Historic Mexican Town Threatened by a Dam
Support for an ongoing legal challenge
A battle fought on unfair terms
It was through the news that the inhabitants of Temacapulín first learned in 2008 that their homes would be flooded by the expansion of the El Zapotillo dam. The news took everyone by surprise because the project that had been approved did not include the flooding of this historic sixteenth-century village in the state of Jalisco. Lawyers working for the non-profit Colectivo COA were soon engaged and filed a right-to-information request, only to be told that the information on the project was “classified.” According to the government, making the information public could “jeopardize the security of those living in the area where the dam was being planned.”
The lawyers next filed an amparo, seeking an injunction to halt the construction until the rights of the affected communities had been respected. The injunction was denied by the Mexican court on the grounds that the dam was “just a project” which threatened no imminent harm. Meanwhile, villagers were told by the government that they would have to “leave their homes or drown.”
Facing what was now appearing to be a long and unfair legal battle, the local lawyers invited a group of legal advisors to help in the design and implementation of a legal strategy.
EDLC provides legal analysis
EDLC offered to prepare an analysis of the Mexican government’s violations of international law and displacement standards in the course of the project. EDLC´s arguments were put forward in a legal brief and an expert study which were then widely used in support of various lawsuits to stop the dam.
In the first such case, the court ordered the government to halt the construction of houses it was building on unfertile lands where it planned to relocate the people of Temacapulín without their consent. However, the decision was never enforced, and when the government was found in contempt of court, an appellate court dismissed the case altogether on the grounds that the affected communities had no juridical interest in the case.
A court decision to halt the dam construction itself was finally obtained in February 2011, when approximately twenty percent of the dam had already been built. The ruling declared that the rights of the inhabitants of Temacapulín had not been respected because the villagers had not been informed or consulted, as required by law, before the decision to increase the size of the dam- and flood their village- was made. The decision could hardly have been otherwise, considering that during the entire licensing process, the inhabitants of Temacapulín had not been considered or included in any fashion. In fact, the only mention of Temacapulín in all of the project documentation appeared in a list of construction items, which tersely noted that “the village of Temacapulín will be submerged under the reservoir.”
While the judge’s decision calling a halt to the construction was of course an enormous victory, the Mexican government refused to enforce it and filed an appeal that it cynically observed “would certainly not be heard before it was too late.”
On 7-8 January of 2011, residents organized a community consultation to have the first comprehensive assessment of the community's feelings about the dam:
- 643 people voted against the dam, and 5 voted in favor.
- 636 people were not consulted about the dam before construction began, while 8 were.
- 622 residents want to keep fighting to stop El Zapotillo, and 23 do not.
- International Rivers, February 11, 2011