| Montreal, 24/02/2004 – On 20 February 2004, the Secretariat of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) dismissed submission SEM-04-001 (Hazardous Waste in Arteaga), filed with the Secretariat on 27 January by Francisco H. Garza Vara on behalf of Genaro Meléndez Lugo and José Javier, José Genaro, Miguel Ángel, Carlos Ariel, Juan Antonio, Iris Elidia y Cruz Adriana Meléndez Torres (the Submitters). The Submitters assert that the Mexican government is failing to effectively enforce its environmental laws by not giving due process to the Submitters' complaint against the companies Ecolimpio de México, SA de CV and Transportes J. Guadalupe Jiménez, SA, and by not penalizing those companies. The Submitters claim that both companies operate in violation of the law, causing serious damage to the environment and their property. Furthermore, they assert that the companies are seriously endangering their health and physical well-being due to the improper handling of hazardous waste.
The Secretariat dismissed the submission because it did not provide sufficient information, nor did it identify the applicable chapters or provisions of the General Law of Ecological Balance and Environmental Protection (Ley General del Equilibrio Ecológico y la Protección al Ambiente—LGEEPA) that the Submitters considered not to be effectively enforced. The Submitters now have 30 days to file a submission that meets the requirements of Article 14(1) of the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC).
The CEC was created by the governments of Canada, the United States and Mexico to address environmental matters from a regional perspective, to help to prevent possible conflicts between trade and the environment, and to promote the effective enforcement of environmental laws.
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