Billion-dollar investment in Mexico rejected by referendum

Residents in the border city of Mexicali voted against the completion of a $1.4 billion brewery owned by Constellation Brands on grounds that its intensive water consumption was detrimental for the community, a move that risks undermining foreign investment in Mexico as the country faces a deep economic contraction.

The administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador organized the public consultation. Farmers had complained that Constellation’s water-intensive plant threatened to intensify irrigation shortages in agriculture, the Wall Street Journal reports.