Governor Discounts Opposition to Hydro Project

(Acapulco, ESu 25 November) In a speech to a civic group in Acapulco yesterday, state governor Zeferino Torreblanca Galindo said he was proud of his administration for managing to get the “La Parota” hydroelectric project into the federal budget for 2011, and said that “it did not come like manna from heaven,” but rather was the result of effort by his government. He invited the group to keep pressing for the dam project, as “the vast majority of citizens want it.” He added that conciliation with the opposition requires a sensitive policy, a negotiation, but it is possible. The governor was critical of the press, which gives wide distribution to the opinions of those opposed to the dam, describing them as a “noisy group of about 50 people, maybe fewer.” He would be pleased to see the expropriation of the land, and would be privileged to lay the cornerstone for the project, as it is a “lever for development for the state.” Governor Torreblanca added that he felt the opposition started out because of a lack of understanding of the project, and that it has waned as information has been more widely disseminated. In a press interview after the event, the Governor’s private secretary, César Bajos, said that the federal government is prepared to indemnify those in the flood plain up to three times the market value of their land. Several landowners have already been collecting rent from the Federal Electric Commission for several years. The court order required to begin condemnation of the land will be issued, he said, in about 20 more days.