Emir Olivares and Alonso Urrutia
Newspaper La Jornada
Tuesday, November 8, 2022, p. 12
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador acknowledged that the separation of Elena Burns from one of the main subdirectorates of the National Water Commission (Conagua) was due to differences between the researcher and the head of the agency, Germán Martínez Santoyo.
Questioned yesterday morning about the departure of the deputy director of Water Administration and part of her team – recognized specialists in the study and management of the resource – the president pointed out that it was a determination that was consulted.
It is a decision that was made. I was consulted by the director of Conagua, whom I also trust, and I authorized this change to be proposed, looking for Elena to help us in another task.
referred the Tabasco.
Last week, water activists accused a massive purge
officials of that unit who have sought to stop the process of hoarding and overexploitation of the liquid, starting with Burns, who was even prevented by the police from entering the agency’s headquarters.
López Obrador assured that he has already spoken with the removed official to make two proposals: to help him define a reform of the laws for the rational use of water in the country and to take care of it, or to take charge of a regional coordination to carry out three dam, irrigation and clean energy projects being built in Sinaloa (the Picacho and Santa María dams) and in Nayarit (the Alejandro Gascón Mercado irrigation district).
I’m going to talk to her (Burns), because the director of Conagua and her are also already very confrontational. It is no longer possible, we have to find a way to help us elsewhere
.
Are they substantive differences?, he was asked.
No – answered the president –, I would say no, because I have confidence in Germán, as I have in her. But there are lawsuits, that’s every day.
