Hopelchén beekeeper pleads for an end to fumigation and deforestation

Graciela H. Ortiz
Foto: Robin Canul
La Jornada Maya

Mérida, Yucatán
Thursday 7 November, 2019

“Fabiàns death caused me a lot of pain, I confess this even as a man, I cried a lot and I don't want this to happen. When I visited him I thought: My God, is this how our children will die, the people we love, life and nature? We have to unite, ”says beekeeper Gustavo Huchín Cauich, protagonist of the documentary feature What happened to the bees ?, by Adriana Otero and Robin Canul. The film premiered in Mérida, at the National Cineteca Manuel Barbachano Ponce during the Kayche Festival “Visual Tissues”. The film describes beekeeper’s struggles against deforestation and fumigation with agrochemicals that are carried out for the planting of transgenic soybeans in the area of ??Hopelchén, Campeche.

In the documentary, Don Gustavo travels to Argentina to be reunited with Fabián Tomasi, from Basavilbaso, province of Entre Ríos. Fabián died on September 7, 2018, at age 53 after suffering from severe toxic polyneuropathy and generalized muscular atrophy. These ailments were caused by exposure to products he handled during his work as a loader and pump operator at an aerial spraying company.

The beekeeper learned about planting transgenic soybeans in the South American country, and saw with his own eyes the devastation suffered by the area. Tomasi, as well as others in the region, suffered from numerous health issues, including: cancer, malformations and miscarriages.

[b]Raising awareness[/b]

“My intention, through this documentary, is to raise awareness that we, the citizens, must join forces to combat or stop deforestation and pollution, because we are all at risk. We in the rural environment and the people of the city too, because the food that arrives at the table comes from the Mennonite fields, from the Hopelchén growers who irrigate with contaminated water” says Huchín.

In the documentary, beekeeper Leydi Pech Martin, who raises melipona bees, also joins the struggle of her community.

[b]The Start of the Fight[/b]

Huchín Cauich, breeder of the Apis Mellifera species, says that the fight began in 2012, when there was a huge die off of bees, approximately 1,500 colonies. They would later learn this was due to the use of agrochemicals in the fumigation of GM soybeans.

“For us that first time was very painful, very sad, because many people were left without colonies and in our rural environment, most of us are beekeepers and farmers, so people were left without work, many boys without studies, because their parents no longer could pay them. They were forced to move to the city to work as masons, whatever it was to support their families...” explains Don Gustavo.

Don Gustavo, who lives in Bolonchén de Rejón, Hopelchén, in the state of Campeche, had 200 colonies from which he obtained up to 40 drums of 300 kilos each, per month, about 12 tons. Now he has 80 colonies and barely reaches a ton and a half. While it’s clear that their bees died from drought and not from fumigation, deforestation contributed to this factor considering that a third of the bees have already died and that production had annually fell by more than half.

When the death of the bees began “we met, talked and analyzed why that happened. Some scholars joined and we learned that it was not only transgenic soy, but the agrotoxins with which they sprayed such as neonicotinoids and cypermethrin, that killed the bees. ”

[b]Amparos[/b]

*An amparo is a Mexican legal proceeding which protects rights not specifically upheld by the constitution. generally ordered by the supreme court when rights have been violated in a case.

One of the directors of the documentary, Robin Canul, explains that since 2012, amparos have been filed. In 2015, the Supreme Court Justice of the Nation (SCJN) ordered a consultation with Mayan communities, “after that the National Service of Agrifood Health, Safety and Quality (Senacica), withdrew permits from Monsanto for having found irreversible damage to the environment and subsequently returned the seeds.”

The amparo is still in force, although all legal instances have been exhausted, the case is also being seen in the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, “the only thing that is needed is the will of the authorities to put an end to this and protect human rights and the right to a healthy environment, ”he adds.

Don Gustavo traveled to Mexico in 2017 to meet with the then minister of the SCJN, Eduardo Medina Mora, in order to explain that he was still sowing his crops in spite of the amparos, and to ask the man: “Do something for Mexico, do something for your children ”, But nothing has been done.

[b]Devastation of the jungle[/b]

“since long ago we have been in Hopelchén taking care of the forest, and we take care of it precisely because of our bees, because we know that they are imperative for our livelihood and that of our children, but the big businessmen, mainly the Mennonites, buy five or 10 thousand hectares and use heavy machinery to dismantle everything they can to sow GM soy, ”says the beekeeper.

He points out that it is a very sad situation. They start deforesting from the outside in, while many animals escape, others are crushed. Don Gustavo explains that "one finds many dead animals."

He assures that they were never consulted, and that they were already harvesting when they realized, “the consultation must have been prior, free, culturally appropriate and in good faith, and they did not comply with any of that. We said: Hey Semarnat, you are the ones who must protect the jungle and yet you are dismantling it. Now in Hopelchén, more than 85 thousand hectares of forest are deforested.”

He points out that they are now in talks with the National Council of Science and Technology (Conacyt) and with the Federal Government, to continue the consultation, “it is a right that we have to be consulted about the change in land use, because they don't want to recognize that the territory they are dismantling is ours. What is Yucatan, Campeche and Quintana Roo? It is Mayan territory, but the government says that they are national lands and sells them to these people to dismantle everything.”

[b]Consequences[/b]

“They are taking away our children's assets, they are ending our culture, they are killing everything, and if that were not enough, with so much fumigation our water, soil, the environment we breathe is volatile due to elements of insecticides, pesticides and herbicides. This is an ecocide. ”

He states that the cancer rate has risen and that the Hopelchén Health Center has realized this fact. “The aerial spraying is damaging elementary, secondary, high school and University students. In September, when they sprayed near the university, two boys and some teachers felt dizzy and when they took them to the doctor said they were symptoms of poisoning".

He calls on the government to stop aerial spraying, “some of those in the documentary were fumigated by the planes, and the general public in Hopelchén is suffering, they say they are spraying in the field, but the air brings all the volatile elements to the city, carrying out a tremendous pollution. ”

Finally, he points out that they are trying to make this known so that people become aware "and join our struggle because we are all in this boat, and if we hurt those in the rural environment, then all people are harmed."

In June 2018, the German pharmaceutical giant Bayer bought the US company Monsanto, for an estimated 63 billion dollars, the largest foreign acquisition ever made by a German company.