Arrested Development - Ex-Pats Mexico

Largest wind farm in Latin America inaugurated in Mexico

By MARK STEVENSONThe Associated Press

LA VENTOSA, Mexico — Mexico inaugurated one of the world’s largest wind farm projects Thursday as the nation looks for alternative energy, in part to compensate for falling oil production.

Mexico is trying to exploit its rich wind and solar potential after relying almost exclusively on petroleum for decades. With oil production down 9.2 percent in 2008, Mexico is turning to foreign companies, mainly Spanish, to tap its renewable riches.

"If we don’t do something about this problem of climate change it probably could become — I’m sure it already is — one of the biggest threats to humanity," President Felipe Calderon said at the inaugural ceremony, attended by about 1,000 residents, many of whom held onto their cowboy hats in the wind.

The $550 million project is in a region so breezy that the main town is named La Ventosa, or "Windy." It’s on the narrow isthmus between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean, where winds blow at 15 mph to 22 mph , a near-ideal rate for turbines. Gusts have been known to topple tractor-trailers.

Spanish energy company Acciona Energia says the 6,180-acre farm should generate 250 megawatts of electricity with 167 turbines, 25 of which are operating. The rest should be online by year’s end, making the project the largest of its kind in Latin America.

The project is also a joint venture with Cemex Inc. and will provide 25 percent of the Mexican cement giant’s energy needs, fulfilling the company’s goal of using alternative fuels.

Mexican Energy Secretary Georgina Kessel said the government is planning a series of wind projects that by 2012 should generate 2,500 megawatts of electricity.

But the project hasn’t been welcomed by local residents, who say they see few benefits and aren’t being paid enough for use of their land.

Several hundred protesters blocked a road leading to the site, holding a banner reading "no to the project."

Critics argue that foreign companies build the turbines, rent the land, run the project and produce the power for companies like U.S.-owned retailer Wal-Mart.

Acciona says the construction of the project created 850 jobs.

http://www.star-telegram.com/279/story/1160298.html

Why wouldn't the local residents benefit? Isn't this power for everybody there? I don't know about the 850 jobs created. I suppose many could have gone to "imports" by the company (which, I believe, is common), but more likely at least some locals were hired, depending on skills. Even if many of the workers came from elsewhere, they will benefit from the business! Everybody has to eat, for one thing. Many rural communities seem to oppose change, just because it is change, and I am sure that is true of places all over the world. But, I applaud this project. Dee

I wouldn't take them blocking the road as too big a statement, it's pretty common to go out and block the road for any number of small or large reasons in that area. We've driven across there at least 4 or 5 times and every single time there was one incident at least of people blocking the road for some reason. It's usually pretty tranquil and the locals come out and sell stuff while you wait, I've often thought they block the road for a business opportunity as much as anything. I think it would be a given that there would be someone who disagreed and that's reason enough to go and sit on the road for a bit.

What makes me curious is that over in Quintana Roo, they say that it is a federal offense to block the highway and they haul people away and lock them up for it, sometimes for a long time. So, when they want to block a road over there they block a side road that is not part of the federal highway. I've always wondered how this 'federal offense' is so well enforced in Quintana Roo and apparently not enforced at all in Oaxaca or Chiapas.

Why wouldn't the local residents benefit? Isn't this power for everybody there? I don't know about the 850 jobs created. I suppose many could have gone to "imports" by the company (which, I believe, is common), but more likely at least some locals were hired, depending on skills. Even if many of the workers came from elsewhere, they will benefit from the business! Everybody has to eat, for one thing. Many rural communities seem to oppose change, just because it is change, and I am sure that is true of places all over the world. But, I applaud this project. Dee


Mazdee:

Brigitte and I know this area between our home in San Cristóbal de Las Casas and some of our favorite Oaxaca places (Juchitan de Zaragosa, Tehuantepec, the Oaxaca coast and Oaxaca City itself), very well with its constant winds and ubiquitos overturned big rigs. Because of the almost constant prevailing winds induced by the close proximity of the Gulf of Mexico and a cut in the mountains between the Sierra Madre de Chiapas and the Sierra Madre del Sur, there have long been power generating windmills along this plain and this massive wind farm is just the latest addition to take advantage of this excellent power source.

It is very easy to attribute base motives to the locals expressing concern about this new wind farm but there are a number of reasons why locals might object to this new huge project over and above the fact that often along the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and other parts of Oaxaca state these seemingly obstructionest activities have, as their goal, ambitions among various local groups for inclusion in any benefits that might arise in the community from the new endeavor(s). One thing to remember about political and social movements and intermittent politically motivated unrest in Oaxaca state is that nothing occuring in that region is quite what it seems to outsiders not privileged to have resided for some length of time in that area.

Among other things, locals skeptical of this project are legitimately concerned about (1) the esthetic design and incessant noise of these windmills which are destructive to the peace and tranquility of nearby residential areas, (2) the fact that the speculators building and managing the project are foreigners who must be subject to equitably negotiated revenue sharing arrangements and pollution control measures with state and federal overseeers, (3) the distribution of power among various beneficiaries in the isthmus and power consumers elsewhere to assure those whose environment is disrupted by these turbines are adequately compensated for their sacrifice by receiving their fair share of inexpensive electricity produced by the wind farm and so forth and so forth.

Do not be seduced into thinking these issues are not important. When I was a kid in then poverty stricken state of Alabama in the 1940s, the locals were more than happy to welcome the huge chemical companies headquartered and managed from afar to pollute the rivers and esturine waterways of that state and the huge Pittsburgh steel companies to pollute the air in Metropolitan Birmingham while paying marginal wages to the poor working in dangerous conditions and repatriating profits to places such as Pittsburgh and Cleveland while appointing corporate lackeys to manage their Alabama plants who only answered to Rust belt and European bosses who could not have cared less about the welfare of some swamp bunnies residing in the nation´s "poor stepsister" region.

If the poor and disenfranchised of rural Oaxaca state don´t stand up for their rights, no one will do that for them.

As for Jonna´s remarks about Quintana Roo outlawing road blockages in that state, let me assure you all that road blockages are very common in Chiapas. I have personally contributed informal road tolls to support everything from the EZLN ( Zapatiistas) to local indigenous pueblos for all sorts of social and political causes from health care for the poor to celebratory money for fiestas for Zapata´s birthday to funds for construction of soccer fields for local school kids. My alternative in all cases was to drive on with four flattened tires and perhaps a flattened skull. I do no begrudge these things. Often the only way a poor indigenous community can get action from its governing municipal body is to block roads providing access to that municipality. I once, while driving from San Cristóbal to Palenque, contributed to that soccer field for the small indigenous pueblo of Cuixija just outside of Ocosingo, its municipal coverning body, to build that facility that had been promised by the new Ocosingo president (mayor) if they voted for him which they did. He reneged on that promise. That is when they set up the roadblock on the main San Cristóbal-Palenque highway. When I returned to San Cristóbal a week later, the road block was gone and the new soccer field was there next to the local school in all its glory. Good for them!

I agree with most of what you said Bubba but I didn't say that Quintana Roo outlawed blocking highways, I said that it is apparently a FEDERAL law that states you can not block federal highways. Since 307 that runs the length of Quintana Roo is a federal highway, they don't block it but the access roads that connect to it. Several years ago the family of a girl who was killed crossing 307 blocked the highway until they installed topes and overpasses. Recently when the pueblo of Akumal blocked the access road over a problem with the municipality, I was told that the women who organized that blockage of the highway at least 3 years ago are still in jail! I find that horrendous. At the most recent protest, there were federal highway police standing by to make sure that no one blocked the highway.

I'm well aware that it is tradition in Oaxaca and Chiapas to block the highway anytime you are unhappy with something. I think they overdo it, your view may be different. My question though is why don't the federal police enforce this law in those states while these women in Quintana Roo are still in jail? Fear? Lack of will because of the multiple problems in those states?

As for complaints about the wind farms. My thought is that someone in Oaxaca is not getting the payoff they think they deserve and are using the highway blockage to put pressure on the developers. I am sort of joking but my first guess for who would do that would be the teacher's union.

I'm well aware that it is tradition in Oaxaca and Chiapas to block the highway anytime you are unhappy with something. I think they overdo it, your view may be different. My question though is why don't the federal police enforce this law in those states while these women in Quintana Roo are still in jail? Fear? Lack of will because of the multiple problems in those states?

Jonna:

Fear is a major part of the reason(s) the feds tolerate these blockages. The last time I paid the necessary bribe to a group blocking a highway in Chiapas was on a federal highway a few kilometers south of Palenque as we approached from Bonampak after driving the frontier highway from the Montebello Lakes. There, at a large and busy intersection, the army had set up a checkpoint to check for drugs, narcos and illegal immigrants among other things (there is a virtual war going on there along the border with Guatemala) and just up the highway adjacent to a PEMEX Station on the way to Palenque was another road block in plain sight of the large army unit manning its own barricades. The second roadblock was manned by the Emiliano Zapata Brigade local chapter as they called themselves and they were demanding donations in honor of their hero which donations were not presented as voluntary and the road was barricaded with spiked boards which would have incapacitated any vehicle running over them. The boards were removed upon receipt of what they considered an appropriate donation. There was no way anyone was driving through without donating so the decision as to whether or not to do so was an easy one.

The army took no notice of this political extortion even though they were only a short distance away and could easily observe the activities taking place. It is important to note that, in both Chiapas and Oaxaca, there is a live-and-let-live attitude among the army, local authorities, right wing violent militias, unions (including the Oaxaca teacher´s union) and left wing insurgents that is aimed at preventing insurrection and/or civil violence that rises to the level of anarchy. So far this tolerance of political theatre helps blow off steam which benefits most of the active players.

As for us, we are guests here, quite pleased with our lot and finding the edgy social and political drama stimulating. I have my opinions regarding complex local political matters but I keep them to myself or share those opinions with friends in private which I look forward to doing with you and Mimi when we can make it over to Mérida but, as you know, I am in lengthy rehab from my recent gall bladder operation so may have to put that trip off until the fall. There. That should give you time to finish your new house in time for our visit, God willing.

Bubba must be feeling better as the narratives are getting longer and certainly worth reading! Keep up the good work!

All of the roadblocks I've been stopped at have been the result of people, it's usually the women, sitting down in the road and refusing to move until whatever their beef is gets corrected ... or they get tired of sitting there. A couple times we have been there for up to 8 hours, once overnight. We have always been in the RV so it wasn't a big problem for us but it can be for families in cars. All of these times, we've taken some women and kids into the RV to get out of the sun and have a soda and rest. We take our lawn chairs out and sit down in the road and BS with the other detainees. Always there have been vendors going up and down the road selling everything from tamales to cold beer, it becomes a little like an impromptu party although there are those who are more angry than amused. At some undefined point, the road is open again and we all pack up and drive on. I've always had a small suspicion that the people in the closest town wanted to bring in some income and stocked up for the event. Which is OK, I'm retired and I had my house with me so it didn't matter. Not as much fun with a car full of small children and no extra water or food.

As I recall, every single time we have crossed that isthmus between Chiapas and Oaxaca we have been in this kind of roadblock. We've also been at one south of Comitan coming north from Guatemala and another time coming south towards Oaxaca City from Puebla. I think you are probably right and it is a small price to pay to let them act out and perhaps prevent a more violent confrontation. We've never been asked for money in the aggressive way you related. We have driven through the small ropes and string that women hold across the road between Palenque and San Cristóbal, the first time we paid and then we started imitating the local cars and just driving right at them until they let them drop. Spike strips? Yes, I'd pay.

Well Jonna believe it or not the car in front of us was from Vera Cruz State and the woman would not pay.

We could not believe it , all the men from the town were lined up along the road with sticks. The guys stopping the cars had put spikes on the road and it was a little scary. The idiot woman finally saw the light and then claimed she did not have any change! They went to make change for her and then we were all on our way.
We just could not believe the woman would not pay as the whole town was there waiting for an excuse to start trouble. Wemcould see ourselves stuck in the middle of nowhere in a situation that could turn nasty.
We were chickens, we paid and told them good luck on their football field, they were so impressed they gave us a pass for our return trip! All that for a few pesos what a deal!