Governor Meets with Dam Opponents

(Cacahuatepec, JG 3 May) In a meeting over the weekend between Governor Ángel Aguirre Rivero and leaders of CECOP (the group in opposition to the La Parota dam), property owners from the proposed flood zone presented a “contract” to the State’s chief executive and asked him to sign it. The document was essentially a commitment to take all measures possible to cancel and bury the “La Parota” hydroelectric project.

For his part, the governor said that he had come to listen to everyone: to those against the project, and to those in favor of it. About 1,000 local property owners attended the event. Even though he put on one of the black CECOP t-shirts that says “Full stop on the La Parota Hydroelectric Project,” Aguirre cautioned those present: “It seems to me that they [CECOP] made a strategic mistake in the attempt to persuade, convince and engage as participants those who today are landowners. I am not going to encourage any type of mass meeting, nor any sort of event in which they might get involved again.”

As concerns his refusal to sign the “contract” pressed upon him by the CECOP faction, Aguirre said simply, “I sign nothing before I read it.” Among other things, the document pressed upon the governor by the CECOP protestors committed him to initiate a project to cancel the dam project at the Federal level and to inaugurate a series of public benefit programs in the region.

When asked about the Governor’s response, Acapulco Mayor Manuel Añorve Baños said he was in full agreement with Aguirre. “It’s just basic common sense. Those of us responsible for public administration know well that you can’t sign a document you have not had an opportunity to read and consider. It is clear to me that the governor is trying to put himself above the problem, listening to the parties, and at the right time, decide how to resolve this conflict, which has already been going on for many years.”