International Day of Action for Rivers

Bay Area residents mobilize in US and Mexico to protect their relatives and neighbors from forced displacement: Proposed dam project threatens 10,000 people and 48 communities in Mexico.



What: Press conference (video, audio, photo ops)
Where: In front of the Mexican Consulate (532 Folsom Street, San Francisco)
When: 9:30 a.m., Monday, March 14, 2005 (International Day of Action for Rivers)
Why: Mexican government’s proposed San Nicolas Dam (Jalisco) would have disastrous consequences for people and the environment.

On March 14, the 8th Annual International Day of Action for Rivers, CASA – Salvemos Nuestros Pueblos (Comité de Ausentes de San Gaspar en Acción) – a committee made up of immigrants and their descendants from the state of Jalisco whose towns are threatened by the construction of a dam will hold a press conference and deliver over 1400 letters at the Mexican Consulate in San Francisco (532 Folsom St.). The press conference will address the effects of the proposed project on the communities, the organizing efforts in the Bay Area and Mexico (including a demonstration that will take place at one of the communities that is threatened by the construction of the San Nicolas dam on the same day in observance of the International Day of Action for Rivers) and call for alternatives to massive dam building projects that threaten the poor and most vulnerable.

The letters and postcards, which will then be forwarded to Mexican President Vicente Fox and the Governor of the State of Jalisco, Francisco Ramírez Acuña protest the proposed dam project for the following reasons:

• Displacement of 48 communities in the state of Jalisco.
• The loss of access to our history by virtue of the complete demolition and flooding of towns, whose histories date back to the 1500’s.
• The lack of transparency on the part of the Mexican government with regard to this project.
• The loss of the cemetery where many of our ancestors have been laid to rest. No plan has been proposed by the Governor of Jalisco in regards to this issue.
• The environmental impact of the project on a local, regional and global scale would have serious consequences.

Co-founder of CASA – Salvemos Nuestros Pueblos, Hilda Estrada, whose family is from one of the threatened communities stresses: Our homes, history, community and identity are not for sale!

For more information on the international day of action for rivers visit http://www.irn.org/dayofaction.

For more information on CASA Salvemos Nuestros Pueblos visit http://www.CASAsnp.org.
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