Dear Dorrie, This is an old email from 1995 --interesting to see the sources of support.U.S.-Tepoztlan links, Sept 6 To: chiapas95-archive@eco.utexas.edu Subject: U.S.-Tepoztlan links, Sept 6 From: hmcleave (Harry M. Cleaver) Date: Thu, 7 Sep 95 16:43:04 CDT This posting has been forwarded to you as a service of Accion Zapatista de Austin. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 6 Sep 1995 21:44:46 -0400 From: Andrew Wheat To: Multiple Recipients of List Mexico2000 Subject: U.S.-Tepoztlan linksPlease cross-post Call write or fax Jack Nicklaus and GTE's Don Hayes to register your outrage... For Immediate Release For More Information: Sept. 6, 1995 Call Andrew Wheat, Essential Information 202/387-8034 Jack Nicklaus, GTE Tee Off Mexican Community, National Park U.S. Environmentalists Blast Luxury Development September 6, 1995 Mr. Don A. Hayes Mr. Jack Nicklaus President Golden Bear Course Management GTE Data Services 11780 U.S. Highway 1 One East Telecom Parkway North Palm Beach, Florida Temple Terrace, Florida 33408 33637 Dear Mr. Hayes and Mr. Nicklaus, Both of your companies are supporting a locally opposed $311 millionprivate development project slated to be built on Mexican national park land over the strenuous objections of most residents of the local community of Tepoztlan. It is hard to imagine how benefiting from institutional corruption and helping to convert a national park into a private luxury playground for the rich could serve anything beyond the very short-term financial interests of your companies. Even a short-term benefit is doubtful, given that the local community has vowed to never let the project get off the ground. As you know, the REl TepoztecoS development would be a multi-purpose luxury residential, recreational and business development eight miles south of Cuernavaca in the state of Morelos. It is estimated that TepoztecoUs golf course alone will consume more than 4,000 cubic meters of well water a day, about five times the amount of this scarce resource than the entire town of Tepotzlan now consumes. Community members are also concerned about the golf courseUs expected heavy use of agrochemicals and the potential for them to enter the water table andharm the regionUs rich bio-diversity. Another reason that El Tepozteco Q which would cover 187 hectares with 800 luxury homes, a five-star hotel, a business park, a helicopter pad and recreational facilities Q is so controversial is because it would be built on unusually beautiful land 45 miles from Mexico City, land that has legally enjoyed multiple layers of federal protection. El TepoztecoUs site sprawls across land that has been federally recognized as: % El Tepozteco National Park; % Ajusco-Chichinautzin biological corridor; and % Rcommunal propertyS of 800 local Rcomuneros.S Despite these pledged protections, both the federal government and the state of Morelos are backing the bid by your business partner,the Mexican development firm Grupo KS, to take over the site for a private development. The overwhelming majority of the comuneros and the 28,000 residents of Tepoztlan, however, who have been billed as thepurported beneficiaries of the development, oppose its construction. According to local community leaders and a spokesperson for Jack Nicklaus Golden Bear Course Management, which is designing TepoztecoUs golf course, the financing of the entire project hinges on GTEUs commitment to invest $27.1 million in a Rstate-of-the-art data processing facilityS there. GTE Data Services would be the premier company in the developmentUs El Recinto business park. As GTEUs own releases say, RGTE Data Services is the anchor tenant in the high-technology El Recinto Corporate Park.S The golf course designed by Nicklaus would be the anchor of theresidential and recreational portion of the development. Theinternational prestige attributed to Nicklaus courses is viewed as amagnet that would sell the developmentUs residential and recreational facilities. Despite the influence that you as individuals and companies have over this misguided project, both GTE and Golden Bear officials have disavowed any knowledge of the controversy that their projects have touched off in Mexico. Proclaiming ignorance is no excuse, especially since you will be hearing more about the problems that this project poses to the people of Tepoztlan. Because of the beauty of their land and its proximity to Mexico City, the Tepoztlan residents are veterans of many development scheme battles. In the first attempt to build a golf course in the area 30 years ago, the developers did not retreat until the dispute escalated into a violent confrontation in which a professor leading opposition to the project was fatally injured. Since then, the community has fought attempts to build luxury homes, a prison, a train line, and a cable tourist lift to ascend the parkUs mountain peaks. Despite this resistance, TepoztlanUs population has tripled in 20 years and area land prices have risen even faster. Although they enjoy federal and state government support, El Tepozteco developers need local municipal approval to rezone the land from agricultural use to residential and tourism uses. In a March 18, 1995 public vote on the issue, local officials rejected the zoning request. But in an illegal secret meeting on August 22, Municipal President Alejandro Morales Barragan and six of eight members of the municipal council were persuaded to reverse themselves, approving the zoning change under suspicious circumstances. Two days later, 2,500 outraged community members occupied the town hall and voted to dissolve the municipal council for approving the zoning change without consulting the community. They have vowed to continue to fight the project and enjoy the backing of many Mexican groups, including Greenpeace Mexico, the Group of 100 (an environmental group of 100 leading scientists and artists in Latin America), Green Warriors, Save the Forest and the National Ecological Convention. GTE and Golden Bear have great influence over the outcome of this mislocated project. We are calling on you to exercise that influence responsibly by withdrawing your participation. Sincerely, Ralph Nader Corporate Accountability Research Group, Washington, D.C. Carl Pope Executive Director, Sierra Club, San Francisco, CA Barbara Dudley Executive Director, Greenpeace-USA, Washington, D.C. Brent Blackwelder Executive Director, Friends of the Earth, Washington, D.C. Lori Wallach Global Trade Watch Director, Public Citizen, Washington, D.C. Ed Maschke Director, California Public Interest Group, Santa Barbara, CA Andi Liebenbaum Executive Director, People for Parks, Los Angeles, CA Andrew Wheat Essential Information | Internet: awheat@essential.org
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