Jared Laurels
Newspaper La Jornada
Friday November 25, 2022, p. eleven
The indigenous consultation last September to give the green light to the construction of the ammonia plant in Bahía de Ohuira, in Ahome, was carried out amid irregularities such as the fact that 11 communities outside the affected area were included and where delivery of pantries and purchase of votes was detected.
This was denounced by members of the Yoreme ethnic group, from Sinaloa, who held a rally outside the National Palace yesterday to ask President Andrés Manuel López Obrador for a dialogue to present the case first-hand. They were received by the Office of Citizen Attention of the Presidency, and met with María Luisa Albores, Secretary of the Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat).
Felipe Montaño Valenzuela, traditional indigenous governor of Ohuira – a town located in Ahome – and spokesman for the advisory council of the Yoreme-Mayo nation, stated that they asked the official to intervene and raised the outright cancellation
of the project, by trying to build on a Ramsar site, in addition to the violation of their rights, international treaties and their uses and customs.
In addition, he commented, they exposed to the official the environmental consequences and the risk for the fishing production on which 4,000 families depend, since the project would have the capacity to produce 2,200 metric tons of ammonia per day.
They pointed out that the consultation was carried out in 15 communities, of which 11 are outside the 45-kilometre radius of affectation and, in addition, the consultations were carried out without action protocols and in a single day, by show of hands, they voted in favor from the ammonia plant.
He specified that only the towns of Juan José Ríos, Lázaro Cárdenas, Ohuira and Paredones are located within that zone and they rejected the GPO project to continue, he rejected that the consultation of the original peoples had been prior, free and informed.
In an interview, he pointed out that the meeting, which lasted around two hours, was attended by Daniel Quezada, head of Conabio; Benito Mirón, from the Interior, and Iván Ramos, from the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property, officials who served as responsible, guarantor and technical bodies, respectively, during the indigenous consultation ordered by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, held between June and September last.
According to the Yoreme leader, Albores showed himself Surprised, she asked what was happening, why so much corruption in this process, so we explained to her the various violations and how the work was done and we pointed directly to the officials present, who looked at each other
.
The official asked us for evidence of the irregularities, and we promised to deliver evidence of everything
.
