MEXICO CITY (AP) — Dozens of farmers drove a caravan of tractors to Mexico City on Wednesday and blocked the entrance to Mexico’s Congress to protest a new national water law that imposes tighter controls on water use.
Farmers gathered outside Parliament to protest against a proposed Universal Water Act that they say would take water away from the countryside and redistribute it for arbitrary use. They say the proposal threatens their livelihoods and undermines their basic right to water.
“If it affects the countryside, it affects the cities!” read a banner hanging from two tractors.
“We are protesting against the federal government’s imposition of new water laws, a reform that puts our land ownership at risk,” said Jorge Robles, a farmer from the northern state of Chihuahua.
The proposal backed by Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is being debated in the House of Representatives, where the president’s Morena party holds a majority. The law aims to allow the federal government to impose tougher penalties for water-related crimes and regulate water concessions – a sector plagued by high-profile corruption cases.
Farmers and a group of truckers brought demonstrations to the nation’s capital less than a week after they lifted road and highway blockades in at least seven of the country’s 32 states. They protested new water laws and the unsafe condition of the country’s highways, and demanded higher prices for corn and wheat.
They lifted the blockade after striking a deal with the federal government to meet their demands, but agricultural leaders warned they were prepared to escalate protests if the proposal progressed in Congress.
