The multinational company that has monopolized transgenic seed production is once again in the news for violent situations it has caused. In the case of Córdoba, thugs from UOCRA — the Construction Workers’ Union of Argentina — and later police beat environmentalists and residents.
Taking place on Nov. 28, the latest news related to Monsanto came out of Córdoba, in the seed treatment plant that the multinational company is building without taking into account the latest environmental impact report required by environmental law.
At 8 a.m., 60 thugs brought in by UOCRA in two buses and other vehicles attacked at the protest campsite without prior warning. Tents had been set up there since Sept. 17, when the campsite led by the Neighborhood Assembly of Malvinas Struggles for Life was established. The mob beat young girls and boys, along with residents, with sticks and stones. This act of aggression had one specific goal: to get seven trucks from Monsanto’s plants in Rojas — a town in the province of Buenos Aires — to enter Córdoba’s plant and unload their cargo.
There were 20 injured, even though there were 10 police officers guarding the area. The officers did nothing to stop the aggression or break up the attack. Even worse, three hours later, when reinforcements from the Infantry Guard had arrived, instead of tending to the complaints of the attack victims, they pushed them back with rubber bullets.
The wounded went to testify before District Attorney Victor Chiapero, who said he was trying to identify those involved. This was no small job, although photographer Andres Baissero from ECOS Córdoba gave them an interesting tip: One of the vehicles transporting the mob was an Iveco vehicle, license number DZZ 611, with an official Córdoba government license plate. Those photos were circulated through social networks and published by La Mañana newspaper out of Córdoba in [Sunday’s] edition. There were six photographs taken within the last two weeks, where the driver had managed to stand in front of the vehicle in a vain attempt to cover up the plates.
Among the injured was Sofía Gatica, an emblematic member of the Mothers of Ituzaingó, who, in the past year, managed to bring to justice the first case of spraying contamination by suburban soy producers. She was beaten in September at the protest campsite and again on Monday, and she was admitted to the emergency hospital. Days before, she was threatened while on a bus was later beaten by two people upon leaving work.
Does one have to be distrustful to suspect that Monsanto pulled strings with UOCRA and the police?
The Governments in Power
The multinational company, with headquarters in Missouri, unlawfully holds a hegemony over transgenic corn and soybean seeds. It has attained such a hegemony with a broad financially backed economic policy and a lot of support from various governments.
Its South America tactic was to sell “for free” the seeds, which were tied to the herbicide glyphosate and a whole technological package, to gain markets. Its top seller in past years had been Roundup, authorized in the 1990s by Carlos Menem and especially his secretary of agriculture, Felipe Solá — who later wound up in Duhaldism, Kirchnerism and now, in Massism.
Since 2012, once that tactic was over, Monsanto has made soy producers sign a contract that obligates them to pay royalties, not use the seeds for replanting, and allow the firm to monitor its use. According to its propaganda, these constraints have been reported as an “agreement” by 80 percent of its customers. Just in case, under the auspices of the area’s last minister, Norberto Yauhar, the multinational company pushed for a bill for seeds that would ensure continued business for itself and for other multinationals such as Syngenta, Bayer and others.
The good thing is that the fatal risk to thousands of small landowners and indigenous people has aroused the opposition of the deputy minister of family agriculture, National Indigenous Farmer Movement, Farmers’ Movement of Córdoba, and others, who defend the true “field.”
Monsanto does not rest. The supplement of La Voz del Interior newspaper from Sept. 6 published a full-page advertisement about the new-seed novelty. In the middle of the page, a line stated the obvious, “To receive the benefits of the Intacta RR2 PRO, you should register for a license with Monsanto.”
Justice Is Also at Stake
Gov. Jose M. de la Sota is doing everything possible to settle the controversy with Monsanto’s factory in Malvinas, located 9 miles from Córdoba, on 27 hectares adjacent to the area’s neighborhoods and schools. From the beginning, residents and the environmental groups that support them, such as Dr. Medardo Ávila Vásquez of Doctors of Fumigated Towns — who was the prosecutor in the trial against spraying in the Ituzaingó neighborhood — Funam Foundation biologist Raul Montenegro and Law Club lawyer Federico Macciochi denounced the latest incident. This spectrum of groups is working and supporting the Neighborhood Assembly of Malvinas Struggles for Life, which includes several important figures, such as Gaston Mazzallay and its very own Gatica.
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner announced the “investment” in June 2011, at a summons at the Council of the Americas meeting in New York, with its host, banker Susan Segal. The president said that Monsanto had already printed a brochure and “when that happens,” she said, “it’s because the investment is already assured.”
Her opponent, De la Sota, also celebrated the news. Even the last in the chain of political command, the radical mayor of Malvinas, Daniel Arzani, supported it.
This trio, especially the duo living in Córdoba — the governor and mayor — has denied two requests from protesters and environmentalists: to hold a public hearing in order to hear the ins and outs of the parties’ reasons and conduct a survey of the people of Malvinas to see if they agree with the controversial facility.
Because of its economic impact and jobs opportunities, the so-called benefits of the investment are numerous and unobjectionable, and the mayor and governor should have no problem winning by a landslide vote. Nevertheless, they voted against.
The corporation out of Missouri has taken over justice. All appeals filed by attorney Macciochi have been rejected: no public hearing, no survey in Malvinas and no environmental impact report prior to the project.
Judge Graciela Escudero de Fernández, and later the High Court of Justice — or injustice, ironically — failed in a situation of Solomonic judgment: They authorized progress on the project but later said it cannot become operational without the environmental impact report.
Democracy Is Becoming Polluted
Obviously, there is a catch. Nobody is going to buy an estate of so many acres and make a million-dollar investment if it is not certain that production is going to continue, and having been presented as the largest of its kind at an international level by the company, this investment in Córdoba would produce 60,000 tons of corn kernels per year. This has not been challenged, since there are enough governmental and judicial guarantees.
On the other hand, where the company has not fared well is in Rio Cuarto. Its radical mayor, Juan Jure, with support from the National University and opposition of the Rural Society and Entrepreneurial Center, decided to reject Monsanto’s installation. They did it based on the environmental impact assessment of the Environment and Zoonosis Department of the Decentralized Entity of Municipal Control and legal opinion of the city attorney.
In this major city of the southern province, Monsanto and its associated company, Bio4, which is now based in the Industrial Park, had thought of installing a center for research and development of soybean varieties and corn hybrids, with agrochemical deposits, according to the magazine Revista El Sur.*
It would be very good news if Jure were to close the door on the company, which is like a major poison worldwide, no matter how many of its executives continue to win international awards. Upon receiving the 2013 World Food Prize last October, Robert Fraley, Monsanto’s chief technology officer, said, “Thirty years of research has validated the safety of biotechnology products.”
Speaking to the media, the company’s spokesman in Córdoba, Adrian Vilaplana, again outright rejected the plan for a popular referendum in Malvinas with the fallacious argument that society needs information, not politics — as if their business and politics were not only contaminated with glyphosate but also, and especially, with undemocratic bacteria. Denying votes, branding the protestors as violent, arranging acts of violence with UOCRA, so the company trucks could enter, pressuring the justice system, sharing with local media monopolies a watered down and almost “green” version of Monsanto, is affecting democracy.
The reporter stops here. You have to go see “The World According to Monsanto,” by French filmmaker Marie-Monique Robin, a film that closes the film series “The Critical Eye,” taking place in the Guild of Court of Córdoba today.
*Editor’s note: “The Trace of Monsanto,” No. 93, November 2013.
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