Above Photo: PBI-Mexico at the National Meeting of Struggles against Gas Pipelines and Death Projects where the Caravan for Water and Life was announced.
Earlier this year, the Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project accompanied the organizations and communities that gathered in the municipality of Juan C. Bonilla, Puebla for the National Meeting of Struggles Against Gas Pipelines and Death Projects.
At that time, PBI-Mexico tweeted: “We celebrate that this meeting has been an opportunity for defenders of the territory and the environment to share their words and experiences on the road to articulating a culture of peace, justice and respect for community rights.”
Those gathered at the National Meeting expressed their opposition to the TC Energy Tuxpan-Tula gas pipeline (across the states of Veracruz, Puebla and Hidalgo), the Morelos gas pipeline (across the states of Tlaxcala, Puebla and Morelos) and other megaprojects.
Pie de Pagina noted: “The final result of the Meeting was the announcement of the Caravan for Life that will depart on March 22. The caravan will advance through towns, communities and territories in resistance to megaprojects and will conclude a month later, on April 22, in the city of Juchitán, Oaxaca, on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.”
The purpose of the Caravan for Water and Life is “to make visible the struggles against territorial dispossession, megaprojects and violence against communities in Mexico.”
Calgary, Canada-based TC Energy has five fully owned pipelines currently operating in Mexico and the largest Canadian investor in Mexico.
Just after the start of the Caravan for Water and Life, Natural Gas Intelligencer reported: “[The Federal Electricity Commission/CFE] is working with TC to complete [both] the Tuxpan-Tula and Tula-Villa de Reyes pipelines, which have been stalled by local conflicts.”
One of those “local conflicts” noted by Natural Gas Intelligencer has been the Indigenous Otomi peoples wanting the Tuxpan-Tula pipeline cancelled because it would cross the sacred hills of the Pahuatlán region in the state of Puebla.
The Territories of water report also documents community concerns and resistance to the Tuxpan-Tula gas pipeline.
TC Energy also built the Encino-Topolobampo pipeline that moves natural gas from Texas through the mountains of Chihuahua to Mexico’s Pacific Coast.
That pipeline was opposed by the San Elías Repechique Forests community on the ancestral territory of the Rarámuri in the Sierra Tarahumara region in the state of Chihuahua. The Technical Community Consultation (CONTEC) was one of the organizations that supported the community in their opposition to this TC Energy pipeline.
Journalist Martha Pskowski writes: “Rarámuri communities voiced concerns that construction would impact their water sources, cause deforestation, and affect their farmlands.”
She adds: “[TC Energy] eventually agreed to modify the route to avoid Repechike’s territory. However, in other communities where construction started before the consultation got underway, it was impossible to turn back the clock.”
That pipeline was completed in December 2018.
As of December 2021, TC Energy was seeking to complete the Villa de Reyes pipeline by mid-2022, considering up to $2 billion in new capital investments by 2025, and possibly investing $4 billion to extend the Sur de Texas-Tuxpan pipeline.
We continue to follow the Caravan for Water and Life on social media.
#caravanaporelaguaylavida