A Mexican judge has ordered the country’s electric-power authority to suspend work on the 900-megawatt La Parota dam planned near the Pacific coast resort of Acapulco, handing a legal victory to farming communities and environmental activists fighting the US$1 billion project. The September decision by federal Judge Jacinto Ramos Castillejos means construction of the controversial hydroelectric station will not begin under the administration of Mexican President Vicente Fox, who leaves office Dec. 1. Ramos Castillejos ruled that work must not proceed until complaints concerning land acquisitions made for the dam and 54-square-mile (14,000-ha) reservoir on the Papagayo River are resolved. In those complaints, project opponents accuse authorities of rigging assemblies in which property owners ostensibly agreed to sell land... [Log in to read more]