While the machinery is used in the town for government works, the ejido lands are left without being able to work.
Héctor Ruiz Mejía (Jocotepec).- The owners of communal or rural “ejido” land have complained that the City Council has hoarded the heavy machinery granted to the municipality of Jocotepec by the State of Jalisco to promote rural development. The protesters, who preferred to remain anonymous, said that the program formerly known as «SAGARPA Modules» and now renamed «A Toda Máquina» or “Full Speed Ahead” has been utilized mainly for governmental public works projects within the town, but not in the communal lands.
Although an agreement had been previously signed between the ejido landowners and the Municipality to be able to make use of the heavy equipment when it is not in use by the city, the farmers have not been able to utilize it.
«They told us that the equipment has been in use since March, that they cannot lend it to us until July, but in July the rains are coming and we will not be able to work in anything but pure mud,» added one of the ejidatarios. They added that the machinery is incomplete and that, despite the fact that the program is «free,» they have always been charged for diesel fuel.
This newspaper contacted Francisco Salazar Hernández, director of Rural Development, to confirm the report; the official was unavailable to answer.
In 2019 the municipal president of Jocotepec, José Miguel Gómez López, received from the State Government a motor-driven compactor, backhoe, vibro-compactor, excavator and dump truck by the A Toda Máquina program. The Government of Jalisco invested more than 3.6 million pesos (about US$172,000) to deliver about 641 pieces of heavy equipment machinery to 121 municipalities in the state
Because this program was created with the intention of promoting rural development, the rural ejido landowners have demanded access to the machinery.
Translated by MaryAnne Marble
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