Human Rights and the Environment

Case Study: La Parota Dam

Country: Mexico

Region: North America

Issues: Trade, Water, Infrastructure, Displacement, Public Participation

When completed, La Parota Dam will provide electricity to the tourist town of Acapulco, Mexico, and will eventually be linked to power grids in the United States. However, local communities oppose the building of the dam because it will flood the lands of 25,000 farmers and destroy the Papagayo watershed region.[1] Intense opposition to the construction of the La Parota Dam has led to the arbitrary arrest of community activists in Acapulco.

On July 27, 2004, Marco Antonio Suástegui Muñoz and Francisco Hernández Valeriano were detained by the State Judicial Police on charges that they held an electricity engineer from the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) against his will at a protest blockade, even though both men maintain that they were not present at the event.[2] Although both individuals have been released, the charges have yet to be dropped. The arrests appear to be part of a larger government crackdown on leaders of community groups that oppose the government's development schemes.[3]

[1] See Rosa Rojas, Damnificados Integran Frente Contra las Presas, La Jornada (Oct. 2, 2004), available at http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2004/oct04/041002/015n1pol.php?origen=politica.php&fly=1 (last visited Mar. 8, 2005).

[2] See Amnesty International, UA: Mexico Update (Dec. 17, 2004), at http://www.amnesty.ie/user/content/view/full/3392/ (last visited Mar. 8, 2005).

[3] See Jessie Hahn, Update on Indigenous Resistance to Construction of La Parota Dam near Acapulco, Guerrero (Oct. 8, 2004), at http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/mexico/2688.html (last visited Mar. 8, 2005).

Last Updated: 09/09/05