Oaxaca, OAX. The Isthmus of Tehuantepec, located in the windy southeastern part of the state of Oaxaca, is being sought after by international energy companies. Currently the company Desarrollos Eólicos Mexicanos, S.A. DEMEX, a subsidiary of the Spanish company Renovalia Energy, is developing various projects in the area despite the objection of local communities. There has been an intensification of conflict over the projects and both national and international organisations denounce this current level of violence and repression.

On October 25 Amnesty International issued an Urgent Action Appeal denouncing threats towards and attacks suffered by the local Human Rights Defenders (HRDs): around fifty workers from a wind farm company arrived on land belonging to the indigenous Zapoteca community of Unión Hidalgo in Oaxaca state. The workers destroyed the fence surrounding the land. According to witnesses, they then threatened and insulted community members. A former police officer employed by the company to guarantee security of the project told human rights defender Lucila Bettina Cruz Velazquez “if you come back here again we’ll burn and kill you” (“si vuelves por acá te vamos a quemar y te vamos a matar"). Another human rights defender Maribel González was told to “leave this place now, we’re going to kill you” (“váyanse que los vamos a matar”). Four men believed to be employed as security by the company beat up Arquimides Gómez, a local teacher who has been supporting the community¹.

Mexican civil society organisations have also denounced the absence of dialogue between the company and the land owners. In a press report², the Resistance Committee of the Wind Energy Project in Unión Hidalgo, together with the Assembly of Indigenous People of the Isthmsus of Tehuantepec in Defense of Land and Territory, the Organisation, Development Education and Research Project (PODER, Spanish acronym) and the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Project (ProDESC, Spanish acronym), have claimed that the company has only met with authorities and that to datehas not opened dialogue with residents.

On October 28 2011 confrontations began again. In a press release, the Union of Indigenous Communities of the Northern Zone of Istmo (UCIZONI, Spanish acronym) reported that: a group of thugs and police officers led by the municipal police officer of La Venta, Santiago Ventura Ordaz, tried to violently remove a blockade made by the farmers. The blockade was designed to prevent the company from extracting more materials from the farmers' lands, materials that they would then use for the construction of yet more wind energy parks. During the attack, the farmers tried to defend themselves and in the confusion one person was killed and twenty others were seriously injured.³

Rodrigo Flores Peñaloza, human rights defender and member of the Assembly of Indigenous People of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, was accused of the assassination. The Resistance Committee of the Wind Energy Project in Unión Hidalgo, Poder and ProDESC denounced the false claims and the criminalization of protest in the region⁴.

The PBI project in Mexico works permanently in the state of Oaxaca since 2008 and accompanies Father Alejandro Solalinde in the region since 2010.