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Semarnat reiterates accusations against Julia Carabias The Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) insisted on holding the former head of that unit responsible, Julia Carabias, of the environmental damage caused in Quintana Roo, for having granted in 2000 a permit for mining activities below the water table, “which allowed the use of 7 hectares of limestone per year.”
After the former official protested the accusations against her made by the president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador In its morning conference on February 1, Semarnat highlighted that said authorization was given on the last day of the six-year term of former President Ernesto Zedillo and Carabias at the head of that agency.
In this sense, he emphasized that the responsibility of the then Secretary of the Environment, Natural Resources and Fisheries (Semarnap) regarding the impacts on the environment “is unavoidable”, so “it is incongruous” that the now researcher and environmentalist states “that the protection of natural resources is ensured through conditioning factors for an activity whose development is irreparable in environmental terms”.
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Semarnat reiterated that mining below the water table represents the definitive and irrecoverable loss of the subsoil, effects on aquifers and ecosystems, among other elements that, together with the previous impacts on the surface due to open-pit mining that destroyed the flora and fauna, have represented insurmountable damage to the area.
He stressed that the Mexican State is currently facing international arbitration “to stop these practices that put the natural heritage of Mexicans at risk and threaten the right to a healthy environment for these and future generations.”
In her defense, Julia Carabias argued that Semarnap, at the time, acted in accordance with the current legal framework, the authorization was legal and adjusted to the knowledge and evidence available at the time, “in a site and for a project that had already been carried out there since the 1980s and that had prior authorization from the state government.”
Carabias accused that “the way the president (López Obrador) tells the story is a crude and comfortable simplification of the facts, and the press release No. 006/22 issued by Semarnat on February 3 contributes to the confusion and misinformation. ”.
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