The right to water: United resistance against transnational oppression

On March 21 and 22, 2020, the citizen consultation was held in Mexicali, Baja California (Mexico), where a vote was taken on whether or not the transnational company Constellation Brands should continue in Mexicali. In this consultation, the rejection of the Constellation won (the NO to the company won), with 76% (29,793 votes), despite the complaints about thousands of "carried" that businessmen and certain politicians paid to vote in favor of the company [i].

Context of the resistance united in defense of water vs. the transnational company Constellation Brands

To delve deeper into the subject, it is important to present a brief contextualization. The company since 2017 has tried to establish itself in the municipality of Mexicali. In the process of its installation there have been several irregularities. In a previous installment I made a brief analysis of this situation [ii], where I mentioned several points, such as the complaints from agricultural producers in the Valley of Mexicali, who have declared that Constellation does not have the endorsement of the assembly of the ejido communities, of the water rights [iii].

Likewise, there are journalistic investigations that denounce the irregularities in the process of establishing the brewery and its negotiation with the state government; such as the lack of a correct process in the Environmental Impact Statement (MIA), the irregularities in the change of land use and the lack of documentation that the National Water Commission (CONAGUA) itself denounces [iv].

On the other hand, Dr. Alfonso Cortez, a COLEF researcher who is an expert in water issues and a member of CONACYT's National System of Researchers (SNI), calculates (if we go to moderate estimates, that is, it could be much more), that This company would use 7.90% of the total annual urban consumption of the city of Mexicali, it would also use 35.30% of the municipality's reserve, as well as 792 hectares of irrigation. To this would have to be added the 15 Mm3 that the company would use from deep groundwater wells in the Mexicali Valley, equivalent to 2.9% of annual use and 1,484 hectares of irrigation, as well as the 10 Mm3 equivalent to 9.8% of urban consumption. all Mexicali. Which is equivalent to 44.1% of the Mexicali [v] reserve.

Analysis with a critical decolonial approach

We are living a situation where inequality is increasingly exacerbated and destructive, where the omnipotence of money under the new social relations of production has intensely exacerbated inequality and precariousness [vi], where even the most basic rights of human beings such as water, food and health are denied to the oppressed in order for the elites to have greater profits and to maintain “competitiveness”, the “level of production”, the “growth economic”, empty concepts that do not translate into improving the quality of life of the majority of the population, but rather, they translate into increasing the gap between the elites and the oppressed. Agreeing with this argument, González Casanova [vii] argues that the model we live in is a system of internal colonialism, which, even after several years of being coined, is still valid in a large part of our realities. González argues that the elites perpetuate this system justifying it under the banners of "progress", "development", "modernity", increasing the number and percentage of people living in multidimensional poverty, oppressed and marginalized in Mexico and in Abya Yala. . I will use the term Abya Yala to refer to our region of Latin America, since it is a decolonial conception coined by the Guna/Kuna/Puna people who inhabit what is now Panama and which means 'the land where we live' and 'the land where maturity' [viii]. Likewise, Fanon [ix] supports Casanova's arguments and also argues that the system of internal colonialism is established and permeates thanks to the servile role of internal elites that function as agents of transnational elites; this can be seen in this case with the role of COPARMEX in defending Constellation for having business with them, which use economic, media and legal resources so that the transnational continues to destroy the water of the population of Mexicali [x] , in the manner of cynical gore capitalism [xi].

What has been achieved with the resistance against the transnational company to defend water in Mexicali is an achievement that allows us to think that the oppressed population united can modify the oppressive and unjust system that we currently live in a neoliberal capitalist model. Resistance movements are ways of exercising action with a radical approach to power or, as Villoro has argued, as a counter-power[xii]. Social action is framed in the dialectic between the power to discipline and dominate and the resistance practices of individuals or groups to question the order and domination, to produce alternative forms of life and conduct. For his part, Marcuse [xiii] proposes 3 action strategies: exhibiting, proposing and politicizing, which, as can be analysed, the resistances managed to promote: first they managed to exhibit the situation of overexploitation of the aquifers that the plant of the transnational brewery [xiv] would use, as well as the immense amount of water that the plant would use, likewise exhibited the technical and legal irregularities in the process of establishing the transnational , which have already been discussed. Subsequently, they advanced to propose solutions to the situation, specifically rejecting the establishment of the plant in the region and submitting to legal proceedings the authorities of previous governments that allowed the establishment of the plant. Finally, they politicized the situation by accusing politicians colluding in the irregularities, including the former governor of Baja California (“Kiko” Vega) and the former mayor of Mexicali (Gustavo Sánchez), as well as deputies from the local Congress and members of the government cabinet. state. It is important to highlight that academics have participated in this process in a critical, decolonial and participatory manner without imposing "objective knowledge" or appropriating the cause, but rather supporting the efforts and cause of the resistances, with the united resistances leading and framing the demands, knowledge and processes of the movement, following, as Boaventura de Sousa has argued, an Epistemology of the South[xv], likewise a pedagogy of the oppressed as Freire instituted[xvi] or as Corona has presented, a horizontal production of knowledge[xvii].

Based on my analysis, I consider that the resistance united in defense of water against the transnational brewery is a case of critical decolonial resistance. I develop this approach in the following points: the development of critical awareness, rethinking the role of academia and science in the production and socialization of knowledge, and the crucial role of praxis with the oppressed, with the ultimate goal of supporting development. of emancipation against colonial and capitalist oppression. To achieve emancipation it is necessary to develop a critical conscience, not only in oppressed groups, but also in the general population; One way to achieve this is with the three elements described above of exhibiting, proposing, and politicizing. It is important to emphasize that individuals and groups are the ones who must develop critical awareness for themselves, the role of the academic/scientist is only to facilitate and support the process; It is not about imposing his vision of critical consciousness or emancipation on the oppressed. The role of academics is to socialize the voices of the oppressed, without imposing or appropriating their knowledge; It is to go to the countryside and make their struggles and demands visible through praxis, to support their struggle towards emancipation, while fostering the development of critical awareness in the general population, so that they understand the situation and support the efforts of oppressed groups to change their realities.

Conclusions

What the united organized resistances of Baja California have achieved is to awaken the critical and social conscience of the people of Mexicali and Baja California. They have made us as a people resist oppression, neocolonialism, exploitation. We have managed as a people to face a predatory capitalist system; to corrupt business and political elites and to have the power of public decision-making that belongs to us. However, the situation is far from resolved and the emancipation process is a long way to go.

Regarding the results of the consultation, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) declared that since the popular will was not to continue with this predatory company in Mexicali, the National Water Commission would withdraw the corresponding permits for the company, so that not continue the plant project in the region and recently reiterated that Constellation Brands has to leave the region[xviii][xix]. Likewise, the National Institute for Access to Information (INAI) instructed the Ministry of the Interior (SEGOB) to make publicly available the minutes and documents of the meetings they have had with Constellation Brands after the consultation to find out in which part of the withdrawal process of the transnational from the region are [xx].

Despite the federal government's pro-popular stance, the Baja California congress recently approved a state water law that allows the Baja California government to concentrate power and decisions over water without transparency, creating a secretariat of the water. This law allows the government of Baja California to make decisions unilaterally about the use and privatization for sale of water in the region, which is already causing harmful effects regarding water, since this secretariat is negotiating with the transnational brewer for the plant to remain in the region, moving to another municipality [xxi], a highly problematic situation since all the aquifers in Baja California are in conditions of overexploitation, even the municipalities of Ensenada and Tijuana already suffer from cuts of water in the population periodically and the state government recently declared that the water cuts can begin in Mexicali and increase in the other municipalities [xxii].

On the other hand, the Secretary of the Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT) of the federal government, Victor Toledo, recently resigned from his post, weeks after commenting that he never agreed to establish Constellation Brands in the region and that he was pressured by private interests linked to Alfonso Romo, head of office of the Presidency, although the presidency has stated that Toledo had submitted his resignation before the aforementioned comments were leaked [xxiii]. Finally, according to Dr. Cortéz Lara, it is necessary to formulate a new federal water law focused on protecting the human right to water for the population and caring for the environment and rural and indigenous communities, which are the ones that suffer the most from water problems [xxiv].

These situations, although they have made it difficult to continue with emancipation in the situation, have not discouraged the united resistance that continues to file appeals against the new water law in Baja California and suing the National Human Rights Commission with new evidence to expel the the Constellation Brands of the region. The resistance continues.