Photo: The Civil Force in Veracruz.
The Associated Press has reported: “Two people were killed Thursday [June 20] when locals protesting alleged water contamination by a pork processing plant clashed with police in the Mexican gulf coast state of Veracruz.”
“Residents of the community of San Antonio Limon had been blocking a road demanding government action against the operation, which they said was responsible for polluting the aquifer and using too much water.”
That article further notes: “State security forces arrived Thursday in the community, also known as Totalco, and protesters said police began beating them and opened fire. Brothers Alberto and Jorge Cortina Vázquez, aged 22 and 27 respectively, were killed, according to the Veracruz state prosecutor’s office, which opened an investigation.”
El Pais adds: “On June 20, the Movement in Defense of Water of the Libres Oriental Basin began as a new protest on the federal highway that connects Veracruz and Puebla. Farmers had a clear message: that Carroll farms should stop hoarding water.”
“[Carroll Farms] has 18 farms between [the states of] Veracruz and Puebla. The peasants claim that the concessions of the National Water Commission benefit the company, while they do not have liquid to irrigate their fields. In addition to the overexploitation of the wells, the residents denounce the disposal of sewage contaminated with biological and chemical waste by the company.”
That article adds: “The government of Cuitláhuac García announced on Monday [June 24] that it is going to extinguish [disband/dissolve] the Civil Force, a special directorate of the police, after the brutal repression of a demonstration by farmers in Totalco, Veracruz, which ended with the death of two peasants.”
Civil society statement
The Civil Society Organization (CSO) Space for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists (Espacio OSC) has signed this statement that says:
“The undersigned organizations express our rejection and reiterate our concern over the acts of violation of the right to protest and the attacks against defenders during an operation by the Civil Force of the state of Veracruz, which occurred on June 20 in the community of Totalco, municipality of Perote, Veracruz, Mexico.
The events occurred during the protest by several communities in the Free-Eastern Basin against the activities of the pig industry, of Caroll Farms, a subsidiary of Smithfield, part of the WH Group.
Civil society organizations in a statement reported that during the protest and the peaceful camp in defense of water and against the pig industry, elements of the Civil Force beat the demonstrators, who were defending their right to water and a healthy environment.
In the same way, they reported, in addition to physical violence, the use of firearms by elements of this institution, causing the death of the peasants Jorge and Alberto Cortina Vázquez.
In light of the announcement by the government of Veracruz on June 23 about the dissolution of the Civil Force, we demand that the measures go further and guarantee truth, justice, reparation and non-repetition of the facts, as well as the punishment of those responsible.”
The full statement can be read at Condenamos las violaciones al derecho a la protesta y los ataques contra las personas defensoras de derechos humanos y el agua de la Cuenca de Libres-Oriental (June 25, 2024).
The company
As noted on their website: “Granjas Carroll de México (GCM) is a Mexican company established in 1993 with the objective of raising, marketing and processing live pigs. It is made up of two private groups that manage international operations: the first, Mexican, Agroindustrias Unidas de México (AMSA), with activities in the agri-food industry; the second, Smithfield, is American, the main pork producer and processor in the world.”
Smithfield Foods, Inc., is a pork producer and food-processing company based in Smithfield, Virginia. It operates as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Chinese-owned conglomerate WH Group.
WH Group, formerly known as Shuanghui Group, is a publicly traded Chinese multinational meat and food processing company headquartered in Hong Kong.
El Sol de Mexico has reported: “On March 1, 2023, an administrative resolution was issued by the Environmental Prosecutor’s Office against Granjas Carroll, in the Perote Valley, for various breaches in environmental matters. It was even sanctioned and measures were dictated to prevent contamination of the soil, air and water.”
We will continue to follow this.
Published by Brent Patterson on June 26, 2024