Greenpeace takes Mexican Government to court over returned shipment of contaminated corn

Due to the complicity of the Mexican government, the ship "Ikan Altamira" returned to the port of Veracruz, Mexico. Escorted by the military this afternoon, it began unloading its 40,000 tonnes of GE contaminated corn, even though this violates the Biosafety Protocol, an international agreement signed by the Mexican government.

The return of the Ikan Altamira is a very bad sign. It is clear that the Mexican authorities are not only refusing to apply international law, but worse still, they are openly protecting multinational corporations such as Monsanto that are contaminating Mexican corn.

In response, Greenpeace Mexico is filing a legal case against six high-ranking government officials for violating Article 420 of the Criminal Federal Act and the Presidential decree to create the Commission on Biosafety and GMOs (CIBIOGEM) and its Rules of Operation, in relation to the enforcement of provisions of key international treaties. Included in these is the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety that Mexico has ratified and which came into force on September 11.