This week we received a letter from our friends at the Center for Economic & Political Research for Community Action (CIEPAC) in Chiapas with an update of the on-going repression (including death threats) that members of their staff, and community leaders with whom they work, have been experiencing.
CIEPAC has been an organizational ally of Equal Exchange for many years. We have tremendous respect for their investigative research and analysis, and for the popular education work they carry out, both in the indigenous farming communities of Chiapas, as well as with international audiences. They have provided highly informative and insightful talks to the groups we bring to Chiapas which provide valuable context to help frame the extremely difficult situation facing small farmers and rural communities in the region.
Please join us in solidarity with those in Mexico who are actively struggling for the economic, political, social and resource rights of small farmer communities. Mexican officials need to know that we will not stand by while these human rights abuses continue.
Nikhil Aziz, Executive Director of Grassroots International, is disseminating the following letter which describes the current situation and asks for our response. Please take a moment to read the letter and send your email to Mexican officials.
Dear Friends,
Human rights and community leaders in Mexico continue to experience threats – including death threats. They ask for help from global activists to protect their lives and their community work.
Current threats follow previous repression, including the unjust prosecution of local organizers of the Civil Resistance against the high cost of energy in the southern state of Campeche. Last December, in response to an emergency action, letters of solidarity with Sara Lopez and Joaquin Aguilar brought authorities in Campeche to the negotiating table.
Your support is still needed.
Sara and Joaquin continue to be defamed and harassed by the Federal Commission of Electricity (CFE), and these tactics are now spreading throughout communities in Mexico who resist the increases in fees for electric service. The resistance of communities in the states of Campeche and Chiapas is spurred by sky-rocketing electricity costs, due to the growth of U.S. backed privatization schemes, and the construction of new dams that cause environmental damage and displace families.
Now people in various communities in the state of Chiapas are also being targeted for their resistance to the electric rate hikes. In one community, the actions of the Federal Commission of Electricity took a step up by fueling conflicts between community members. CFE’s “divide and rule” approach resulted in the death of a farmer and left several people wounded.
In another instance, Nora Cacho, the Executive Director of the Center for Economic & Political Research for Community Action (CIEPAC) – a Grassroots‘ ally – has been receiving threatening phone calls from an unknown individual. The calls began after Nora led the World March of Women in December, during which she spoke out against acts of feminicide and the criminalization of social movements in Mexico . According to an open letter released by CIEPAC last week, government officers and police were filming and taking photographs of the demonstration.
Let’s send a resounding message that the world will not turn a blind eye to government repression of peaceful activists. Please lend your voice once again to pressure federal, state, and municipal authorities in Mexico to stop their tactics of harassment and intimidation against women and organizers. Time is of the essence.
Sincerely,
Nikhil Aziz
Executive Director
Small Farmers. Big Change. 
There are problems of electrical costs throughout Latin America mainly fueled by the world price of oil. However stopping the construction of dams is not the solution to a problem Mankind has brought on himself through deforestation.
Dams help to control and regulate the flow of waters previously uncontrollable and a major cause of flooding of small farmers and rural communities. Dams are an effective use of our limited natural resources, retaining waters which previously rushed out to sea which can now be used for such things as irrigation and lowering energy costs.
Dams also create new sources of income, like tourism, for rural communities.
One of the most important things rural farmers can do is plant trees. But not just any tree: trees which have agricultural uses such as feed for animals, adding nutrients to the soil, stopping erosion of top soil, serving as fire breaks and creating alternate sources of income.
One such tree is paulownia elongata. In Panama the university ENOCIS is developing an agriculture extension center for peoples of extreme poverty to teach alternate forms of agriculture.
The tree of choice s paulownia elongata. You may read more about this project at http://www.paulownianow.org.
David,
Thanks for your comments. I absolutely agree with you that planting trees, caring for our forests, and protecting eco-systems is a highly important activity for all of us – not just rural farmers – to be engaged in. We must all take this very seriously. I am not familiar with the particular tree you mention, but will check it out. I’m also curious to learn what you refer to when you say that ENOCIS is teaching “peoples of extreme poverty” alternative forms of agriculture.
Most of the small scale farmers we work with are taking enormous measures, at both labor and financial costs, to protect their land’s ecosystems. Before the Green Revolution, and the advent of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, these same farmers were growing their crops in a much more harmonious way with nature. Now that we know more, and the price of these chemical inputs has risen, small farmers are returning to organic and sustainable agriculture practices.
Fair Trade coffee, cacao and tea producers are required to make environmental protection a part of their cultivation practices. Organic certification requires extremely strict, and again very costly, measures. While some of these costs are passed on to consumers, I think it’s fair to say that small farmers carry most of the burden for caring for their ecosystems — and that we all benefit from this.
Regarding your first point about dams. I’m certainly not an expert on dams or on the specific ones mentioned in Nikhil’s letter. I can tell you however, that while I don’t think CIEPAC is arguing against dams perse, they are very concerned about the question of resource rights. That is to say, where are the dams built, who benefits, who suffers, who profits, and who makes the decisions. For years, Chiapanecos have suffered from the construction of dams which have flooded entire communities, displaced indigenous farmers, and caused widespread environmental damage. Most of the electricity produced services the entire country of Mexico, yet the majority of indigenous farmers in Chiapas have no access to electricity.
I believe that it is important to delve a little deeper into the issues, rather than take certain statements (ie. “dams are an effective use of our limited natural resources”) as automatic givens. I welcome others who have been studying this issue to weigh in here.
One final comment bears mentioning. The letter that I’ve posted, and the action we are asking readers to take, asks for concerned citizens to protest government repression of peaceful activists. Regardless of one’s position on a particular event, those who will be affected have every right to research the issues, inform others, and make their point of view known. Harassment, intimidation and death threats are not appropriate responses from the government and should never be tolerated.
Thanks,
Phyllis
Dear Phyllis and David,
I also agree that there will be many other alternatives to the issues of environmental degradation in indigenous communities in Chiapas. Nevertheless, as an agronomist, I am reluctant to say what would be best for the indigenous people in Chiapas.
My understanding is that they have opposed large dams and other mega-projects mostly because: a. they are never consulted if that would be the best solution for their communities; and, b. after many families in the community are displaced and their growing fields flooded, they still have to pay a high price for the energy that is being produced in their own backyard.
These are some of the reasons why rural and urban communities throughout the globe, including here in the United States, are reclaiming their food and energy sovereignty.
Here are some ideas and peasant and indigenous-led solutions:
. Reduce consumption and waste. For indigenous people, living well and wealthy does not mean consuming more goods.
. Refurbish old hydropower plants. By replacing old turbines, it is possible to increase efficiency of existing dams without wasting more money in new dams.
. Support traditional agriculture and agroecological practices. Indigenous and peasant’s agriculture practices are more environment friendly than the industrial agricultural model. They protect the soil from erosion that would inevitably clog waterways and dams. Indigenous and peasant communities conserve biodiversity and forest reserve that helps to refill aquifers and superficial water reserves.
. Listen to communities’ claims and needs.
. Respect local sovereignty over resources.
. Protect the economic and cultural rights of communities affected by mega-projects and new “green” energy projects.
. Stop the harassment and intimidation against organizers and communities who oppose to those solutions.
I hope it contributes to the conversation somehow.
Saulo Araújo
Program Coordinator for Brazil and Mesoamerica Region
Grassroots International
Many thanks Saulo for sharing this important perspective…
I’d like to refocus on the fact that Human Rights workers in Chiapas and throughout Mexico are increasingly being targeted by government sponsored paramilitary groups. As Americans, we have a big stake in what is happening in Mexico since we heavily fund the Mexican military and police with our tax dollars.
The Merida Initiative (http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5204), or “Plan Mexico” (a reference to the failed “Plan Colombia”) calls for $1.6 billion in funding to Mexico, Central American, and Caribbean countries for security aid to design and carry out counter-narcotics, counter-terrorism, and border security measures.
The Merida Initiative is part of the much larger, more Orwellian, and scarier “Security & Prosperity Partnership” agreement between the US, Canada and Mexico. http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/17354
Unfortunately this funding is also going to groups that oppress those who criticize the government and local power structures.
I think that this cuts to the core of what is happening in Chiapas concerning Human Rights workers.
I’m a strong believer in first focusing on what we ourselves can do to solve a problem rather than blaming the victims. However, that being said I think that Saulo is right on the money with his points.
Thought I’d stop by for a minute to update my response about dams. We have recently partnered with a group which has a green energy patent which uses paulownia as the biomass to produce electricity.
This solution provides reforestation opportunities, jobs, carbon credit possibilities, new jobs and income sources as well as green energy.
If you would like more information on this new wonderful solution to created energy and save the environment too. Please feel free to contact us.