About the project and its impacts
In the Sierra de Santa Marta, in southern Veracruz, Indigenous and campesino communities have organized to defend their territories against a growing wave of extractive and infrastructure projects. The region is home to Nuntajiyi’ (Popoluca) and Nahua Indigenous peoples, as well as Afro-mestizo and mestizo campesino communities whose livelihoods depend on collective land management, agriculture, and local ecosystems.
The area—located near the oil and industrial cities of Coatzacoalcos, Minatitlán, and Cosoleacaque—has increasingly attracted interest from energy and industrial projects. Companies have attempted to enter the territory to develop wind energy projects, hydrocarbon exploration, and other industrial initiatives linked to regional development plans such as the Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.
Communities have raised concerns that these projects would bring contamination of water, soil, and air, worsening health conditions, increased insecurity and violence—particularly against women—and social impacts such as alcoholism, drug use, prostitution, and the breakdown of community cohesion. They also warn that these initiatives threaten collective land tenure systems, which have historically allowed communities to control decisions about their territories through community assemblies.
In recent years, companies have attempted to enter the region to develop projects such as wind farms promoted by firms including Dragon and NextEnergy, as well as hydrocarbon exploration conducted by COMESA, a contractor working with PEMEX. Organized community resistance has so far prevented these projects from advancing in their territories.
For local communities, these developments threaten their right to autonomy and self-determination, as well as the integrity of their lands, waters, cultures, and community life.
About the community-led struggle
Communities in the Sierra de Santa Marta have been organizing to defend their territories from extractive and industrial projects that threaten their land, water, and collective governance systems. Through the Movimiento Regional Indígena en Defensa y Respeto por la Vida, Indigenous Nuntajiyi’ (Popoluca), Nahua, and campesino communities have mobilized to stop projects such as wind energy developments proposed by the companies Dragon and NextEnergy, as well as hydrocarbon exploration carried out by COMESA for PEMEX.
Community assemblies have been central to this resistance. Through collective decision-making and assembly agreements, communities have refused authorization for extractive projects and defended communal land tenure systems that allow them to control access to their territories and prevent unwanted corporate activity.
Communities are also organizing in response to broader threats linked to the Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and the possible expansion of industrial parks and energy infrastructure in the region. Alongside territorial defense, they are strengthening community organizing through regional assemblies, human rights training, women’s leadership networks, youth engagement, community health initiatives, and efforts to advance community-controlled electricity generation as an alternative to high electricity tariffs and externally imposed energy projects.