Mexico plebiscite cancels US brewery project
A majority of residents of the Mexican northern border city of Mexicali that participated in a plebiscite on March 21-22 have voted for the cancellation of a brewery under construction in the city by US company Constellation Brands Inc., which brews Mexican beers such as Modelo and Corona for export, mostly to the US.
The Interior Ministry’s under secretary for democratic development, Diana Ávarez Maury (pictured), announced on Monday that the plebiscite returned a result of 76.1 per cent of the votes against the brewery’s construction, and that, as a result, Constellation Brands would not be awarded the permits necessary for the plant’s construction, issued by the national water commission (Conagua).
A total of 36,520 people participated in the plebiscite, out of Mexicali’s total population of around one million.
The investment was announced during the country’s previous federal administration (2012-18) but the vote was called by Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador amid protests by local people against the project, who argued that the brewery would rob the city of its already scarce water supply.
Mexico’s emploters’ confederation (Coparmex) condemned the plebiscite, stating in a tweet that López Obrador “is destroying Mexico”.
This is the second major project to be cancelled as a result of a popular vote, following the cancellation of the $13 billion new Mexico City International Airport project, construction of which had already begun during the previous administration. A plebiscite held in late 2018, instigated by López Obrador but before he took office in December of that year, returned a majority verdict in favour of the project’s cancellation.
