No thermoelectric plant! No gas pipeline!
Last weekend, the Amilcingo ejido was informed of the total suspension granted by the Ninth District Judge in the State of Morelos about the operation of the Morelos Gas Pipeline. This is a victory that had not been obtained in the 7 years of the social and legal struggle against this megaproject and that our brother Samir promoted from the start in the community of Amilcingo. Now his struggle begins to have legal results to protect the community.
Not only is the community of Amilcingo protected with this suspension, but also the 60 communities affected by the Morelos Gas Pipeline, because by not being able to send natural gas through Amilcingo, the gas pipeline cannot operate in the rest of its trajectory to feed the thermoelectric plant in Huexca.
And even when in January 2019 the First Collegiate Tribunal in Administrative Matters in Puebla confirmed the injunction (amparo) for 4 communities of Atlixco to the effect that they must be consulted, there was no suspension of the Morelos Pipeline until now. With the present suspension, which would last for the duration of the amparo and the appeals that are impelled in it, the more than 80 communities affected by the Morelos Integral Project, we can have a new respite that we will not be dispossessed of our natural assets, health and security, unless the Federal Government intends to violate the federal judicial order and start, like previous governments have attempted, the operation of the Morelos Integral Project.
Despite the fact that there are 10 injunctions promoted by 11 indigenous communities that are members of the Peoples Front in Defense of Land and Water of Morelos, Puebla and Tlaxcala, where they claim violation of the right to self-determination of the Nahua peoples of the Volcano, despite the CNDH Recommendation 003/2018, wherein it documents violation of the right to a consultation and the lack of security of the Morelos Integral Project around the Popocatépetl Volcano.
None of the injunctions of the indigenous peoples or the CNDH Recommendation had sufficient force to stop the activities of transporting hydrocarbons that, according to the State, is in the social interest, even when there are imminent security deficiencies in its installation. Only the agrarian rights of an ejido, the Amilcingo ejido, have had sufficient legal force to stop this project, because the rights of an ejido still have a certain constitutional protection facing the danger of dispossession of their rights. That’s why in 2014 the Ejido Commissioners that didn’t fall into acts of corruption with the CFE, were persecuted, criminalized and incarcerated as in the case of Enedina Rosas in Atlixco, a prisoner for 11 months and the ejido commissioners of San Lucas Tulcingo and San Juan Amecac, legally persecuted for 4 years.
That demonstrates the lack of guarantees that the protection of indigenous rights has in our country, where the right to consultation is seen as a right that can be violated and that, once violated, there is no way of restoring and the communities have to subject themselves, like 500 years ago, at the yoke of the owner, of the badly named “progress.”
The total suspension is granted due to the illegal occupation of land that the Morelos Gas Pipeline carried out in the Amilcingo ejido, where the pipe was installed with the presence of the state, federal and army public forces, resulting in 5 compañeros shot on April 13, 2014. This suspension of the Morelos Gas Pipeline is added to the definitive suspension achieved by Huexca so that the Cuautla River cannot be contaminated with the water discharged from the thermoelectric plant, to the total suspensions of at least 3 ejidos of Ayala against the operation of the aqueduct and the amparo won in Atlixco by the 4 communities that set a precedent for the rest of the communities not consulted.
That’s why, even when the President of the Republic says that starting and imposing the Morelos Integral Project is pending, we say that what’s pending is that he listen to us publicly, clarify the murder of Samir, punishment of those responsable for torture, justice for those incarcerated and persecuted, dismantling of the shock groups and that our rights embodied in the San Andrés Accords are recognized and respected. Restoring the social fabric of our peoples is pending, respecting their autonomy and self-determination and punishing whoever may violate the rights of the indigenous peoples of Mexico, the poorest, the most dispossessed, the historical defenders and founders of this country.
We demand that the CFE, the President of the Republic and the companies involved in the transportation of natural gas in Morelos, respect the judicial decision and cease their intention to impose the Morelos Integral Project on Zapatista lands.
We hold the government and the companies responsible for any act of intimidation or repression that the communities affected and its defenders may suffer because of the PIM, either directly or indirectly by means of shock groups, criminals linked to the government and companies, criminalization or repression of any other kind.
Justice for the defender of territory and human rights Samir Flores!
Samir and Zapata live, the struggle continues!
Peoples Front in Defense of Land and Water Morelos, Puebla, Tlaxcala
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Originally Published by congresonacionalindígena.org
Tuesday, July 2, 2019
Re-Published with English interpretation by the Chiapas Support Committee
Chiapas Support Committee 