Meeting For Environmental Justice And Holcim Repudiation In Apaxco, Mexico
A "Meeting for environmental justice and Holcim repudiation" was held on May 5, in the camp set up by the Pro-health Apaxco-Atotonilco
Movement to prevent the operation of the waste mixing plant for
alternative fuel of Ecoltec company. This facility is a subsidiary of
Holcim, the multinational cement company, and has been responsible of a
series of pollution incidents that have affected the health of the
community, and cost the lives of 11 of its members.
The Meeting was convened by the local movement, the Global
Anti-Incinerator Alliance (GAIA), Friends of the Earth Latin America and
the Caribbean (ATALC) and mexican organizations Otros Mundos Chiapas
and Marea Creciente. It took place on the same day that HOLCIM held its
annual meeting of shareholders, in Dübendorf, Switzerland, and on the
same day that the camp turn to its second year.
The event featured a panel of guests and members of the Pro-health Movement, to a local audience of about 200 people.
The Master of Science and Director of the Center for Analysis and Action
on Toxics and Alternatives (CAATA), Fernando Bejarano, spoke about the
risks and impacts associated with the incineration of hazardous and non
hazardous waste in cement kilns, a practice that started under the false
pretense of sustainable production (that would replace fossil fuel
use). This was part of a joint strategy agreed in 1999 by the industry's
largest firms: LAFARGE, HOLCIM and CEMEX.
Bejarano explained some historic milestones of development and social
conflict in the cement industry in the area, with multinational presence
of the firms mentioned above plus lime plants, all very close to the
population. Finally, he mentioned the acute and chronic effects on human
health caused by the most common emissions of this process: nitrogen
oxides, sulfur dioxide, particulates, organic compounds and heavy
metals.
Then, Domingo Lechón, from Otros Mundos Chiapas, reviewed some
information on production and economic expansion of cement industry and
HOLCIM in Latin America, and spoke about several cases of conflicts in
the region involving the multinational as the main aggressor of
communitie's rights and environment ("Holcim in Latin America: Case
Studies". This paper was prepared by ATALC and includes cases of
Guatemala and Colombia, besides that of Apaxco, Mexico.(http://www.foei.org/
Eduardo Giesen, co-coordinator of GAIA in Latin America, expressed the Alliance´s support to the struggle of the Pro-Health Apaxco-Atotonilco
Movement against the reopening of the Ecoltec plant and negative
impacts of burning waste in cement plants, a major emerging campaign
theme within this global alliance.
He emphasized the challenge of unity that should keep the movement
together to demand the political and health authorities to fulfill their
responsibility to ensure welfare as well as individual and collective
integrity of members of Apaxco and Atotonilco communities against contamination of the cement industry and other megasources in the area.
Finally, Victor Hernández Arce, a member of the Pro-health Apaxco-Atotonilco
movement reaffirmed the commitment of the local organization to stand
up fo its rights in the environmental stuggle against ECOLTEC and
HOLCIM, in the framework of the struggle for environmental justice in
Mexico.
