| Montreal, 13/06/2005 – On 9 June 2005, the Council of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) instructed the Secretariat to prepare a factual record in relation to submission SEM-03-004 (Alca-Iztapalapa II).
In the submission filed with the CEC Secretariat on 17 June 2003, Ángel Lara García (the "Submitter") asserted that despite a citizen complaint filed in 1995, Mexico is failing to effectively enforce Articles 414 paragraph 1 and 415 of the Federal Penal Code (Código Penal Federal—CPF), a part of its environmental law establishing prison terms and fines for failures to manage substances considered hazardous that result in environmental harm. According to the Submitter, Mexico is failing to ensure that a factory owned by the company Alca, SA de CV ("Alca") in the Borough (Delegación) of Iztapalapa, Federal District (Mexico City), Mexico, where he lives, complies with Article 150 of the General Ecological Balance and Environmental Protection Act (Ley General del Equilibrio Ecológico y la Protección al Ambiente—LGEEPA) with respect to the management of its hazardous waste. The Submitter asserts that his and his family's health have been affected by the pollution generated by the Alca factory.
On 3 December 2003, Mexico filed its response to the submission. It maintains, with respect to the citizen complaint filed in 1995, in which the Submitter alleged violations by Alca of LGEEPA Article 150, that the corresponding file opened by the Office of the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection (Procuraduría Federal de Protección al Ambiente—Profepa) was closed as prescribed by law. It further reports that the file was lost to due to a flood that affected the Profepa archives, but states that no preliminary investigation arose from that citizen complaint. Regarding another citizen complaint filed by the Submitter in 2000, Mexico asserts that the file was closed with an administrative decision to fine Alca an amount of P$2,000,421. As to Alca's alleged violations of CPF Article 415, the Party asserts that, according to a technical opinion issued by Justice Department (Ministerio Público) officers, the corpus delicti of the crime and the probable responsibility of the persons indicted were not fully proven.
On 23 August 2004, the Secretariat issued a notification recommending to the Council that a factual record be prepared for the submission. On 9 June 2005, the Council, in its Resolution 05-05, voted unanimously to instruct the Secretariat to prepare the factual record. As a next step, the Council directed the Secretariat to provide the Parties with its overall work plan for gathering the relevant facts and the opportunity to comment on that plan.
The CEC was established under North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC) to address environmental issues in North America from a continental perspective, with a particular focus on those arising in the context of liberalized trade. The CEC Council, the organization's governing body, is composed of the top environment officials of Canada, Mexico and the United States.
The citizen submissions mechanism of the CEC enables the public to play a whistle-blower role on matters of environmental law enforcement. Under Article 14 of the NAAEC, any person or nongovernmental organization may submit a claim alleging that a NAFTA partner has failed to effectively enforce its environmental law. Following a review of the submission, the CEC may investigate the matter and pursue a factual record of its findings.
For additional information, see the Citizen Submissions on Enforcement Matters web page at www.cec.org/citizen. |
