Farmers block Mexico’s Congress with tractors in protest against new national water law proposal
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Dozens of farmers drove a caravan of tractors into Mexico City and blocked the entrance to Mexico’s Capitol on Wednesday to protest a new national water law that imposes tighter controls on water use.
Farmers gathered outside the convention hall to protest the proposed General Water Law, which they say would take water from rural areas and reallocate it for discretionary use. They say the proposal threatens their livelihoods and undermines basic water rights.
“If it affects the rural area, it also affects the city!” read the banner hanging on two tractors.
“We are protesting the federal government’s imposition of a new water law, a reform that puts the ownership of our lands at risk,” said Jorge Robles, a farmer from the northern state of Chihuahua.
The proposal, supported by Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, is being discussed in the House of Representatives, where the president’s Morena Party is in the majority. The legislation aims for the federal government to impose tougher penalties for water-related crimes and regulate water concessions, an industry plagued by high-profile corruption cases.
Farmers brought their demonstration to the nation’s capital, less than a week after they and groups of truck drivers lifted road and highway blockades in at least seven of the country’s 32 states. They were protesting the new water law and the insecurity on the country’s roads, and demanding an increase in corn and wheat prices.
They lifted the blockades after reaching an agreement with the federal government to meet their demands, but agricultural leaders warned they were prepared to escalate protests if the proposal was passed in Congress.
