 |
|
|
 Business News | July 2005 
Mexican Sugarcane Growers March to Protest Sugar Bill Veto
 Associated Press
| | An estimated 3.5 million people in many of the most isolated parts of the country rely indirectly on the sugar sector for their income |
Mexico City – Some 10,000 Mexican sugarcane growers blocked major roads and scraped the ground with machetes Wednesday in Mexico City, protesting plans by President Vicente Fox to veto a sugarcane bill passed last month by the opposition-dominated Congress.
Growers from most of Mexico's 15 sugar-producing states, backed by two powerful labor unions, demanded that Fox sign the bill, which guarantees continued upfront payments for cane from sugar-mill owners. The bill was passed by Congress 312-136 last month.
Fox has said the bill is designed to keep in place outdated and protective policies that will bankrupt the debt-burdened, sugar-growing sector.
Cane growers, on the other hand, say that refusal to sign the bill into law threatens their livelihood.
"We are here to show the force of the sugar growers on a national level," said Jesus Gutierrez, a 60-year-old sugar cane grower from the central state of Morelos. "The sugar industry is the most important in Mexico. We don't expect them to destroy us."
Mexico's sugar industry employs 270,000 cane growers and 130,000 workers, including cane cutters. An estimated 3.5 million people in many of the most isolated parts of the country rely indirectly on the sugar sector for their income. |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us