Greengrants has helped to support several groups working to mitigate the negative effects of the this project and include citizen voice in decision making, including Centro Salvadorero de Tecnologia Apropiada (50-490) and Mexican Movement of Dam-Affected People and in Defense of Rivers (51-476 & 51-392).
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Since the 20th century, around two trillion US dollars have been spent on the construction of more than 45,000 major dams. These dams have displaced between 40-80 million people and flooded a total area the size of Spain. More than ten billion dollars of this amount is from the Plan Puebla-Panama, the largest development project in the history of Mexico. Announced in May of 2001 by Mexican President Vicente Fox, the Plan Puebla-Panama (PPP) aims to connect the nine southern-most regions of Mexico to all of Central America and parts of Colombia with a series of roads and hydroelectric projects. When the PPP is finished, a continuous infrastructure will connect Argentina to Canada.
Although the PPP may seem beneficial to the Mexican people on paper, massive human rights violations are being committed in the name of progress. The PPP includes 28 mega projects, which will permanently remove thousands of people from their lands, leaving them without homes or jobs. The dam projects included in the PPP create the most displacement and the most destruction of livelihood.
The people of Mexico have had no say in the preparation, design or implementation of the PPP. In response, citizen groups from around the country have come together to form the Mexican Movement of Dam-Affected People and in Defense of Rivers. As the PPP continues to dominate the region’s development agenda, civil society continues to stand against it.
The Illusion of Development
The PPP is an umbrella framework that unifies multiple development projects already in place. If the project is finished as planned, 5,860 miles of roads will be constructed along with 25 large hydroelectric dams. Implemented by the Federal Electricity Commission, one of the governing branches of Mexico, these projects are designed to build up the infrastructure of Mexico to ease the operations of multinational corporations. Water and electricity will become privatized, putting basic services of thousands of people in the hands of the corporate sector.
Because of lack of local participation and input, the initial PPP proposal was rejected immediately by indigenous communities and grassroots groups. The first major public resistance occurred only seven months after the PPP was announced by Fox, ten miles north of Mexico City. There, in Atenco, the government had allocated 15,000 hectares of communal farmland to the PPP in to build a new airport. The farmers resisted for nine months, until the government relented and gave up claims to the farm land.
After the Atenco protests, the PPP disappeared from the public eye for about a year and a half. During this hiatus, the government worked to improve the public image of the PPP. In November of 2003, Fox proclaimed a new PPP, stating that “we [the government] have held more than 50 direct consultations of 36 indigenous peoples, since we want development . . . with a human face.”
However, this new “human face” was only that: a face. The consultations with indigenous people that Fox referred to were hosted by the National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples and have been described by many local leaders as “rigged”. The majority of the participants were brought in from the National Commission itself to favorably answer questions relating to the PPP.
Also, in response to protests, the government has made a practice of temporarily cancelling dam projects. Construction will start again a short while after the cancellations, with funding from a separate governmental department unaffiliated with the Federal Electricity Commission, the primary organizer of the PPP. The government will claim that these dams have been “cancelled”, even though they have simply been removed from PPP rhetoric.
The Unification of a Movement
Although resisting large dam projects is not a new occurrence in developing nations, the PPP challenges civil society in a way it never has been challenged before. The PPP affects a whole continent, rather than just a region or a country, and civil society has organized throughout Latin America to resist its execution.
Several annual forums have been started in the last few years to coordinate strategies and plans among activist groups working against the PPP. These forums are not limited to Mexico, but occur in all countries affected by Mesoamerican dam projects. The largest gathering of dam-affected people is the annual [begin bold]Mesoamerican Forum on Dams[end bold], held every year since 2002. Greengrants helped to fund the third meeting in 2004 in El Salvador, through a $5,000 grant to the host organization, Centro Salvadoreño de Tecnología Apropiada.
Conceived during discussions at the second Mesoamerican Forum on Dams in Honduras, the Mexican Movement of Dam-Affected People and in Defense of Rivers (Mapder) became the first organization to unite all anti-dam groups throughout Mexico. The first meeting of Mapder was held in October 2004, with 60 organizations and over 600 individuals participating. It has held a meeting each year since, with membership growing at every event.
Greengrants has funded three founding members of Mapder: The Organización Social para el Desarrollo, Centro de Investigaciones Económicas y Poltícas de Acción Comunitaria (CIEPAC), and Educacion para La Paz. Both CIEPAC and Educacion para La Paz work in the Chiapas region to increase community participation against dam construction. Organización Social para el Desarrollo works to resist the construction of the La Parota dam on the Papagayo River, where Mapder held its first meeting.
Victories and Defeats
Even with the unified work of these groups, the struggle against the PPP has been hard, with setbacks and successes alike.
One member of Mapder, Jaime Gutiérrez, was arrested in May 2007. He was jailed for 48 hours for letting his cattle graze on his own land, which had been seized by the Federal Electricity Commission for the construction of the Arcediano dam. Gutiérrez did not know that his land had been seized, and the government officials only informed him of this as they arrested him. Gutiérrez was released, but many more have been jailed or even killed (namely Valentin Ibarra Navarrete and Esteban Abreg) due to their protesting of dam sites.
The government has mostly ignored the opposition to the dam construction, but there are some officials siding with the activists. In February 2007, a district judge issued a statement suspending the construction of la Parota dam and ordered all lands seized by the Federal Electricity Commission for this dam returned to the indigenous owners. This is a significant victory for Organización Social para el Desarrollo, which has worked extensively against la Parota. If completed, over 25,000 people will be displaced by this dam. (See full article here.)
Also this past year, another judge ruled that the Cajón dam is operating illegally, due to inappropriate land compensations and rehabilitation practices. Greengrants made a grant to Mapder in 2006 to develop a media campaign against the Cajón dam, where the Federal Electricity Commission had constructed houses for resettlement near the Ceboruco volcano, on land barely habitable. At the time of this article, the Federal Electricity Commission has yet to respond to either this or the La Parota ruling.
The most significant victory for the dam-affected people of Mexico occurred in 2004. After a nearly 40 year struggle, the government agreed to return seized indigenous Huitiupan lands and stop the construction of the Itzantun dam. Although the government had taken over 13,000 hectares of land, they only returned 5,258. Still, the people celebrated this victory at the Third Chiapas Conference against Neoliberalism at the proposed Itzantun dam site. Two Greengrants grantees, Educacion para La Paz and CIEPAC, attended this celebration. (See full article here.) Just recently, the San Nicol·s dam of Jalisco, where Mapder held its third conference in 2006, was permanently cancelled as well.
With these events, there is evidence that the Mexican government is beginning to realize the true impact of the PPP. The anti-dam movement in Mexico is strong, and it will only continue to grow stronger. Gustavo Castro Soto, representative for Mapder and CIEPAC, recently noted:
“It is becoming clear that these movements are growing and becoming stronger, and linking up with other similar groups in both rural and urban areas – here in Mexico, in Latin America, and around the world.”