Mexico Protesters Fear US-Owned Brewery Will Drain Their Land Dry

By David Agren, Guardian UK

04 February 18

A deal between a state government and the US’s third biggest brewer could put beer for Americans before water for Mexicans

armelo Gallegos used to sow wheat in the cool winters and cotton in scorching-hot summers of the Mexicali valley. These days, water is so scarce he can only plant one crop a year.

But on top of drought and a sinking water table, the 61-year old farmer now has another preoccupation. A huge brewery is being built in the nearby city of Mexicali, and Gallegos – like many others – fears it will suck up what little water remains to make beer for export to the US.

Gallegos and other farmers see themselves as the victims of an unhealthy deal between the state government of Baja California and Constellation Brands, the third biggest brewer in the US.

“They’re managing the water as if it were loot to be divvied up among them,” he said. “The government’s intention is to leave us with nothing, without land and without water.”

The new plant is projected to start production in 2019, churning out nearly 4m bottles a day of beers including Corona, Modelo and Pacífico.

But the project has provoked a fierce backlash among local farmers and residents who have come together in a movement known as Mexicali Resists. Last summer, thousands of people joined angry demonstrations outside the state government offices, and blocked deliveries to the construction site.

Since the new year, unrest has flared up again after riot police and private security guards clashed with protesters who had blocked the construction of a new water pipe to the factory. Dozens of activists have set up a protest camp near the construction site, with huge signs reading “Constellation go home”.

“We’re already having water shortages,” said protester Ana López. “Now imagine when the plant starts working.”

Since the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) was signed 25 years ago, foreign manufacturers have flocked to Baja California. Border cities such as Tijuana and Mexicali have expanded rapidly.

Nafta transformed Mexico’s closed economy into one focused on exports. But it has also caused discontent among farmers in the Mexicali valley, who say the country has lost sight of the principles of sovereignty and self-sufficiency.

Older farmers fondly recall a time when the government provided credit and gave subsidies for fuel and fertilizer (even though such schemes were often plagued by corruption).

In the 1940s, more than 100 communal properties known as ejidos were created in the Mexicali valley by breaking up a vast foreign-owned cotton-growing company. With the land came water rights – which the farmers still jealously defend.

“If this brewery was such a good deal wouldn’t it be [across the border] in Calexico or Las Vegas?” asked farmer Eduardo Cisneros, 75. “They just want cheap water and cheap labour.”

Many are seething at the idea that precious water rights are being handed over to gringos.

“What they consider a good, we consider our heritage,” said Ernesto Díaz, a farmer and senior ejido official. “They’re being naive if they think this [brewery] will not cause water problems in the Mexicali valley.”

Since 2010, when Mexico overtook the Netherlands to become the world’s biggest beer exporter, breweries have sprung up across its arid borderlands, and this is not the first time that concerns have been raised over the region’s water supplies.

Last year, a mayor in the town of Zaragoza in Coahuila state accused another Constellation Brands brewery of sucking up so much water that it left his town without drinking water.

Constellation Brands denies that its breweries threaten water resources. A company spokesman said Zaragoza had a problem of “old pipes”. The plant in Mexicali will be sustainable and is being built with the proper permits and support from city, state and national governments, he said.

Constellation Brands says it is buying water rights at fair prices and that the plant, in its first phase of operations, will consume only 0.1% of the available water in the region.

But farmers fear that the brewery will bring long-term problems. Mexico’s National Water Commission (Conagua) has declared the area’s aquifer overexploited and prohibited the drilling of new wells.

Constellation Brands isn’t the only brewery expanding in the borderlands. Heineken, which owns Mexican brands such as Sol, Tecate and Bohemia, has announced plans for expanding its brewery in Tecate – which would require water from the Mexicali area.

“Until now there has not been a single project to mitigate these water issues. It’s been the opposite: to bring investments,” said Rigoberto Campos, local leader of the National Campesino Confederation. “We’re worried because we have an overexploited aquifer.”

Opponents of the brewery express suspicions over a series of infrastructure projects in the state such as a massive desalination plant in Rosarito, being built through a private-public partnership. The state government also tried to pass a water privatisation law in 2016, sparking mass protests in Mexicali.

Alejandra León, a lawyer representing some of the farmers, says she has encountered secrecy at every step of her actions.

Léon had to sue the Baja California state government to obtain the brewery’s environmental impact study. The study revealed some rude surprises – such as which wells would supply water to the brewery.

“The company carried out studies to identify the wells they wanted without the actual owners of the wells knowing about it,” said León, a member of the state’s environmental protection council. “It’s as if they were already taking over.”