The tourist center of San Cristóbal de las Casas presents a bohemian image with its international restaurants, jewelry stores, cafes, and street performers. This image, however, is deceptive, belying grave violations of human rights violations occurring behind the scenes. Located on the outskirts of San Cristóbal are the “colonies” that form the perimeter of the city, areas that visitors rarely see. In the Colony of Las Peras, (“Las Peras”), one of these human rights violations occurs daily.
Las Peras has a small but growing population. Apart from the houses of its inhabitants, the colony includes a grade school, a kindergarten, a tortilla shop, a church, and several small stores. Despite the people's presence, in 2005 the company ALZ Construcciones, S.A. de C.V. installed an asphalt plant directly across the colony’s borderline in neighboring territory. This asphalt plant functions almost daily, creating a grave health risk for both the children and adults of Las Peras.
Effects of the Asphalt Plant
The process of making asphalt generates numerous byproducts that have a deleterious effect on the health of the people of Las Peras.
First, the asphalt plant produces a smoke that carries with it the chemicals emitted during asphalt production. These chemicals can include arsenic, benzene, hydrogen sulfide, chromium, formaldehyde, and cadmium, to name a few. The smoke’s funnel can reach 50 to 60 meters in height, and disperses widely when the wind blows.
Because of this smoke, the people suffer from a chronic cough. As one resident of Las Peras states, “We say the cough now lives with us.” Both the adults and children experience problems breathing; pain of the chest, throat, and stomach; continuous headaches verging on migraines; and stinging irritation in the eyes. In addition, some inhabitants have noticed their skin sloughing off, as might happen after a chemical burn. Children have experienced diarrhea, and their stomach pain has lead to vomiting. Some children also manifest a red line in their fingernails, which, according to a medic from Doctors Without Borders, is a sign of poisoning.
Given the asphalt plant’s location right below the colony’s primary school and kindergarten, the children are the most severely affected. During school days, the wind carries the smoke and its chemicals into the classrooms, interrupting the classes and impeding both teaching and learning.
Second, the plant’s smoke produces an odor of burned rubber. This odor causes nausea, and affects the taste of the people’s food and water. The smell infiltrates throughout the house, passing through sweaters, sheets, and shawls that the people use to cover themselves as they try to ward off the smoke.
Third, the plant produces loud noises that affect the people’s nervous systems. When the asphalt plant works in the early morning, it wakes the people, depriving them of sleep. When the asphalt plant works in the day, it creates a constant background noise that sets the people on edge. This combination produces heightened stress in the colony’s population.
These effects are compounded by to the plant’s unrelenting operating schedule. As colony residents comment, “There is no day of rest for the people of the asphalt plant.” The asphalt plant may operate from Sunday through Saturday at any time of the day, including the very early mornings. With the continuous production of smoke, chemicals, odor, and noise, the people of Las Peras suffer a constant industrial assault on their health.
International Violations of Rights Committed by the Asphalt Plant
The asphalt plant violates a number of Mexico’s laws, including those regulating (a) the type and quantity of industrial emissions permitted, and (b) the distance allowed between this kind of heavy industry and an urban zone. These regulations are set forth in the Ley General del Equilibrio Ecologico y la Proteccion al Ambiente (LGEEPA, or the General Law of Ecological Equilibrium and the Protection of the Environment).
In the realm of international law, the asphalt plant – by its smoke, chemicals, odor, and noise – also violates the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the American Convention on Human Rights, among other international treaties and conventions that Mexican has signed and ratified. Articles in these treaties and conventions protect the right of children and adults to physical and mental health, the right of children and adults to an adequate life, and the right to an education.
Moreover, Article 1 and Article 133 of the Mexican Constitution establish that the international treaties and conventions ratified by Mexico automatically become part of the supreme law of Mexico. In laymen’s terms, if Mexico accepts an international law, that international law carries the same weight as a national law created by Mexico’s Congress. Thus, a violation of these international conventions is also a violation of the Mexican Constitution.
Omissions by the Mexican Government
The Mexican government has an obligation to ensure the enforcement of the laws it creates or accepts. The government, however, refuses to take action against the asphalt plant. In fact, the government not only refuses to take action, it provides excuses to allow the plant’s continued operation. Government officials assert that the asphalt plant came before the schools. First and foremost, this is incorrect. As the people testify, the schools have been present in Las Peras for anywhere from 25 to 30 years, much longer than the asphalt plant constructed only six years ago. Second, regardless of which arrived first, the well-being of the children and the colony’s inhabitants takes precedence over the profits of the asphalt plant.
Other government officials claim the asphalt plant is now legal, and they can do nothing more about the matter. This is also incorrect. The asphalt plant has not demonstrated compliance with the applicable domestic industrial standards for this kind of industry. In addition, the plant remains prohibitively close to an urban zone. Furthermore, the plant continues to violate the international treaties and conventions that protect the children’s and adults’ right to health, adequate life, and education.
By failing to enforce both domestic and international laws against the asphalt plant, the Mexican government is perpetrating an omission of the law – that is, ignoring its duty to enforce the law.
Submission of a Complaint to the United Nations
For these reasons, the people of the Colony of Las Peras united themselves with a larger movement of citizens within San Cristóbal in the hope of reclaiming their right to health, life, and education. The Movimiento Salvemos San Cristóbal (Movement Let’s Save San Cristóbal), along with the Colony of Las Peras and other communities affected by government inaction, banded together this past week to submit a complaint to the United Nations and the High Commissioner for Human Rights. This complaint challenges the Mexican government for its inaction and the continued illegal operation of the asphalt plant, owned by ALZ Construcciones, S.A. de C.V.
The people of Las Peras currently await an answer regarding their complaint. While they wait, they will continue their struggle for their health, life, and dignity – for themselves and for their children.
