Oaxaca Indigenous Voice Their Struggle Against Wind Farm - Gustavo Esteva Gustavo Esteva - La Jornada
go to original March 6, 2013

"They are not going to enter here. Although the government may kill us, they are not going to enter. We are going to fight for our children. We do not want land for wind farms. We do not want political parties, not the PAN [National Action Party], not the PRD [Party of the Democratic Revolution], not the PRI [Party of the Institutional Revolution] ... If they kill one or two, more are going to rise up, because we are not alone. They divide people and create hatred, but now we do not fear them. They themselves teach us not to have fear."

So said The General in the village of Álvaro Obregón on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, when the Caravan of Solidarity arrived.

Mareña Renewables is not just the facade of transnational capital. It is the symbol of the increasingly widespread pattern of accumulation by dispossession. The struggle of these villagers is also our struggle.

"The project is against the [indigenous] farmers, fishermen, motorcycle taxis, against iguaneros [iguana hunters], the goat-herders, the ranchers ... They are fucking all of them ... the government says that the terrain is no good for anything, that it is pure chaparral. But in the time of air [fall], the leaves are thrown around [fall from trees], and the livestock eat them. In the mountains there are iguanas, rabbits, chachalacas. In the lagoon there are shrimp and all kinds of fish. We are campesinos [indigenous farmers]; we have our harvests.

"The island and the sea belong to everyone. Here we have life as the fountain of work, here we fish by casting our nets ... the COCEI [Political Party: Coalition of Workers, Peasants, and Students of the Isthmus] trampled on us... They were elected senators, as Héctor Sánchez was going to be governor, but he lost the deal so ... Now we are waking up, and the elders have decided.

"When they began to hand out the cash, we realized what kind of people were cheating us, what kind of people we were dealing with. Thus began the struggle.

"They attacked us with the state police, even though we are not criminals or drug traffickers. We are humble people, and we have no money to buy weapons. What we have is a machete, rubber tapper and stones, but we are not murderers. We chase them, we bruise them because they are not to blame, they are companions. The guilt lies with those who give the orders.

"They are not going to trick us. We told them: ... it's better that they kill us all at once. Are we going to be like Africa with children dying of hunger? The politicians come and promise things. Now they promise that Álvaro Obregón is going to shine with pavement. But Mareña arrives, and what good is it? We can't eat chunks of pavement. Now the political parties give floors and paint for the houses. Are we going to eat solid floor? The sea never lacks. If the sea goes away, what are we going to live on? So we are not going to let Mareña enter, they have to kill us first, the original people.

"We are already the old ones, and we are hoping that God will lead us, but there are boys and girls who are behind us. How are we going to let them ... Here we are men, women, children, everyone, even we, up to three years, five ... So we are not afraid. We are going to die here for our children, for our grandchildren, because when we leave they remain with the sea, they are going to keep up the sea.

"We are content with the caravan, because other sides are supporting us, we are not just us. Let the government know that we are not alone here in Álvaro Obregón. We are going to remove Mareña from here. Such is life. Life is a struggle."

In truth they are not alone. Dozens of civilian agencies just signed an announcement in the press in which they denounce: "contracts null and void, unfair, obtained by deception, without the consent of the owners of the lands and of the natural resources."

They also noted that "while the severe violations persist that gave rise to the tenacious resistance of indigenous peoples, and they do not subscribe to reconstituting the social fabric of the affected communities", they will deepen the differences between peoples and whatever consultation may be made will have no validity.

In government campaigns and in the uproar of the companies that insist on defending this colonial project for being "green": only ignorant barbarians are able to be against the generation of clean power, which will bring to them [villagers] an important economic benefit. The truth is that only the corrupt and incompetent criminal is able to issue environmental impact permits in this case. The damage that would be caused to the coastal lagoons, migratory birds and the entire ecosystem is immense. And the corrupting "compensation" represents a monthly payment of 12 pesos [US$ .94] per hectare [2.47 acres] ... nothing that will contribute to the life situation of the people, but which will deprive them of a way of life. In the words of The General, the pavement cannot be eaten ...

This struggle is indeed our struggle.

See Spanish original

Posted by Jane Brundage at Mexico Voices

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