ABSTRACT
This chapter describes resettlement planning for a large, internationally funded energy project in Mexico. The hostile, unfamiliar environment led many of the resettled Mazatec and Chinantec Indians to abandon the resettlement sites and take their chances squatting around the reservoirs that had inundated their lands. Resettlement planning in Caracol went well beyond the legal stipulations of Mexico’s land expropriation laws. Federal de Electricidad (CFE)’s engineers and architects installed modern, concrete houses, paved the town’s roads, built schools and clinics, and provided Nuevo Balsas with electricity, running water, and a modern sewerage system. The chief engineer can thus coordinate disparate activities, allocate resources to resettlement as necessary, and provide on-site senior CFE management support for dealing with other government and private agencies. One clause of the agreement reached between CFE and the World Bank stipulated that compensation for fixed assets would be made at their replacement costs.
