The field is planted (literally) on the road
It seems that in Zacatecas they have decided that the best way to water the crops is with the sweat of the brows… of motorists trapped in a monumental traffic jam. With the elegance of an elephant in a china shop, several contingents of agricultural producers have turned their tractors into tools of political protest, blocking the main federal road accesses in the state. The glorious tollbooths of Calera, Osiris and Las Arcinas are no longer just a place to pay and suffer, but the perfect setting for a piece of social theater with heavy delivery machinery. Imagine the scene: endless rows of trucks and cars, while the real owners of the land, the tractors, do what they do best: take up space.
The artists of this performance are the members of the Unión de Pozos Agrícolas de Zacatecas, who, in a burst of enviable punctuality, mobilized early to park their mobile farm fleet on the most strategic roads. Their caravan was not going towards a field, but towards a more forceful objective: paralyzing the entrances to the capital and the crucial routes of federal highways 45 and 54. Because, what better way to be heard than to prevent anyone from getting anywhere? A communication strategy, without a doubt, innovative.
Collateral consequences and warnings to air navigators
The reaction of the authorities was immediate, although perhaps the drivers did. Given the road chaos on federal 45, the Zacatecas International Airport issued a notice to passengers. His message, a gem of bureaucratic euphemism: “schedule your departures in advance.” Translation: “Your flight takes off in 3 hours, but getting here from the city can take 6, so arm yourself with patience and a good audiobook.” Meanwhile, the protesters, in a gesture of moving magnanimity, consider the possibility of opening traffic for ten minutes every hour. Quite a handout of mobility! They admit, of course, that they were “forced” to tighten the measures. Because in the catalog of options for dialogue, between “send a letter” and “paralyze a state”, the one that has the most impact on the news is always chosen.
The root of the problem: Water for everyone or dry fields?
And what is the reason for this nice mess? Nothing less than the reform of the sacred (and controversial) National Water Law. The farmers argue, with a certain dramatic logic, that the legislative changes would strongly affect them, because Zacatecas – surprise – does not have the same water conditions as, say, Tabasco. Their requirement: an availability study before approving anything. A request that, one would think, should be the previous step to any reform, not the consequence of a blockade. But where would the fun be in doing things in order?
In addition, they point out that the initiative would force them to return the concessions to the State and would infinitely complicate their renewal with a tangle of administrative requirements. To top off the idyllic panorama, the elimination of energy quota subsidies has caused a “great decapitalization of the countryside.” In Christian: planting has become so expensive that perhaps it is more profitable to use the tractor to block roads. A sad metaphor for how, sometimes, the fight for vital resources ends up suffocating the normality of an entire state.
The moral? When the countryside gets angry, it doesn’t throw tomatoes… it parks tractors. And the city, which depends on its food, is stuck in diesel smoke and desperation, pondering the real price of food and water.
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