"Legal victory for the members of the community of Unión Hidalgo: precedent to defending land against windfarm abuse", 6 Sep 2022

After a nine-year long trial, the the Agrarian Tribunal of Tuxtepec, Oaxaca, granted 11 community members of Unión Hidalgo the nullity of the land lease contracts of a wind farm in Juchitán de Zaragoza, Oaxaca.

The decision against Desarrollos Eólicos Mexicanos S.A de C.V. (Demex), a subsidiary of the Spanish company Renovalia Energy, states that the land where they built their power generation project was improperly considered private property when in fact it is communal land.

The nullity ruling recognises that the General Assembly of Communal Inhabitants of Juchitán de Zaragoza and its annexes Xadani, Chicapa, Unión Hidalgo, La Ventosa and El Espinal is the only body that can determine the use, destination and enjoyment of the land, since the territory belongs to a communal property regime and that Unión Hidalgo is an agrarian and indigenous community that preserves its traditional practices.

Although Demex is not yet obliged to dismantle the wind farm, since the company was unable to install wind generators on this specific premises, the ruling nullifies the contracts of the 11 non-conforming community members. The ruling also sets a precedent so that any community member throughout the country can in the future declare the contracts null and void if they have been authorised individually and not by agreement of a General Assembly of Community Members.

Juan Antonio López, Transnational Justice Coordinator at Proyecto de Derechos Económicos, Sociales y Culturales, A.C. (ProDESC), stated in a press conference that the ruling of the Agrarian Tribunal "establishes a historic precedent in the defence of land and territory for agrarian and indigenous communities by recognising the legal nature of the lands of Unión Hidalgo as common use lands, as established by the Presidential Resolution for the Recognition and Titling of Communal Property dating from 1965...