Blockade Against Monsanto in Argentina Enters Second Month

18th Octo­ber from Rev­o­lu­tion News

Today is day 28th of the block­ade against Mon­san­to in Malv­inas, Argenti­na and around 50 pro­tes­tors camp­ing there have no inten­tions of going home any time soon. Cit­i­zens are mak­ing them­selves at home near the main entrance of the new Mon­san­to plant cur­rent­ly under con­struc­tion.

They are camp­ing out indef­i­nite­ly to protest the new GMO seed pro­cess­ing plant which is sched­uled to open for busi­ness in 2014. Rev­o­lu­tion News spoke with activist Celi­na Moli­na from Asam­blea Malv­inas Lucha por Vida who said sim­ply, “We do not want Mon­san­to to install the 2nd largest GMO seed pro­cess­ing plant of Latin Amer­i­ca in our city.”

The plans for Monsanto’s new plant show future con­struc­tion of 240 silos for stor­age of chem­i­cal­ly treat­ed GMO corn. The silos have fans that are required to ven­ti­late the shafts. GMO corn in an enclosed area tends to rub togeth­er and pro­duce chem­i­cal dust which explodes with­out prop­er ven­ti­la­tion. Peo­ple there fear that when Mon­san­to switch­es on the fans the local town of Malv­inas will be engulfed in a cloud of chem­i­cal dust.

Mon­san­to has already done enough health dam­age to cit­i­zens of Argenti­na. They have wit­nessed the long term effects of expo­sure to Roundup for the past decade. Epi­demi­o­log­i­cal sur­veys were con­duct­ed 2001–2002 in areas heav­i­ly fumi­gat­ed with Mon­san­to Roundup her­bi­cide. Results of the sur­veys showed alarm­ing­ly high rates of birth defects and mal­for­ma­tions in chil­dren, can­cer clus­ters and mis­car­riage rates 100 times high­er than the nation­al aver­age. The onset of sky­rock­et­ing health issues in Argenti­na coin­cides direct­ly with the rise of soya cul­ti­va­tion and spray­ing of her­bi­cides near pop­u­lat­ed areas. Pro­fes­sor Andres Car­ras­co, Direc­tor of Mol­e­c­u­lar Embry­ol­o­gy at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Buenos Aires con­duct­ed lab­o­ra­to­ry stud­ies link­ing local health issues to Glyphosate, the active ingre­di­ent in Monsanto’s her­bi­cide Roundup.

Mon­san­to has a ter­ri­ble track record in Argenti­na and the cit­i­zens of Malv­inas are not going to allow fur­ther expan­sion for the agro­chem­i­cal giant with­out a fight. Videos of police repres­sion of peace­ful pro­tes­tors on Sep­tem­ber 30, 2013 cir­cu­lat­ed online. Sofia Gat­i­ca, spokes­woman for Madres de Ituzain­go Anexo was injured dur­ing the clash­es with police. Videos of the repres­sion have since cir­cu­lat­ed online and more peo­ple are arriv­ing at the con­struc­tion site every­day to join the block­ade.

Mon­san­to – Argenti­na

Time­line

1996 – Soya crops first intro­duced to Argenti­na along with Mon­san­to Roundup her­bi­cides

2001 – Res­i­dents of Ituzain­go Anexo start­ed notic­ing health irreg­u­lar­i­ties in their neigh­bor­hoods and began their own epi­demi­o­log­i­cal sur­veys

2002 – Results of sur­veys were alarm­ing: can­cer clus­ters, high rate of mal­for­ma­tions and birth defects, mis­car­riages 100 times high­er than the nation­al aver­age. Pro­fes­sor Andres Car­ras­co (Direc­tor of Mol­e­c­u­lar Embry­ol­o­gy U. of Buenos Aires) per­forms lab stud­ies link­ing health prob­lems with expo­sure to Glyphosate (the active ingre­di­ent in Mon­san­to Roundup). Local moth­ers formed activist group “Madres de Ituzain­go” and protests began.

Also in 2002, Argenti­na default­ed on it’s for­eign debt, coun­try was in a state of eco­nom­ic upheaval & riots ensued

2004 – First for­mal crim­i­nal com­plaint against local farmer & aero­fu­mi­ga­tion pilot, Par­ra, was filed for ille­gal pol­lu­tion

2008 – Com­plaint filed against Pan­cel­lo (anoth­er local farmer & aero­fu­mi­ga­tion pilot) for ille­gal pol­lu­tion

2011 – Com­plaints from 2004 & 2008 are com­bined and a tri­al date is sched­uled.

June 11, 2012 – Crim­i­nal tri­al against Par­ra & Pan­cel­lo began

June 15, 2012 – Pres­i­dent Cristi­na Fer­nán­dez de Kirch­n­er announced arrival of a new Mon­san­to plant to be built in Malv­inas, Argenti­na. It will be the largest Mon­san­to plant in Latin Amer­i­ca

July 2012 – Activist group “Asam­blea Malv­inas Lucha por Vida is formed”. Protests against new Mon­san­to plant con­struc­tion began.

August 22, 2012 – Land­mark ver­dict in crim­i­nal case against Par­ra and Pan­cel­lo – both farm­ers are found guilty of ille­gal pol­lu­tion and giv­en 3 year sus­pend­ed sen­tences. Both are giv­en com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice and banned from work­ing with agro­chem­i­cals for 10 years but nei­ther will serve jail time.

2012 – 2013 – Cit­i­zens begin to take legal action against Mon­san­to thanks to Par­ra & Pan­cel­lo case. No com­pen­sa­tion is offered to fam­i­lies of vic­tims affect­ed by con­t­a­m­i­na­tion. Protests against Mon­san­to con­tin­ue.

Sep­tem­ber 18, 2013 – Block­ade in front of new Mon­san­to plant entrance in Malv­inas begins.

Sep­tem­ber 30, 2013 – Videos of police repres­sion at Malv­inas cir­cu­late online, local well-known activist, Sofia Gat­i­ca is injured on cam­era by police.

Cur­rent – Block­ade ongo­ing