Mexico: Weekly Newsletter

We publish an unofficial translation of the Mexican part of the Weekly Newsletter by Solrojista:

Last week we reported about the repression suffered by the peasants of Totalco who were protesting against the environmental damage caused by the latifundium and the agroindustrial company Granjas Carroll, belonging to the American monopoly consortium Smithfield, which has more than a hundred facilities throughout the Libres-Oriental region. Alberto and Jorge Cortina Vásquez, two peasants from that town, were killed in that repression. As the Movement in Defense of the Water of the Libres–Oriental Basin has pointed out, the main demand is the definitive closure of all those facilities that have caused irreparable damage in the region, endangering the lives of the communities and its inhabitants. Thirteen days after the events there are some partial conquests of this struggle: 1) the announced dissolution of the Civil Force as an elite group of the Veracruz state police; 2) the temporary closure of the Carroll Farms plant in Totalco, municipality of Perote, Veracruz; in addition to the investigation of 51 other plants operating under identical conditions; and 3) the formation of a common front for the defense of water and land in the region. But let’s look at the scope of each point. First, regarding the dissolution of the Civil Force, the measure does not offer any guarantee of justice for the victims and no repetition of the events, because so far no element or command of said corporation has been arrested or prosecuted for it. In this regard, comrade Renato Romero of the Movement in Defense of Water has declared … “We ask to arrest all the policemen while investigations are being carried out, but most importantly, that it be revealed who gave the order to come and kill us, they wanted to give us a lesson, crush us, but they are not going to succeed, the struggle is raging throughout the region.” Secondly, regarding the nature of the closure of the company’s facilities in Totalco, the measure seems to try to manage the conflict until the movement is trusted or worn out, and the statements of the Secretary of Environment of the government of Veracruz, Juan Carlos Contreras Bautista, makes it clear that the decision can be changed by the federal government (as happened after the closure of Bonafont in Juan C. Bonilla, Puebla)… “it is because of the type of management, they are leachatelagoons where organic matter is separated, it is because of the issue in waste management of state competence”; the bureaucrat has stressed that the measure is of a preventive nature, leaving the definition in the hands of the Federal Prosecutor’s Office for Environmental Protection (PROFEPA). Thirdly, the realization of the National Meeting in Solidarity with Totalco and the Movement in Defense of Water in Libre-Oriental in Ocotepec, Puebla, has been completely correct, which was attended by more than 20 organizations and different communities of the region declaring themselves in rebellion against the National Water Commission (CONAGUA) and calling to strengthen the resistance against Carroll Farms. However, we believe that it is necessary for the different struggles of the people to conquer new steps in their unification process based on unity with principles and unity in action against the latifundium, imperialism and bureaucratic capitalism, which are the three great mountains that oppress our people. The articulations and fronts that arise in defense of the rights of the people must firmly consider the need to promote the three fundamental criteria for the liberation of territories and the exercise of the embryos of the New Power, that is: Self-determination, Self-Government and Self-Defense. In this sense, we salute the resolutions of the National Meeting in Solidarity with Totalco and the Movement in Defense of Water in Libres-Oriental, and the partial conquests achieved by the movement, and we call to continue building the unity of the people’s combative forces from an anti-electoral, anti-capitalist, anti-fascist and anti-imperialist perspective. Long live the Movement in Defense of the Water of the Libres–Oriental Basin! Long live the resistance of the peoples! Against the imposition of imperialist mega-projects of dispossession and death, combat and resist!