La Parota Opponent Charged With Terrorism

The Land is Not for Sale! A com­mu­ni­ty in resis­tance to La Paro­ta dam.

11th Novem­ber

In line with recent state­ments indi­cat­ing a resump­tion of efforts to force through the con­struc­tion of La Paro­ta Dam, the Mex­i­can gov­ern­ment has also launched a new cam­paign of repres­sion against the dam’s oppo­nents.

First, dam oppo­nents warned of increas­ing para­mil­i­tary activ­i­ty in the region. Then came word that the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment is seek­ing to relo­cate entire vil­lages to ham­string the oppo­si­tion to the dam. Now Mar­co Anto­nio Suástegui Muñoz, spokesper­son for the Coun­cil of Eji­dos and Com­mu­ni­ties in Oppo­si­tion to La Paro­ta Dam (CECOP), said the state gov­ern­ment of Guer­rero has issued a war­rant for his arrest on false charges of ter­ror­ism, kid­nap­ping and “attacks on fed­er­al roads.” He denounced these as bla­tant acts of repres­sion relat­ed to his orga­niz­ing work against La Paro­ta.

Suástegui told a CECOP assem­bly that police set up three sep­a­rate road­blocks in an attempt to detain him, with orders to imme­di­ate­ly trans­port him to the max­i­mum secu­ri­ty prison in Tepic, Nayarit. Suástegui was forced to change vehi­cles to evade the road­blocks and reach the assem­bly.

In recent months, Suástegui said, he has been threat­ened by rank­ing state offi­cial Hum­ber­to Sal­ga­do Gómez. “Sal­ga­do Gómez told me: calm your­self, or we’ll put you in jail. Bad peo­ple are watch­ing you. Either we put you in jail, or your life ends,” he said.

Suástegui accused Guer­rero Gov­er­nor Ángel Aguirre Rivero of vio­lat­ing the 2012 Cac­ahu­ate­pec Agree­ment, which com­mit­ted him to cease crim­i­nal­iz­ing or using force against oppo­nents of La Paro­ta dam, and to seek a meet­ing with Mex­i­can Pres­i­dent Enrique Peña Nieto and inform him that La Paro­ta dam will not be approved.

Suástegui also said that in spite of the war­rant, he will remain in his home vil­lage. “If the gov­ern­ment wants to come for me, I will not leave my pueblo [village/community/people]. We will wait for them, ladies and gen­tle­men.”