Monsanto in Mexico Update | Indigenous farmers threaten to end consultations if GMO planting continues

Illustration courtesy of Earth First!

Moderator’s Note: When we
last reported on the situation with GMOs in the southern Mexican states of
Campeche, Quintana Roo, and Yucatán, there were many reasons to celebrate since
a federal judge had overturned the approval of GMO soy plantings in this region
as a threat to the indigenous beekeepers of the region (see our posts of March 16 2014
and July 24, 2014).

Those rulings profoundly recognized Mayan indigenous autonomy.
As quoted in our report of March 2014: According to press reports…(Mar 11, 2014) the
court “determined that the effective protection of indigenous rights requires
the exercise of certain human rights of a procedural nature, mainly the access
to information, participation in decision-making and access to ensure justice.” 

You would think this was a clear victory. It apparently is not. This
is, after all, Mexico, a place where the state of economic exception remains
just as brutal and anti-indigenous as always. Here is the problem: While the
courts have ruled that consultation with indigenous peoples is required as part
of the process for reviewing permits for GMO crops, the planting of transgenic
soybean (and maize) apparently continue unabated, without the proper legal permissions
and in defiance of standing federal court orders prohibiting transgenic crops
until the indigenous consultation process runs its course, and then presumably only
if there is indigenous consent.

I am posting a report from the Mexican site, Desinforménos, that discusses the current
situation in the peninsular Mexican state of Campeche. It is vital that nonGMO
movement activists remain aware of and engaged with the continuing indigenous
struggle against transgenic soybeans which remain an active threat to bees and
beekeepers. This struggle is far from over and if we disengage and take the
pressure off, then the Mayan beekeepers struggles will have been for naught. The
translation is mine.

Campeche Mayan communities on alert

WILL REFUSE
CONSULTATIONS IF ILLEGAL PLANTING CONTINUES

Eliana
Gilet | Campeche, Méxio | June 16, 2016

Campeche
Mayan communities are on alert. They are not alone and are joined by beekeepers
and social organizations who together carry forward the legal battle to keep
genetically modified soybeans out of the land of the peninsular state.

Monsanto soybeans. Courtesy of Desinforménos    

“The Maya
are totally against genetically modified soybeans, and we do not see any
benefit. It is killing our bees, is deforesting our forest, which we have cared
for over centuries with affection and love. So we are in the fight to not sow.
In communities there is a greater openness and awareness of what this danger is.
They have also understood what the consultation of the people involves and are
willing to respond, by refusing consultation and saying, no.” Don Gustavo, a
member of the community of Bolonchén Rejon, which is part of the municipality
of Hopelchen in Campeche, made this statement yesterday to journalists covering
the story.

“In some
parts of the state there was confusion about whether it transgenic soybeans
could be planted, but the resolution of the Supreme Court is very clear and
establishes a ban in the 8 municipalities for which companies had applied for
permits planting. For the rest of the municipalities, they did not ask
permission, so they cannot. Then, in 8 municipalities affected by the judgment
of the Supreme Court, and the others where no permits for planting have been
granted,” says attorney Jorge Fernández, a member of the “Indignation Team” and
one of the legal consultants leading the case against the multinational contaminated
seeds.

Earlier
this month, Indignation Team and Greenpeace Mexico, which is also involved in
the legal defense of the Mayan communities, presented popular complaints with
the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection (PROFEPA) against Monsanto and
against the person responsible for planting soybeans GM in the state of
Campeche, with particular attention to the homonymous municipality.

“We
articulated this complaint against the statements by the legal director of
Monsanto for the region, Rodrigo Ojeda de Koning, who expressed the willingness
of the company to market its genetically modified soya in municipalities where
no public consultation will be held with affected communities” said María Colín,
a member of Greenpeace Mexico.

Colín
explained that for the marketing of GM seeds to take place, the affected municipalities
must be identified and explicitly involved and when Monsanto planted in 2012, it
omitted the municipality of Campeche.

Although
permission was granted, a ruling by the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court in
November 2015 suspended the planting permits because indigenous communities were
not consulted before the company  was
given the nod.

“The courts
have made the determination that no more planting of GMO soybeans may occur in
the state. We are organizing ourselves to inspect the fields and if we detect
the presence of genetically modified soybeans, we will suspend the
consultations to denounce those responsible, that’s what we do.” explained Don
Gustavo.

Attorney
Jorge Fernández explains that communities will not allow a simulation process
of public consultation: “If there is any indication of planting, communities
will immediately suspend the inquiry”

This
process is still at the stage of preliminary agreements in which the
methodology used to collect the voice of communities has hardly been defined.
Meanwhile, they tell anyone who will listen: “The planting season starts now,
between mid-June and July, it is a crop of spring - summer. The communities are
interested in the subject and we will be alert and to keep fighting because it
should not be planted.”