Days of Action against La Parota Dam: May Day to Cinco de Mayo

Root Force is calling upon groups and individuals around the world to take action against the holdings of Carlos Slim, owner of holdings corporation Grupo Carso and the second richest person in the world. Slim's connections in the U.S. include the retailers CompUSA, Sears and Kmart, as well as other companies including Tracfone and Condumex (see complete US list here and international list here).

A variety of Grupo Carso companies are considered favorites to win the bidding to build the dam. Root Force is demanding Slim's public renunciation of any involvement in La Parota.

La Parota is a planned hydroelectric dam in southern Mexico that would devastate a rare tropical forest ecosystem and destroy the land of 75,000 indigenous subsistence farmers. Nearly four years of blockades and other resistance by the affected communities have prevented its construction, but the Mexican government is now making a renewed push to force the project through.

On April 27, police arrested Rodolfo Chávez Galindo, a spokesperson for the communities opposed to the dam, and announced the existence of warrants for other community leaders. The resisters are facing bogus charges of kidnapping a government engineer in 2004. This new wave of repression came days after a Mexican court dealt another setback to the government's attempts to expropriate land for the dam's construction.

At the same time, La Jornada has reported a new loan of $2.5 billion from the IDB ("the World Bank of Latin America") for the construction of infrastructure megaprojects in Mexico, with La Parota specifically mentioned.

Now is the time for us to demonstrate that no collaboration in the destruction of native land will be tolerated. May Day is a historic day for celebrating both the Earth's bounty and struggles for people's liberation. In recent years, it has been increasingly tied to the plight of those who are forced from their homes south of the U.S. border to seek low-wage work in the North for the benefit of multinational corporations.

Cinco de Mayo commemorates the defeat of foreign imperial forces that sought to overthrow the Mexican government in 1861. In the modern day, when imperialism often comes in the form of U.S.-backed IDB loans, those of us in the Empire's core are needed to step up and strike back in genuine and effective solidarity.

So get together a group of people as small or as large as appropriate and take action on one or more days between May 1 and May 5. These are the days to flood Slim's companies with e-mails, faxes and phone calls, to create havoc at their stores, or to take any other action that your heart moves you to.

As part of its Stomp CompUSA campaign, Root Force is encouraging people to focus their actions on that particular retailer. But if you're lucky enough to live in a place where CompUSA is already going out of business, check the Root Force web site for a list of other Slim holdings.

Six campesinos have already been murdered as part of the struggle to stop La Parota, and 75,000 more stand to lose everything if the dam goes through. Let's demonstrate, on May 1 to May 5, that there is no profit to be found in getting involved with this genocidal project. Stomp CompUSA, Stop Slim, and Unplug La Parota!

Root Force is a strategic campaign designed to help take down the system by forcing the cancellation of certain critical infrastructure projects in Latin America. For more information, visit www.rootforce.org.

Don't forget to send us a report of your action!