Farmers, Ranchers, and the Zapatista Other Campaign Shut Down the Largest Salt Mine on Earth

GUERRERO NEGRO, BAJA CALIFORNIA SUR; OCTOBER 16, 2006: On Sunday evening, as the Zapatista Other Campaign winded its way sixteen hours up Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula toward the US border, communal farmers of the Ejido Benito Juárez and the Ejido Diaz Ordaz, along that route, timed their occupation and shutdown of the largest salt mine in the world with the arrival of Subcomandante Marcos of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN, in its Spanish initials).

The farmers and ranchers awaited the Other Campaign caravan on Highway 1 in nearby Vizcaino, and invited Marcos and the organizations and media accompanying him to join the occupation.

As this story goes to press, Delegate Zero and the Other Campaign are camped out with the local citizenry, surrounding the pumping station – now turned off, courtesy of the direct action of the people – that made, prior to this night, the mining of seven million tons of salt per year possible...
The Japanese Mitsubishi Corporation and the Mexican government operate the mining company but paid the farmers just 148 pesos (about 14 dollars) per year for each hectare (that is, about $1.20 per month, or four cents a day, to extract the resources of each 2.4 acres) until last April, when the farmers occupied the site and forced the bosses to up that sum a bit: to 1,000 pesos (about $90 dollars, less than thirty cents per day per hectare). At first the multinational giant and the Mexican State have pled poverty and refused to budge. But in the end, the owners had to back down. The arrival of Delegate Zero and the Other Campaign provided the opportunity to up the ante.

In addition to the pumps vital to the mining operation, the farmers and ranchers invaded 39,000 hectares (150 square miles) and have declared that either the Exportadora del Sal corporation (51-percent owned by the government of Mexico, 49-percent owned by Mitsubishi) will meet their demands “or they must leave.”

It is a David vs. Goliath battle: the 376 inhabitants of the Benito Juárez Ejido and the 2,339 of the Diaz Ordaz Ejido are up against Mexico (the 11th largest economic entity on earth) and Mitsubishi (the 38th, wealthier than most countries).

Still, the Davids shut down the Goliaths in the early morning hours of today, as they did last April. And this time, by adhering to the Other Campaign, they ensured that they do not fight alone.

“What happens now is we are going to Baja California Norte, Sonora, Chihuahua, Zacatecas and the rest of the country,” Marcos told the farmers and ranchers, according to a videotape just received in the mobile Narco Newsroom that records his arrival and first meeting with the farmers and ranchers in Vizcaino. “And we are going to tell what is happening to you just as we have told what has happened to Chiapas.”

To be continued…

Kristin Bricker and Pavel Blanco reported from Vizcaino for this story. Dan Feder did additional research. Eréndira of the Other Campaign in Baja California Sur provided video footage used in this report.