As most of you have gathered, I love the music and people, life and color, and food and ferias, not to mention the year-round sun and warm weather of Oaxaca. However, as I’ve mentioned before, there is much going on beneath the surface and it isn’t pretty. So, even though it’s the middle of Guelaguetza (or, maybe because the spotlight is on the music, dance, and costumes of Oaxaca’s indigenous communities), I feel compelled to share today’s article by one of my favorite labor photographers and journalists, David Bacon.
Canadian Mining Goliaths Devastate Mexican Indigenous Communities and Environment
Wednesday, 25 July 2012 00:00 By David Bacon, Truthout | Report Email
An assembly last fall in Oaxaca of the Binational Front of Indigenous Organizations that called for a sustainable development policy that would support farmers as opposed to mega development projects. (Photo: David Bacon)
Oaxaca, Mexico – For over two decades in many parts of Mexico, large corporations – mostly foreign owned but usually with wealthy Mexican partners – have developed huge projects in rural areas. Called mega-projects, the mines and resource extraction efforts take advantage of economic reforms and trade treaties like the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Emphasizing foreign investment, even at the cost of environmental destruction and the displacement of people, has been the development policy of Mexican administrations since the 1970s. When the National Action Party (PAN) defeated the old governing Party of the Institutionalized Revolution (PRI) in 2000, this economic development model did not change. In fact, the PAN simply took over the administration of this development policy and even accelerated it, while in the Mexican Chamber of Deputies the two parties cooperated to advance its goals.
But while these projects enjoy official patronage at the top, they almost invariably incite local opposition over threatened or actual environmental disaster. Environmental destruction, along with accompanying economic changes, cause the displacement of people. Families in communities affected by the impacts are uprooted and often begin to migrate. Nevertheless, the projects enjoy official support and are defended against rising protests from poor farmers and townspeople by the federal government. [Please read the full article HERE]
Mexican Peso Converter
View From Casita Colibrí 