translated from Spanish: PRI families plunder rivers of Costa Chica

Marco Hernández López, an indigenous Nn’anncue Ñomndaa ‘ (AMUZGO), looks at the sand around him. It looks like a valley of dunes in the desert. Between the elevations a thin line of water runs. It is what remains of the riverbed of the Santa Catarina River, in the municipality of Ometepec, in the Costa Chica de Guerrero.
From there he remembers how 25 years ago he was running among the Milpas, entangled in the guides of the sowing of beans, watermelon and cucumber and cooled at the edge of this river that divides Guerrero from Oaxaca.
The Santa Catarina River was one of the 12 watersheds that concentrated 69 percent of Mexico’s natural runoff, according to a study by the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH). It is now a tiny stream of water that does not even guarantee the moisture in the planting lands of the 10 villages around them, where some 6000 inhabitants live, according to official censuses. Paso Snuff, inhabited by about 80 people, is the town closest to the river, separates them 400 meters.
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The reason for this drought in its flow is the exploitation of gravel and sand, which in the industrial area is known as stone material. Its extraction of the rivers is a practice authorized from the offices of the federal government to Gavilleros entrepreneurs who, in the case of Guerrero and Costa Chica, are linked to families of politicians of the region.
“I remember the river was with more water, with more moisture, as Hour The humidity is leaving because the river is shorter. Before the water ran wide, everything was green, full of trees, nor the hills were dry, “says Marco.
25 years ago, following Marco’s memories, it was one of the best times for the river and the families that lived around it, because every year they achieved up to three crops of corn, beans, watermelon and cucumber without having to water the fields.
In Paso snuff little by little the land dried up and buried not only the food of 25 families, also the only way to get money. The sowings served to eat and to stay.
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At present the river is a third of what was 20 years ago (300 meters wide), only in times of rain improves its squalid appearance.
To the misfortune of the inhabitants, the previous rains exacerbated the problem of the wetlands. The sediment known as grit, dug by the machines that looted the stone material, was expelled by the streams on the banks of the river and buried to more than one metre the fertile land, the sowing land. The worst may be coming.
Paso Snuff is located 15 minutes by car from Ometepec, a city located four hours away from Acapulco. Even with its proximity to the urban area, it lacks almost everything. To get there you have to bathe in dust.
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Poverty is already visible. The houses are built of mud mud, light rods, sheet and cardboard. But most notorious is the unity of its inhabitants, who made it known that even with its current condition, caused by the drought of the river, no one is left without eating, because they share the benefits of some harvest.
If the Santa Catarina River had not been looted, it is very likely that the families around them would not have problems of self-sufficiency.  
Now the sowing grounds, where there are mainly maize, are fenced with pointed and sharp wires. They must carefully care for each plant, because the soil is dry.
Read the full story on the poppy journalism site.
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Original source in Spanish