Santa Rita, Puebla.– Following a 48-hour collapse on the Mexico-Puebla highway, farmers demanding payment for their land eased their protest.
Yesterday morning, a lane was permanently opened, so the complete stop at kilometer 74 disappeared.
In various meetings, the community members discussed the measure, as it took pressure off the protest. The moderate farmers said that opening a lane permanently was a compromise reached with the authorities, as part of the movement’s willingness to move forward at the negotiating tables.
“That will not be changed, it will remain like that, the one-lane open passage. Yesterday, the community members were offered the option of going to two houses to rest. Some wanted to, others didn’t, they will have their reasons, but passage for motorists is guaranteed, at least in one lane,” one of the leaders told Grupo Reforma, prior to the announcement to the bases.
He acknowledged that this decision caused “casualties” in the protest that has been taking place on both sides of the road since last Tuesday.
“Yes, there are colleagues who do not agree, but if this agreement has already been reached, we will demonstrate that we do comply with the guidelines that are being given, and that we expect the same response from the Government,” he added.
Asked if the highway would be closed again, the leader said that this proposal “is not viable,” at least not for this weekend.
“That is why the comrades were told to go home, but some decided to stay here, it is their decision, they were warned that this will be the case for the whole weekend. From my point of view, there is no point in wearing ourselves out, the protests can be resumed on Monday if there are no agreements, but some want to stay here,” he stressed.
Some of the radicals went home, upset, while others remained in their protest, reluctantly allowing vehicles to pass in one lane.
“What was the point of all our gains? We had the government stuck on the Mexico-Puebla highway, on the Arco Norte, on the free roads. They weren’t going to hold out for five or six days like that. It was already set up. We let go of that opportunity to resolve this in one fell swoop,” said a community member, irritated by his colleagues’ decision.
“If you’re going to take the plunge, take it well. What’s this about creating a big blockage, then opening the valve little by little and then letting the stream flow through? That’s not a protest, they outnumbered us,” added another radical ejidatario.
Ejidatarios are divided
The demonstration at the site weakened yesterday. Even the slogans were silenced and only the gatherings on one side were observed, and on the other, the whispering and abandonment.
In the notebook where the list of ejidatarios was controlled, by communities, many spaces were left without a check mark.
The division was even noticeable in the food. Each community organized its own ranch.
“Is this what they wanted us for? What is this about removing and setting up camps? Are we staying?” a leader asked his community. “Yessssss,” more than three responded.
“We are going to stay the same as before, comrades. If we give these bastards another lane, they will be left with the road and we will be left without our money,” warned a moderate radical.
The main stumbling block in the negotiations between ejidatarios and authorities is the appraisal of the land that the federal government expropriated in 1962 for the construction of the Mexico-Puebla highway.
They don’t know how much their land is worth.
The protesters claim that the federal government wants to give them paltry prices per square meter, but not even the community members themselves know how much their land is worth.
“We don’t know, the Government wants to make that assessment, we don’t want that, because they give us very low prices,” said an affected person from the López Rayón ejido, a community that is demanding payment.
They said that the ejidatarios of Santa Rita were paid 176 million pesos for more than 36 hectares, and López Rayón was affected in more than 40 hectares.
– Are we talking about approximately 200 million pesos?, a resident of that ejido was asked.
“Honestly, I don’t know, the lawyers are looking into that, we don’t know the figures, the amounts,” he admitted.
So far, neither authorities nor legal advisors have set an amount for payment for the lands affected by the right of way.
However, they argued that there is a ruling that orders “payment” for their land.
#good #beat
