Winds of Resistance on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec

On the Ulises Ruiz – Felipe Calderón visit at La Ventosa

The same winds that softly blow through the graceful, green grasses of this Zapotec land on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec are the very ones that move the cogs of the windmills, while the electricity that they generate, in turn, moves the perverse machinery of the world capitalist system.

The same winds that fuel the ambition of government rulers and transnational companies and brought the voracious, destructive advance of the capitalist, neoliberal North to these lands has also brought forth the millennial resistance of this deep, spiritual, communal, indigenous South ––the winds of resistance of the peoples of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.

On January 22, while Ulises Ruiz and Felipe Calderón attended the inauguration of one of many projects that make up the mega project for wind-based electrical energy generation, two rages –maybe more– came together in a repudiation and protest action on the Trans-Isthmic Highway, the narrow waistline of this region.

Section 22 teachers of the Isthmus region and farmers of the Binni zaa and Ikoots regional peoples participated in the action. The teachers were there because of their 2006 commitment to repudiate any public appearance in any part of the state by the criminal governor Ulises Ruiz, responsible for more than 26 murders of social activists in 2006. The farmers of the region were there to oppose the construction of the mega wind project in their territory after they were deceived and their lands plundered by foreign transnational companies, with the unconditional complicity of government officials at all levels and of all political parties.

There, far away, behind an impenetrable police and military cordon, the bad government leaders spoke of the marvelous progress, development, and well-being that this project will bring before a crowd of national and local businessmen, politicians from all the parties, corrupt resistance movement leaders, and representatives of social organizations that traffic in resistance or, as they themselves say, sell themselves at a high price ––the usual few beneficiaries of these neoliberal projects.

Here, on the Trans-Isthmic Highway, they had set up an implausible roadblock impeding the free circulation of people and vehicles, constituting an “attack on a major thoroughfare” by the very forces of state repression that never hesitate to use clubs, teargas and tanks to violently clear highways and press charges against people who take the streets in protest actions.

Here, some of the teachers spoke out against the Alliance for Quality Education, a measure clearly aimed at the privatization of public education, the training of students to be peons and workers in the huge transnational corporations, and the loss of labor rights for educational workers. The Binni zaa and Ikoots farmers spoke about the plunder and deceptive practices of the big energy corporations, mainly from Spain, that plan to take over their lands where, for centuries, they and their families have produced food for the sustenance of their own original peoples.

And as men and women spoke, all the pain and suffering, grievances and injustices, both ancestral and modern, came together, and the voices became one, the voice of those who are always excluded. Those men and women who, for centuries, have put their lands, hands, backs, knowledge, sweat, and blood into the development of a country whose benefits are unknown to them and that belongs to a small minority of oligarchs. Those men and women who, due to the robbery and undervaluation of the products of their labor, have in fact subsidized the development of a national industry whose corporate leaders have no ethics, no morals, and whose grandeur has only served to heighten their urge for pillage and plunder, now reinforced by competition with big transnational companies, mainly Spanish, in this new war for the reconquest of our country.

In the middle of the Trans-Isthmic Highway, one of many frontiers of resistance that divides the capitalist, Western, neoliberal North from the deep, communal, indigenous South, the only two truly antagonistic forces of humanity lined up on each side of the border fence ––the only two sides of the world that are truly different and that sooner rather than later will engage in a definitive clash, the oppressors and the exploited.

On one side, criminal government officials and their clique of foreign and local businessmen, politicians of all parties, leaders of corrupt social organizations, and news media gloated over their grandeur and power. On the other side of the fence, this side, indigenous people, teachers, farmers, young people, students, workers, all joined voices and wills together in anti-capitalist resistance, with the joyful faces that come from recovering dignity and hope.

Winds of resistance on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, winds that come to strengthen the whirlwind of resistance that is slowly but surely taking shape in the state of Oaxaca and the whole country, one that will uproot the windmills of capitalism in this region of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and sweep away the bad governments, states and the predatory capitalist system in its revolutionary whirl towards freedom.

David Venegas Reyes “alebrije”
VOCAL-APPO.
Oaxaca de Magon, City of Resistance.
January 23, 2009

3 Comments

  1. COMUNICADO GRUO SOLIDARIO KA VENTA OAXACA
    HOY EN lA VENTA oAXACA, DESPUES DE QUE LA COMPAÑIAS EXTRANJERAS ESPAÑOLAS DESPOJARON CON ENGAÑOS DE SUS TIERRAS A LOS EJIDATARIOS E HIJOS DE EJIDATARIOS( CON MISERIAS Y PROMESA DE PROGRESO), EN COMPLICIDAD CON LOS CACIQUES, CORRUPTOS Y TRAIDORES DE LOS PRIISTAS DE ESTA COMUNIDAD .LOS VUELVEN A ENGAÑAR CON EL PRETEXTO DE LOS EMPLEOS Y DE QUE PODIAN TENER MAQUINARIA O EQUIPOS PARA QUE TRABAJARAN EN EL PROYECTO, ENGAÑAR, EN ESTOS MOMENTOS SE VUELVE A COMPROBAR QUE EL FAMOSO DESARROLLO QUE PREGONAÑ SON VILES MENTIRAS, PORQUE HOY ESTAN DESPIDIENDO A PERSONAL (EJIDATARIOS ) QUE ENTREGARON SUS TIERRAS, NO LES PERMITEN QUE TRABAJEN LOS CARROS O MAQUINARIAS QUE LOS DUEÑOS DE LAS TIERRAS TIENEN, TODO UN CONTUBERBIO DE LA EMPRESA , SINDICATO SUTERM, Y LOS CACIQUES LOCALES, AYER JUEVES CUANDO LOS EJIDATARIOS PROTESTARON POR TANTAS VIOLACIONES A SUS DERECHOS LOS CACIQUES PRIISTAS CARLOS ANTONIO ORDAZ , ANGELINO SOLORZANO, ERNESTO SOLORZANO, MAXIMINO MARCOS S. AZUZADOS POR ROSENDO MARQUEZ REPRESENTANTE DEL SUTERM Y LA EMPRESA ENVIAN GOLPEADORES A ROMPER UN BLOQUEO QUE TIENEN LOS CAMPESINOS EN LA ENTRADA LADO SUR DE LA POBLACION, RESULTANDO 5 HERIDOS:
    Y HOY VIERNES ANTE LA CERRAZON DE ESTOS CORRUPTOS CACIQUES Y EL CONTUBERBIO DE LOS ENVIADOS DEL GOBIERNO ASESINO DE ULISES RUIZ,( JAVIER JIMENEZ HERRERA), LOS EJIDATARIOS Y DUEÑOS DE PARCELAS INICIARON EN PROTESTA A CERRAR LOS ACCESOS A LA SUBESTACION ELECTRICA DEL PROYECTO EOLICO LA VENTA IV, E IMPEDIR EL ACCESO A ESTAS, Y ASI MISMO OTROS CAMPESINOS TAMBIEN CIERRAN SUS PARCELAS ANTE ESTOS ENGAÑOS, DE LAS EMPRESAS DEPREDADORAS Y LOS CORRUPTOS MENCIONADOS Y CON ESTO INICIARAN LOS PROCESOS DE JUICIO DE NULIDAD DE LOS CONTRATOS LEONINOS QUE FIRMARON CON LOS COYOTES DE MADERAS Y GRANOS, Y LOS PRESTANOMBRES DEL GRUPO ESPAÑOL ACCIONA MEXICO( EURUS).
    ANTE TODOS ESTOS ATROPELLOS Y MENTIRAS LOS PUEBLOS LEVANTAN SU VOZ Y EXIGEN QUE LAS LEYES NACIONALES E INTERNACIONALES LO PROTEGAN,
    ANTE ESTOS HECHOS PEDIMOS LA SOLIDARIDAD Y LA DIFUSION EN ESTOS MOMENTOS CRITICOS QUE VIVE NUESTRO PUEBLO.
    ATENTAMENTE
    GRUPO DE AUTENTICOS EJIDATARIOS.
    FUERA TRASNACIONALES DE NUESTRAS TIERRAS.
    NO AL ENGAÑO Y DESPOJO DE NUESTRAS TIERRAS.
    NO A LA PERDIDA DE LA SOBERANIA NACIONAL,
    NO A ALA PRIVATIZACION DE LA ENERGIA ELECTRICA

  2. CORPORATE MEDIA: BusinessWire:

    January 22, 2009 02:15 PM Eastern Time

    Mexican President Inaugurates First Phase of EURUS Wind Farm

    * Starts the largest wind power generation project in Latin America
    * Wind farm built by ACCIONA will supply 25% of CEMEX’s energy needs in Mexico, a significant step in the Company becoming more sustainable

    JUCHITAN, Oaxaca, Mexico–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Mexican President Felipe Calderón today celebrated the development of the EURUS wind farm project already underway, which will have 250 megawatts (MW) of power production capacity that will be consumed mainly by CEMEX. The wind farm represents an investment of US$550 million (approximately €427 million euros) by the Spanish company ACCIONA.

    EURUS wind farm is a self-generation project to supply 25% of CEMEX Mexico’s needs. It has been developed jointly between CEMEX and ACCIONA Energia and will have 167 wind turbines with 1.5MW of capacity each, built by ACCIONA Windpower. It is located in Juchitan, in the Southern Mexican State of Oaxaca in a 2,500 hectare area in the Tehuantepec Isthmus, an area well-known for its wind resources.

    The energy that will be produced by EURUS is estimated to be sufficient to power a Mexican city of half a million inhabitants, reducing CO2 emissions by approximately 600 thousand metric tons each year, which is approximately 25% of the total emissions generated by such a community.

    EURUS will be one of the largest wind farms in the world and the second largest in terms of emissions reduction registered under the Clean Development Mechanism of the United Nations (Kyoto Protocol). It will also have one of the largest emission reduction indexes per installed capacity in the world.

    The project has created more than 850 jobs in the region during the construction phase and will have a local economic impact equivalent to 20 million Mexican pesos per year.

    The first phase will be operational in the first quarter of 2009 and the last phase will be operational in the last quarter of 2009. Currently 25 turbines are installed.

    The wind farm represents a major contribution towards the global effort that CEMEX is making to reduce its impacts and to become more sustainable.

    Lorenzo H. Zambrano, Chairman and CEO of CEMEX said, “At CEMEX we are committed to innovation and to becoming more sustainable by the use of alternative fuels, and the application of more efficient processes to save energy, to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and to contribute to a clean environment. We are determined to include renewable sources of electricity into our energy mix, and therefore today we feel very proud of our alliance with ACCIONA, so that the EURUS wind farm can begin to transform the power of the wind into electric power”.

    Esteban Morras, board member of ACCIONA, said, “EURUS is the largest wind farm installed by our company in the world and represents a huge impulse to the development of wind power in Mexico. This country has great potential for wind development and should take advantage of this in the necessary transition toward a more sustainable energy model, creating with it wealth and employment in a sector of the future”. He also expressed his satisfaction by the collaboration with CEMEX in this project. “CEMEX is a great company and we are delighted to work with it on this important initiative”.

    CEMEX is a growing global building materials company that provides high-quality products and reliable service to customers and communities in more than 50 countries throughout the world. CEMEX has a rich history of improving the well-being of those it serves through its efforts to pursue innovative industry solutions and efficiency advancements and to promote a sustainable future. For more information, visit http://www.cemex.com.

    ACCIONA Energia is a world leader in renewable energy systems. It has installed 6,000 MW of power in 208 wind farms in 14 countries, and produces wind turbines using proprietary technology. It also has thermosolar, photovoltaic hydroelectric and biomass facilities and produces biodiesel and bioethanol. It´s a subsidiary of ACCIONA, a multinational conglomerate focused on sustainability, with a presence in the sectors of infrastructure, services and renewable energy.

    This press release contains forward-looking statements and information that are necessarily subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. Many factors could cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of CEMEX to be materially different from those expressed or implied in this release, including, among others, changes in general economic, political, governmental and business conditions globally and in the countries in which CEMEX does business, changes in interest rates, changes in inflation rates, changes in exchange rates, the level of construction generally, changes in cement demand and prices, changes in raw material and energy prices, changes in business strategy, and various other factors. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein. CEMEX assumes no obligation to update or correct the information contained in this press release.

  3. Boletin de Prensa 6
    2 de Febrero del 2009
    NUEVA AGRESION EN EL PARQUE EOLICO LA VENTA IV-OAXACA-MEXICO
    UCIZONI

    En los últimos 5 días y después del enfrentamiento ocurrido el pasado 29 de Enero, se incrementaron las acciones de los ejidatarios de La Venta, quienes mantuvieron el bloqueo al acceso al lugar donde se construye el Parque Eolico La Venta IV y también recuperaron 3 predios y suspendieron los trabajos en la subestación eléctrica que construye en ese lugar la empresa española Acciona-Eurus.

    En el ejido La Venta, Oaxaca, se ha mantenido estos días un clima de tensión y de provocación que hoy 2 de Febrero a las 11.30 horas culminó con un nuevo intento de desalojo, ya que un grupo de golpeadores priistas encabezados por Angelino Solorzano, Maximino M. Santiago y Carlos Antonio Ordaz intentaron con palos y piedras disolver el bloqueo que mantienen los campesinos, al verse superados los atacantes intervinieron policias estatales lanzando bombas de gas lacrimogéno en contra de los ejidatarios, cayendo uno de estos artefactos en el patio de la casa de la señora Asunción Jimenéz, quién fue hospitalizada por la intoxicación.

    A pesar de la intervención de la policia estatal, los ejidatarios lograron reagruparse y mantienen el bloqueo y responsabilizan al Gobierno de Ulises Ruiz de cualquier nueva agresión, ya que el Gobierno del Estado ha dado protección a los golpeadores priistas y ha evitado que se atiendan las justas demandas de los campesinos inconformes.

    UCIZONI le demanda al gobierno estatal y a la Procuraduría Agraria cesen las acciones de divisionismo y las maniobras que vienen impulsando y que buscan la destitución de Mario Manuel Carrasco, actual Presidente del Comisariado Ejidal, quién encabeza la lucha de los campesinos de La Venta.

    Atentamente
    PCI-UCIZONI

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