“Whales yes, gas no!” , activists shouted outside the offices in Mexico of the largest bank in the United States, JPMorgan, to withdraw their support for the Saguaro Energía LNG project, which seeks to transport methane gas on huge ships across the Gulf of California to Asia.
In a joint action, the organizations Supercivic, Climate Connections, ClientEarth and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) protested this Thursday on Avenida de las Palmas, in Mexico City, against JPMorgan and Santander advising the company Mexico Pacific to obtain the funding it needs. This is an estimated investment of 15 billion dollars to launch the megaproject, which involves the construction of a terminal for the export of liquefied natural gas (LNG) of 15 million tons per year, in the fishing community of Puerto Libertad, Sonora. In addition to a gas pipeline that would cross 16 municipalities in the states of Chihuahua and Sonora.
The organizations tried to deliver more than 90,000 printed citizen signatures, in cardboard boxes, to the offices of JPMorgan and a nearby branch of Banco Santander, to demand that they do not participate in the project, since the route of the ships would cross whale breeding areas, the sound of ships would displace them from their habitat and there is a risk of collision, which would cause their death. With this approach, the signatories voted in favor of biodiversity, with the question: “Whales or gas?”
Claudia Campero, from Climate Connections and Whales or Gas, explained that a series of litigation and lack of funding are keeping the megaproject under arrest. However, he warned that at any time that could change.
“There are amparos that have suspended the work and the project does not yet have the money. What we know, from statements made by Mexico Pacific officials, is that they have the advice of Santander, JPMorgan and Mitsubishi. These three banks are called financial advisors and their task is to gather the bag of money to finance the project. So, we come here to tell banks not to look for that bag of money to make it viable,” Campero said.
During the action, climate activist Xiye Bastida picked up the megaphone to explain that the protest seeks to defend the country's biocultural heritage.
“It has to be clear to Santander, which is a Spanish bank, to JPMorgan, which is a bank from the United States, that they are coming to our country to destroy what we love, what we want, and we tell them 'no'! , that we are not going to let that happen! , that we are not going to let them continue to think that Mexico, that Latin America, that the Global South, is a place to continue creating zones of sacrifice! , that they are polluting our waters, that they are polluting our air!” , said Xiye, a 23-year-old girl, co-founder of the climate justice organization, Re-Earth Initiative.
With this action, the organizations also seek to make citizens aware of the risks of this type of megaproject in the Gulf of California ecosystem, named by oceanographer Jacques Cousteau as the “Aquarium of the World”.
The activist group alerted bystanders on Avenida de las Palmas to the irreversible consequences of the Saguaro Project, and they collected dozens of more signatures on a blackboard.
The boxes with the 90,000 signatures were not received either in the building where JPMorgan's office is located or in the Santander branch, but Arturo Hernández de Los Supercívicos said they will continue to demand that the voices of the signatories be heard.
Comentarios (0)