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Green Economy: Social and Environmental Conflicts

Por
Avispa
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In the last two years 300 activists of the environment were murdered. Help visibilize violence against environmental activists and amplify just climate alternatives.

⇒ https://vimeo.com/167957141 ⇐

The environmental and climate crisis has been an increasingly constant concern in many places around the world. From the young and elderly, women and men, to institutions, companies and governments, all have expressed concern about the environmental costs that have been provoked due to unrestrained economic growth and rampant consumption.

In this reality the United Nations proposed a new economic model, the “Green Economy”, beginning in the 1990s. The plan was designed to assist governments in "greening" their economies by reshaping and refocusing policies, investments and spending towards an emerging range of sectors. These areas include “clean” technologies, renewable energies, hydroelectric dams, wind farms, renewed water services, green transportation, eco friendly waste management, building green cities, agriculture and promoting sustainable forests.

On the other hand, there are a plurality of original peoples, indigenous and farmworkers, in many parts of the world who believe in other world views, and whose connection with nature and the land has been historic and constant. Yet over the course of the last two or even three decades, specifically in Latin America, these indigenous peoples have been displaced or evicted from their ancestral lands to make way for megaprojects under the guise of ‘sustainable development and conservation of the environment. In many cases, these people have been criminalized, even charged under anti-terror laws, as they seek to have a voice and resist this particular kind of “development”. In Latin America rate of murders of environmental activists, mostly indigenous, have increased. These individuals have struggled to stop clean energy megaprojects, industrial agriculture, deforestation, mining, among others. murders of activists.

Many of the people being killed in these struggles are not only protecting their local land and water. By keeping carbon in the ground, and defending ecological farming practices, they are showing the rest of us how to prevent catastrophic climate change.

Our project is to rigorously investigate the real impact of this new model of the Green Economy. Likewise, we seek to expose different alternatives that are being created from below in response to environmental and the climate change crisis.

Goals:

1. Creating a Green Economy watch dog organization, essentially a website or digital platform where the following materials will document and make public the relationship between the Green Economy and Human Rights violations:

  •  Interviews, expert analysis, articles and reports made during the period in which we will tour and document Mexico-Central America
  •   Multimedia, Photographs, video reports
  • Maps and documents

This material will be directed towards and made free and accessible for the indigenous and farmworking communities, their leadership organizations, NGOs, non-profits and independent media.

2. Production and final publication of a book-report derived from research and interviews conducted in the course of the trip, with the aim of observing the link between the Green Economy and human rights violations against indigenous peoples, farmworkers, minorities, small-scalle producers, and placing emphasis on the role of women.

The book will be made available in print as well as in a digital format. The electronic version will be accompanied by an interactive and dynamic map, which will allow for the user to locate in each of the countries and regions of Mexico and Central America, the major projects of the Green Economy model. The map will also provide visual and textual elements that identify and locate the major transnational companies as well as their financing, and the groups of people who are directly and indirectly negatively impacted by the actions of these companies.

Our commitment is to deepen our research and reach the places where the commercial or mass media fail to reach.

We kindly request that you be part of this project, give it a push, and support not only independent and ethical journalism, but to better our understanding of the dramatic changes to our environment, the people most affected, and to emphasize ground-up democratic solutions.

About the team members:

Renata Bessi (Brazil) is a freelance journalist. She has written for : Truthout the Americas program and collaborates with the Mexico based Subversiones Communications Agency. Bessi was a finalist for the "Libero Badaro of Jornalismo" award in 2014 in Brazil, with her exhaustive report “Transposição do Rio São Francisco ameaça terras indígenas”.  She has also published in Upside Down World, Agência Pública de Periodismo Investigativo and Repórter Brazil.

Santiago Navarro F. (México) is a freelance journalist and photographer. Navarro F is a member of the the Subversiones Communications Agency and is a collaborator of the community radio station of the Autonomous University of Chapingo. Navarro F has also published in Truthout, the Americas program, and Upside Down World.
The documentary "Aquí estamos, no estamos extintos (2015)" (Here we are, we are not extinct) of Renata Bessi and Santiago Navarro F., was recognized by the jury of the International Film and Video Festival of Indigenous Peoples - 2015 as best documentary in the category of socio-organizational process of Indigenous Peoples. The documentary was exhibited in Chile, Argentina and Spain.

Clayton Conn  is a photographer and journalist whose work has been published in such outlets as Free Speech Radio News, Upside Down World, and NACLA. He was formerly a member of the editorial group of Desinformémonos. Since 2014 he has been the Mexico correspondent for TeleSUR English.

The Dark Side of Clean Energy in Mexico

Por
Renata Bessi y Santiago Navarro F
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A palm hat worn down by time covers the face of Celestino Bortolo Teran, a 60-year-old Indigenous Zapotec man. He walks behind his ox team as they open furrows in the earth. A 17-year-old youth trails behind, sowing white, red and black corn, engaging in a ritual of ancient knowledge shared between local people and the earth.

Neither of the two notices the sound of our car as we arrive “because of the wind turbines,” Teran says. Just 50 meters away, a wind farm has been installed by the Spanish company Gas Natural Fenosa. It will generate, at least for the next three decades, what governments and energy companies have declared “clean energy.”

Along with this farm, 20 others have been set up, forming what has come to be known as the wind corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, located in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca. The corridor occupies a surface area of 17,867.8 hectares, across which 1,608 wind turbines have been installed. The secretary of tourism and economic development of Oaxaca claims that they will collectively generate 2,267.43 megawatts of energy.

“Before, I could hear all the animals living in the areas. Now, it seems the animals have left due to the wind turbines.”

The Tehuantepec Isthmus stretches just 200 kilometers from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean, making it the third narrowest strip of land connecting the Americas, after isthmuses in Nicaragua and Panama. In this area, mountains converge to create a geological tunnel, which funnels extremely high-speed winds between the two oceans. Energy investors have focused on the region after the government of Oaxaca claimed that it’s capable of producing 10,000 megawatts of wind energy in an area of 100,000 hectares.

“Before, I could hear all the animals living in the areas. Through their songs and sounds, I knew when it was going to rain or when it was the best time to plant,” Teran said with sadness and rage in his voice. “Now though, it seems the animals have left due to the wind turbines.”

What Teran does not know is whether the turbines, built in accordance with the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), as defined in the Kyoto Protocol, are generating alternative energy that will actually help to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of large corporations and industrialized countries. The main objective of these polluters is to prevent global temperatures from rising 2 degrees Celsius before 2100, according to the 21st Session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), better known as the COP21, which concluded in December 2015. “I don’t know what climate change is and neither do I know about the COP. I only know that our ancestral lands are being covered by these turbines,” Teran said.

At the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992, participating countries passed the UNFCCC in response to climate change. With this accord, states set out to maintain their greenhouse gas emissions at the levels reached in 1990. At the third Conference of the Parties (COP3), held in Japan in 1997, the Kyoto Protocol was approved by industrialized countries, with the aim of reducing national emissions to an average of 5 percent below the 1990 levels, between 2008 and 2012. In order to help reduce the costs of this reduction, three “flexibility mechanisms” were designed: emissions trading, joint implementation and the aforementioned Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), under which a large number of the wind farms in the Tehuantepec Isthmus have been constructed.

According to the Kyoto Protocol, these mechanisms are meant to permit industrialized countries and private companies to reduce their emissions by developing clean energy projects in other parts of the world where it is more economically viable, and later include these reductions into national quotas. The second period of engagement of the Protocol is 2013-2020. In this period, countries in the European Union (excluding Iceland) have agreed to a collective emission reduction of 20 percent with respect to 1990 emission levels.

The Clean Energy Extraction and Energy Transition Financing Law states that Mexico will install technology to generate 25,000 megawatts of clean energy by 2024. “Mexico has an obligation to limit the electrical energy generated by fossil fuels to sixty-five percent (from the current eighty percent) by 2024,” the law states.

Teran continues sowing his corn while we ask him about the benefits he’s gained from the wind corridor and, a bit irritated, he responds: “They have not provided me or anyone in my family a job, and I don’t want anything to do with these companies or the government; I just want them to leave me in peace on my land. To let me live as I did beforehand.”

Wind Farms for Sale

The US Department of Energy and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), with the justification to help accelerate the use of wind energy technologies in the state of Oaxaca, developed an atlas published in 2003, which mapped the wind potential in the state of Oaxaca. The mapping confirms that the isthmus is the region with the largest wind potential.

"This wind resource atlas is an important element of the Mexican strategy to ensure availability of the necessary information and to define specific renewable energy projects as well as tools access to financing and development support," according to the atlas document.

The paper organizers say they will not share specific maps related to the respective areas of wind potential due to the confidentiality required in possible contracts signed between companies and the government of Mexico. Although more than a decade later, with the arrival of more parks in this territory, it has become clear which of these sites are mainly located on the shores of Laguna Superior.

"Clean energy is part of the continuity of the exponential economic growth of capital"

For all the good intentions the United States had to cooperate with Mexico to invest in renewable energy, USAID made another document in 2009, called "Study of Export Potential Wind Energy of Mexico to the United States", which confirms that the greatest potential of this energy is concentrated in the states of Oaxaca (2,600 megawatts) and Baja California (1,400 megawatts). In August 2015, the government of Mexico officially announced that the wind farm "Energía Sierra Juárez" in Baja California, the first wind project between Mexico and the United States, will export energy to California. And they are waiting for an interconnection to export the energy produced in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.

"This mapping is only one part of a series of mega-projects that are designed for this area," said biologist and coastal ecology and fishery sciences professor and researcher Patricia Mora, of the Interdisciplinary Research Center for Integral Regional Development of Oaxaca (CIIDIR Oaxaca) based at the Instituto Politécnico Nacional."Not only is it wind energy, but also oil and gas, and also mining, an infrastructure for the movement of goods. Therefore, this wind mapping is only a pretext to map the full potential of this whole geostrategic area, which functions as a type of catalog to offer it to businesses."

The wind corridor was designed from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), signed in 1994 by Mexico, the United States and Canada, subsequently given continuity with the international agreement, Plan Puebla Panama (PPP), and now remade into Proyecto Mesoamerica. The project's main objective was to "create favorable conditions for the flow of goods, oil, minerals and energy."

"Clean energy is part of this context. It's part of the continuity of the exponential economic growth of capital; it is not something alternative to it. It's another link that is painted green," Mora said.

Not-So-Clean Energy

To set the turbines, hundreds of tons of cement that interrupt water flows are used. “It is worth mentioning that they are using the cement company Cemex, who also has a wind farm in the Isthmus,” Mora said.

The population of Venta, where the first wind farm was built, was literally surrounded by turbines. Insufficient with the already installed complex, under the argument of self-sufficiency and with a capacity of 250 megawatts, the park called Eurus, built in 2009, was auctioned off with capital from the Spanish company Acciona and transnational construction materials company Cemex.

It seems that Cemex is the role model of the CDM, a clean and responsible company that has registered several projects this way. In its 2013 report, Cemex boasts of expanding their projects with the CDM model. “Six new initiatives were registered as CDM in 2013, which include four alternative fuel projects in Mexico and Panama and two wind farms located in Mexico, among those Eurus and Ventika.”

In 2015, the Eurus wind farm won the prize awarded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB Infrastructure 360​​°) in the category of “Impact on Population and Leadership,” which recognizes outstanding sustainability practices in infrastructure investments in Latin America and Caribbean.

In February 2015, community activists from the organization Defenders of the Earth and Sea announced, “about 150 wind turbines owned by Acciona and located in the Eurus wind farm and Oaxaca III, have spilt oil, from the blades and main coil, which has polluted the ground and the water, affecting several farmers and ranches surrounding the area.”Both wind farms have 1,500-megawatt turbines, which need 400 liters of synthetic oil, while the 800-megawatt turbines only need 200 liters of oil per turbine per year.

The Costs of Clean Energy

The dominant development model in the production of electricity from wind power in the Tehuantepec Isthmus is stated as a formula in which everyone wins – the government, developers and industry. The model has been of self-supply, in which a private developer of wind power generates energy production contracts for a wide portfolio of industrial customers (Coca-Cola, Cemex, Walmart and Bimbo, for example) for a certain period. In this way, companies can set prices lower than the market for the long term, and separately they enjoy the financial benefits of carbon trading, which on one hand, allows them to continue polluting and, secondly, to speculate on the sale of these pollution permits to other companies. Developers can access financing schemes for “green” projects through organizations like the Inter-American Development Bank and the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the UN.

The communities are also presented as winners in these projects for the development of self-sufficiency and the income they receive from the lease of their land.

Why the Resistance?

In November of 2012, the consortium Mareña Renovables set out to build the largest wind farm in Latin America in the Barra de Santa Teresa, in San Dionisio del Mar, Oaxaca. The Barra is a strip of land between two lagoons that connects to the sea in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Here the Indigenous community of Binni Záa (Zapotec) and Ikojts (Huave), together with the community of Alvaro Obregon, opposed and blocked all access to this strip of land. In response, the state sent about 500 troops from the state police to unblock access, acting with extreme violence. The Indigenous community resisted until the government suspended construction of the wind park. In response to constant harassment and persecution,the Alvaro Obregon community created a community police force called "Binni Guiapa Guidxi" on February 9, 2013.

What was known as Mareña Renovables has changed its name and its form several times. The Spanish energy company, the Preneal Group, which had signed exploration contracts and obtained permits from the state government, sold the rights to the project for $89 million to FEMSA, a subsidiary of the Coca-Cola Company and the Macquarie Group, the largest investment bank in Australia. These companies quickly sold part of their stakes to Mitsubishi Corporation and Dutch pension fund PGGM, signing at the same time a power purchase agreement with FEMSA-Heineken for 20 years.

They also sought to speculate with the reduction of 825,707 tons of carbon dioxide a year, equivalent to the emissions of 161,903 cars.

"Mother Earth is sick; the disease is global warming. They want to profit with the same disease that they have caused to Mother Earth," said Carlos Sanchez, a Zapotec activistwho participated in the resistance against the installation of the wind farm in Barra de Santa Teresa Park and the installation of a park by Gas Natural Fenosa in Juchitan de Zaragoza."Under the pretext of reducing global warming, they come to our territories to control our forests, mountains, our sacred places and our water."

Sanchez is also founder and member of the community radio station Totopo, created to report on mega-projects in the region of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. During an intermission of his radio programming, we asked Sanchez about what the Zapotec people know about the CDM. "It is a discourse between businessmen. They are labels exchanged between companies to justify their pollution and do not explain anything to Indigenous peoples," he said.

"Could we, with our forests, also sell carbon credits, bypassing these companies? Who will buy?" Sanchez asked. "It is no coincidence that only those who understand these mechanisms are the only ones who benefit as employers and the state."

He added, "We do not even benefit from the energy produced. If you walk by the communities you will notice what the clean development they have brought consists of, and I challenge one of the owners of the companies to see if they want to live in the midst of these turbines."

Following the demonstrations made by Indigenous peoples on May 8, 2013, the secretary of tourism of the state of Oaxaca, José Zorrilla Diego, announced the cancellation of the proposed Renewable Mareña in the Barra de Santa Teresa. Shortly after the announcement of the cancellation, the state government said the project would continue in other areas of the isthmus.

Human Rights Violations and Perspectives

Community organization against the wind farm in the Barra de Santa Teresa was the first major resistance against the ways in which these companies are developing their projects on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Sanchez reports that, not coincidentally, it is in this period that the companies began hiring hit men, with the backing of the state."We see gunmen escorted to the state police. Some of us have been persecuted with absurd lawsuits, accusing us of kidnapping, attacks on the roads, and damage to other people's private property. The radio station has undergone several attempts at closing, with the invasion of the federal police and Navy," Sanchez said.

Sanchez reports that since 2013, he does not go to public places. His mobility is restricted to the community. "We endorse the protection mechanism of the Ministry of Interior. But we have realized that their task of protection has been given to the state police, the same people who attacked us. I do not know whether they have come to protect me or arrest me. So I rejected this protection mechanism and started a small personal protection protocol," Sanchez said. "The state supports the wind companies," he added.

The Committee for the Integral Defense of Human Rights Gobixha (CódigoDH) Oaxaca demanded the immediate intervention of the federal and state governments to stop the wave of violence against supporters of the Popular Assembly of the People of Juchitan who have been victims of threats, harassment, persecution and attacks, including the murder of one of its members. This followed the conflict rooted in the construction of the Bii Hioxo wind farm, according to CódigoDH. But there was no response.

The company Gas Natural Fenosa rejects the accusations, ensuring, "While certain groups have filed several allegations regarding violations of human rights of communities affected by the project, Gas Natural Fenosa says they are unfounded, that they lack objective justification, and are incompatible with the commitments made by the company's Human Rights Policy."

New Strategy, New Park, Old Problems

It did not take long for the government's 2013 promise - to relocate the project from the Barra de Santa Teresa toward another zone in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec - to take shape. In 2014, the company Mareña Renovables, now called Eolica del Sur (Southern Wind), found a new place to develop clean energy and contribute to the goals of reducing greenhouse gases in Laguna Superior.

In 2016, the project foresees the installation of 132 wind turbines of three megawatts each in an area of 5,332 hectares, avoiding the emission of 879,000 tons of greenhouse gases per year, according to the company.

An independent report released by researchers from different fields and universities points out various inconsistencies in the environmental impact study submitted by the company and approved by the Secretariat of Environmental and Natural Resources (SEMANART).

The first contradiction is in regards to the company that made the study. The company responsible is Especialistas Ambientales (Environmental Specialists). And according to the constitutive act of the company, it was possible to determine that the founding partner is the engineer Rodolfo Lacy Tamayo, current undersecretary of planning and environmental policy of the SEMANART.

The document warned that there are many inconsistencies with respect to the surface of Baja Espinoza Forest (Selva Baja Espinosa), which is to be cleared for the construction of this project. Evaluating the information available on the environmental impact statement's (EIS) own field research, "our analysis shows that the developer intends to cut 100% of the tree surface without proposing any measure of compensation."

"This is particularly worrying," according to the document. "The Selva Baja Espinoza connecting the Priority Marine Regions: Continental Shelf Gulf of Tehuantepec, and Upper and Lower Laguna; and Terrestrial Priority Regions: Northern Sierras of Oaxaca Mixe and Zoque-La Selva Sepultura."

According to Eduardo Centeno, director of the Eolica del Sur company, the EIS is submitted in accordance with Mexican law and contains mitigation measures and preventive measures for the environment, including reforestation.

Another concern of communities is in relation to water pollution in the lagoon and sea area as a result of the oil that will drain on the beaches - 300 liters per wind turbine. Biologist Genoveva Bernal of SEMANART explains that the institution responsible for approving the EIS says the park will not affect Laguna Superior at 3.9 kilometers. "With this distance, it will not have an impact," Bernal said.

Alejandro Castaneira, professor and researcher at the National School of Anthropology and History, who participated in the creation of the report, says the SEMANART authorized an environmental impact study that was wrongly produced. "It is announced that parks are generating clean energy. Are we going to use clean energy to produce Coca-Cola and Lay's chips while poverty continues?" Castaneira said.

A Far From Participatory Process

After the events of 2013, Eolica del Sur and the state convened for the first free, prior and informed consultation, under Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization for Indigenous peoples, 22 years since the arrival of the first wind farm in Isthmus of Tehuantepec. This consultation was initiated in November 2014, and completed in July 2015, and is regarded as an essential element for the project to become effective.

On the one hand, both the federal and state governments (as well as the company) claim that the consultation fulfilled its role, which justifies the project, since most of the participants approved. On the other hand, there is enormous pressure for the cancellation of the same consultation because of the irregularities.

At a press conference, Bettina Cruz Velázquez, a member of the Assembly of Indigenous Peoples of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Defense of Land and Territory, said that the consultation was carried out after local and federal permits and approvals of land use had already been given by authorities. This shows the federal government's decision to strip Binni Záa(Zapotec) of its territory. "The consultation is a simulation. They do not respect international standards," Cruz Velázquez said.

A petition for relief was filed for the 1,166 Indigenous Binni Záa in order to protect Indigenous rights and defend their territory against the wind project. On September 30, 2015, the judge issued an order to suspend all licenses, permits, goods, approvals, licenses and land use changes granted by federal and local authorities, until the final judgment is issued.

"The state allows these projects on the one hand, allowing all the state and federal agencies to expedite permits," said lawyer Ricardo Lagines Garsa, adviser to the community. "Yet Indigenous peoples are not aware of these legal proceedings, so that they can actually participate in decisions. The whole isthmus territory has been divided between companies [due to] the lack of awareness of the peasant and Indigenous communities who live here."

Who Benefits From "Clean" Energy?

According to documents from the Commission for Dialogue with the Indigenous Peoples of Mexico, international experience has shown that remuneration paid by energy companies erecting wind farms on leased land oscillates between 1 and 5 percent of the gross income of the energy produced by the turbines. "However, the case of Mexico is drastically different if you take into account the much lower value compared to international standards: here, remuneration is between .025 and 1.53% [of gross income]."

The Tepeyac Human Rights Center states that "because there is no organization that regulates the value of land in Mexico, energy companies pay landowners far less than the actual value, which can provoke tension in communities in which wind farms are set up."

The criteria that have been used to justify the implementation of wind parks in Mexico as a means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, as well as total energy production, are insufficient to determine the benefits, risks and broader implications of wind energy production, according to the Commission for Dialogue with the Indigenous Peoples of Mexico. "The criteria ignore or underestimate the complexity and cognitivist and ethical uncertainty of the risks and impacts created by wind parks on a large scale," the commission stated. "They cannot be seen as a viable energy alternative if they continue to reproduce and deepen socioeconomic and environmental inequalities between countries and between social groups within individual countries."

This story was made possible thanks to the Internews' Earth Journalism Network and produced in collaboration with Armando Carmona. 

Fracking Expands in Latin America, Threatening to Contaminate World’s Third-Largest Aquifer

Por
Renata Bessi y Santiago Navarro F
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A fracking well in Colorado, pictured in 2012

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking - a method whereby hydrocarbons trapped within rocks are extracted - is expanding rapidly in Latin America. Fracking emits benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene, which are considered by the World Health Organization to be carcinogenic and responsible for blood disorders and other immunological effects. Despite these adverse health effects, however, reserves have already been mapped out in Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico.

In Mexico, recently passed energy reform legislation promotes fracking as a means of extracting shale gas - and with the reform, the government has opened the oil industry up to the private sector. More than 1,000 wells using the technique are currently in operation in at least 11 of Mexico's 32 states. These fracking efforts are largely being carried out by North American companies such as Halliburton, Schlumberger and Baker Hughes, among others.

"I didn't know anything about oil, but after our water started to get contaminated, we found out that more than 240 wells in our region were using that thing they call fracking," Mariana Rodríguez, from the community of Papantla, Veracruz, told Truthout. "Now all our water sources have become contaminated."

According to Francisco Cravioto, a researcher from the Alianza Mexicana Contra el Fracking (Mexican Alliance Against Fracking) and a member of the Research and Analysis Centre of the Mexican civil organization FUNDAR, most of the communities facing contamination have very little knowledge about fracking. "The scale of the effects only becomes clear when they begin to experience them directly, as in the case of the northern region of Veracruz in Mexico, where at least 240 fracking wells are already in operation," Cravioto said.

Argentina, meanwhile, is considered the Latin American fracking capital because of the wells in the Neuquén Basin, a vast oil-producing region that covers the Neuquén Province and is home to the Vaca Muerta rock formation. This year in Argentina, fracking was used to drill into more than 1,000 shale gas reserves of compact sand and tight oil in slate or shale. According to International Energy Agency figures published in 2015, only the United States, Canada, and more recently Argentina and China produce large volumes of shale gas; the latter two countries are spearheading the development of shale extraction.

Polluted Waterways

Fracking takes a heavy toll on the environment wherever it is used. It produces large volumes of toxic and radioactive waste and dangerous air pollutants, and destabilizes the climate and local communities.

One of the greatest current fracking threats in South America is located in the Entre Ríos region of Argentina and the neighboring area of Uruguay in the Paraná Chaco, where the extraction of shale oil and shale gas is planned. According to Roberto Orchandio, an engineer and former oil industry employee in the United States and Argentina, contaminated water poses a serious danger. "In this region, the Guaraní Aquifer can be found, which is the third-largest in the world and holds 20 percent of South America's water, spanning an area that includes southern Brazil and part of Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay," Orchandio told Truthout. "So, we are concerned that if they have to drill into the aquifer, it will be contaminated and therefore destroyed. We have to weigh up if this is worthwhile."

"Contaminated water is a huge problem. In some places it will be a disaster, like in the north of Mexico where there isn't any water and wasting it is illogical, because they are places where people won't be able to live," Orchandio said. "Every new well has a water leak rate of at least 6 percent, caused by a combination of poorly constructed foundations, pipeline accidents and corrosion."

According to Argentina's Observatorio Petrolero Sur, an organization that advocates for sustainable energy consumption and production, less than half of the water used is recovered. This contaminated residual water is placed in water tanks, where exposure to the open air causes the chemical compounds to evaporate. The contaminated water is sometimes reinjected into other wells.

Observatorio Petrolero Sur has documented that within the first days or weeks of fracking in a region, a significant quantity of the water used in fracking returns to the surface, after being injected into rocks under great pressure and causing fracturing. Orchandio points out that large volumes of methane are also released. "Between 0.6 and 3.2 percent of an unconventional well's total production - be that one barrel or millions of barrels - is emitted as methane gas during the extraction process, along with the flowback fluid (the water mixed with the chemicals)," he told Truthout. "Methane has a greenhouse gas effect that is 25 times more potent than that of carbon dioxide."

Cravioto describes the exploitation of the land for fracking as "territorial dispossession," noting its disproportionate impact on Latin America's Indigenous population. "In Mexico, Indigenous peoples and campesinos [peasant farmers] have been hardest hit," he said. "Their ancestral lands are being destroyed, those lands where their history, traditions and knowledge are stored. Entire ecosystems, and superficial and subterranean aquifers are being destroyed."

Orchandio expressed fear that Latin America may follow in the footsteps of the United States, where fracking has rapidly spread, impacting human and environmental health. In the US, lawmakers have often worked to accommodate the plans of corporations - even in the face of considerable resistance by their constituents.

"I'm terrified by the thought that they might be able to do the same thing in Argentina that they did in Texas, where they banned fracking and then some time later banned the banning of fracking," Orchandio said. "No one will be able to live in places where they decide to extract these hydrocarbons because everything they leave behind is dead, and the same is true for Mexico or Brazil."

Energy Independence

According to Orchandio, fracking was previously eschewed in Argentina due to its high costs and the environmental impacts. "Since the US made incursions into unconventional wells, in the year 2010 alone, there were a total of 2.5 million fracking wells across the world. Its irruption began in the US and centered on three states: Pennsylvania, Texas and in particular North Dakota, which is its greatest exponent and has become the American Saudi Arabia," he said.

Extracting unconventional oil is much more costly than extracting conventional crude oil, said economist Javier Martinez, and the recent fall in oil prices caused by increased supply is making it less profitable. "The allocation of titles - future oil purchase papers - is creating a speculative bubble that is going to burst," he told Truthout.

Orchandio, who is part of an Argentinian group that produced the book 20 Myths and Truths About Fracking, said that unconventional hydrocarbons only offer a temporary "fix" for waning fossil fuel supplies. He believes that wells have a life span of approximately six years, and that in the first year of operation up to 70 percent of their capacity can be extracted. "The productivity of these wells is too low. To maintain a production quota, you have to drill wells like crazy," he said. "To name one example, in North Dakota, they have to drill 1,500 wells per year. It's an abomination. In the US, all of the richest areas, the large pockets of hydrocarbons known as sweet spots, have already been found and fracked, and there aren't any more left."

Orchandio added that hydrocarbon reserves are rapidly dwindling on a global scale as well. "The reserves shrink by between 4 percent and 5 percent per year, so that means they fall by approximately 12 percent in three years; this 12 percent or 13 percent of global production is the equivalent to what Saudi Arabia produces," he said. "This tells us that every three years we have to put a new Saudi Arabia into production, but there isn't another one. They are advancing rapidly to exploit more unconventional wells in other countries. A collapse of the technology matrix is approaching, and it is a national security issue for the US."

Espionage and the Opening of New Hydrocarbon Wells

Numerous exposés in recent years have suggested that US-orchestrated espionage and actions taken in the name of "national security" have supported the spread of fracking across the globe. The documents leaked by the former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden in 2013, for example, confirmed that the NSA spied on the internal communications of Pemex in Mexico and Petrobras in Brazil, as well as other state-owned energy giants, seemingly with the aim of gaining leverage over their decision-making.

"With regards to the NSA espionage, it does not seem to be a simple operation to steal industrial secrets," said Dr. John Saxe-Fernández, author of the book Energy in Mexico: The Situation and the Alternatives. "It is espionage in order to identify the weak links in the chain of command, in order to know where to penetrate, who to negotiate with, who to promote, who to remove from the economic and political process."

Meanwhile, this year the investigative news site DeSmogBlog revealed that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton helped the Mexican government to weave a web of pretense in order to open up the energy sector - primarily involving conventional oil and gas, which are currently being extracted through fracking - to large multinational companies with the energy reform that was consolidated in 2014. According to the report, the Mexican government acquiesced to the demands of ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, the American Petroleum Institute and independent oil producers in the United States, among others, agreeing to let these energy firms capture the first nonconventional hydrocarbon wells that are currently being put up for tender in Mexico. Before the aforementioned energy reform, the sector was in state hands, with no possibility of opening it up to the private sector.

"The energy reform opened the door for national and multinational private companies," Cravioto said.

In Argentina, meanwhile, the country's leading oil-and-gas-producing company, YPF, has signed a secret agreement with Chevron to explore and exploit unconventional resources in the Vaca Muerta formation, with Chevron setting the rules. Some time later the executive branch gave its approval to this agreement through "Decree 929/13," which stirred debate and opposition among citizens due to the fact that YPF was recently nationalized and therefore its status as a public body means that it cannot hold secret negotiations.

After the agreement was signed in 2013, Argentinian Sen. Rubén Giustiniani asked to be given access to the complete text in order to divulge it to the public, Giustiniani claims. However, the Argentinian authorities turned down his request. Giustiniani was challenging the supposed existence of "secret clauses in the contract," including a hypothetical "commitment that forces the country to hand over an area that is the third-richest in unconventional oil and gas, for more than 35 years," and a "clause that ensures the payment of bonuses in perpetuity, even if Chevron pulls out of the deal."

"The multinational companies that want to invest in Argentina seek guarantees for the price of extraction, and changes to legislation that are required to guarantee their investments," Orchandio said. "We don't know what direction the unconventional oil industry is heading in Argentina. Investors claim that they will come to Argentina only if the economic conditions improve; basically, they want us to pay them to take away the oil." On November 10, 2015, three years after Giustiniani's denunciation, Argentina's Supreme Court ordered that the clauses of the YPF-Chevron deal be made public.

Growing Resistance to Fracking in Latin America

In Mexico, Brazil and Argentina, opposition to fracking is growing.

In Brazil, in response to the tendering of blocks for the exploration and exploitation of shale over an area of 168,348 square kilometers, organizations, researchers and activists who belong to the No Fracking Brazil Coalition (Coesus) are keeping up constant protests and actions. In October 2015, in Paraná, Bahia, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso, Acre and the Federal District, there were protests outside the offices of the fossil fuel companies that will participate in the Brazilian government's tendering of new blocks for fracking. The Brazilian protesters were joined by demonstrators in 28 countries, including Portugal, England and Spain, who demonstrated outside Brazilian embassies and consulates.

In Mexico, the Mexican Alliance Against Fracking has carried out a range of activities under the campaign banner of "Say no to fracking in Mexico!" One such activity was the production of a recent educational video, which included the participation of internationally renowned artists and provided information about what fracking entails. The alliance has been joined by Indigenous communities and campesinos who have protested and blocked roads in order to demand respect from the government for their ancestral lands.

In Argentina, several organizations have joined forces with the Movimiento Artístico-Cultural Contra el Fracking (Cultural and Artistic Movement Against Fracking) to publish a statement in which they appeal to "the precautionary principle" when it comes to fracking, stating, "Given the impacts it has on human health and the environment, our country must halt all ventures of this type, through a moratorium, i.e. through a suspension."

The protests have continued to grow as more residents come to agree with Cravioto's assessment that the spread of fracking is a "war against humanity."

"We have to stop thinking that the market must solve our problems," Cravioto said. "We have to turn around and see those campesinos and Indigenous people who have shown us that another way of life exists, a way of life that is not about competition and destroying the environment in order to produce goods."

By Santiago Navarro F and Renata Bessi

Published in Truthout

Mexican Farmers Accuse Mining Companies of Shady Tactics in Chiapas

Por
Renata Bessi y Santiago Navarro F
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Alberto Villatoro, a farmer in the fertile region of Los Cacaos in Chiapas, Mexico, recalls, with a mixture of sadness and anger, how innocently he used to walk over the area's silvery blue rocks.

"I can remember those metals in the river ever since I was a child," he told Truthout. "We would kick them around on the paths, unaware that it was titanium."

Now those same rocks have become highly sought after, and the Chinese mining company Honour Up Trading is seeking to gain control of large swaths of land in Villatoro's community to exploit one of the biggest seams of titanium in Mexico. "We've already had open-pit titanium mining here [in 2009]. Now they want to build the tunnel and leave us living on land resembling an eggshell," he said. "That would be the end of our shared land."

Mexico's government gave the green light for titanium mining to occur below 500 of the 530 hectares that make up the Los Cacaos community, via underground tunnels stretching from the foothills of the Sierra Madre mountain range up to the upper section of the town.

Villatoro and his neighbors in Los Cacaos express acute fears about the potential environmental effects of Honour Up Trading's plans. "If they build tunnels, the mountain will collapse, because it is a very wet area," Villatoro told Truthout. He believes that local leaders "were tricked into signing off on the exploration process" by the mining company, he added.

Florentina Antonio Morales, a local farmer echoed this allegation. "They came here to trick us, that's the truth," she told Truthout. "They promised us a lot. They said they would build a market, a road, a park for the kids. But none of that went any further than just talk."

The company even went so far as distributing food to gain the support of the community, Morales added. "They give the authorities a bit of money and they trick the people with a food store, like the government does," she said. "I honestly have no need for a food store; I grow my cacao and my coffee ... They are affecting our harvest, our health and our animals' health."

Residents of Los Cacaos are also alarmed about the prospect of increased titanium mining due to its damaging health effects. According to data from the REMA organization, in Mexico's Soconusco region, cases of liver, stomach and testicular cancer are five times higher than average in the Acacoyagua municipality where Los Cacaos is located and where two titanium mines are in operation. Some of the cancer cases have occurred in children. In addition, people who have bathed in the Cacaluta, Doña María and Cintalapa rivers, into which residues from the mines flow, have developed skin rashes and sores.

The increased pollution of the waters in Los Cacaos could affect many other communities as well because the abundant water from that region supplies other communities in the foothills of the Sierra Madre mountain range.

The Undermining of Los Cacaos' Democratic Process

The Los Cacaos community is an ejido, a rural, collectively farmed property. It is one of the distinctive agrarian hubs that still remain as a result of the Mexican Revolution of 1910. "An ejido is a communion of between 100 and 200 people who equitably possess a part of land," explained Villatoro, one of the ejido members. "It is not a piece of property. Ejidos are governed by majority rule, and to that end we make use of assemblies. There is a commission that represents everyone, but the assembly is the highest authority. The commission ensures that what is decided in the assembly actually takes place."

Villatoro said there were irregularities in the convening of the assembly and the formation of the agreement in which the mining project was approved. "They did not meet the requirements of the Agrarian Law," he said. "There were not enough signatures of ejido members that are legally registered on the national agrarian register, and this means those that signed are falling into an irregularity." Furthermore, he added, "on the day the assembly was held, the authorities said that the mining would last for one year. When they brought along the signed agreement, we saw that it was really for 50 years. The ejido authorities had already sold themselves to the company, and many people do not speak out due to fear."

Gustavo Castro Soto, a researcher from the Otros Mundos (Other Worlds) civil association, told Truthout that "what we are seeing is that the companies have started to use a pattern with communities: dividing them. They divide, buy, employ all sorts of pressure and extortion. This happens with all the extractive projects in the country, which has created a range of conflicts."

The contract that grants the El Puntal SA mining group permission to extract minerals from the Los Cacaos ejido stipulates that "the ejido and the beneficiary agree on a payment of 500,000 pesos for the fulfillment of this contract ... as well as a bonus of US$5 per ton extracted." It adds that "plots which contain minerals will have to be negotiated in private with the owner of said plot." The contract also stipulates that a "pay bonus of US$2 per ton extracted" would be paid to the landowner.

These sums of money offered on behalf of the exploitation of minerals are far too small to cover the negative impacts of mining. Moreover, the individualized nature of the contracts threatens the very form of organization specific to the ejidos, which traditionally make decisions that affect the community as a whole through assemblies. Individual negotiations are the reason why communities are divided and internal confrontations are created. Dividing communities through the negotiation of individual contracts is a strategy used in most extractive contracts carried out in Mexico.

An official evaluation published by Mexico's own Environment and Natural Resources Ministry admitted that the mining project in Los Cacaos threatens a region of high biodiversity and ecological importance, but the ministry nevertheless signed off on the project.

Meanwhile, the Environment and Natural History Ministry of Chiapas published its own evaluation of the mining project in September 2014 and issued this damning opinion: "The project entitled 'casas viejas mining project,' to be carried out in the Acacoyagua municipality, is deemed unfavorable given that the carrying out of said actions would cause irreversible damage to the environment."

Federal authorities ignored this technical evaluation

In the context of free trade agreements, governments have an obligation to guarantee foreign investments or face being sued in the World Bank's International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), where investment disputes between companies and nation-states are resolved.

"If governments do not guarantee investments, they are accused of indirect expropriation," Soto said. "This condition barely receives a mention. Many multinational companies have sued governments because of laws that hinder investments or because the governments withdraw concessions. There are studies which show that 60 percent of company lawsuits in the ICSID come from the mining industry."

Governments therefore have to adapt laws within their legal framework in order to facilitate investments. "Before the free trade agreement, for example, 52 percent of land in Mexico was communal property," Soto added. "Over half the land area and its riches, such as gas, oil, gold, water and wood, was in the hands of the poor. With the package of structural reforms that the government has been promoting, the land of indigenous people and farmers is being privatized so that international investments can force their way in."

The Case of La Joya

The El Triunfo community in the Escuintla municipality of Chiapas is facing similar problems as Los Cacaos. Honour Up Trading was issued a concession in La Joya, within the community of El Triunfo, which manages and owns the land collectively as an ejido. Established in 2013, the concession would last until 2063.

"We had never had problems with cancer in our communities before, but now there have been many recorded cases since the mines began operating," Paula Velázquez, a health volunteer in Independencia, told Truthout. "Young pregnant women are now having fetal deformities, and miscarriages too. Animals are already dying. That's why we don't want the mines."

Francisco Bautista Hernández, secretary of the ejido committee of the Independencia community in Escuitla, told Truthout, "The government gives out the concessions with no concern for the well-being of human beings, nature or animals. We haven't received any information."

Independencia's ejido is arguably the most well organized town in the region. The community and its leaders are against mining. They have filed complaints on many occasions, mainly against the owners of the La Joya mine. Other communities are less vocal. At least three other mining concessions of a greater size in the same area that border on the La Joya project are, for the time being, keeping quiet.

The mining concessions form a continuous line along Chiapas' Sierra Madre mountain range, which indicates the existence of a large vein of titanium primarily in the whole strip. A huge number of streams and rivers run down along the entire length of the range, which are used by the communities to drink, bathe in and irrigate their crops. "We don't want them to destroy the Sierra Madre because we have lots of vegetation and water," Bautista said. "We have two streams that will be polluted if mining takes place; lots of disease, and human and animal deaths will arrive."

In May 2015, the Civil Protection Ministry for Integrated Disaster Risk Management in the state of Chiapas evaluated the region surrounding the La Joya mine as being at "high risk" of problems resulting from the mine. Nevertheless, the concession was awarded to Honour Up Trading by the federal government.

Gustavo Castro, who is following the process in the region, said the mining company used bribery to get members of the El Triunfo ejido to accept the project. "The ejido members had reached an assembly decision to safeguard the ejido from mining, but the company arrived in late 2014 and offered them $1,000 for each ejido member's vote, and that was when they gave in," he said.

The Global Imperative Behind Mining in Chiapas

The push to increase titanium mining in Chiapas is part of a global response to the demand for titanium created by the increasing popularity of laptops and mobile phones, which require titanium to produce.

Hans Vestberg, the executive director of Ericsson, predicted in 2012 that by the year 2020 there would be 50 billion mobile phones connected. Manufacturing a single mobile phone requires at least 200 types of metals, including titanium.

Titanium is also used in the weapons, aeronautical, naval and nuclear engineering industries and is heavily sought after by the United States, the European Union, Japan and China.

Mexico is one of five Latin American countries where the presence of the material has been identified, along with Brazil, Paraguay, Chile and Peru. Mexico's Finance Ministry maintains that the country could meet a significant part of the world's demand for titanium, pointing to deposits in the subsoil of Chiapas.

According to the Mexican government's Comprehensive Mining Administration System (SIAM) and Infomex, 99 mining concessions have been granted by the federal government in the state of Chiapas in 2015, with operating licenses that are valid until 2050 and 2060. The peasant land and indigenous territory granted in concessions totals approximately 1,057,081 hectares, the equivalent of 14.2 percent of the state's area.

Otros Mundos' Gustavo Castro Soto said that in addition to these, there are also many other hectares still awaiting to be granted in concessions, given that there are minerals across the whole state. "There are also suspended concessions, inactive concessions and others that are in force, which does not mean they are currently being mined," he said. "We also know that there is a lot of illegal mining, not recorded on the state's books."

The concessions have primarily been awarded to four foreign companies, according to data from Otros Mundos. Three of them are Canadian: Linear Gold (now called Brigus Gold), BlackFire and Riverside Resources Inc. The fourth is the Chinese company most active in Los Cacaos: Honour Up Trading.

Environmental Impacts on Chiapas

The biodiversity and environmental importance of the Soconusco region in the southwest corner of Chiapas make the threat of mining particularly alarming. According to Soconusco's Regional Development Program, six uninterrupted wildlife reserves exist in the area: three state reserves (El Cabildo Amatal, El Gancho Murillo and Cordón Pico el Loro-Paxtal) and three federal reserves (La Encrucijada-Volcán, Tacaná and El Triunfo).

In La Encrucijada biosphere reserve, mangroves stretch up to 35 meters in height, making them the tallest mangroves in North and Central America. Studies carried out by the Frontera Sur College (ECOSUR) and the Chiapas State Institute of Ecology and Natural History have confirmed that there are 69 species of mammals and 23 families in eight orders in the reserve, located on the strip of mangrove forest along the state's coastal zone.

The Cordón Pico el Loro-Paxtal protected area is connected to the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor, which is traversed by endangered species such as the jaguar.

The El Triunfo reserve is home to 10 different types of ecosystems, including the globally threatened cloud forest, which allows water to return to the Sierra Madre Mountains.

Ongoing Resistance Against the Mines

Following dissent in the Soconusco region, where one of every three hectares has been awarded in concessions to the mining industry, local residents have carried out protests this year in nearly every community against the impacts of mining.

In September, residents of the Nueva Francia ejido in Escuintla, Soconusco, agreed to impede the operations of the El Bambú mining project, which is in charge of the Mazapa and El Puntal projects that have been mining titanium for more than eight years.

And in August, various municipalities decided to declare themselves "free from mining" in a communit

Close to 300 representatives from the municipalities of Tapachula, Huhuetán, Mazatán, Suchiapa, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Acacoyagua, Escuintla, Cintalapa and Tonalá took that step due to the serious health effects that have become evident in the region.

Soto said, "We join ours to the 2,000-plus 'free from mining' declarations in the country, and to the 80-plus ejido agreements and communal lands, and the 30 municipalities of Guerrero, Oaxaca, Puebla and Chiapas whose inhabitants share the same position of 'no to mining!'"

Published in ⇒ Truthout.org

As European Governments Restrict Nuclear Power, Investors Focus on Brazil

Por
Renata Bessi y Santiago Navarro F
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The Brazilian government is working toward restarting its nuclear program, which includes the construction of 12 nuclear power plants that will be producing electricity by 2050. The country already has two nuclear power stations, Angra 1 and Angra 2, as well as a third, Angra 3, which is nearing completion; all three are in the state of Rio de Janeiro. At present, nuclear energy's share in the Brazilian energy mix stands at less than 2 percent, and the aim is to increase that figure to 5 percent, according to the National Energy Plan. Eduardo Braga, the mining and energy minister, told a public hearing in the House of Representatives that "Brazil cannot give up on nuclear power, given the energy security that it represents and the fact that it is a cheap energy source."

The decision to restart Brazil's nuclear program was made undemocratically, according to Heitor Scalambrini Costa, a physician and Pernambuco Federal University professor, who is also a member of the Brazilian Environmental Justice Network. "The decision was made by a group of 10 people who make up the National Energy Policy Council. Most of the council members are government ministers, who are obliged to obey the president," Scalambrini told Truthout. "The only one to disagree was the then-environment minister, Marina Silva, who later resigned from her post. There was no wider debate involving the academic and scientific sectors, or civil society."

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Brazil holds the seventh-largest reserves of uranium in the world.

Along with the decision to restart the nuclear program, both the government and company representatives have been advocating changes to the way new nuclear power plants are built, in order to allow the private sector to participate in a sphere to which only the state has access, at present. According to the website of Eletronuclear, the public sector company responsible for operating and constructing nuclear power plants in Brazil, "it will doubtlessly be possible for the deals to involve both international and national private investment."

The first nuclear power plant in Brazil was built using US technology, and the other two with German technology. Eletronuclear is now broadening the range of suppliers. According to the Eletronuclear website, the leading international suppliers are expected to participate in post-Angra 3 power plants: Areva/Mitsubishi (France), Westinghouse/Toshiba (USA), Rosenergoatom (Russia) and SNPTC and CNNC (China).

These new business opportunities have led companies to put pressure on the government to speed up the investment process. In the last four months alone, two large-scale international events to promote nuclear power as a "clean energy" source have taken place in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, with the participation of international investors.

During the Atlantic International Nuclear Conference (INAC) held in São Paulo in 2015, the French company Engie declared its interest in investing in nuclear energy in Brazil. Mauricio Bahr, an Engie representative, stated, "Engie is a big player in nuclear energy programs across the world and we are very interested in the Brazilian market. We are waiting for the government to give the green light so that the market can be opened for private enterprise, and once again we are here to cooperate with the authorities, proving our experience at INAC."

The federal government is showing signs of turning nuclear power into a business, by reducing state participation in the production of nuclear energy and creating space for the private sector. During the International Nuclear Energy Seminar (held at the Rio de Janeiro Stock Exchange in June 2015), Leonam dos Santos Guimaraes, Eletronuclear's planning, management and environmental director, told international investors that business models that regulate production of nuclear energy in the country needed to be more flexible in order to facilitate greater interest from private companies. At the conference, foreign companies reaffirmed their interest in the Brazilian nuclear sector and discussed possible models for public-private partnerships that could be adopted by the country.

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Brazil holds the seventh-largest reserves of uranium in the world. The country also controls the technology necessary to conduct the entire fuel fabrication process, including the first phase - uranium enrichment - which is currently performed commercially by the United States, Russia, China, Japan and two consortia from European countries. "There is no doubt that the existence of uranium and the technology is vital, so that the country can decide to continue its nuclear program," Scalambrini said.

An Energy Crisis?

According to Eletronuclear, in Brazil, the generation of electricity using thermal power plants is not motivated by the exhaustion of hydroelectric power (which generates most of the country's energy), but rather by a desire to combat any risks that the power source might face by acting primarily as a backup in the event of the hydroelectric power grid going down. Eletronuclear's press department explained to Truthout that "hydroelectric power will continue to dominate the system." According to the government, however, "nuclear power plants are components that ensure the continued operation of [the] electrical grid."

Scalambrini considers the decision to be a mistake. "The country has an abundance of renewable resources, and several that can effectively meet demand, using decentralized generation without waste as well as offering complementarity among the various renewable energy sources," he said, referring to the benefits of having a diverse energy mix. "For that reason, there is no reason to invest in nuclear power plants in the country."

Russian Pressure

Scalambrini added that since 2005, the nuclear industry has stepped up its aggressive lobbying in a number of Latin American countries, with significant influence over legislation and energy policy.

He also maintains that compared with the situation in several European countries, "the situation in Brazil is going in the opposite direction, owing to pressure from powerful interest groups that answer to investment firms.... On top of that, of course, the military sectors are fascinated by the power that nuclear energy provides. Not to mention the media, whose interests are clearly in favor of this energy source."

"Wherever the nuclear power plant is built, the entire population along the river will be affected."

One powerful lobby is the state nuclear sector of the Russian corporation Rosatom, which holds a keen interest in the Brazilian nuclear business. "Rosatom comprises more than 250 companies and scientific institutions, including all of Russia's civil nuclear companies, the facilities of the nuclear weapons complex, research organizations and the world's only nuclear propulsion fleet," Scalambrini said. "It also holds one of the leading positions in the world market for nuclear technologies."

The company has proven that the Brazilian government is willing to build, operate and finance investments in nuclear power plants in the country. "Through these agreements, the Russian company will receive shares in such power plants and build and operate them, in addition to providing technical know-how and financing. They undoubtedly represent multimillion-dollar deals, and essentially it is money that is stirring the interests into action. Every 1,000 megawatts will cost $5 billion," Scalambrini said.

In order for other nations to carry out these deals on Brazilian soil, a series of changes to the country's 1988 federal constitution would be required. Article 21, Section XXIII and Article 177 guarantee the state a monopoly over the entire uranium chain, involving mining and electricity generation.

Countries Against Nuclear Energy

The decision of the Brazilian government runs contrary to the stance adopted by some European governments such as those in France and Germany. Following the accident at the Fukushima nuclear plant in 2011 - which even today is still not under control - they have opened a debate and, under pressure from civil society, decided against further investment in new nuclear plants.

The French Parliament has adopted a transition law to reduce the proportion of nuclear energy used for electricity generation; by 2025, the nuclear share of the energy mix must be reduced from 75 percent to 50 percent. With 19 power plants, France's nuclear sector ranks second in the world, and its economy depends on the energy source for its electricity supply like no other; nearly 75 percent of demand is met by nuclear power.

Even before the reduction was announced, the French nuclear industry was already facing difficulties. Its foremost industrial group, Areva, which is now focusing on Brazil, posted losses of nearly 5 million euros in 2014, which forced it to cut between 5,000 and 6,000 jobs.

In 2011, Germany declared that it would end commercial energy production at all of its nuclear power plants by 2022. Echoing the Brazilian Anti-Nuclear Organization, the German government has justified the decision by citing security reasons, namely the lack of safety measures to protect citizens in the event of an accident at a nuclear plant.

The two countries are joined by Austria, Belgium and Switzerland, which reviewed their plans to install new power plants and decided to take a step back from nuclear energy. Specifically in Italy, by unanimous decision, more than 90 percent of the population voted against the installation of new nuclear reactors in the country.

Germany Breaks Its Nuclear Agreement With Brazil

At the height of the Brazilian military dictatorship, on June 27, 1975, the "Agreement of Cooperation in the Peaceful Use of Nuclear Energy" was signed between Brazil and West Germany. It remained in force for 15 years. In addition to scientific cooperation, the agreement established that German technology would be used to build up to eight nuclear power plants, one atomic fuel-processing plant and one uranium-enrichment plant.

The agreement is renewed automatically every five years if neither country officially denounces it up to a year before the date set for its renewal. The agreement was renewed automatically without interruption until 2014, when international cooperation between Brazilian and German anti-nuclear organizations led to a campaign to end it, and in November 2014 the German government denounced the agreement, which will come to an end on November 18, 2015. Germany proposed that the Brazilian government shift away from nuclear energy and focus on the development of renewable energy resources.

The German government refused to guarantee loans for the construction of Angra 3, saying the power station does not adhere to the required safety conditions.

A Culture of Secrecy

Despite the fight for the Brazilian nuclear market having already begun, the public has been given extremely scant information regarding the government's plans. "The reports published by the press are often conflicting," Scalambrini said. "There is little information from the government about the issue of safety, the implementation processes, management model or the areas chosen for the construction of these nuclear power plants. The culture of secrecy and lack of transparency prevail over questions relating to the issue of the power plants."

When questioned by Truthout, the press department of Brazil's Mining and Energy Ministry would only respond by detailing the number of plants to be built and their potential output, stating that "other questions are still under review and there is no data to publish."

The government's position is backed up by the Brazilian Constitution, according to Alzeni Tomáz of the Articulação São Francisco Vivo, a collective of social organizations and movements that are fighting to preserve the São Francisco River, which has been affected by large-scale projects such as dams and hydroelectric plants. Law 4.118/62 of Article 27 establishes the secretive nature of nuclear activity. "This is the grounds on which the government maintains a 'secretive' stance on nuclear activities," she said.

Building Plans

The city of Itacuruba is a leading candidate to receive one of the first four nuclear plants under the 2030 National Energy Plan. It lies in Pernambuco State in the Sertão, on the banks of one of Brazil's main rivers - the São Francisco.

The region surrounding Itacuruba is host to the driest climate in Brazil; the last drought went on for three years. Most of the communities here depend on tankers to bring in their water supply for washing, cooking and general use. The Sertão is the most populous semi-arid region in the world, with close to 17 million inhabitants. The most common vegetation here is small trees with small trunks known as caatinga; at first sight, they appear to have been killed by the drought, but with a little rain the foliage revives, awakening life in the region.

On its website, Eletronuclear states that "the results of the studies carried out to select the location of the region's nuclear plant showed the São Francisco river to be the best option, according to the criteria used in the selection process."

Scalambrini explains: "The exact location has not officially been announced. The selected area on the banks of the San Francisco River was mentioned in an official document from Eletronuclear's regional office in Recife, Pernambuco's state capital. The indicated area points toward Itacuruba being the first choice for the installation of the nuclear plants."

The plants have been cause for alarm and resistance for social movements, particularly for those that strive to conserve the life of the São Francisco, which has already been affected by several megaprojects. "Wherever the nuclear power plant is built, the entire population along the river will be affected: the indigenous lands, the Afro-Brazilian communities known as Quilombolas, and the fishing communities that live from this river," Tomáz said.

Sacred Land

The area in Itacuruba that has been identified as a likely building site is part of the sacred land of the Pankará people. "The government [carries] out large-scale projects without consulting us, the ones that live from the land," Lucéria Pankará, the chief of the Pankará, told Truthout. "They do not ask what we think or what we want. They do not respect us."

Pankará land in Itacuruba is in the process of being officially recognized and demarcated by the government, but Pankará notes, "With these projects, that process has come to a halt." As a way of putting pressure on the government, the Pankará people occupied part of their land before official demarcation.

To enable the construction of a hydroelectric center, one part of the São Francisco River that irrigates Pankará land in the city was dammed in the late 1980s, flooding the old city of Itacuruba along with three others. A huge number of people moved to the banks of what is now an enormous lake, to set up their homes and rebuild the city.

Gerardo Leal, an indigenous Pankará man, was one of nearly 20,000 people who were evicted from their land and homes in Itacuruba. "Essentially, the city was rural and provided food for the whole region," Leal told Truthout. "I used to live on one of the innumerable islands of the river. The soil was very fertile; everything that we planted would grow: fruit, rice, beans, potatoes, onions and other vegetables. We had plenty of fish, and whatever was left over we could sell. Everything was flooded because of the dam and we have been left in this situation, without lands. We were pushed out toward the city."

Leal went to the city but could not manage to live away from his land. "I'm a farmer, born and raised," he said. Having returned to his ancestral land, he and his people are now awaiting the demarcation of their territory, threatened by the potential construction of the nuclear plant.

"Our lands are our history, our life - they are the record of all our ancestors," Leal said. "How can the elders teach our children if we're in the city? There is no way of preserving our culture."

Published in Truthout.org

The Coveted Mineral That Threatens Life in Chiapas

Por
Renata Bessi y Santiago Navarro F
-

Translated by School for Chiapas

At least 200 types of metals are required to produce a cell phone. Titanium is one of them. It is a metal that is as important for telecommunications as it is for warfare, strategic in the arms, aeronautics, naval, nuclear engineering and high-tech equipment industries. The largest consumers of titanium are the United States, the European Union, Japan and China.

Mexico is one of the five Latin American countries where titanium has been proven to be found, as well as Brazil, Paraguay, Chile and Peru. The Mexican Secretary of the Economy (SE) maintains that Mexico will be able to meet a large part of the world demand for titanium, confirming its existence in the sub-soil of Chiapas, in southern Mexico, the same state that has seven of the nine most representative ecosystems in Mexico, located on lands that hold reserves of 13 metals coveted worldwide, among them gold, silver, copper, zinc, iron, lead and titanium.

According to the Mexican government’s Integral Mining Administration System (SIAM) and Infomex, there are 99 current concessions granted by the federal government in the state of Chiapas in 2015, with exploitation permits until the years 2050 and 2060. Around 1,57,81 million hectares of peasant and indigenous lands – equivalent to 14.20% of the state – are under concession.


The “El Bambú” Mine in the community of Nueva Francia. Photo: Santiago Navarro F.

“There are, however, many more hectares that are waiting to be concessioned, since there are many minerals throughout the state. There are also suspended concessions, at rest and others that are in force that do not mean that they are being exploited at the moment. And we also know that there is a lot of illegal exploitation, not accounted for by the state”, affirms Gustavo Castro Soto, researcher of the civil association Otros Mundos.

The concessions are granted mainly to 4 foreign companies, according to Otros Mundos data. Three of them are Canadian: Linear Gold, now called Brigus Gold, BlackFire, Riversides Resoures Inc. and a Chinese company called Honour Up Trading.

Titanium: geostrategic importance

Alton D. Slay, a U.S. general in charge of the Air Force Systems Command in 1980, warned his country’s congress, of a national security issue, the dependence on at least 40 strategic minerals. Titanium is one of them, present in areas of current conflict such as Ukraine and Syria, and is one of the metals on which the U.S. today depends for 70% of its imports. Russia is the second country in the world with the second largest titanium reserves, after China. The Russian corporation VSMPO-AVISMA is the world’s largest producer of titanium, titanium ingots and all kinds of intermediate products made of titanium alloys, as well as large aluminum articles, semi-finished parts made of galvanized steel and nickel superalloys.

The products developed by this corporation enable it to become a supplier to 300 companies in 48 countries, including such world leaders in aircraft engineering as Boeing, Airbus, SNECMA, Rolls Royce and Pratt & Whitney. Russian titanium alone meets the demand of aerospace companies by 40% for Boeing, 60% for Airbus, and 100% for Embraer.

Titanium in the Chiapas Reserves

Most of the concessions in the state of Chiapas are located in the Sierra Madre de Chiapas and its Pacific coast. Of the 99 concessions issued this year 2015, 44 are in the region known as Soconusco, of which at least 22 have titanium extraction as their main objective.

“The 99 concessions are mainly located in the coastal region of Chiapas, in the Soconusco region, from Arriaga to Tapachula. This is the focus of attention of the mining companies, since there is talk of large deposits of this metal along this entire strip. But it is also an area of great biodiversity,” says Salvador Hernández Gutiérrez, of the Frente Popular en la Defensa del Soconusco 20 de Junio and member of the Red Mexicana de Afectados por la Minería (REMA) (Mexican Network of People Affected by Mining).

At first glance, one can appreciate the immense landscapes and biodiversity that make up the Soconusco region. Any farmer who has contact with these lands would immediately know that they are very fertile lands. Fresh water, so scarce in many Mexican states, flows everywhere. According to the Regional Development Program for the Soconusco region, there are six continuous ecological reserves in this area, three state reserves: El Cabildo-Amatal, El Gancho-Murillo and Cordón Pico El Loro-Paxtal, and three federal reserves: La Encrucijada-Volcán, Tacaná and El Triunfo.

In the Encrucijada Biosphere Reserve, for example, there are mangroves up to 35 meters high, considered the tallest in North and Central America. Studies conducted by the Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR) and the Institute of Natural History and Ecology of the State of Chiapas confirmed that there are 69 species of mammals in the reserve, 15% of the national total (477) and 33.8% of the mammals in the state of Chiapas (204). There are also a large number of wildlife species: 306 birds, 45 reptiles, and 13 amphibians.

The Soconusco region is one of the most biodiverse in Mexico. Photo: Renata Bessi

El Cordón Pico El Loro-Paxtal protected area is located between two mountain massifs of the Sierra Madre de Chiapas, within the Mesoamerican-Chiapas Corridor, linked to the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor that links Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama, through which species such as the jaguar or panther, a species in danger of extinction, travel.

The region is very significant for being one of the rainiest areas of the country, which gives rise to a complex hydrological network, with numerous permanent rivers, bodies of fresh water and lagoon systems that present very particular ecological characteristics, since the presence of ravines, depressions and valleys, favor the existence of a great heterogeneity of microclimates, which favors the diversity of the fauna and a high number of endemic species.

Official conservation and mining dispossession. Photo: Renata Bessi and Santiago Navarro F

El Triunfo reserve is home to 10 different types of ecosystems, including one of the most threatened in the world: the cloud forest. This ecosystem is of vital importance because it retains water and supplies the Sierra Madre, benefiting mainly farmers and neighboring communities.

The Deception

The community of Los Cacaos, located in the mountainous area, is located in one of the highest places in the municipality of Acacoyagua, part of Soconusco. Water springs flow everywhere and supply other communities in the foothills of the mountain. The land contains a large amount of organic matter. There is no seed that does not come to life in these lands. Coffee, cocoa, rambutan, orange, papaya, pineapple, mamey, all kinds of vegetables, and without any extra fertilizer, much less toxic agro-chemicals.

The federal government approved a titanium mining concession on these lands. Of the 530 hectares that make up the community of Los Cacaos, 500 hectares were granted. The method was to be by means of subterranean tunnels, from the foothills of the mountain to the upper part of the town.

Alberto Villatoro, a farmer from the community of Los Cacaos, between a mixture of sadness and anger, remembers his childhood, how he walked on the silver-blue rocks without knowing that it was titanium that would later be exploited in his community. Today, the Chinese mining company, Honour Up Trading, as in many communities in the Sierra Madre de Chiapas, seeks to monopolize one of the largest titanium veins in Mexico. “Since I was a child I remember those metals in the river, on the path we kicked it, but we didn’t know it was titanium. Until by way of deceipt, some people agreed to sign on to the exploration process,” says Alberto Villatoro.

The first mining company arrived in the community of Los Cacaos, recalls the farmer Florentina Antonio Morales, in 2009 and carried out open-pit mining. Today, by action of the community itself, the activities of the Chinese group were paralyzed, but the concession is still in effect. “They came to deceive us, this is the truth. They promised us many things. They said they were going to build a market, a road, a park for the children. But all that was just words,” said Morales, a peasant farmer.

One of the strategies used by the company, says Morales, in order to obtain community support, was through the distribution of food pantries. “They are giving some money to the authorities and deceiving the people with a pantry, like the government does. The truth is, I don’t need food. I grow my cocoa, my coffee. We work and that’s how we live. No more. We want them to go away. They are affecting our harvest, our health and that of our animals,” says Florentina.

Children in Los Cacaos have skin infections. Photo: Renata Bessi

According to data from the REMA organization in Soconusco, in the municipality of Acacoyagua, where two titanium mines are in the process of exploitation, cases of liver, stomach and testicular cancer are five times more frequent in the region than they should be, and some of these cases have occurred in children. In addition, people who have bathed in the Cacaluta, Doña María and Cintalapa rivers, where the mine waste flows into, have skin irritations, sores and rashes.

Division of the Community

The community of Los Cacaos is an ejido, a rural property of collective use, peculiar to Mexico, resulting from the Mexican Revolution (1910). “An ejido is a community of 100 to 200 people – the ejidatarios in an equitable manner own a fraction of land. An ejido is not a property. The organization of an ejido is governed by the majority and for this we use the assembly. There is a commissariat that represents everyone, but the highest authority is the assembly. The commissariat is in charge of enforcing what is determined by the assembly,” explains Villatoro, one of the ejidatarios.

According to the farmer, there were irregularities on the part of the commissioner in the convening of the assembly and in the constitution of the minutes in which the concession was approved. “They did not comply with the requirements of the Agrarian Law. There were fewer signatures than necessary from ejidatarios who are legally registered in the national agrarian registry,” says the ejidatario. In addition, “the day the assembly was held, the authorities communicated that the exploitation would be for one year. When they brought the signed agreement, we saw that the truth was that it was for 50 years. The ejido authorities were already sold out to the company. Many people are afraid to say anything”.

“What we are seeing is that the companies have already begun to use a pattern with the communities, division. They divide, they buy, they use all kinds of pressure and blackmail. And this is the case with all extractivist projects in the country, which has generated a range of conflicts,” says Gustavo Castro.

2 dollars per ton extracted

The reporting team had access to the contract of the Constitution that certifies the temporary occupation and service in the ejido Los Cacaos, made in 2013 between the authorities of that time and the company where the following are listed: the president of the ejido of Los Cacaos, Orlando Ramírez Tomás; the secretary, María Esther Ventura Ruiz; the treasurer, Edesa Reyna Tomás; president of the oversight council, Edgar Rusbel Pérez Pérez; and the Grupo Minero El Puntal SA, a company represented by its legal representative Víctor Manuel Espinoza Almaguer.

Rivers contaminated by mine tailings. Photo: Santiago Navarro F.

The contract establishes that “the ejido and the beneficiary agree on a payment of 500,000 pesos for the implementation of this contract, which will be paid in two installments, the first in December 2012 and the second in January 2013, as well as a royalty of 5 US dollars per ton extracted.”

Also, “the ejido and the beneficiary agree that the parcels where there the mineral is present will have to negotiate privately with the owner of said parcel so that a contract can be made individually in which it is agreed to deliver a royalty of 2 US dollars per ton extracted.”

Impacts Ignored

A document produced by the Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources of the Mexican government, which evaluates the Environmental Impact Study done by the company to obtain the concession, admits that the Los Cacaos project is in a region of high biodiversity and national importance. “Priority regions are areas that are used as a reference for national planning, due to their high biodiversity and significant functional ecological integrity.” Despite being considered a priority area by the agency itself, the secretariat approved the mining project.

In the community of La Libertad, the rivers carry mining waste. Photo:Santiago Navarro F.

On the other hand, the Secretary of Environment and Natural History of Chiapas issued its own evaluation, in September 2014, contrary to the mining project, issuing the following opinion:

“According to the review carried out, in accordance with the Ecological and Territorial Planning Program of the State of Chiapas, published in the Official State Newspaper n. 405, on December 7, 2012, the project to be developed called “Casas Viejas Mining Project,” to be developed in the municipality of Acacoyagua, is considered unfavorable, as the implementation of such actions would cause irreversible damage to the environment.”

This technical evaluation was ignored by federal authorities.

The Jewel

Another example is the concession issued to the Chinese company Honour Up Trading in 2013, called “La Joya”, established in the ejido of the community El Triunfo, in the municipality of Escuintla, Soconusco region, with an area of 207 hectares and valid until 2063.

“It is there, in the high part, in the ejido of El Triunfo where minerals such as titanium are found. We are worried because if these mines are developed, our ejido will be buried. In the municipality of Escuintla alone there are at least 8 concessions. It is the government that grants the concessions regardless of the well-being of human beings, nature and animals. We have not received any information. We enjoy clean oxygen and freedom, what is going to happen with mining?” said Francisco Bautista Hernández, secretary of the ejidal commission of the community of Independencia, Escuintla, Chiapas.

The Independencia ejido is the most organized town in the region. The community, along with its traditional authorities, is against mining. On several occasions they have denounced the owners of La Joya mining company. However, there are at least three other larger mining concessions in this same area that adjoin La Joya’s project and that remain silent for the time being. They are: “La Nathalia” mining, concessioned since 2012 to Helmar Antonio Faviel Solís; “La Fernanda”, concessioned to Evaristo Pérez Cano; and “La Ceiba” mining, concessioned to the company ATENMOV, S.A. DE C.V., who exploits gold, silver, iron and titanium in other regions of Chiapas.

Women from the community of La Independencia oppose titanium mining. Photo: Santiago Navarro F.

The mining concessions follow a continuous line along the Sierra Madre de Chiapas, which indicates that there is a large vein of titanium primarily along this strip. Along the length of these mountains, a large number of rivers and streams flow down, which the communities use for drinking, bathing and agriculture. “We don’t want the Sierra Madre de Chiapas to be destroyed because we have a lot of vegetation and a lot of water. We have two streams and if the mine is exploited they will be contaminated and there will be many diseases, death of our animals and people,” says Francisco Bautista.

“In our communities we have never had problems with cancer before, but now we have registered many cases after the first mining operations. Young women who are pregnant are already having deformities in their fetuses, or there are also miscarriages. There are animals that are already dying. That’s why we don’t want the mines,” said Paula Velázquez, a health volunteer from the community of Independencia, Escuintla, Chiapas.

Local authorities warn about risks in La Joya.

In May 2015, the Secretary of Civil Protection for the Integrated Management of Disaster Risks for the state of Chiapas, at the request of the municipal president of Escuintla, Juan Carlos Méndez Córdova, issued an assessment of the risks posed by the operation of the La Joya mine.

The town of Independencia, according to the document, is located in a mountainous system with very steep slopes. The houses are self-built. The municipality is located on the foothills of the Sierra Madre de Chiapas mountain range, which makes the surface of about 80% of its land area rugged.

The document characterizes the region to be mined as High Risk. “The study area described here is classified as high risk, due to the natural conditions of the environment and the interaction of anthropogenic elements.” Nevertheless, the concession was granted by the federal government to the Honour Up Trading S.A. company.

International Pressure

Under free trade agreements, all governments are required to guarantee foreign investments or they will be sued before the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), which settles investment disputes between companies and nation states, explains Soto. “If States do not guarantee the investment they are accused of indirect expropriation. There is almost no mention of this condition. There are many lawsuits by transnational companies against governments because of laws that hinder investments, or because the government withdraws concessions. There are studies that show that 60% of the lawsuits filed by companies at ICSID are from the extractive industry,” Castro adds.

The coveted mineral. Photo: Santiago Navarro F.

There is no country in Latin America that is not linked to a free trade agreement with the United States, China, Europe or Canada. “So what the governments do is to repress the people who are against these projects. It is easier to repress demonstrations than to pay millions of dollars to these companies,” explains the member of the organization Otros Mundos.

Governments must adapt the laws in their legal framework to facilitate investments. “Before the Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), for example, 52% of the Mexican territory was communal property. More than half of the territory and its riches, such as gas, oil, gold, water, wood, were in the hands of the poor. With the package of structural reforms that the government has been promoting, indigenous and peasant territory is being privatized so that international investment can make inroads,” says Castro.

Free Territories

One important development has been the non-conformity of those in the Soconusco region, where 1 out of every 3 hectares is concessioned to the mining industry, since the beginning of this year 2015, various communities together with their authorities and inhabitants of the region have carried out countless demonstrations and brigades to inform about the impacts of mining exploitation.

As one of the concrete actions of this declaration, in September of this same year, inhabitants of the Nueva Francia ejido, municipality of Escuintla, Soconusco, agreed to prevent the mining development of the project called El Bambú, in charge of Obras y Proyectos Mazapa and El Puntal, which have been extracting titanium for more than eight years.

In August of this same year, several municipalities in the state decided to declare themselves in a general community assembly “Free of Mining.”. Nearly 300 representatives from the municipalities of Tapachula, Huhuetán, Mazatán, Suchiapa, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Acacoyagua, Escuintla, Cintalapa and Tonalá made this decision due to the serious health effects that have already occurred in the region. “We join the more than two thousand declarations of territory free of mining in the country, as well as the more than 80 ejido and communal property acts and 30 municipalities of Guerrero, Oaxaca, Puebla and Chiapas that say no to mining,” Castro adds.

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