This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page Campesino observes the lands where the construction of a solar farm is being proposed By Renata Bessi Alberto Hernández Toledo is an 82-year-old Indigenous Zapotec from the community of San Pedro Comitancillo He is a campesino who learned from his parents how to care for and work the land the campesino Hernández Toledo received a visit to his home from unknown people offering “wonderful things They were looking for the Indigenous Zapotec because he is an ejido member of the community and he has lands that he inherited from his parents and grandparents The people who visited him identified themselves as representatives of the company They proposed to the campesino that he lease his ejido lands for the production of what they consider to be “green energy.” The Danish company plans to construct a solar farm in an area covering 3,070 hectares of Comitancillo equivalent to more than 750 times the size of the central plaza of Mexico City it will be installed only 400 meters from the urban center of the community but they didn’t convince me,” says the Zapotec The project’s polygon coincides with the grand majority of the fertile lands of the community “It is there where we plant organic sesame that we export,” comments Luis Vázquez,” another ejido member that the company sought out to individually convince him to rent his lands and that is what they need for the installation of the solar panels,” he said It is part of a complex of energy production and infrastructure—wind farms and terminals in the port of Salina Cruz—all run by Helax Istmo The objective of the complex is to produce what has been considered the fuel of the future in the region of the Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in the section where Comitancillo is located Helax Istmo plans to construct a large green hydrogen plant in one of the ten “development parks” planned along the industrial corridor of the Isthmus specifically in the community near Comitancillo The idea is that the energy produced by the solar farm in Comitancillo—as well as the energy from five new wind parks on the lands of Ixtepec and Ixtaltepec—will power the green hydrogen production plant in Ixtepec which needs excessive amounts of energy and water signed a memorandum of understanding with the Mexican Navy and the Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec—a public agency of the federal government created in 2019 to carry out the “project for the development of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec”—to install the plant The green hydrogen is planned to serve to generate “green maritime fuel.” the company said that the project will contribute “to the objective of sustainable development in Mexico as well as the decarbonization of shipping on the world scale,” projected for the thousands of vessels that arrive to the ports of Salina Cruz and Coatzacoalcos which the Interoceanic Corridor connects together a partner of Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners details that “when it is fully operational Helax will be in an ideal position to attend to the growing demand of ecological fuel for shipping contributing in a significant way to the decarbonization of the global shipping industry.” they tried to tell me about the nice things that the solar farm would bring to us But how are we to imagine nice things in a territory of more than 3,000 hectares taken over by solar panels that are like a giant mirror that reflects the sun’s rays I don’t agree,” insists the campesino Hernández Toledo The electric energy derived from the solar farm and the wind parks will power the process of electrolysis which takes place at the hydrogen plant using electrical current to separate the hydrogen from the oxygen in water the molecule H2O (water) is divided into O2 (oxygen) and H2 (hydrogen) It is called “green hydrogen” because the electricity used in the process is obtained from “renewable sources” and with the hydrogen obtained from these sources energy can be produced without emitting carbon dioxide that contaminates the atmosphere as occurs with fossil fuels Helax Istmo has increased its presence in the territory of Comitancillo since the end of 2023 trying to talk with and convince local authorities According to neighbors and ejido members interviewed for this article the company is politically manipulating the issue by promoting the solar farm as a project pushed by the president of the republic “They are taking advantage of the popularity or the acceptance of AMLO in the communities they proposed it as a project of the government to afterwards say that it is a private project,” Guillermo Hernández Antonio explains and corn on the lands that coincide with the polygon of the project Community representatives explain that in spite of the signing of the memorandum of understanding between the federal government and the company for the construction of the hydrogen plant not one document has been signed with the company for the construction of the solar farm The company has yet to receive approval from Comitancillo’s ejido assembly according to the solicitude for information (folio # 330026124000211) there is no environmental impact report that approves the project something required for any company to develop an energy project Members of GeoComunes warn that as long as this permit hasn’t been approved according to Article 86 of the Electric Industry Law “the company doesn’t have authorization to begin to negotiate with owners of the land they would be committing a crime,” they point out.  those interested in obtaining permission or authorization to develop projects in the electricity industry including those related to the provision of the workforce of Electric Power Generation the social impact report referring to article 120 of the law 90 days before their intention to start the negotiations with the property owners where the project in question is intended to be located “They do not have the authorization to carry them out.” They say that “they are carrying out a survey of information to gauge support for the project but in the end it is meant to convince individual ejido members to prepare the terrain for a possible governmental consultation,” sustains Hernández Antonio who is also the coordinator of the Autonomous Communal University of Oaxaca (UACO) in Comitancillo In the same request for access to information and methodological information of the projects—hydrogen plant as well as information presented by the company to the governing body Among the arguments presented by SENER is that “the disclosure of information damages the commercial advantages that the companies have over their competitors…” In addition the information is classified so as to be reserved for a period of two years Representatives of Helax Istmo also attended an ejido assembly at the end of January 2024 to give general information about the project “They told us of the benefits of the solar farm,” says the ejido member Luis Vázquez representatives of the company proposed an Indigenous consultation for the entire population.  The ejido assembly arrived to the conclusion that it was not the moment to make such a decision deciding to analyze the possibility of a consultation in a reunion where representatives of the company were not present According to the ejido member Luis Vázquez an extraordinary assembly was held that dealt exclusively with the approval of the consultation “After hours of debate and under pressure from other ejido members without a deeper analysis of the project and its impacts,” the consultation was approved with 32 votes in favor and 14 against more than a third are ejido members that “never come to the assembles and who suddenly appeared; so we realized that they have been brought in by the Helax company,” says Hernández Antonio to the Avispa team 503 ejido members are recognized in Comitancillo with approximately 110 who have passed away At least 50% plus one of the ejido members must approve the consultation “We weren’t even 50% of the ejido members in the assembly There were very few of us ejido members present,” comments Luis Vázquez from the moment in which the company began the individual visits with ejido members “There is a lot of misinformation of what the project will really mean in our territory it’s information that has been distorted by the company that they give complete and honest information about the project We are sure that they will not do that,” he sustained we’ve begun a process of informing the population ourselves about what a project like this might mean for the community,” explains Hernández Antonio According to an informative document presented by Helax Istmo to local authorities the process of consultation planted by the company will take place in May between the months of January and February collective pre-agreements on access to the land will be carried out “What is happening is that they are in a hurry with the elections coming up (June 2024) They want to guarantee the project before the change of government,” adds Luis Vázquez “we know that they are obligated to carry out the consultation and they are going to do it We have seen in other places how these consultations are carried out in the interests of the companies; but independent of the results if the assembly of ejido members doesn’t give permission to construct the project they are not going to do it,” sustains the ejido member Luis Vázquez Representatives of Helax Istmo told the ejido member Luis Vázquez that signifying that the ejido member will no longer depend on planting his lands The proposal presented to the ejido members which consists of an informative document to local authorities shows that the project is planned in three phases where they will clear and prepare the land for four years they will pay $540 pesos per hectare per year With the observation that “the payments during this phase will be subject to the fact that ejido members must carry out the regularization and registration of their parcels of land,” says the document In the following phases of construction and operation they propose $23,000 pesos per hectare per year The paper isn’t going to save us from the unbearable heat or the lack of water and food,” says community member Elia Cruz Cruz “Here there is less and less water and we’ve already been alerted to the fact that “we who are not ejido members also have to be taken into consideration,” she claims “I went to the ejido assembly when they approved the consultation to say to them that they have to consider us and think about the community as a whole because the impacts will affect everyone,” the housewife explains but owns land where she planted crops with her husband On her lands she maintains around 2,750 fruit and timber trees acquired through the Sembrando Vida program.  She has 854 nopal plants which are an important weekly income I carry water around 180 meters from the water source to the land I have to carry the water in a wheelbarrow,” she explains Why don’t they carry out a smaller project that helps us maintain the lands green Elvia points out that information hasn’t been provided about the real impacts of the project and water is one of the things that she is most worried about “If there isn’t water for the ejido members How could they want to do a consultation that supposedly will be in May if the majority of the community isn’t even aware of it We are going to be alert to what is on the horizon,” says the campesina The animals flee,” says Julio Ramírez Ortiz of the municipality of Calpulalpan in the state of Tlaxcala where a solar farm project was implemented in 2019 by the French company Engie was shared in an informative forum which took place in Comitancillo and we didn’t know of the impacts.” For this reason they decided to organize in the October 16 Collective meant to defend the territory of the community after the arrival of the company In Calpulalpan there were nearly 5,000 solar panels installed on 600 hectares the space planned for the project is four times greater “The surface of solar megaprojects in Mexico vary between 200 and 1,500 hectares The largest that exists in Mexico is 2,400 hectares The community closest to the park is 10km away,” highlights members of GeoComunes there aren’t any studies regarding the impact of a solar farm of the dimension that they are proposing in Comitancillo “We know the impacts caused by smaller solar farms the increase in temperatures between 3 and 4 degrees Celsius is that inside the polygon of the solar farm they will remove everything from the land community trails will disappear or be privatized “The land will be made bare and on top of it they will install panels Don Alberto Hernández Toledo possesses two hectares of forest in the polygon sought by Helax Istmo “I can’t describe how fertile this land is I have protected a large piece of land with trees and all different types of species take refuge there I don’t like that they go there looking for iguanas.” Representatives of Helax Istmo said to Hernández Toledo that if he rents his lands they will protect the two hectares of land that he has preserved in an informative document about the project presented to local authorities the company specifies that in order to condition the area “the leaser will allow Helax to carry out whatever action necessary to obtain the permits and licenses for the project including changing the use of the soil before the Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT).” “We are not naïve,” the ejido member says to Avispa Midia “Once we accept that they enter with their project they are going to do away with everything.” The polygon where they seek to construct the solar farm according to ejido members interviewed for this report is cultivated with resources from the Sembrando Vida program “Many of the producers in this program will be affected by this project It doesn’t make sense that now they are working to reforest the area when tomorrow they will be deforesting the area for the establishment of the solar farm,” sustains Hernández Antonio “To condition the area” also means doing away with the spaces of identity and memory of the community Exactly in the polygon where they seek to build the project are six sacred sites of Comitancillo—Guamuchal “These are places where our history is contained where the myths of our people are found,” he emphasizes they fear the disappearance of the culinary customs of the community since there will no longer be land to plant the zapalote chico corn what will those who come after us get to know I learned from my parents how to care for these lands That is why we defend them for those that come after us,” says Hernández Toledo when they tried to install a wind turbine blade factory in our common use lands and we are going to continue doing so,” he says The green hydrogen project will be financed by two funds of Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners—Growth Markets Fund II and CI Energy Transition Fund is focused on projects of renewable energy in different parts of the world—Western Europe It is advertised as a “sustainable investment” as it falls under Article 9 of the Sustainable Finance Disclosures Regulation (SFDR) a framework established by the European Union to “create” world governance in the financial sector in materials related to sustainability and energy transition whose objectives are linked to the Paris Accords has positioned itself as the leading fund manager focused on renewable energy It has raised around $26 billion euros from more than 150 international investors for its projects and has the ambition to raise $100 billion euros by 2030.  * Photos provided by the community of Comitancillo and Campo A.C Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" Contáctanos: avispamidia@riseup.net Los materiales creados por Avispa Midia pueden ser reproducidos solo sin fines de lucro y debes reconocer la autoría e informar sobre su publicación The World Boxing Council and its President Mauricio Sulaimán mourn the passing of Mario Sánchez Torres trainer and promoter of great distinction in amateur boxing After months of so bravely struggling with medical problems our friend Mario passed away on March 13th Mario served as a great promoter and marvellous advocate of amateur boxing in Calpulalpan He was the founder of the José Sulaimán Boxing School moving away from the streets and the temptation of its vices The entire WBC family know that God will welcome Mario into his arms and we send our deepest condolences to Mario`s family and legion of friends This is a sad time tinged with sweet memories It`s those memories we leave which preserve us as strong At the end of the road of no return may you rest Eternal Peace Privacy Policy / Cookie Policy The “highway of death” in México state lived up to its name yesterday when 11 people died in a collision between a bus and a truck The accident occurred about 9:45am on the Texcoco-Calpulalpan highway near Santa Inés Local residents later seized four buses and used them to block the highway to demand that the bus company assume responsibility for the medical costs of yesterday’s victims and compensation for the families of the dead Residents say they warned federal transportation authorities in April that the stretch of road where yesterday’s collision occurred is dangerous and frequently the scene of accidents The situation has become worse in recent months because of an increase in truck traffic delivering construction materials to the site of Mexico City’s new airport Source: El Universal (sp) ADVERTISE WITH MND COMMUNITY GUIDELINES Subscription FAQ's Privacy Policy Mexico News Daily - Property of Tavana LLC 43,000+ global companies doing business in the region 102,000+ key contacts related to companies and projects news and interviews about your industry in English Microsoft has closed Skype to focus on its Teams service.