I-69 News

More good news from Austin - action against Cintra!

• Posted by i69news on March 16th, 2007 filed in Resistance

On February 26, 20 people shut down the Cintra-Zachry office in Austin, TX with a
festive occupation. Cintra-Zachry is responsible for building long stretches of the
TTC and Cintra is involved in I-69 construction in Indiana.* (summary)

(We also found some photos at Austin Indymedia)

Following this year’s Earth First! Winter Organizers Conference, affinity groups
planned a direct action targeting the corporation Cintra-Zachry. Cintra is involved
in roadbuilding and privatization plots around the world, especially in Texas,
Indiana, and Mesoamerica, encompassing the infamous I-69 free trade corridor.

In order to confront the road-builders and corporations which profit from
“development”, activists festively took over the Cintra-Zachry office in Austin with
noise-makers, instruments, banners, and chants to disrupt the planning process and
express dissent. Confusion reigned as Earth First!ers played trumpets, performed a
kiss-in, banged on drums and shouted in opposition to destructive superhighway
projects. There were no arrests. Similar office demonstrations have erupted along
the proposed route of Interstate 69.

Cintra-Zachry owns several pieces of the Trans-Texas Corridor, a highly contested
road building project which hopes to facilitate the easy transport of goods from
Mexico and Central America for trade on American markets. Its parent company,
Cintra, also has its hands in similar free-trade enabling infrastructure projects
across the globe, including the proposed “NAFTA Superhighway” Interstate 69, planned to stretch from the Canadian border in Port Huron, MI and to connect to the TransTexas Corridor and other highways linking to the vast development project in Mesoamerica called Plan Puebla Panama.

The TTC, I-69 and the PPP are all under harsh criticism for the ecological devastation and displacement of communities which they will cause. Additionally, the massive construction of these infrastructure networks (which includes power plants, factories, sweat shops, hydro-electric dams, dry canals, ports and airports in Mesoamerica) will only tighten the grip of neoliberal capitalism on a region already facing widespread exploitation.

More action is needed across the route and throughout the hemisphere if we are to
stop these highways! With these actions we can both defend our homes and bioregions and act in solidarity with struggles against the PPP in Mesoamerica.