Cover image: Residents of the Choluteca region of the Mexican state of Puebla protest on Monday, April 22, demanding the presentation of the Environmental Impact Report for the landfill. The authorities have refused to dialogue with the residents of the area affected by the irregular landfill. Photo: Radio Comunitaria Cholollan
Residents of the Cholula region of Puebla have been on constant alert and living through tense moments following a joint operation carried out by the state police and the national guard seeking to evict the blockade held down against the landfill located in San Pedro Cholula. The objective of the police and national guard operation was to remove the blockade and allow trash trucks from municipalities to enter the area to dump their waste.
The police escalated with aggressions against the population in resistance. “Shots were fired at protestors. It’s not clear whether they were from police or someone else,” said one of the witnesses who for security reasons preferred to remain anonymous.
This landfill, where a blockade has been set up since March 21, was formally closed by the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection (PROFEPA) on April 9, after evidence was presented by the Unión de Pueblos y Fraccionamientos contra el Basurero y en Defensa del Agua, showing the presence of waste leachates in well water used for human consumption.
However, shortly before the police operation on Tuesday, April 30, the Secretary of Government (SEGOB) of the State of Puebla, released a communique alleging that there was no “legal impediment” to the operation of the landfill in Cholula. The communique states that the reason for the closure has been “attended to and remedied,” and therefore, this implied, the lifting of the closure order from the agency, permitting the continuance of the operations in a regular manner.”
Inhabitants of these communities awaited a more violent attack from state forces. However, as of publication, the police didn’t return. Nonetheless, the situation remains tense with reports of various detentions and house searches, as well as people physically threatened in different communities.
Meanwhile, the environmentalists refuse to back down. They will not lift the blockade until the landfill is closed indefinitely. Furthermore, solidarity toward the activists hasn’t stopped, and neither has condemnation of the repression.
Following May 6, 2024, when Israel ordered the evacuation of Palestinians from the city of Rafah, previously a safe zone, different protests have taken place across the world.
In Mexico City, a protest was organized in front of the Israeli embassy, where around 200 people gathered to demand justice and freedom for the Palestinians, calling on authorities to cut all relations with Israel, with the intention of making visible the rejection of the genocide in Palestine and the global demand for an immediate and permanent ceasefire.
Several demonstrators arrived with white candles, banners with slogans, and Palestinian flags. After demanding justice and freedom for Palestinian children, there were 21.5 minutes of silence as a symbol of mourning for the 215 days that have passed since the beginning of the attacks on Gaza.
Two hours of protest passed and the mobilization continued its path on the avenue Paseo de la Reforma allowing a secure return of all protestors, and to make visible the rejection of Israel’s war against the Palestinian people.
The protest took place after the assassination of more than 35,000 Palestinians and the ongoing siege of Rafah after the evacuation of the last area that sheltered at least 80,000 people, who had already previously been displaced.
During the protest, some of the fences surrounding the Israeli embassy were torn down and dragged along the route as a symbol of the struggle to tear down the border walls and alleviate the burden that thousands of Palestinians have carried during these months to survive.
Cover image: Protest by inhabitants of San Juan Cancuc, who demand the immediate release of the five defenders of the territory accused of the murder of a policeman of that municipality in the highlands of Chiapas. Photo: CDH Frayba
Last Friday (19), the Criminal Court of San Cristóbal de Las Casas ratified the conviction of five Tseltal defenders from the municipality of San Juan Cancuc, in the Highlands region of Chiapas, for a crime that, according to social, ecclesiastical and human rights organizations, they did not commit.
“An unjust sentence” is how the Chiapas organizations describe the recent 25-year prison sentence against Manuel Santis Cruz, Agustín Pérez Domínguez, Juan Velasco Aguilar, Martín Pérez Domínguez and Agustín Pérez Velasco, accused of the death of a San Juan Cancuc municipal police officer in 2022.
The ratification of the sentence comes after the legal defense of the indigenous appealed against the first sentence, issued on May 12, 2023. This is due to the fact that, from the moment of their arrest, lawyers from the Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Center (CDH Frayba), who are following the case, charge that the trial has presented multiple irregularities.
In response to the appeal, the Chiapas Judicial Branch announced, in February 2024, its decision to reinstate the oral trial hearings. However, the CDH Frayba maintains that the justice system of the southern state did not decide to address the merits of the case, that is to say, the proof of the existence of the crime and the accreditation of the responsibility of the accused. Above all, they charge that the role of the Chiapas Prosecutor’s Office was not corroborated, which they accuse of fabricating evidence and validating false testimonies to keep the indigenous people imprisoned while the process dragged on.
“During the hearings that have just ended, we saw that there was no argument, no convincing evidence that could give arguments to the judge to keep them in prison,” said Dora Lilia Robledo Garcia, director of CDH Frayba during a press conference held this Tuesday (23).
The position of CDH Frayba is that, with the ratification of the sentence, “it was once again proven that this is a fabricated accusation; the new judge did not take into consideration that no evidence made the defendants directly responsible, and that there are even doubts about the existence of a crime,” she claimed in a press release.
Injustice
In an interview with Avispa Mídia, Mario Ortega, lawyer and coordinator of systematization and advocacy at CDH Frayba, emphasizes that there are serious doubts about the cause of death of the municipal policeman.
Ortega explains that, testimonies from the Tseltal community narrate that during the night of the events, strong complaints of pain were heard from the policeman, for which the people nearby left their homes, finding him lying dirty near a ravine. According to the lawyer, this is an indication that the policeman had fallen and that that was the cause of his death.
“The community called the municipal police who took him away while he was still alive. On the other hand, the prosecutor’s office invented a version in which the population massively assaulted him causing his death,” details the lawyer about the contradiction in the versions.
According to Ortega, the judge “erroneously takes for granted the murder with the statement of the person who performed the autopsy, without taking into account a metaperitaje – a technical report whose purpose is to determine whether or not there was a lack of technical or methodological rigor in the expert analysis -, offered by the defense in which it is mentioned that the death was caused by a single blow and that he did not present any other injuries.” This argument, according to the defense, reinforces the version of the fall of the policeman and denies the aggression on the part of the villagers. A hypothesis that the Prosecutor’s Office never investigated.
Wives of the 5 Cancuc prisoners demonstrate in front of the Palace of Justice in San Cristobal de Las Casas. Photo: Orsetta Bellani
The lawyer emphasizes that, during the trial, they proved the fabrication of statements of the security elements who invented the version of the tumultuous aggression and, nevertheless, never mentioned having seen the five accused. “It is evident that the statements were fabricated, since entire texts coincide completely in the wording, which is implausible and is an archaic practice”, accuses the member of the CDH Frayba.
Another point highlighted by the lawyer is that, to date, there is no real investigation to know for sure how the policeman died. “If it was due to the fall; if there was some previous aggression before the population found him; if the police themselves did something to him after he was taken away. That is to say, the prosecution closed itself to only one hypothesis in which it accuses the five defenders and tried, through statements in a manner, to limit it to that. It is important not only to recognize that the compañeros are innocent, but also to get to the truth for the families,” said Ortega.
According to the lawyer, the next step is to appeal the oral trial, in which three scenarios are open. The first is that, for the third time, the process is reinstated. The second is that the Chiapas Judiciary addresses the merits of the case and recognizes that there is no evidence to support the conviction. And the third, that, after the hearings are reinstated, the Chiapas judiciary’s decision will once again ratify the conviction, in which case the defense of the five defenders will file a federal protection action (amparo federal).
For the moment, Ortega adds, at the international level the case has already been presented to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, a mechanism of the United Nations Human Rights Council, from which they expect a response in order to call on the Mexican government to clarify the case.
CDH Frayba points out that since May 2022, the Tseltal defenders were arbitrarily detained, disappeared, accused and criminally prosecuted in retaliation for their work as community defenders in the context of the imposition of infrastructure and militarization projects in their territory.
The human rights center emphasizes that since the first hearing of the trial “inconsistencies were exposed in the evidence fabricated by the Office of the Prosecutor for Indigenous Justice, in addition to multiple human rights violations,” as part of what they call a “factory of guilty parties.”
For this reason, they assert that the new sentence “confirms that there is a criminalization of territorial defenders, aggravating the human rights crisis in Mexico.”
“Once again we are faced with the challenge of disputing a trial that is clearly unjust. The State demonstrates that it is betting on exhaustion, because rather than recognizing the unsustainability of the accusation, it tends to infinitely reinstate the proceedings,” the human rights organization maintains.
Prison abuse
On April 9, the five defenders of Cancuc, who are imprisoned in the State Center for Social Reinsertion of Sentenced Prisoners (CERSS) no. 5, located in the city of San Cristobal de Las Casas, participated in a collective denunciation in which the inmates pointed out a series of abuses and violations of basic rights by the prison’s management.
In a letter, inmates point out that since mid-February, CERSS No. 5 has had a change of director. José Hernández Márquez took over as director, who is accused of carrying out a series of fines and extortions against the prison population.
Among the allegations, they point out that the new director charges for the use of various areas of the prison, such as the conjugal area, as well as for floor fees and payment of fees for taking inmates for medical consultations, since the CERSS lacks a resident doctor. They also point out extortions for income generated inside the prison, such as those derived from donations to churches and trades such as a carpentry shop self-managed by the prisoners.
They denounce that Hernandez resorts to sexual harassment of administrative personnel, inmates, as well as visitors, for which reason they requested the intervention of the National Human Rights Commission to investigate his current and past actions, as there are also allegations of corruption against him while he was director of CERSS No. 16, located in the municipality of Ocosingo.
In view of the new sentence and the conditions of imprisonment they are living in, the Tseltal defenders sent a letter to the three levels of government to demand their immediate release. “They have robbed us of two years of life. They have robbed us of two years of being with our family, they have robbed us of the possibility of seeing our children grow up, but they have not robbed us of our dignity and the hope of obtaining justice,” they stated in the letter.
Cover image: Protest demanding the freedom of Saúl Rosales
One of the principal demands that emerged from the Fourth Assembly for Water and Life, which took place at the end of March, was the unconditional and immediate freedom of Raymundo Cahuantzi and Saúl Rosales. The two forest defenders have been accused of a homicide in the Nahua community of San Pedro Tlalcuapan, in the municipality of Santa Ana Chiautempan, in the state of Tlaxcala.
Saúl Rosales and Raymundo Cahuantzi have been involved in the defense of the Matlalcueyetl region, also known as “La Malinche,” organizing community assemblies, participating in reforestation efforts, and denouncing extractivist activities like illegal logging.
The forest defenders were detained on July 14, 2022. Following a year and a half in prison, on March 1, 2024, Raymundo Cahuantzi was acquitted of all charges and released. However, in that same hearing, Saúl Rosales was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
The events leading to the political persecution took place on April 15, 2022, when a man was lynched in the community after having supposedly robbed a home.
Saúl is an authority in the community. His wife explains that Saúl unsuccessfully tried to stop the killing, but those who carried out the attack locked him up in the municipal building.
Raymundo, for his part, is a religious leader and a Tiaxca—a respected figure inside the community. In spite of not participating in the acts, he was detained when he went to the Tlaxcala Public Prosecutors Office to seek the release of Saúl.
On March 1, the court ordered the immediate freedom of Raymundo, when evidence was presented demonstrating that he had participated in religious activities in the community at the same time as the killing.
In the same hearing, the court found Saúl Rosales guilty for supposedly failing to protect the victim and not preventing the murder.
The individuals and organizations who participated in the Fourth Assembly for Water and Life, like the Colectivo por la defensa de la identidad y territorio de Tlaxcala(CODITET)—who were in charge of the organization and logistics of the assembly—and human rights organizations like Frontline Defenders, have demanded the freedom of Saul Rosales. They argue that the legal process is an act of criminalization against Saúl and Raymundo for their labor in defense of Matlalcueyetl.
Matlalcueyetl has been declared a national protected area harboring a great variety of plants, animals, and micro-organisms endemic to the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt (TMVB). It is also extremely important in the cosmovision of the people of Tlaxcala who live nearby. Furthermore, the area provides resources like charcoal, firewood, medicinal plants, edible mosses and mushrooms. The zone is also pivotal for maintaining the water cycle and the regulation of temperature.
In interviews with the Avispa team who attended the fourth assembly, members of CODITET explained that the area of Matlalcueyetl is being threatened by illegal logging, growing urbanization in Tlaxcala and Puebla, as well as by pollution and infestation, specifically by the bark beetle.
The organizing work in defense of territory has led to conflicts with municipal and state authorities who do not respect the decision of the Nahua communities to stop the exploitation of the resources of the area.
The sentence against Raúl was handed down in the context of his work in defense of territory, explained Raymundo Cahuantzi and Jacobo Rosales, the brother of Saúl Rosales, in an interview during the Fourth Assembly for Water and Life.
Avispa Midia (AM): Hi Raymundo, we are happy that you are here with us in freedom. Could you tell us more about why you were detained? What relation does your detention have with your organizing work in defense of the forest and land?
Raymundo Cahuantzi (RC): The crime of which we are accused was fabricated. I wasn’t even in the location of the acts on the day of the killing. I was participating in and organizing the procession because it was Good Friday
We’ve been organizing for a long time in defense of Malintzin, struggling against the bark beetle, and doing restoration work. When the infestation began, so did the organizing. Our organizing work for the health of the forest has caused friction with the government, because they’ve sought the intervention of private companies.
We believe that our imprisonment is punishment for this organizing work, for being active in the defense of this land, for participating, for organizing.
We were detained on July 14. Waking up on July 15, that is when the storm truly began, the political persecution against us.
It was very hard. The truth is we’ve suffered being isolated from our families and friends. That has been really difficult.
AM: What were the greatest obstacles in the process of obtaining your freedom?
RC: I was in prison from July 15, 2022 to March 8, 2024. It was physically, psychologically, and economically stressful. Being in prison changes your life, not just for you, but for everyone around you as well. Things changed drastically overnight.
We live day to day because we are campesinos. We didn’t have any savings. We had to learn to cope. The most difficult part was the hearings being continually postponed. We were also deceived by some lawyers. Everything was very difficult.
My direct family, my wife and children, my mother who is 88 years old, my siblings, they never abandoned me. Always, every visit, they were there.
I’m also grateful for my community because the truth is there is much love. I’ve always been loved. I am recognized as a Tiaxca in my community, someone who is well-respected, the compañero Saúl Rosales is too. We hope that soon his innocence is proven as well.
AM: We understand that everything was very hard, and you mention the support of your family and community, how was it that you obtained your freedom?
RC: With all the support, our collective has been able to expand and strengthen itself. Today in the National Assembly for Water and Life, I want to thank all the communities and collectives who have joined this cause. It is thanks to your support that I am free.
To all the people who supported with protests, we must continue united to soon be with our compañero Saúl Rosales. Everyone, god, and even the government, know that we are innocent.
I want to believe in divine justice and the laws of this country, so that the truth is uncovered. We did not do anything wrong. We are people who have been defending the land and water. We help our community. The truth must come to light.
In addition to our conversation with Raymundo, we also spoke with Jacob Rosales, brother of the political prisoner, Saúl Rosales. In the interview, Jacob talks about the difficulties that the imprisonment of his brother has generated for the family.
Avispa Midia (AM): Hi Jacob. How is your brother Saúl Rosales doing? Could you tell us more about his work in the community prior to his imprisonment?
Jacob Rosales (JR): My brother, in spite of being in prison, has been strong. Saúl has always been a hard worker, a fighter, and he is loved by his community.
At the moment the bark beetle infestation appeared in the forest, my brother, together with the Colectivo de Sanamiento y Restauración de la Malintzi Tlalcuapan, began to restore the area. As a result, this problem has arisen leading to his imprisonment. It seems there is a clear connection.
AM: What has been the response from authorities to the denunciations claiming Saúl is innocent?
JR: My brother has been in prison for a year and nine months. The Tlaxcala Public Prosecutor’s Office knows that there is no evidence against him. It’s the same as the case of the compañero Raymundo who has now been released. There is no evidence against Saúl.
The judges handling the case have argued that because he is a traditional authority, he is guilty. For helping his community, for caring for their forest, they’ve given him a sentence of 20 years in prison.
The only thing we demand is that the truth be known. Today we’ve taken account of the corruption in Tlaxcala. There is no justice or law.
AM: After a year and nine months in prison, what has been the most difficult for Saúl and his family?
JR: The case is complicated, for the family and friends of Saúl. I can say that I know my brother. He likes to help the family. He always likes to participate. Thus, its been really hard living through this.
AM: What’s next in Saul’s case after the conviction?
We will continue fighting to demonstrate the state’s injustice. Like Raymundo said, we know there are people behind us.
We will now go to the appellate court. We hope things go well there, and that we can achieve justice from this struggle. We hope this whole situation is brought before the law, and that soon he will be free.
AM: Lastly, how can other people join in the demand for the freedom of Saúl?
You can find us on Facebook at Justicia Tlalcuapan. We stream the protests when there are court hearings. We also ask everyone to share the information, to let people know that innocent people are paying a dear price for the simple act of defending their land.
We thank the communities and collectives who have accompanied us. We have seen the friendship. When I visit him, my brother has said that you realize who your friends are, and those who are truly with you, when you are in prison. We invite you all to keep demanding the freedom of Saúl.
Obras para la construcción de un hotel dentro de la Reserva de la Biosfera de Calakmul, Campeche. Foto: Santiago Navarro F
Cover image: Hotel construction inside the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve in Campeche. Photo: Santiago Navarro F
The Maya Train is a central part of the territorial reorganization being carried out in the Yucatán Peninsula, in the southeast of Mexico, by the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The train will cause an increase in electricity consumption in the region, says the GeoComunes collective in the report, Reestructuración Energética en México: subordinación territorial en el noroeste y sureste de México.
According to estimates from the Program for the Development of the National Electric System (PRODESEN 2022-2037), the region will have the highest increase in electricity consumption in the next 15 years (60% accumulated, passing 15,397 GWh to 24,368 GWh).
The section of the train between Mérida and Chetumal, which spans 690 kilometers, will be powered by electricity, representing 44% of the complete route. The rest will be hybrid, powered by both diesel and electricity. To energize this train, 53 electricity infrastructure projects have been announced: 43 power plants and 10 new medium tension transmission lines that total 556 kilometers.
The Maya Train Project
Machines of military engineers advance in the construction of Section 6 of the Maya Train. Photo: Renata Bessi
The Maya Train consists of the modernization and expansion of around 550 kilometers of the existing train lines (from Palenque to Valladolid), the construction of around 1,000 kilometers of a new line (Valladolid-Cancún-Riviera Maya-Chetumal-Escárcega), and the development of 21 train stations and 13 stops.
The project is also foreseen to include the expansion of industrial-extractive industries which require significant amounts of electricity and water. For example, the study mentions the beer company Heineken, which in September of 2023 announced the construction of what will be their eighth beer factory in Mexico, this one located in the municipality of Kanasín, Yucatán. It will move its supplies and products via the Maya Train and the Progreso Port.
The Maya Train will also encourage tourism and real estate expansion in the region. On the one hand, the study points out that it will offer new transportation infrastructure—trains and new airports in Tulum and Mérida—that will transport great numbers of tourists to already saturated areas like Cancún, Playa del Carmen, Tulum, and Mérida. On the other hand, it will permit the expansion of mass tourism and real estate related projects into new territories, as is happening in Bacalar and Valladolid where a new project is being developed by the company, Xcaret, and toward the Calakmul area.
Today, most of the energy consumption in the peninsula is already destined for tourist cities. Between only six municipalities that concentrate tourism in Quintana Roo—Benito Juárez, Solidaridad, Puerto Morelos, Tulum, Islas Mujeres, and Cozumel—in 2022, they used 45% of the total electricity consumption in the 128 municipalities that make up the Yucatán Peninsula.
The GeoComunes collective warns in their investigation that the high consumption of electricity in tourist zones and large cities causes inequality in access to electricity.
Boats in the vicinity of the Bacalar Lagoon. Photo: Aldo Santiago
According to data from INEGI’s Census of Population and Housing, in 2020, there were still 14,270 homes lacking electricity in the peninsula, principally concentrated in the states of Quintana Roo (42%) and Yucatán (34%). “While these just over 14,000 homes represent barely 1% of those existing in the peninsula, their location shows that the lack of access is concentrated in the municipalities with greatest consumption.”
Expanding Energy
Most of the peninsula’s current electricity capacity is sustained by fossil-fuel power plants, according to the study of GeoComunes. These plants represent 80% of the capacity, while the rest of the capacity derives from four solar farms and three wind farms, located principally in the state of Yucatán.
In the Yucatán Peninsula there exists 42 power plants in operation that generate a total capacity of 2,933 MW, distributed principally between the states of Yucatán (1,842 MW) and Campeche (732 MW), while Quintana Roo contains only 12% of the capacity in the peninsula (359 MW).
In Yucatán, for the expansion of production, there are four plants in construction. With the new plants it will increase the capacity in the region up to 5,511 MW.
GeoComunes mapped another 22 power plants that already have permits from the Energy Regulation Commission (CRE) and that, if built, would add a total of 1,923 MW of capacity. There exist another 12 power plant projects that still don’t have permits from the CRE, but already have Environmental Impact Reports authorized or currently being evaluated. If built, these 12 plants would add another 1,465 MW of capacity.
As a whole, the majority of these 34 plants are planned to be constructed in the state of Yucatán (19 power plants), the state which concentrates 46% of the projected capacity, while the remaining 41% is in Campeche, and just 13% in Quintana Roo. In terms of technology, the 34 projected power plants are of two technologies: wind (1,627 MW) and solar (1,761 MW).
In addition, is the construction of new gas pipelines to supply the new power plants, hotel zones, and possible maritime hydrocarbon exportations.
Map of energy infrastructure in the Yucatán Peninsula. Source: GeoComunes
“There is no doubt that this is a process of territorial reorganization that will facilitate a new expansion of tourism, which for decades has generated dispossession, speculation, and privatization of ejido and communal lands, commodification and consumption of natural resources (water, land, biodiversity, Maya culture, etc.) and increased militarization and violence,” explains the collective in their study.
The investigation Reestructuración Energética en México: subordinación territorial en el noroeste y Sureste de México, carried out by the GeoComunes collective, also mapped the energy reorganization in the northeast of Mexico and in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, in the states of Veracruz and Oaxaca.
Cover image: In 2022, a caravan of the communities of Altepelmecalli visited the intermunicipal landfill of Cholula, which affects the water and lands of farming zones. Photo: Elizabeth Díaz/ Sueña Dignidad
As part of ongoing actions organized since March 21 by campesino and Indigenous communities of the municipality of San Pedro Cholula, Puebla, demanding the closure of the landfill located in the vicinity of San Francisco Coapan y Garzas, this Tuesday, April 2, the communities denounced having found signs of fecal coliform contamination, responsible for gastrointestinal diseases, in sources of water near the landfill.
During a press conference held at the protest encampment which has been maintained now for over two weeks to prevent the entrance of more garbage into the landfill, the communities informed that in a study by scientists at the Autonomous University of Mexico (UAM) at the Azcapotzalco campus, they found that the water in the region is not drinkable.
Residents of the towns of the Choluteca region—the communities of San Mateo Cuanala, Colonia Los Ángeles, San Andrés Calpan, Santa Maria Zacatepec, San Sebastián Tepalcatepec, San Lucas Atzala, and San Juan Tlautla—listened to the results of the investigation conducted by Dr. Sylvie Jeanne Turpin Marion, a specialist in waste management and a research professor at UAM.
The conditions in which the intermunicipal landfill operate in the Choluteca region. Photos: Unión de Pueblos y Fraccionamientos contra el Relleno Sanitario
The researcher Turpin explained that in analyses of the water samples taken from five water wells (underground water filtered down from natural water sources in higher areas) that supply communities of the region, they found “staggering quantities” of coliform bacteria and organic matter.
The investigator explained that “the organic material is what the coliform bacteria feeds on, this is what it lives off of. Also, the color of the water was irregular. From this we can conclude that indeed it has to do with the leachates,” sustained the investigator who emphasized that measures must be taken to treat the water that “is definitely not drinkable.”
The scientist stressed that in operating a landfill, leachates are formed (water runoff from the waste) that if not controlled properly, are dispersed causing environmental damage.
The water samples collected in Puebla were taken to Mexico City and analyzed in a laboratory of the Department of Energy of the Division of Basic Sciences and Engineering of UAM Azcapotzalco.
Environmental Irregularities
According to the organization Unión de Pueblos, who are demanding the closure of the landfill, only in the first eight days of their protest encampment they had already prevented the entrance of 480 tons of trash coming from 23 municipalities of Puebla, as well as other localities of Mexico City, Mexico State, and including Oaxaca.
The investigator of UAM explained that there are environmental regulations—in this case she referred to the norm 083 of the Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT)—which regulates the construction and operation of landfills. According to the researcher, this normativity does not permit the existence of landfills above groundwater or in the vicinity of water wells. “There are distances to respect and, visibly, this norm, in this case, has not been applied,” sustained Turpin.
Within norm 083…the principle operators of the landfill must also monitor the water before and after its flow into the water table, to control any consequences, and to review precisely the capture and treatment of leachates,” detailed the investigator.
In 2022, a caravan of the communities of Altepelmecalli visited the intermunicipal landfill of Cholula, which affects the water and lands of farming zones. Photo: Elizabeth Díaz/ Sueña Dignidad
According to the researcher, who has decades of experience in chemical and environmental engineering, the samples were georeferenced and taken at a depth of between 28 and 35 meters. Thus, in her analysis, there is little possibility that there exists a different source of contamination of the water, other than the leachates from the solid waste dumped into the landfill.
However, to confirm the levels of contamination of the samples, Dr. Turpin announced that she will take a second round of samples to eliminate the possibility of the contamination coming from other causes that are not the landfill, like drains or septic tanks. “If these analyses continue with the same amount (of contamination) as the first ones, legal action could be taken,” concluded the researcher, referencing a possible environmental lawsuit.
Impacts of the Landfill
Juan Carlos Flores, lawyer of the Unión de Pueblos, contextualized that the demands of the communities of the Choluteca region from local and federal governments to provide information on the landfill’s compliance with environmental regulations continue to be refused.
Furthermore, the lawyer explained that there exists a strategy of government officials of the state of Puebla and the Secretariat of Environment at the state level, to condition the handing over of information on the environmental impacts of the landfill, in exchange for the Union de Pueblos to sit down in a dialogue to remove their protest encampment.
Flores pointed out that they have already filed legal complaints before the Secretariat of Environment of the State of Puebla and also before the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection (PROFEPA), and are awaiting a new inspection from environmental authorities.
It should be noted that on February 4, communities of the Unión de Pueblos stopped work on the expansion of the landfill because the required permits do not exist. However, the stoppage only lasted a few hours and the work resumed with the approval of the municipality of Cholula.
According to the lawyer, PROFEPA officials announced this week that they will carry out an inspection to verify that the landfill complies with environmental regulations to which it committed itself at the beginning of this year.
With protests, residents of the Choluteca region have suspended work at the landfill. Photos: Union de Pueblos y Fraccionamientos Contra el Relleno Sanitario
“We have also begun to file lawsuits against the contamination of the groundwater and wells, as well as against the expansion they seek to do with the landfill without any Indigenous consultation,” sustains the lawyer.
Furthermore, he adds that, among the reasons for which the Unión de Pueblos believes that they are denied access to the documents of the Environmental Impact Report is that the landfill operates “outside the norms, since it has already surpassed its capacity.”
According to data provided by the Unión de Pueblos, the approximate surface area of the landfill located in the Choluteca Region is greater than 36,000 square meters. They denounce that since 2008, the landfill has operated “illegally beneath the corruption of the Trash King and today candidate for federal office for the political party MORENA in Hidalgo, Cuauhtémoc Ochoa, along with José Juan Espinoza, and the ex-governor of the state, Rafael Moreno Valle.”
“From the ground level, the lethal landfill has an approximate height of 30 meters. However, it is important to consider its depth beneath the surface, another 30 meters, for which we are talking about a total height of 60 meters,” explains the organization of communities in the Choluteca region, who explain that the radius of contamination covers two kilometers around the landfill.
Testimonies from residents of the region emphasized that there are different manifestations of the contamination, a consequence of the landfill’s operation. Among them, they mentioned damage caused to the crops, as well as activities like beekeeping and campesino agriculture, since producers find it difficult to sell their products, since the people of the region recognize that it was produced near the landfill, and that if could be contaminated.
They also highlighted the existence of illnesses, above all gastrointestinal illnesses, as well as the danger posed by the accumulation of methane gas, product of the solid waste, which both contributes to global warming and can be a source of fires.
The Protest Encampment Continues
After the installation of a protest encampment near the landfill, on March 21, the Unión de Pueblos informed that in recent days they have carried out assemblies in the communities of the region where they have made the decision to maintain the resistance until the landfill is closed.
With protests, residents of the Choluteca region have suspended work at the landfill. Photos: Union de Pueblos y Fraccionamientos Contra el Relleno Sanitario
In an assembly on March 24, the communities affected by the contamination stated that “this decision is an urgent measure to protect the environment, water, and life. We have the right and duty to protect the environment,” for which they named the company Profaj and the government of Puebla responsible for whatever repression against them.
It should be emphasized that the encampment is being held down next to the Cholula-Calpan highway “for which the government doesn’t have any pretext to repress our right to take action in defense of the environment,” said the Unión de Pueblos.
