cacahuatepec Accords. Under the agreement, Aguirre has committed the state will not approve La Parota dam if affected communities do not accept it, if they are not justly compensated, or it will impact the environment—effectively ending the project. Aguirre is also committed to seek an audience between CECOP and Mexican President Felipe Calderón to assure a commitment to the same principles from the federal government. La Parota dam would have flooded 17,000 hectares, impacting some 100,000 local residents.

Final agreement reaffirms the rights of peasants

The Accords also guarantee that the state of Guerrero will cease the repression of the peasant movement, respect the legal rulings that were issued in favor of the CECOP and support peasant efforts to restore the social fabric that has been broken as a result of the violent repression of the past nine years.

FIAN International has supported the peasant’s struggle since 2004. In 2004 and 2005 FIAN International intervened with two urgent actions when the resisting peasants, in their struggle to defend their land rights against the construction of the hydroelectric dam, were met with violence and repression.  In 2008 FIAN International intervened again with an Amicus Curiae in support of a constitutional complaint by the affected communities, in which it argued the lack of consultation of the affected people and an inadequate environmental evaluation for the construction of the dam. FIAN International welcomes the Cacahuatepec Accords and will closely monitor government compliance with its stipulations and further steps towards the definitive cancellation of the hydroelectric project. 

With announcement of the Accords, the local Tlachinollan Human Rights Center said that its attorney Vidulfo Rosales Sierra, who had fled the country in May due to threats on his life, would return to Guerrero to hold the authorities to their commitment to assure the security of threatened social leaders. Rosales, who had defended many opponents of La Parota on legal charges related to the protest movement, started receiving death threats this year at his home in Ayotzinapa from an anonymous group calling itself “The Law”. 

Tribunal confirms dam project cancellation

The Second Tribunal on Penal and Administrative Matters from the First Circuit has confirmed the definitive cancellation of the hydroelectric dam project La Parota in its denial of a motion advanced by a minority group of communards against the resolution released by the Agrarian Unitary Tribunal (TUA) no. 41, with headquarters in Acapulco, which previously had nullified the decision of the assembly.

According to the Tlachinollan Mountain Center for Human Rights, “the decision of the Collegiate Tribunal confirms once again that the legal struggle undertaken by the opponents to the project–the communards, ejidatarios, and neighbors untied in the Council of Ejidos and Communities Opposed to the La Parota Dam (CECOP)–has a legal basis and social legitimacy. It is to be hoped, for this reason, that the recent ruling will induce the signing of the Cacahuatepec Accords, which to date have been avoided by the state Executive, the same body that could return peace to the region”.

Marco Antonio Suástegui Muñoz, spokesperson for CECOP, declared in a press-conference that with this victory gained from the courts, “the CECOP together with Tlachinollan has defeated the CFE and the federal government, because on 12 August 2007 more than 7,000 communards rejected La Parota, given that it is not viable socially or juridically. The dam project is in decline, and this is important because it supports the decisions taken by the owners of the land”.

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