SUNDOG
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Mexican farmers seek details on port project
Mexican farmers seek details on port project
They say their input is not being sought
By Diane Lindquist
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
September 13, 2006
ENSENADA – Leaders of collective farming groups whose land will be
needed for a huge new container port at Punta Colonet say they're in
the dark about plans for the Mexican government development.
In an interview last week, the heads of three communal groups, called
ejidos, complained that their input is not being sought, even though
the project will totally transform the Colonet farming region, which
is 50 miles south of this port city and 150 miles from San Diego.
"We've been looking for information from the three government levels,
and the authorities are denying that they know anything about this
issue," said Arturo Pineda, who is the head of Ejido Héroes de
Chapultepec.
"We want the government to represent us and not be against us."
Even though Mexican federal officials have announced plans to oversee
development of the port and have met with numerous foreign and
domestic business executives, they have never talked to the Colonet
ejido groups that own the coastal land upon which the port will be
built.
Only after the ejido leaders joined with Jesus Lara, the owner of a
900-acre parcel above Punta Colonet who has waged an effort to learn
about the project, did they gain meetings with government officials.
Sergio Tagliapietra, Baja California's economic development
secretary, visited the farming groups in Colonet a few weeks ago. The
state is preparing a master plan for the region but has not released
details.
"He told us he had no information, and as soon as he had it, he would
inform us," Pineda said.
Several members of the five ejidos that will be affected by the
port's development also met last week for the first time with
Ensenada Mayor César Mancillas Amador. Pineda said they talked about
establishing a relationship in which they would have a say in the
city's role in the project.
The group also met that day with Ernesto Ruffo Appel, a former state
governor and commissioner of the northern border under President
Vicente Fox. Ruffo and a partner, who have bought a parcel of Punta
Colonet tidelands and a nearby mountaintop to provide rock for
construction of the port, hope to play a major role in the port
development.
Angel González Ruel, the federal port director in charge of Colonet's
development, was not available to discuss the project with The San
Diego Union-Tribune yesterday.
Likewise, state development secretary Tagliapietra could not be
reached for comment.
Ensenada Mayor Mancillas' spokesman, Daniel Vargas, confirmed the
meeting last week, saying all parties had discussed their common
interests and agreed that the project could benefit the city as well
as the Colonet region.
Undeveloped and wind-swept, Punta Colonet is expected to become a
major port that will be larger than the ports of Los Angeles and Long
Beach combined. Its development is being driven by the inability of
those facilities to handle the volume of container ship traffic
coming from the Far East.
The project includes construction of a rail line from Colonet to the
U.S.-Mexico border to move containers into America's heartland.
Operations are expected to begin by 2011, the year that Los Angeles
and Long Beach are expected to reach their saturation point.
The port is to be developed about five miles west of Colonet, a town
of about 2,500 people on the Trans-Peninsular Highway. Most members
of the communal farm groups, which number between 30 and 80
individuals, live in the town. Many of the residents are former
migrant farm workers from southern Mexico.
"It's going to be something very good," Martín Pérez Mendoza, Ejido
27 de Enero's leader, said of the port development. "It's going to
completely change our lifestyle – for the better we hope.
"It will create more work and more schools. There's work now, but
there will be other work with better wages."
A competition for developers and operators of the project has been
delayed indefinitely by a dispute involving a claim to mineral rights
at the Punta Colonet site and by the presidential election dispute.
Federal officials have not provided details on how the bidding
competition will be structured.
"We hope that now that the election has been solved that things will
start moving," said Enrique Lara, head of Ejido Emilio López Zamora
and Jesús Lara's brother.
News of the development set off a frenzy for ejido land that will be
needed for the port. Two of the groups have sold a portion of their
property – one parcel to Ruffo and another to a representative of
Hutchison Port Holdings.
No property has changed hands since those sales, the ejido leaders
said, even though they've received numerous offers and indications of
interest.
"We want to be part of the development," Pineda said. "We don't want
them to eat us up like pieces of cheese.
"Our fear is that they'll leave us out of the project and try to
expropriate the land. It's not fair that we've been living on that
land a lot of years and trying to make a living for our families, and
that one day they'd try to take it."
Still, they said, they feel they've gained some control by banding
together to pursue their interests.
"We're going to make sure they get a fair price for their land," said
Jesús Lara.
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Diane Lindquist: (619) 293-1812; diane.lindquist@uniontrib.com
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Sharksbaja
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Posts: 5814
Registered: 9-7-2004
Location: Newport, Mulege B.C.S.
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Sounds like a private party to me:
"The group also met that day with Ernesto Ruffo Appel, a former state
governor and commissioner of the northern border under President
Vicente Fox. Ruffo and a partner, who have bought a parcel of Punta
Colonet tidelands and a nearby mountaintop to provide rock for
construction of the port, hope to play a major role in the port"
development.
------------
"Our fear is that they'll leave us out of the project and try to
expropriate the land. It's not fair that we've been living on that
land a lot of years and trying to make a living for our families, and
that one day they'd try to take it."
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They already have apparently.
DON\'T SQUINT! Give yer eyes a break!
Try holding down [control] key and toggle the [+ and -] keys
Viva Mulege!
Nomads\' Sunsets
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BajaNews
Super Moderator
Posts: 1439
Registered: 12-11-2005
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http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/20060913-9999-1b14...
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Oso
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 2637
Registered: 8-29-2003
Location: on da border
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Mood: wait and see
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Farmers in Yuma County are also upset with the idea. Many have already been approached by right-of-way agents for Southern Pacific R.R. They have
begun organizing protests, ccomplaining to County officials etc. They don't want to sell any land and they don't want any new rail lines crossing
their fields for a variety of reasons including ag pests, contaminants, pollution, illegals...
All my childhood I wanted to be older. Now I\'m older and this chitn sucks.
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Dave
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6005
Registered: 11-5-2002
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Selective memory
| Quote: | Originally posted by SUNDOG
"Our fear is that they'll leave us out of the project and try to
expropriate the land. It's not fair that we've been living on that
land a lot of years and trying to make a living for our families, and
that one day they'd try to take it."
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The same land was once expropriated from someone else and given to them.
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Baja Bernie
`Normal` Nomad Correspondent
Posts: 2962
Registered: 8-31-2003
Location: Sunset Beach
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Mood: Just dancing through life
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Dave
Do you not realize that you should not be so brutally honest in this age of 'PC'
My smidgen of a claim to fame is that I have had so many really good friends. By Bernie Swaim December 2007
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