April 22, 2023
Mexico

Wind energy in Mexico is not as clean as you think

BY MICHAEL FOX | APRIL 21, 2023 | therealnews.comBY MICHAEL FOX | APRIL 21, 2023 | therealnews.com

Indigenous Zapotec farmers in Mexico’s Tehuantepec Isthmus say wind energy multinational corporations are polluting the water, trampling on local land rights, and even turning to violence to achieve their aims.

In March 2023, U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry met with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Oaxaca, Mexico, to discuss U.S.-Mexico collaboration over renewable energy. It was announced that the United States would commit to invest in at least 10 new wind and solar parks in the region – already one of Latin America’s top wind power hot spots.

But there’s a problem. These wind farms there have been largely constructed and run by foreign transnational corporations. Residents say that while on the surface these wind turbines are generating clean energy, they have been disrespecting communal land rights, stiffing local residents money owed for renting their land, and refusing to benefit the local community with discounted or subsidized utility rates. There are also major concerns for the local environment.

The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.

He steps past a row of corn, bends over and picks up a broken piece of plastic debris.

“See this? Look at all of this. No way. No way. They fell from the turbine. Someone could have been hurt. They’ve been here for two years.”

His fields are littered with the debris. He says he asked the company to clean it up, but they never came.

Mexico’s Tehuantepec Isthmus is one of the largest centers of wind farms in all of Latin America. Thousands of wind turbines dot the horizon. And in March, the U.S. government promised to invest in creating and installing even more. See this? Look at all of this

But while the energy produced from the wind here may be clean, the farms themselves have been plagued by labor, human rights and environmental abuses.

The wind farms here are mostly constructed and run by foreign transnational corporations: Spanish, French. Japanese. American.

“When the wind companies came to the Tehuantepec Isthmus they came saying they would bring work. That they would create a lot of jobs. That the Indigenous peoples here would make a lot of money.”

Residents say the transnational wind companies have disrespected communal land rights, stiffed residents money owed for renting their land, and refused to benefit the local community with discounted or subsidized utility rates.

The Zapotec Indigenous town of Juchitán is in the heart of the wind industry here.

“You don’t see any benefit from the companies, here. They’re just making money for themselves.”

There are also serious environmental concerns. Residents say the wind turbines are often leaking oil and could be contaminating groundwater.

“Just yesterday, I went to an area of Juchitán and I saw a wind turbine that was black from oil being spilt. I asked the local residents, and they said the company wasn’t doing any maintenance on the turbines. The rainy season is coming. And this could carry the oil into Oaxaca’s Lake Superior, contaminating it. And it’s the place where we get much of our food and our fish.”

Farmer Celestino says he’s also losing his hearing, because of the constant hum from the turbines surrounding his farm.

He was one of the only neighbors at the time who didn’t want the wind farms. He says the company tried to force him to accept turbines on his land. When he refused, he was attacked.

Opponents of the wind farms here have faced serious intimidation. Human rights lawyers say death threats are common. Criminal impunity is rampant.

Last year, engineer Edgar Martín Regalado was traveling back from speaking out against a new wind farm that a French power company has been trying to install near his home in the town of Union Hidalgo.

“I was coming back from a meeting against the wind farm. I was in a moto-taxi. A car pulled alongside us and fired three shots.”

He wasn’t hurt, but the attempt on his life shook the community group he’d been working with to fight the wind project.

“It was an act of intimidation that affected everyone. A lot of people left the group. They don’t go to meetings, because they’re afraid of what they might do to us.”

The developers and companies behind these wind farm projects in the region say they have a firm commitment to respecting human rights and that wind energy is their greatest hope for the future. But others say they have reaped all the benefits for themselves, while dividing communities.

“The population has handed over more than 74,000 acres of land to these transnational companies. And they have dismantled the local economy, unleashing a whole chain of conflicts, because of the lack of work.”

Amid all of this, U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry met with President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in Oaxaca, in March, to discuss U.S.-Mexico collaboration over renewable energy.

It was announced that the United States would commit to invest in at least 10 new wind and solar parks in the region.

Residents fear that unless there are drastic changes in the implementation, development and relationship with the local community, these new wind farms are destined to repeat the same abuses, in the name of clean and renewable energy.