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Title: The Illusion of Progress Author: GS Anthony Date: 7/21 Language: en Topics: Mexico, Zapatistas, climate change, land
In late 2020, Mexican President Andrés Manuel Lopéz Obrador lashed out
against mining companies for their environmental practices. “We are
speaking with all the companies that previously came and thought that
Mexico was a conquered land, and what they couldn’t do in their country
they could do here, that they could use the country as a garbage dump
and everything would be resolved with bribes, with the authorities at
the service of these companies,” he said, committing to reform mining
practices across the board. To his administrations credit, he has kept
his promise of not granting any new mining concessions, however, has
allowed all existing contracts to continue. These existing contracts
have done irreparable damage to the environment, intertwined with the
psyche of the Mexican people, leaving them to feel they are still a
conquered land, 500 years after gaining independence.
Mexico’s land is rich in silver. In fact, it’s the world’s largest
source of silver, and that’s not all. Copper, zinc, gold and other
minerals are also found in abundance. Mineral abundance is undoubtedly
the cornerstone of Mexico’s economy. In the last 15 years especially,
Mexico has generated fortunes for mining companies. It has been used as
the lynchpin in the world’s largest trade deals, the focal point of
political campaigns and, in the past, the spark to ignite insurrection.
And all of that pales in comparison to the cost mining has had on the
people.
The conquistadors toppled the Aztec empire in 1521, declaring the
territory New Spain. 25 years later, they discovered the first silver
mines in Zacatecas. Subsequent mines were discovered, and the mining
began. The people who belonged to the land were not free, but were
employed to strip their own land of its resources for a foreign invader.
By 1800, Spain became the world’s largest supplier of silver, providing
nearly 70% of all the world’s silver production.
Spain was content in their mining practices, hiring Indigenous people,
paying them nothing, and clearing 100% profit for their work.
Eventually, they got hungrier. In 1803 von von Humboldt visited Mexico,
on behalf of Spain. He reported back to Spain that the silver was in
more abundance than they dreamed, and better mining tactics would
produce unheard of production. Europe and North America were intrigued,
buying into the mining industry of Mexico through Spain. But the people
had other ideas. In 1811, Mexico revolted, leading to a decade of
struggle, resulting in independence from Spain by 1821.
The decade of bloody fighting saw the indigenous peoples abandon their
mines to fight the Spaniards, leaving severe work shortages and
decreased production. When the war was won, the economy was weak. The
adulation of a free Mexico was immediately cheapened when the new
Mexican government sold off mines to Britain and France beginning in
1822, just one year after winning sovereignty.
The next 100 plus years were full of political and economic instability.
The nation revolted again, 100 years after its last revolution against
the Diaz dictatorship, once again successful in banishing their would-be
conqueror. But the state of flux scared off mining companies, investors
and speculators. The country was all but abandoned, until neoliberalism
intervened. The reforms of the 1980’s, leading to the disastrous NAFTA
agreement put the people in an all but familiar place. Their land was
being ravaged by outside sources, with no one benefitting.
The Mexican revolution of 1910 was partially in response to the theft of
land. Wealthy plantation owners took land from the indigenous peoples of
Mexico, then selling them into wage slavery on their own stolen land.
This led to successful revolt and overthrow of the Diaz regime, and an
agrarian land reform program. Much of the land was returned or
protected. Land and water were made a right instead of a commodity,
giving the people a taste of freedom, 400 years after banishing Spain in
the original Mexican revolution. However, just a year after the
independence was gained from Diaz in 1921, the new Mexican government
sold their mines to Europe in 1922, throwing the country back into the
throws of colonization.
The revolutionary government attempted to keep a leash on the grabbing
hands of the rest of the world. Foreign corporations were being invited
to mine, as long as Mexican nationals owned a majority (51 percent) of
the company. By all historical account, these guidelines were never
followed. Less than 20% of the mining companies were owned by Mexican
nationals by 1940.
The economy of Mexico stabilized due to the outside forces, but the
stability was an illusion. Capitalism, as it inevitably does, failed,
leading to massive recession by the early 1980’s. National debt was seen
as insurmountable and the nation defaulted on payments. The IMF and
World Bank pressured Mexico to pay up, leading to the privatization of
land and water, reversing the revolution’s reforms, 70 years earlier.
Public land was sold off to (mostly) American corporations, opening the
door for mining at unheard of rates.
Then, came NAFTA. The North American Free Trade Agreement’s vicious
effects on the planet have been felt for decades and are no secret. The
effects on the Mexican spirit were catastrophic. All land was open to
mining, private ownership and little restriction. Even more alarming,
companies could ignore national law if the World Bank saw their
potential deals were connected to the debts of Mexico. Much of the
richest lands in the city came in the state of Chiapas.
Chiapas, named after the Chia plants, grown on the land, is home to the
Zapatista Army of National Liberation (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación
Nacional, EZLN). Originally a revolutionary group protecting
agricultural rights and Indigenous lands, the EZLN declared war on the
Mexican government on January 1st, 1994, the day NAFTA went into effect.
The Zapatistas marched on the Mexican government, gaining control of 7
towns in Chiapas. The Mexican government responded with fury and drove
the Zapatistas back into the forest, the land they settle on to this
day. That land happened to be rich in oil, oil untouched by the greedy
hands of imperialism.
The small victories gained by the Zapatistas were overshadowed by the
NAFTA’s pillaging of the land they hold dear. The “Free Market” stripped
Mexico of its resources, selling them to foreign invaders and only
allowing a select few to get rich off it. The Americas Mining
Corporation (Industries Peñoles and Fresnio PLC) generate a combined 270
billion pesos per year. The physical effects of mining came to a head in
2014, when over 40,000 cubic meters of copper sulphate poured into
public water sources in Sonora, Mexico. At least 7 communities and
25,000 people suffered serious health consequences, including death.
The world was now paying attention, for the first time in decades, to
the plight of the Mexican people. The spill was called “the worst
environmental disaster by the mining industry in modern times.” The
decades of mistreatment, stealing and selling of the people’s land and
sovereignty was finally felt across borders.
The world’s super powers were leeching off their lands and destroying
their economy, the Mexican people found themselves at a loss. For 71
years, the Institutional Revolution Party (Partido Revolucionario
Institucional, PRI) held the office of president, winning election after
election with candidate after candidate. The party was founded in 1929,
as a party for figures of the Mexican revolution to solve the crises
facing the unstable political climate. After retaining power for 71
years, the 2000 presidential election saw the rise of right-wing
populism.
Vicente Fox was the president of Coca Cola Mexico, spouting a right-wing
ideology along with his Harvard business degree. After serving as
governor of Guanajuato, Fox ran for president in 2000 on decreasing
government size and returning power to the people as a member of the
National Action Party (Partido AccĂon Natcional, PAN). Recessions across
the world assured a lack of economic growth during Fox’s presidency. He
was generally well-received, although a series of scandals and money
laundering allegations led to various drops in his approval rating.
Still, his PAN party mate, Felipe Calderon succeeded him, winning the
2006 presidential election.
Calderon was shameless in granting mining concessions on the sacred
lands of the Huichol people, again, causing an international outcry for
justice. The people had enough of right populism and turned back to the
PRI, electing Enrique Peña Nieto in 2012. Nieto, running as a moderate
member of the formerly revolutionary party, breathed life into the idea
of extractivism as reform.
Neito issued sweeping environmental reforms, raising taxes on mining
corporations with the promise of improving the lives of the communities
surrounding the process. Neito promised the lands would not be impacted
negatively, environmental protections would leave water and soil
untouched. Further, the communities themselves would have a say in the
process, deciding what, when and where mining would be allowed. The
largest area impacted was Chiapas.
Although the Northeast region occupied by the EZLN was rich in oil and
not generally hunted by mineral miners, the rest of Chiapas was rich in
silver, zinc, copper, titanium, iron and barite. The world thirsted for
the riches found in Chiapas and Nieto was happy to oblige. But even with
the promise of redistribution, the people were not convinced.
The idea of having your resources sucked dry and then the benefits sold
back to you in the form of incremental reform was a tough pill to
swallow for a people who struggled to be free for centuries. Whether it
was the Spanish, the North American nations, the Diaz dictatorship or
their own government, permissions was always needed to live in their own
world. Shortly after announcing his extractivism plan, Nieto approved 99
mining concessions, including 44 in the Chiapas region of Sonconusco.
Sonconusco was rich in titanium, which translates to cell phones,
laptops, cameras and airplanes. Only the people never approved. Within a
year of the mining operations commencement, the Chiapas government
evaluated the titanium mines, finding them to be catastrophically
damaging to the environment. The Mexican government ignored these
findings.
The rivers surrounding the titanium mine in Casas Viejas became
contaminated. The two main rivers provided a source for drinking water
in Chiapas, leading to illness, cancer and death amongst the people
forced to drink it. The people of Chiapas have formed The Popular Front
in Defense of Soconusco (El Frente Popular en Defensa del Soconusco,
FPDS) demanding that not only the titanium mines be closed, but the
entire country of Mexico cease mining. Nieto’s presidency ended with
almost unanimous public disapproval due to corruption. Andres Manuel
Lopez Obrador was elected in 2018, who, to his credit, pledged not to
grant any new mining concessions, but still allows current contracts to
be honored.
Despite the serious physical effects of poisoning the environment, the
social effects are felt daily. The people cannot be free as long as
their own land is being pillaged. Whether the profits are sold back to
them or not. The Mexican people fought and gained independence twice in
their history, in 1821 and 1920, yet their chains are reapplied with
every concession. The world’s obsession with Mexico’s minerals without
respect for their connection to the people has scarred a beautiful
country. The message is clear, we take what we want, because we deserve
the best. The people enjoying the titanium, silver, zinc and copper
mined at the expense of drinking water and sovereignty feel disconnected
from the process, happily consuming stolen goods from a world they don’t
see.
The disconnect is a choice, on our part. We can consume and choose not
to see. Much like the workers of the world are disconnected from the
fruits of their labor, the means of their production. The people of
countries being abused by the consumption don’t have a similar choice.
They are forcefully disconnected from their land, an umbilical cord cut
without warning. That disconnect translates to a feeling of being
conquered, no matter how many times the revolution succeeds. Hope is
scarce for a change in the situation, as years of suffering under
Nieto’s practices have translated to nothing more than public
statements. Corporations will not adhere to environmental guidelines, as
they are too costly, and there is no real threat of the Mexican
government, as good intentioned as it may be, of cutting off the
resources from the rest of the world.
That’s not to blame consumers. Your individual choices to purchase a
smart phone with mined titanium has little to no actual impact on the
practices of the corporations who profit. The larger picture is the
process of isolating the people from their surroundings. Parameters are
being set around world, most of them imagined, created, even digital.
It’s in thinking beyond the abstract back into the substance that we can
truly fight back against the strategies of atomization, bringing freedom
back in the true meaning of the word.