Since the beginning of 2012, the Assembly of San Dionisio del Mar – in disagreement with the mismanagement of their municipal authority (Miguel López Castellanos) – occupied the Municipal Palace in expectation of a plausible explication about the changes in land use (to industrial) of the Santa Teresa sandbar which promoted the entry of the wind project of Mareña Renovables without any prior consultation to the community.
Today, more then three years later, the Municipal Palace is still occupied. The entry of the wind company divided the community. Finally, the project was not realized in San Dionisio del Mar but the conflict that divided the community is still ongoing and emerged in the elections in 2013 which the PSD (Partido Socialdemocrata de Oaxaca, Socialdemocrats) won by the margin of one vote, an election victory disputed by the PRI. Subsequently, this election was declared void by the Federal Electoral Tribunal.
San Dionisio del Mar doesn’t have a municipal authority, an administrator appointed by the local congress has this role; but there is no construction work in the community and his absence doesn’t help to end the conflict and to seek a solution. There have been already two attempts to organize extraordinary elections, the last one at the beginning of December 2014, but it ended in a confrontation with a person injured by gunfire. Later that same year, the elections in the municipality were cancelled.
Between January and April 2015, the PRI threatened with blocking the federal elections in the municipality, but gave up its claim for new elections because of a agreement with the INE (National Electoral Institute). Yesterday, the ballot papers for this municipality were burnt in the District Council of Juchitán de Zaragoza, previously the elections in San Dionisio del Mar had been cancelled by the INE-being considered a “troublespot”, the reason why the papers have been there.
photo: NoticiasNet