Monsanto in México: Four February court victories uphold Mexico’s ban on GMO corn







La colectiva del maíz prevails in
four rulings against Monsanto, DuPont


MORE
ADMINISTRATIVE REVIEWS REMAIN ON CHALLENGES TO PRECAUTIONARY MEASURES





Devon G.
Peña | Seattle, WA | March 19, 2015





The legal battles over the existing ban on the planting
of transgenic maize in Mexico continue to unfold with a string of four
important court victories by anti-GMO activists. On February 28, 2015, the
collective of social movement organizations known as Acción Colectiva del Maíz announced that they had secured four more
favorable court decisions involving amparo
(shelter) corporate challenges seeking to end the GMO corn ban in Mexico. These
are pivotal victories but the group explains that more administrative and
judicial reviews remain to be adjudicated, including five by Monsanto and
Syngenta against the use of precautionary measures to manage the biosafety risks posed by transgenic corn.





I last reported in 2014 how these decisions reveal a
very significant shift in Mexico’s federal civil law judiciary since the legal
logic upholding the GMO corn ban privileges Mexico’s signatory status in the
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Cartegena Biosafety Protocols,
and Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization over the nation’s other countervailing obligations under investor-state trade treaties like the North American
Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the pending TransPacific Partnership (TPP).





The most recent set of court decrees upheld the
continued suspension of authorizations to plant transgenic maize in Mexico.
According to a press release posted to the Sin Maíz  no Hay País home page, the judges
recognized “the supremacy of the right of the collectivity of corn over the
transnational seed companies.”





On Friday morning, February 27 two courts upheld two
injunctions ordering the suspension of the planting of transgenic maize and verified
the continuing status of the class action lawsuit, which was filed in July 2013
by agroecologists, indigenous and traditional farmers and plant breeders, human
rights and environmental activists, and artists. The collectivity that filed
the lawsuit seeks to defend corn in all its biological diversity and sociocultural
significance.





The upholding of the ban adds to a growing list of
victories that includes the multinational corporation Monsanto, which last week
saw its latest appeal rejected unanimously. On Wednesday February 25, the
DuPont Corporation also lost an appeal. The class action case faces one more juridical
review but there are an additional five amparos
pending over limits the corporations seek, in effect, to block verifiable and effective
application of precautionary measures previously ordered by the courts.





The current set of four court rulings all reveal a
willingness on the part of these four federal civil law judges to recognize the
pre-emptive and superior right of the collectivity of corn over seed companies
in the defense of biodiversity and the quality of corn as the nation’s
principal staple food item.





Corn producer Emiliano Juárez explains the significance
of the upholding of the ban: “It is clear that if the planting of transgenic
corn is contaminating our countryside and foods; the effect is the same as
tobacco, both on our health and in the fields, and there is no way to avoid dispersion
in the environment while the damage to our bodies is seldom immediate.”





Meanwhile Cati Marielle, one of the plaintiffs and a
researcher with the Environmental Studies Group, shared the statement of the
Mexican Chapter of the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal in support of the court
decisions: “The Mexican government must take all necessary measures to ensure
conservation of native maize as the main source of our food and nutrition and
as a cultural element of cohesion and social coordination. Since Mexico is the
gene pool reserve of this pillar of global food security, the planting of GM
maize should be banned in the country.” [1]







Rocha, Gringo Corn.


The lawyer handling the collective judgment, René
Sánchez Galindo, detailed the language of the legal resolutions: “Today the
Fifth Civil Collegiate upheld the injunction, reserving a right of future
audience for Dow AgroSciences, but the seed suspension continues to remain in
effect. Even today, the Second Collegiate Civil discarded a Pioneer claim under
DuPont. On Wednesday, the Sixth Collegiate Civil denied a defense by DuPont and
last week the Fourth Collegiate Civil declared another Monsanto claim as
inadmissible. All of the injunctions sought to lift the suspension of planting
in various ways.”





Sánchez Galindo explains that a total of 22 amparo
claims have been filed by agribusiness corporations and the Mexican government
agencies, SAGARPA (Agriculture Ministry) and SEMARNAT (Environmental Ministry).
The social movement collective has won 16 of these legal skirmishes.





I will continue to provide updates on the status of
these legal proceedings in Mexico until the process runs itself out. If the
pattern continues, it may very well be the case that Mexico will be first
nation in the North American free trade area created by NAFTA to bolt from
compliance with so-called environmental side agreements that hitherto had
blocked the assertion of other international treaty obligations, especially
those under the CBD, the Cartegena Protocols, and ILO Convention 169, which
requires participation and ascent by indigenous peoples of any development
activity seen as posing threats to native sovereignty and cultural rights. The
principles of consultation and participation under Convention No. 169 affect
review of specific development projects, “but also to broader questions of
governance, and the participation of indigenous and tribal peoples in public
life.” This convention has been used in related legal battles over the planting
of GMO soy affecting beekeepers and traditional farmers in Campeche and Yucatán
states in southeastern Mexico.





For more information:


France Gutiérrez - 0445539226898


Rene Sanchez - 0445554364248





















































































[1] Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal, Mexico Chapter,
Final Judgment Hearing, 12-15 November 2014. http://www.tppmexico.org/

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