PBI-Mexico accompanies People’s Front on advocacy tour highlighting European water and energy companies in Mexico

Photo: Marcelina Barranco (second from the left, back row) of the People’s Front in Defence of Land and Water is part of an advocacy tour in Europe.

On November 16, PBI-Mexico tweeted:

“On the 3rd day of the FPDTA [Peoples Front in Defence of Land and Water] European tour, Marcelina BL met with MEPs [Members of the European Parliament] from the Greens to continue expressing concern about the risks faced by defenders who oppose #PIM [the Morelos Integral Project] and [the bottled water company] @bonafont @Danone.”

PIM

The PIM megaproject includes a gas pipeline that crosses three states, a thermoelectric plant in Huexca, and an aqueduct that will draw 50 million liters of water per day from the Cuautla River to cool the plant’s turbines.

Samir Flores Soberanes was a member of the People’s Front and a vocal opponent of the PIM. On February 20, 2019, he was shot at his home in Amilcingo, Morelos and died later that day in hospital. He was 35 years old.

The megaproject was built by the Spanish companies Abengoa, Elecnor and Enagas and the Italian company Bonatti.

Last December, Enagás and Elecnor sold their ownership of the pipeline to the Sydney, Australia-based Macquarie Group.

Macquarie has offices in Brussels, Madrid, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Munich, Geneva and other cities in Europe.

Macquarie also has offices in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver.

The People’s Front has also linked Toronto-based Alamos Gold to the megaproject (its Esperanza Gold Project mine is situated in Morelos). In February of this year, that mine was sold to Vancouver-based Zacatecas Silver.

Bonafont

The Bonafont bottled water plant in the city of Juan C. Bonilla has taken more than 1,400,000 litres of water per day over the past 25 years.

On February 15 of this year the National Guard and State Police forcibly evicted the Indigenous occupation of the bottled water plant.

Bonafont is owned by the Paris-based Danone.

The People’s Front has called for a boycott of Danone products.

Danone products sold in Canada include Activia, Oikos and Danone yogurts, Silk almond milk, So Delicious dairy free ice cream.

Danone and PepsiCo jointly distribute Evian bottled water in Canada.

Danone has offices in Boucherville (Montreal) and Toronto.

We continue to follow this advocacy tour.