Mexican farmers occupy dam to stop water payments to the United States
Mexican farmers protest water shipments owed to U.S.
Hundreds of farmers continued to protest on Sept. 11 in Chihuahua,
Mexico, days after clashes with Mexico's national guard left one woman
dead. (The Washington Post)
By
Pamela Constable <https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/pamela-constable/>
Washington Post, September 14, 2020 at 6:00 a.m. EDT
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MEXICO CITY — For 75 years, through tensions and disputes over
immigration, narcotrafficking and trade, Mexico and the United States
have sent each other billions of gallons of water annually to irrigate
farms along the border under a treaty signed during World War II.
But today, the 1944 agreement is facing increasingly violent opposition
in drought-parched Chihuahua state, where protesters have seized control
of a major dam to dramatize the plight of farmers whose cotton, tomato
and pecan crops, they say, depend on the water that’s being sent north.
Unrest has simmered for months over U.S. demands that Mexico pay off a
shortfall of more than 100 billion gallons by Oct. 24 to meet its
five-year water-delivery quota. Local farmers say the extra payments are
emptying reservoirs that store water they need.
Coronavirus on the border: Patients from Mexico overwhelm California
hospitals
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/05/27/coronavirus-mexico-border/?itid=lk_interstitial_manual_6>
Mexican national guard troops form a barrier at Las Pilas dam two days
after withdrawing from nearby La Boquilla dam following clashes with
hundreds of farmers in Camargo, Mexico.
Mexican national guard troops form a barrier at Las Pilas dam two days
after withdrawing from nearby La Boquilla dam following clashes with
hundreds of farmers in Camargo, Mexico. (Christian Chavez/AP)
The crisis erupted in violence this month when about 2,000 protesters
swarmed over La Boquilla dam on the Conchas River and a national guard
unit was sent in to stop them. One woman was shot dead in the chaotic
confrontation last week, but about 200 protesters, armed with sticks and
rocks, were able to repel the security forces and retain control of the
century-old hydroelectric facility.
AD
“We tried to have a dialogue, but nobody listened to us,” said Guerrero
Carillo, a local farm leader, reached by telephone at the dam. “There
are thousands of farmers desperate for water. We have had no rain in
months and there will be nothing left for the spring crops.
“We are prepared to stay here and defend our rights to this water.”
Mourners in Meoqui walk behind a car carrying the body of Jessica
Estrella Silva Zamarripa, killed last week in a confrontation between
Mexican national guard troops and farmers protesting the diversion of
water to the United States.
Mourners in Meoqui walk behind a car carrying the body of Jessica
Estrella Silva Zamarripa, killed last week in a confrontation between
Mexican national guard troops and farmers protesting the diversion of
water to the United States. (Jose Luis Gonzalez/Reuters)
Since the confrontation on Tuesday, tensions have escalated, with
generators at the dam set on fire, causing a power blackout. Federal
security officials accused the protesters of “sabotage and sedition,”
and 500 more guardsmen were sent to the area. But they have not taken
any action, and 17 guard members are under investigation in the killing
of Jessica Estrella Silva Zamarripa, whose family grows pecans.
A second protest broke out Friday about 300 miles away, next to a bridge
connecting the border cities of Juárez and El Paso, Tex., Demonstrators
decried Silva’s death and demanded that Mexico stop sending its water north.
Mexico’s Jalisco New Generation cartel blazes a bloody trail in rise to
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<https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/mexico-jalisco-new-generation-cartel-omar-garcia-harfuch/2020/07/10/0666b600-c14d-11ea-b4f6-cb39cd8940fb_story.html?itid=lk_interstitial_manual_17>
The treaty requires the United States to send far more water to Mexico
than it receives, but those payments flow elsewhere on the 2,000-mile
border, far from dry Chihuahua, which provides more than half of
Mexico’s share. Every year, Mexico pipes about 114 billion gallons of
water north from the Rio Grande and Conchas rivers; the United States
sends almost 489 billion gallons south from the Colorado River.
The crisis has sparked a nasty political fight between Mexican President
Andrés Manuel López Obrador and opposition politicians ahead of
legislative elections next summer. The president, who is committed to
paying the entire water debt, has blamed outside forces for fomenting
the farmers’ uprising. On Friday, he named 17 current and former
opposition party officials he said were working with private businesses
to incite the takeover at the dam.
Farmers at La Boquilla dam.
Farmers at La Boquilla dam. (Christian Chavez/AP)
“What we are confronting are the owners of water,” López Obrador told
reporters Friday as he displayed the names and faces of the 17
politicians. “There is a clear alliance of politics and economics.”
AD
Several of those he named countered that the president was trying to
deflect attention from his decision to accede to U.S. demands that
Mexico send a large quantity of water north in a short time, while
Chihuahua suffered record-low rainfall through the summer on top of an
extended drought.
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<https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/06/21/coronavirus-mexico-city-centro-abasto-market/?itid=lk_interstitial_manual_25>
“The president did not want to have problems with Mr. Trump, so he
released the dam water,” said Sen. Gustavo Madero Muñoz, who represents
the National Action Party in Chihuahua and was named by López Obrador as
a protest conspirator. “He did it in a clumsy and authoritarian way.
There were no meetings, no explanation. He didn’t want to accept the
blame, so he has invented other guilty parties.”
López Obrador has said that Mexico must uphold its part of the treaty,
but he has also expressed concern that the Trump administration might
impose tariffs or even close the border if it fails to do so. In July,
he approved releasing dam water normally stored to irrigate Mexican
crops, but said he might appeal to Trump for clemency if the amount
falls short.
Farmers clash with national guard troops at La Boquilla dam last week.
Farmers clash with national guard troops at La Boquilla dam last week.
(Jose Luis Gonzalez/Reuters)
Sally Spener, the U.S. foreign affairs officer on the International
Boundary and Water Commission in El Paso, called the current protests
“unfortunate.” She said the Mexican government has “repeatedly stated
its intention to meet its treaty obligations” and is attempting to do
so. The worry, she said, is that Mexico is “running out of time” to meet
the treaty deadline. “It’s an awful lot of water to send.”
AD
With rainfall at 30 percent of normal levels this summer, agricultural
officials in Chihuahua have warned that the next planting season could
be in danger. Salud Ochoa, a local journalist, said farmers are
struggling now; without enough dam water, they fear, they won’t be able
to plant at all in the spring.
Coronavirus surprise: Remittances to Mexico rise during pandemic
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“The crops people grow here need a lot of water — tomatoes, onions,
chiles, cotton, nuts,” Ochoa said. “They have to cover the current
season and think ahead to the next one, too. There are three dams here,
and with the amount they are sending to the U.S., the water levels are
very low. By 2021, it will get worse.”
Mexico’s national water commission says there’s enough water to meet the
treaty obligations as well as the needs of Chihuahua growers. In a
statement Friday, the commission said all but 11 percent of the water
owed to the growers in irrigated districts has already been distributed
from La Boquilla dam. Other agricultural areas still rely on rainfall.
A farmer rides to the carcass of a cow on the Santa Barbara ranch in a
drought-stricken area near Camargo.
A farmer rides to the carcass of a cow on the Santa Barbara ranch in a
drought-stricken area near Camargo. (Jose Luis Gonzalez/Reuters)
But statistics on massive, complicated water flows are hard to pin down.
Mexico and the United States disagree on how much Mexico still owes, and
rumors have spread in Mexico that the United States has overstated its
water contribution. At one point, López Obrador suggested that a United
Nations audit could be conducted to determine whether there had been
faulty accounting.
AD
On Friday, federal security officials accused protest leaders of cutting
back the water flow from La Boquilla to local farms as a means of
“pressuring” farmers to join their takeover. But by Saturday, a widening
array of supporters had appeared at the site, from businesses donating
food to political activists demanding that López Obrador resign.
The U.S. wants Mexico to keep its defense and health-care factories
open. Mexican workers are getting sick and dying.
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/the-us-wants-mexico-to-keep-its-defense-and-health-care-factories-open-mexican-workers-are-getting-sick-and-dying/2020/04/30/14b18d04-85e1-11ea-81a3-9690c9881111_story.html?itid=lk_interstitial_manual_41>
Carillo, who has remained at the dam since the takeover began, rejected
allegations that the protesters were being led by outsiders or were
targeting fellow farmers. He described standing up to national guard
members who used rubber bullets and tear gas, and said the surge of
popular support had “given us courage.”
“We have done this alone,” he said. “No party or politicians have helped
us. We want the president to come and see our empty dams. We are
fighting for our future.”
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