Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
This is the life of the poor: we fish so we can eat and have something to
sell, to have a bit of money. They say that now that the wind project is
here, they'll give us money for our land and sea, but the money won't
last forever. We don't agree with this. How are we going to live? 69
Unable to peaceably resolve their grievances and increasingly desperate
to preserve their way of life, the impoverished indigenous peoples of
San Dionisio del Mar grew ever more hostile as the development project
progressed. According to one account, the group stormed the town's
municipal palace in January of 2012, ousting the municipal president and
replacing its regime with a general assembly that was bent on preventing
the wind project from going forward. 70 The assembly then established a
“permanent watch” to keep the developer's construction contractors out of
the town. Acts of violence and intimidation ensued, ranging from blockades
to stoning to attacks on the street. According to one local newspaper, at
least 14 violent events relating to the wind farm project occurred in the last
four months of 2012 alone. 71
Determined to stop the wind farm project, the Ikoots and other locals
also took its developer to court. Recognizing that the developer had not
adequately secured rights to build the project under local law, a Mexican
federal court granted the group's request for a temporary injunction. Among
other things, the court found that the developer's actions in connection
with the project were “in violation of the land rights of the community.” 72
Unfortunately, the injunction proved a short-lived victory for the Ikoots
people. The developer somehow managed to resume project construction
work within a few months amid death threats aimed at vocal opponents of
the project, drawing criticism from some justice advocacy groups. 73
The unrest surrounding the San Dionisio Del Mar Wind Project is
emblematic of an ongoing struggle between wind energy developers and
indigenous groups throughout southern Mexico. Opposition to the region's
Piedra Larga I wind farm in the city of Union Hidalgo was tied to the
fatal shooting of a wind energy contractor near that community in 2011. 74
When developers sought to commence construction on Piedra Larga II,
a local “Resistance Committee” comprised mostly of the community's
native Zapotec people soon formed. The group traveled to Mexico City in
mid-2013 to demand that their contracts with the developer be nullified and
that construction immediately cease.
In a report before Mexico's Agrarian Unitary Tribunal, the opposition
group denounced what they considered to be “lies, criminalization of
protests, pollution of lands and waters, [and] deaths of birds and land
animals” associated with the wind project's first phase. 75 Based on their
experience with Phase I of the Piedra Larga project, they were determined
to prevent construction of the second phase. In the words of one group
member, “wind-energy is not clean energy for us; instead, it is an energy of
death.” 76
 
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