"I was there with him in the front seat of the truck when they killed him with a single shot to the head," Eugenia said. "We were coming back from a demonstration against the building of the dam, and our neighbor Cirilo Cruz, whom everyone knew was a supporter of the dam, just shot him." Eugenia’s two school-age children stood by her feet, seemingly unaware of the meaning and weight of her words.
Dubbed "La Parota" after a tall leafy tree native to the banks of the Papagayo River, the dam she spoke about is being aggressively pursued by Mexico's Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE). It would displace as many as twenty-five thousand people.
[...]
It is widely believed that the people supporting the dam are being paid off by the CFE. Cirilo Cruz Elacio, the man now in prison for having killed Tomás Cruz Zamora, is believed to be one of the first to have been paid between $100 and $300 to lend his support for the dam. The CFE is also accused of holding rushed and illegal assembly meetings to generate votes in favor of the dam, and of using excessive police force to prevent villagers from demonstrating against it.
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