Proceso Sur
October 27, 2001
By Armando Guzman

VILLAHERMOSA, TABASCO -- The project Plan Puebla Panama (PPP) operates in Tabasco by means of the dispossession of land belonging to ejidos and small holders who have been told that they will be imprisoned if they refuse to give up what is their only inheritance. In the Indigenous community of Simon Sarlat, in the municipality of Centla 45 kilometers from Villahermosa, six small holders fight an unequal legal battle against the "power" of the federal government that is trying, no matter what, to get the PPP off the ground.

In defense of their land, an inheritance of centuries, the small holders have raised their voices to president Vicente Fox. However, the head of state doesn't see or hear them in the face of the imminence of the robbery' that the Secretary of Communications and Transport (SCT) tries to commit by widening the Villahermosa -- Frontera highway, of a section of around 50 kilometers.

'Being aware of their ambitious Plan Puebla Panama and conscious of the benefits that transnational companies will obtain, we appeal to your conscience and for divine justice, we ask that you do not permit this dispossession. We are resolved to give up our blood since the land is our only legacy that we can leave to our children for their survival', they wrote on the 8th of August to Vicente Fox. The road works, say the small holders to SUR Proceso, form part of the PPP to guarantee easier access to the door of Frontera, Tabasco, and to Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche. All for the future exploitation of 400 oil wells in the 'Delta' oil field where the river Grijalva opens into the Gulf of Mexico, 'as we have found out', they stated.

Javier Bautista, the son-in-law of one of the persecuted people, Hermeselda de la Cruz, explains that the conflict started when the SCT, via the builder Manuel Felipe Orduoez Galan the cousin of ex-governor Roberto Madrazo, reinitiated the above-mentioned road works. A 30 kilometer stretch of the highway was widened to four lanes a couple of years ago; the highway is almost 100 kilometers long in total.

Bautista maintains that without 'overnight' expropriation involved, employees of the SCT and the construction company of Orduoez Galan invaded their lands which adjoin the highway, 'with no notification whatever of what they intended to do'. The affected, eight small holders, organized themselves and removed the 'invasion' from their land.

There the functionary explained to them that the federal government, by a presidential act of 1956, had by right of way 30 meters to widen the highway, and if the government took their land it was not obligated to pay. He also said that if the small holders agreed to sell 11 meters more the SCT could pay for land that was "owed" to the federal government within the 30 km limit. The problem is, explains Javier Bautista, for the 41 meters (30 + 11), each one of the small holders will not receive more that 10, 000 pesos. This is why they rejected the SCT's proposal and, in a minute, agreed to another meeting.

However, one day before the meeting date the small holders received citations to appear before the Attorney General of the Republic of Villahermosa, accusing them of blocking the federal highway. 'All we were doing was removing the invaders from our land', said don Carmen May Valencia owner of four hectares. 'They intimidate us by threatening to put us in prison for defending our property, but what option do they leave us if they take the only little piece of land from which we live? Will they give us a permanent job? Will they give us a salary? Will we be resettled on other land? They do not give us any options, only threats', lamented Javier Bautista.

Of the original eight Indigenous that initiated the defense of their lands only six remain. The other two were convinced to accept the SCT's offer. Without a doubt the conflict threatens to take new dimensions because it does not only affect the community of Simon Sarlat, but also ejidos and settlements of eight other communities. The majority of the localities are situated in the absorption area of the Pantanos de Centla biosphere reserve. The road works will impact 'against the biodiversity that we have here', explained the Indigenous in their letter to president Vicente Fox. They maintain that builder Orduoez Galan bought 10 hectares of land adjacent to that zone in an area where they exploit oil wells. They also maintain that the 'contaminated' material that is extracted is used to widen the highway and that the waste is deposited for the most part in the Pantanos de Centla.

The inhabitants of the community El Espino took their case to the House of Representatives of the republic and sought the advice of the parliamentary faction of PRI. The 24th of September, the representative Amalan Yabur brought a report to Floricel Medina Pereznieto, the chair of the Head Committee. The report by the Judicial Office of Congress developed around the construction (in 1956) and the contemporary widening of the Villahermosa -- Frontera highway.

In the introduction of the document, representative Yabur explains that the SCT does not comply with presidential accords, the norms nor the procedures of the Agrarian Attorney General, 'much less works according to the norms of the Secretary of the Treasury of the Federation and its petition value of goods (CABIN)'.

The report also recommends that defense of the affected small holders in El Espino should be taken on by the judicial department of the Agrarian Attorney General; that the Treasury and CABIN 'should act in the interests of the affected'; and that the National Peasant Confederation like the Agrarian Matters Commission of Congress should offer advice.

The study highlights that all expropriation of ejidal or communal goods must be done by means of presidential decree and compensation; 'neither a decree nor compensation were offered and for this reason the presidential act of of 1956 of which the Secretary of Communications and Transport seeks the protection is not valid'.

'Consequently in the case of El Espino it should have issued a expropriation decree by the Federal Executive at the first opportunity, stating the fact that the highway would be widened', explains the report. As an example the report offers the expropriation decree of president Vicente Fox (published in the Diario Oficial de la Federacion, September 6, 2001) for the construction of the Las Choapas -- Coatzacoalcos freeway, the Las Choapas - Raudales section and Las Choapas III junction. The judicial analysis of Congress dates back to the illegality committed by the federal government since 1956 in order to build said highway. The report also refers to Article 4 of the Law of Expropriation, the declaration should have been made by means of published accord in the Diario Oficial de la Federacion and notified to the interested parties. In the case of the ignored residences of the small holders, they should have provided personal notification and a second publication of the accord in the same paper, so that the affected small holders had 15 working days to lodge an administrative appeal against the expropriation declaration.

Without a doubt the accord was only published once, 'and there was no personal notification to all the small holders of the expropriated land', the report sustained. It concluded that in 1956 the requirement of expropriation for a public good was honoured; however, the Secretary of Agrarian Reform failed to intervene or to pay for the indemnities.

Dona Hermeselda de la Cruz was a baby when her father fought and saw with helplessness how the federal government "divided" his land to build the highway in 1956, without receiving in payment any money. Forty-five years later, she is faced with the possibility that the land she inherited could be wrenched away again. 'My father lost crops, fruit, corn fields. . . he lost everything. Now they want to do the same thing to us. They want to take our land. What good is it if Vicente Fox kneels before the Virgin of Guadalupe praying for the Indigenous if he will not even answer our letters?' she asks. 'The federal government rescues bankers and highway builders, but it only offers us prison', added her daughter Grisel.