Remembering Ayotzinapa

 

Just before 6 p.m. on September 26 a year ago, about a hundred first-year students of a rural college in Aytozinapa in the state of Guerrero, Mexico, set off on two coaches for nearby towns. Their mission was to commandeer buses to take them to Mexico City for the commemoration of the October 2, 1968, student massacre days before the Olympics games.

They did not know they were being tracked from the moment they left their campus or that they had been infiltrated by an active duty soldier. Neither were they aware that for many of them it would be the last day of their lives. Three of them would be killed that night and 43 others would disappear into the darkness.

The Ayotzinapa “normal rural” (rural teacher training college), part of a dwindling chain set up almost a century ago in the heat of the Mexican revolution, caters to young men from impoverished families in a territory criss-crossed by rival drug gangs. Nearby is the glittering tourist resort of Acapulco, famed for its cliff divers and hedonistic nightlife.

The rurales have never gone down well with the clergy and the government for their insistence on social justice and political activism. The one in Ayotzinapa is more troublesome than most and counts among its former students Lucio Cabañas, who led armed guerrillas in the mountains of Guerrero state and was killed by the army in 1974.

The students reached the centre of Iguala town a little after 9 p.m. on the hijacked buses when hooded armed men trapped their convoy in expert crossfire. Some scattered into the neighbouring streets and hid themselves on rooftops or behind bushes but 43 of them were picked up and loaded on to pickup vans, never to be seen again.

Another group of Ayotzinapa students reached Iguala around 11 p.m. to rescue their comrades. They called the local press to the site of the attack, where they were fired upon while speaking to the journalists. Two of them were left to bleed to death. The body of a third student was found in the morning with his eyes gouged out and without his facial skin. Another bus carrying the local football team was also mistakenly attacked that night with three more deaths.

The next morning, the ambitious local mayor, who had amassed an inexplicably large fortune, denied any knowledge of the night’s events, saying he was dancing at that time. His wife is from a notorious drug family and she wanted to replace him as the town’s mayor while he aimed for the state governor’s post.

The federal authorities at first blamed the students and tried to pass it off as one more crime in one of the country’s most violent states. With growing popular indignation and an international media scrum after locals began finding mass graves around Iguala in the search for the disappeared, the Mexican government scrambled for a more credible explanation.

The new official version was that the students had come to town to disrupt a function organised by the mayor’s wife. The mayor asked the local municipal police to do something. They then arrested the trainee teachers, took them to the police station and handed them over to the dreaded Guerreros Unidos (Guerreros United) drug gang, which executed them and burned their bodies to dispose off the evidence. At one time, it was suggested that wild animals might have eaten up the remains.

Twenty-two local policemen were arrested and the mayor and his wife, who had gone into hiding, were picked up in Mexico City as intellectual authors of the crime. Soon afterwards, four men admitted to the killings. The federal police and the army had played no part in the events, the government claimed.

Every single of these assertions has been proven to be demonstrably false. An investigation by the Mexican magazine Proceso, together with the University of California, Berkeley’s Investigative Reporting Program, revealed that the students had reached Iguala at least two hours after the mayor’s wife ended her programme. They were unarmed and in grainy videos on their mobile phones they kept asking the policemen why they were being shot at. They identified federal policemen among their attackers. The local police did not possess the weapons with which the students were fired upon.

A magistrate present at the police station that night, who has since fled to the United States fearing for his life, said the students were not brought there. The only ones in the cells were some drunks who were let off after paying a fine. Some of the policemen who admitted to having turned over the students had torture marks on them. The four killers turned out to be poor builders, again tortured to confess to the crime.

One of the disappeared students somehow sent a text message to his mother some time after midnight asking her to put some money into his account. The students were either held or driven somewhere for at least four hours before the decision was taken to eliminate them.

The army was aware from the start of the goings-on. There is a military base not far from where the students were killed. A local army officer came to the police station that night on the pretext of locating a stolen motorcycle and had a good look around. Soldiers questioned and photographed some of the injured students who had made their way to the local hospital and threatened to disappear them. The army formed part of the local C4 (Control, command, communication and computation) centre where the municipal, state, federal police and the military share intelligence and CCTV footage. The government and the army are not allowing the soldiers to speak to independent inquiry teams.

Argentinean forensic anthropologists brought in by the parents of the students and specialist investigators of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) say there was nomass incineration at a garbage dump in a wooded area as the government had claimed. More than 30,000 kg of wood or 13,300 tyres would have to be lit for 60 hours to dispose of the bodies. The plume of smoke would have risen to at least 300 metres, making it clearly visible from the nearby towns, and the flames would have been enough to set off a forest fire.

Almost no one other than the parents believes the students are alive. Five buses were involved in that night’s events but the official inquiry speaks of four coaches. The emerging unofficial consensus is that the fifth bus either had a large stash of money or drugs on board for which the students were killed. Locals fear that the bodies were incinerated at a crematorium that the local army base is rumoured to have.

No one knows for sure how high on the order came from, but the negligence of the official inquiry lends credence to the belief that the state either participated directly in the killings, or is protecting those who carried it out. It took President Peña Nieto ten days to order an inquiry. At his first meeting with the Ayotzinapa parents, he made sure he looked suitably contrite but has done little more since then. Ahead of the second meeting on September 24, a second “killer” has surfaced and the remains of a second student identified. The only certainty this adds is that the government knows far more than what it is letting out.

The parents of the Ayotzinapa students have kept up a dogged campaign for a year with the battle cry: “They took them alive, we want them back alive”. Their movement has radicalised Mexico but that does not mean the state will give in easily. At the meeting with the parents on September 24, President Peña Nieto promised a second inquiry. Mexicans will be sceptical of his intentions, believing so far that his administration has been prevaricating and stalling on the issue.

The students were on their way to the capital to remember the hundreds of victims of the 1968 massacre ordered by the then President and carried out by the police and the army. The Mexican state covered up that slaughter and will hope to do the same with this one. After all, thousands of civilians have disappeared on Peña Nieto’s watch without any significant threat to his rule.

Davos: Delusions At Not-So-Magic Mountain

By Alejandro Nadal

In 1924, Thomas Mann published his novel, The Magic Mountain, a powerful reflection on the European bourgeoisie, illness, sexuality and the destructive tendencies of “civilisation”. The place where events unfold is Davos, at that time dominated by Waldsanatorium, specialised in treating tuberculosis. Today that tiny alpine city is seat of the World Economic Forum and the irony is immediate: the world economy is very sick but it is not clear that it is going to find its cure at Davos.

Despite the fact that the economic indicators are going downhill faster than experienced skiers on the slopes of Davos, participants at the WEF will look to mend things and relaunch an ideological offensive. The theme of the meeting is humongous: “Shaping the world for after the crisis”. And the agenda includes items such as redefining institutions and systems. It is not a bad thing: after all, the financial and banking systems of the USA and the U.K. are on the point of nationalisation.

Davos has always been presented as the most important meeting on the planet attended by the most influential people. And each year we have to put up with an avalanche of propaganda while the world inexorably advances towards a financial, economic and environmental crisis. The fact is that the rich and the famous slept at the helm and now want to convince us that they can “shape the world” for after the crisis.

At Davos it was always said that globalisation was the panacea, the natural road, there was no alternative to neoliberalism and we were in the time of the sole doctrine. The crises did not worry them (Mexico or Brazil, Thailand or Russia). Nor the bad news on the environmental front: the emission of greenhouse gases, deforestation, soil erosion, over-exploitation of aquifers or the massive extinction of species. The message that always left Davos was a variant of Dr Pangloss’ vision: yes, things are not perfect, but it would have been worse without our vision of globalisation.

Now that the worst crisis of the capitalist world has exploded in their face, the fantastic idea has occurred to those habituated to Davos: find the form of world economy that most suits capital. After all, the reasoning is that the world will remain with the powerful and their work in Davos consists in defining the contours of the new social pacts which will permit another long cycle of accumulation of capital.

The organisers of the Forum have proudly stated that this year the majority of the participants will be politicians (including Putin and Hu Jintan, which says something about the redistribution of power). The financiers are too busy saving their retirement bonuses and will not be able to attend. Perhaps they will not be missed. The objective at Davos is to delineate new capitalist regulation systems, perhaps with a Keynesian and social democratic tint, to drive the ideology of globalisaton. The Duke of Lampedusa would have been proud: that everything changes so that it can keep being the same.

It does not matter that the crisis has hardly begun: Davos is preparing its funeral ceremony. Is this premature? The readers will judge.

In the USA, the monetary policy is not working. Despite the zero interest level and quantitative easing (so-called unconventional measures), credit is not flowing. On the other hand, the Obama administration is negotiating a $825-billion package and the Republicans are haggling for their vote. But it is not even clear if that sum will be enough to revive the economy.

The European Union and Japan are in recession. China has acknowledged a strong reduction in its growth rate. The International Monetary Forum, in other times so optimistic, thinks that the whole world will have close to zero growth in 2009. The participants at the Davos form should not venture out alone to the ski slopes so as not to be buried under an avalanche of bad economic news.

In The Magic Mountain, the young Hans Castorp takes a small train to go up to Davos to visit his cousin hospitalised at Berghof sanatorium. Costorp is not ill but his short visit turns into a seven-year stay in which he comes to know many characters. One of them is the radical Naphta, who during an argument ends up crying out: what our age needs is terror. If the crisis culminates in wars, the warning of that character will have to be borne in mind. After all, that prophecy became reality in the middle of the twentieth century. If only the future is not as dark after this crisis.

The participants at the Davos forum, the rich and the famous, are not going to be cured of anything, much less their arrogance. But they can live with the illusions of the magic mountain. After all, they have the best crisis that money could have bought them.

Source: La Jornada

[Alejandro Nadal is professor of economics at El Colegio de México, Mexico City, coordinating the science, technology and development programme and has campaigned against GM crops as well as serving on international people’s tribunals.]

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Mexican State Is Terror Source, Says Zapatista Leader Sub-Comandante Marcos

The Mexican state itself is organised crime and the war against drug trafficking is a bloody failure, the Zapatista leader Sub-comandante Marcos told a gathering of Rabia Digna (Dignity in Rage) at San Cristobal, Mexico, on January 2.

“In our sad Mexico, (President) Felipe Calderón Hinojosa and the communication media that accompany him, each time fewer, are those who have taken the top spot in the use and abuse of the hackneyed term ‘violence’…

“Mr Calderón, a fan of strategic games in real time, decided to give the people violence in place of bread and circus… now that professional politicians already give them the circus and bread is very expensive…

“Calderón decided to support one band of drug traffickers in making war against another and, violating the Constitution, brought out the army to do the work of the police, the Public Ministry, court and executioner. Everyone other than his government knows that this war is being lost… that the death of his beloved (Interior Minister who died in a plane crash) was an assassination though no one prints it.”

He accused the “leftist” government of Mexico City of killing young people, “mostly adolescents”, before the silence of “ a section of progressive intellectuals”.

Participating in the gathering were 228 collectives and organisation of 22 states and 57 groups from 25 countries. Another Zapatista, Commander Moses, said the meeting was for the purpose of knowing the different forms of rage against neo-liberal capitalism. Ninety musical, dance, theatre and puppet theatre groups were present as were story-tellers and poets.

Hugo Blanco, legendary Peruvian peasant leader, said the all the people who had sprung up from the depths of Abya Yala (the profound Americas) were uniting not only for a just life but to save the human race.

He accused (Opposition leader) Andrés Lopez Obrador, “threatening to save Mexico”, of being intolerant, sectarian and hysterical and that the hysteria has “frankly become schizophrenic”. They think they are the only ones doing something for the country. If this was how they were without being in power, imagine what would they be like if they had taken the chair, he said.

The Mexico City government (led by Obrador’s party) was trying to take control of the capital’s dignified and angry youth and of neutralising movements that went against their interests, he said.

Marcos was not entirely swept away by pessimism. He commended the student movement that had defended the free and public university system in Mexico, the Bolivian peasant struggles, the Sandinistas and the 50 years of the Cuban revolution.

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Lucía Morett Returns To An Uncertain Future In Mexico

Lucía Morett, one of the only three to survive Colombia’s air and ground attack on a FARC guerrilla camp in Ecuadorian territory, returned to Mexico on December 3 amid fears the authorities will prosecute her at the behest of Right-wing Mexican groups. Morett was injured in the March 1 attack that killed Raúl Reyes, FARC’s deputy leader, and at least 21 others, among them five Mexican student researchers.

Lucía remains defiant, saying she will “quintuple” her efforts, one for each of her fallen compatriots, to ensure that the victims of the Colombian raid get justice and that the Colombian President and his officials are tried for the war crime. She says Álvaro Uribe has put a reward on her head, as she is a key witness not just to the air attacks but also to the cold-blooded executions of survivors by the Colombian military.

Having arrived at the camp the night before the attack and hoping to interview Reyes, she was awoken by the sound of the bombings that killed a young woman sleeping next to her under an awning in the jungle. Injured and too petrified to crawl away, she had to endure the second wave of bombings a little later, the sight of the trees burning, injured prisoners being shot dead in the back, the arrival of Colombian soldiers guns blazing and, after they had left, the heap of corpses rotting around her, ants crawling over her attracted by the blood and vultures circling over them the next morning.

The Colombian raiders who found her alive threatened to take her back with them. They interrogated her even as she lay injured and offered her the least possible medical assistance. Her interrogation was videoed, a tape that would later be given to the Mexican Right-wing groups to prove her “guilt” and that, as the Colombian Defence Minister, Juan Manuel Santos, would later say, she was “no little angel”.

When Ecuadorian troops arrived after the Colombians had left with Reyes’ trophy cadaver, they tended to her and a young soldier stayed by her side talking of family, sports and anything else that would distract her from the terrible pain. The journey back from the forest to an Ecuadorian military hospital was long and painful and, as it turned out, not the end of her nightmare.

Even as she was being treated for the shrapnel wounds at an Ecuadorian military hospital, she found herself in a room with blinds drawn and two hostile interviewers. They were asking her the same questions as the Colombian troops – whether she was linked to FARC and if she was a guerrilla – and threatening to send her back to Colombia. They taped the interview and at point stripped her down to her underwear.

These two Ecuadorians are now the subject of judicial proceedings for their “cruel and inhuman” interrogation. It also bears out what Ecuador’s President, Rafael Correa, has said all along: that the Ecuadorian military top brass knew of the planned attack, kept it secret from him, and connived in it.

Ecuador was too close to Bogotá for Lucía’s comfort. The legendary Sandinista leader, Tomás Borges, now his country’s ambassador in Quito, arranged with President Daniel Ortega to take Lucía to safety in Nicaragua. She stayed in Managua for about eight months with Ortega’s son, Rafael, entrusted with her security. In all this time, Mexico did not condemn Colombia for killing its citizens and the country’s top prosecutor was not very keen on meeting her parents to assure them that their daughter would not be prosecuted if she returned home.

But why should the obvious victim of a murderous, illegal, cross-border raid have to fear prosecution, and for what crime? Even as reports filtered into Mexico of her survival, the Right-wing print and television media started putting out reports that she was part of a Mexican FARC cell rather than a researcher. In this, they were helped by briefings from the Colombian embassy in Mexico City and Colombian intelligence in Bogotá.

Neither did Mexico react to the fact that the Colombian embassy was engaged in spying on supposed FARC sympathisers in that country. Reyes’ purported laptop seized in the attack was used to incriminate a host of Left-wing Mexican politicians and academics, “proof” which was gleefully picked up President Caldron’s supporters to try and ensnare Lucía and to paint the philosophy department at UNAM, Mexico’s autonomous university, as a hotbed of Left-wing extremism. Now the Colombian police have told court that there were no records of emails in the laptop after all, just addresses conveniently stored in documents waiting to be discovered.

Mexican prosecutors say there is no formal complaint against Lucía but, significantly, they have refused to rule out prosecutions against her in future. The Mexican justice system is a vengeful beast and Lucía runs an equal risk that Colombia might kidnap her to Bogotá or eliminate her through its network of agents there and with the Mexican authorities looking the other way.

Lucía has vowed to fight on but the threat of an “accident” is something she will have to live with from now on, the price of staying alive and for daring to cross Uribe.

Related article: Mexico student survivor is Colombia’s latest public enemy

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Mexico's Accidental Incompetent President

Felipe Calderón’s every step has been marked by his accidental coming to power in December 2006. From the start his rule was questioned by large parts of the population, especially those who voted for Manuel López Obrador who obtained 35.15% of the votes against the 35.71% of the election winner.

He sought out plans and actions that would lend him legitimacy. Calderón was the first President to enter and leave through the back door of Parliament for taking office. From then on, has sought the banner of social justice from his rival. For this, he has put into practice populist policies: helping the poor, pension for the over 70s and help for single mothers.

At the same time, he has literally obeyed the demands of big businesses to promote structural reforms that these sectors demand: reform of the pension system and of the petroleum sector, looking at privatising refining, something that is expressly forbidden by the Mexican Constitution.

In the economic field, Calderón has served the richest and, at the same time, has carried through an important part of social policies proposed by his rival. That, however, has served not to reduce poverty and marginalisation but to increase it.

In the field of security and what is called the “war against drug trafficking”, an important section of the population at first viewed the military actions positively. Little by little, the perception has been more critical not only for the impressive rise in the number of deaths – from the start of this years 9.2 Mexicans have died daily from organised crime – but also for the constant violations of human rights by the military.

Recently Amnesty International referred to impunity and lack of commitment and leadership in the matter of human rights on Calderón’s part. Confrontations between security forces and the drug traffickers have not reduced criminal activities. It seems he has only blindly struck out at a beehive and does not know what to do now that the bees are swarming about and stinging.

Despite the fact that this policy had the endorsement of White House, relations with the North American administration are not smooth. This was shown with what happened with Plan Mérida (a type of Plan Colombia). The conservative sectors of society welcomed the decision to draw up a plan among Canada, USA, Mexico and Central America. Nevertheless, the U.S. Congress has attached a series of rules about human rights and corruption that make it unviable.

In the field of education, Calderón decided to leave it in control of the worst trade union bureaucrat, Elba Esther Gordillo, renowned for her fortune amassed in an inexplicable manner.

It appears that Calderón’s only achievement is being seated at a negotiating table with the Popular Revolutionary Army which is demanding proof that two of its disappeared members are alive. At least, while these talks last, the guerrilla organisation has promised not to take military actions.

Regarding the other rebel organisation, it appears that Calderón’s government has decided to needle the Zapatista community that would provoke a military response from the Zapatista National Liberation Army. Some days ago, the security forces entered a settlement which, till some time ago, had been presented as a meeting place for the Zapatista command.

It is not clear what Calderón would look for in such an action. On the other hand, the economic situation of the country is problematic. The food crisis has led to another increase in the price of tortilla, fundamental to the diet of the Mexicans. Moreover, if there are surplus dollars from the rising prices of petroleum, remittances that Mexicans send from the USA are falling.

Calderón has benefited from the errors of the institutional Left which does the same that it criticises. Four months after the primaries to elect the leader of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), it is still not known who the winner is. The extent of cheating and fraud makes it impossible that there will be a solution with a degree of legitimacy. In middle of all this, the PRI (Revolutionary Institutional Party that ruled Mexico for a long time) is rubbing its hands for the 2009 elections. Few in Mexico doubt that the PRI will regain control of both the legislative chambers.

Source: El Público

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I Will Risk My Life For Truth: Lydia Cacho

Lydia Cacho is a Mexican journalist, human rights activist and feminist who exposed child sex trade in her country involving very rich businessmen helped by very powerful politicians in her book, Demons of Eden. For this, she was imprisoned, threatened with rape and, when she moved the Supreme Court, against those who harassed her, the court ruled her persecutors had no case to answer. This is her speech after being awarded Unesco's Guillermo Cano Freedom of Speech 2008 award.

Mr President, Mr Director general of Unesco, Ministers, Ladies, Gentleman and fellow colleagues:

I feel honored to be with you tonight. This award may not protect me from death threats or from death itself. But it certainly helps to protect my written work and to enable a broader audience to know and understand the Mexican reality and the impact of the global crimes of trafficking in persons and of child pornography.

By honoring me tonight you are recognizing the talent of my teachers, of the hundreds of women, men and children who have trusted me with their personal histories, their tragedies and their triumphs. Somehow they knew I would honor their trust by doing my job as a journalist.

When I was tortured and imprisoned for publishing the story of a network of organized crime in child pornography and sex tourism, I was confronted with the enduring question of the meaning of life. Should I keep going? Should I continue to practice journalism in a country controlled by 300 powerful rich men? Was there any point to demanding justice or freedom in a country where 9 out of every 10 crimes are never solved? Was it worth risking my life for my principles? Of course the answer was… yes.

Mexico, my homeland, is a country of 104 million people, a land of great landscapes, of magnificent rivers and unending green fertile mountains. Nonetheless Mexico exports 400 thousand people every year, men and women who flee to the United States, to escape hunger, poverty and violence.

I grew up in a middle class neighborhood in Mexico City. My mother, a feminist psychologist, took me to the slums around town and told me that those kids—kids who were just like me—had no food and no chance to get an education. In this way she prepared me to be a citizen and what is now called a human rights activist. I was born a woman. I found in feminism a philosophy based on equality and peace. It led me to view life from a gender perspective.

For years I have lived and moved between two worlds: being a feminist advocate against violence is the way I act as a citizen; being a journalist is the way I practice my profession. Every day I try to enlarge my ability to listen, to understand, to feel empathy, to question, to be truthful, to be ethical. By listening to peoples’ stories I learn ways to add insight and perspective to my coverage of human tragedy and human development. And also I test - as many of my colleagues do - my ability to stay alive.

I am 45 years old, and I have spent most of my life trying to understand human nature. What makes us able to survive, to change, to evolve, to save or to harm each other? I’ve been watching the news and reading newspapers most of my life. I thought I understood the macro structures of oppression. I knew how the political system works to protect the rights of the elites, at the expense of the majority.

But I was not aware what it felt like to be the subject of repression myself. When the mechanisms of state repression were used against me, I found myself in the strange position of being seen as a heroine simply for exercising –with some dignity– my right to freedom and justice. Thousands of people marched on my behalf. Most of the Mexican media covered my case for almost two years, until the powerful were finally able to buy the silence of some of them.

Millions of citizens echoed my demand for freedom of the press and for the rights of the child victims I wrote about. I stood before the Supreme Court with a heart full of hope that they would defend our constitutional right to tell the truth without being tortured or incarcerated. Many thought there was so much hard evidence in this case that there would be no room for corruption.

It seemed all of Mexico was hoping for a chance to believe that change was possible. Standing against us was a handful of well-dressed lawyers in dark blue suits who defended the politicians I had accused of an unsavory relationship with pedophiles. But this handful of men was able to lobby the majority of Supreme Court judges to dismiss my freedom of the press case relating to child pornography and organized crime.

And so I lost and so did my country. But here I am. I was lucky enough to elude death. I had the opportunity to report my own case, to live inside the story of an orchestrated campaign to protect the marriage between organized crime, businessmen and a corrupted government. But most of all I had the chance to keep my promises to the little girls who were abused by pedophiles and child pornographers, and who asked me to tell their stories.

We journalists tend to believe that the shock provoked by reading such stories cannot fail to unite people of good will. That is one of the reasons we keep going against all odds. We know the power of compassion. As journalists we should never become messengers of the powers that be. Nor should we surrender to fear and self censorship. And that is why we are here in Mozambique. We know there is something wrong with a world that favors a war economy instead of education, that favors silence instead of freedom and truth.

A world in wich millions of children orphans of the HIV-AIDS pandemic are unimportant to the rest of the world. There is something wrong in a world where racism and sexism separates us from each other.

This gathering symbolizes our determination to keep on going…with cool heads and warm hearts…and to keep on writing. To keep on living with hope.

— Lydia Cacho Ribeiro
Maputo, Mozambique. May 3rd 2008

The original article appeared at: lydiacacho.net
Related article: Mexican author's no to exile

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I'm Not Going To Choose Exile, Mexican Author Lydia Cacho Tells Her Tormentors

This is an extract of a response by Lydia Cacho, Mexican author, feminist social activist and campaigner who exposed widespread paedophilia in Mexico, in response to recent offers of exile by Louise Arbour, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, and by French and Spanish officials.

To leave Mexico or to remain? I have received hundreds of letters, some asking me to go away and others saying that I remain, that I do not back out, that I am not alone.

Families of parents or children who were kidnapped, some of them killed, some survivors of criminal ambition, write to me. Women and men in distress searching for their children snatched by “child robbers” in some park or corner of Mexico. Indignant housewives and businessmen who confess they do not have my courage but are in solidarity write to me. Fourteen-year-old children write to me who do not understand, nor wish to understand, man’s cruelty.

Families, lawyers, friends of hundreds of victims of pederasts all over the country write to me – of a boy violated in a school of the Legion of Christ (a Catholic order founded and headed by Marcial Maciel who has recently died and who was accused of widespread child sex abuse), a girl raped by her grandfather, three children abused by a politician. Friends of a lost childhood write to me; strangers from Barcelona, Madrid, Berlin, Italy, Portugal, Dublin; compatriots from Tijuana, Torreón, Nuevo León. Letters rain from nuns who save children. I read the letters of my nephew, Santiago, who discovered at 12 there is a Supreme Court in his country and is angry that the judges cannot see what “a Mexican child certainly understands: that a governor helped to protect some pederasts and tortured Lydia Cacho for this”.

I receive a letter from my friend, Itzel, who tells me she does not have my courage. And here the response: that to be brave, it is necessary to know fear and that the world would be much better is there were fewer brave and more happy and peaceful people.

I am not going away, I am not going anywhere other than forward, to shed light on everything. Because we lost in the court but gained in vindicating good journalism, our right to know the truth, to reclaim honesty, solidarity and the culture applied to our human rights.

I do not remain in Mexico to be brave, I stay for dignity. I, Lydia Cacho, will not give my liberty, neither my right to be near my loves and friends, to the political-business-criminal mafias. I will not give them another nightmare, nor give them my fury, only my inner peace. I will not give them the power to frighten me; only be aware of mean-spirited men and women.

Every year, 400,000 people flee Mexico, expelled by poverty, violence and corruption. We cannot keep adding to the Mexican exile. I respect those who wish to leave and change their life. Quitting the country is a brave act. There are millions of us dreaming of a different country. That is why I know, as you write to me, that I am not alone. To paraphrase the wonderful poet and affectionate friend, Eliseo Alberto, “If a moment is enough for dying, why is it not going to be enough for change?”

Those, the corrupt, the evil, are in reality very few. We men and women, on the other hand, keep being the majority, and so I do not lose the hope that Mexico can change.

[Cacho’s book, The Demons of Eden: The power behind child pornography, exposed a paedophile ring in her country involving millionaire businessmen protected by a powerful state governor. For her efforts she was arrested, harassed and sought to be raped in prison with the connivance of officials. Freed after an outcry following the exposé of a telephone conversation in which the businessman and the governor plotted to harm Lydia, she challenged her detention but the Mexican Supreme Court by a 6-4 verdict said the two men had no case to answer. Lydia has founded and directs a centre in Cancun for victims of sex crimes, domestic violence and trafficking.]

Source: http://www.lydiacacho.net/16-02-2008/respuestas-de-lydia-cacho-asilo-politico/

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Zapatistas: The Drums of War Sound Louder

Peace With Democary, a Mexican group made up of Catholic Bishops, poets, intellectuals and human rights activists, have released a statement on the worsening situation in the Zapatista-controlled territories of Mexico.

“The drums of war against the Zapatista communities are being heard once more. Not that it is something that has stopped sounding since 1994, particularly from that Thursday, the 9th of February in 1995, which framed the military strategy and that today has expanded to other movements and regions. But in the last weeks is being heard much more strongly what was evident months before, showing the new feature of counter-insurgency in the Chiapas.

“The paramilitaries move with impunity, harassing the indigenous rebels. Agrarian ‘justice’ hands over to farmers’ groups land that is being occupied by the Zapatistas since 1994. The worst of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI, which ruled Mexico for 71 years) and locally powerful groups have regrouped under the cover of Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD, an offshoot of the PRI). The Mexican army is repositioned in rebel territory. New roads tighten even more the military encirclement against the disobedient indigenous people and their assemblies of good governance.

“In the… new geography of ignominy… the paramilitary aggression against the Zapatista support bases is systematic. Incidences of robbery, burning of homes, deaths, death threats, eviction happens one after another. Rebel communities are sought to be stripped of their land and territory. These are the lightnings that announce a new storm.

“Their (old paramilitary groups which have renamed themselves) members attack the Zapatistas from the roots, protected by the government. From time to time, the state administration puts on spectacles in which the former members of this paramilitary group hand over a fistful of their weapons to the authorities. It’s about manoeuvres to hide the support that they really offer to them.

“The PRD government of the Chiapas and its fraction in the State Congress are made up of some of the most rabid members of the local oligarchy. Racists and oppressors… enjoy great influence in the local administration. Far from being reduced, the presence of the Mexican army in the zones of Zapatista influence has been recalibrated and reinforced. New camps and regiments have tightened the siege, helped by new roads that, in place of promoting progress, have helped armoured cars and troops move about.

“The exemplary Zapatista autonomy is being challenged and with it the whole of the social movement and their alternatives. Today, once more, it is necessary that we mobilise in their support.”

Millions Marched in Mexico: Close to 12.5 million people participated in 2,932 social mobilisations in public space during 2007, according to a Mexican government report. The majority of the demands centred on agriculture, industrial relations, the electricity sector, education, transport and health. There were 466 blockades, 48 caravans, 1,156 gatherings, 3 hunger-strikes, 368 marches and 22 occupation of installations. Apparently exactly 11,316,724 people participated in other gatherings, such as sporting and religious events.

In 2008, there have been 91 gatherings, 18 marches, 5 meetings, 48 blockades of public roads, 10 blockades of access to installations and 12 caravans.

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Sources: La Jornada Link:
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2008/02/09/index.php?section=politica&article=006n1pol
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2008/02/11/index.php?section=capital&article=038n1cap

Cancun Travel Warning: Leave Behind Your Conscience At Home

Tourists wishing to enjoy Cancun’s many decadent pleasures please travel light: do not carry your conscience with you. If still wanting to go with your eyes open and integrity intact, do consider the plight of those likely to serve you:

Suicides: Cancun has the highest suicide rate in Mexico, 80% of it in the poorest colonies. There were 105 suicides in 2007. It was the second highest cause of death after accidents (traffic, domestic and workplace), up from 2005, when it was 16th and in 2006 when it was 9th. Three quarters of those who killed themselves were men, of whom 37% lived alone.

Loss of native culture: Cancun has displaced Acapulco as the city with the greatest diversity of languages, with 80% of indigenous languages spoken here, a consequence of migration. This has led to problems among the different cultures, with the exposure of the indigenous people to foreign tourists causing loss of native cultures and violence and drug use among the indigenous population.

If you look like an Indian: The Nobel Peace Prize winner, Rigoberta Menchu, was asked to leave the Fiesta Americana Coral Beach hotel in Cancun by its security staff who mistook her for an indigenous trinket seller.

Hungry, beaten children: A survey found 65% of children come to school without eating in the morning, 8% are off school with malnutrition-related illnesses, 13% of parents cannot spend enough time with their children, and 5% admit to drug problems themselves.

Ninety-five per cent of the children said they had been beaten at home, mostly by hand or by belts, and 25% said they were ignored or humiliated by their parents. Forty per cent said they were left alone for long hours because both their parents were at work and 70% said they did not receive much parental attention even when they were at home.

The gangs of Cancun: Eighty-two per cent of 16-and 17-year-olds said they knew of a gang and all of them said associating with one increased their popularity and gave them the opportunity to explore sexual relations.

There were more than 110 gangs in 2006, 22 new ones having formed that year, and with an average of 30 members in each gang between the average age of 12 and 21. There were 744 legal outlets for alcohol and 264 schools. There are between 300 and 500 drug outlets.

Since April 2005, 11,321 minors were arrested in Cancun, 555 of them girls and 8,000 were arrested between Friday night and Monday morning.

Domestic violence: Seventy-four per cent of women interviewed in a survey said their husbands or partners beat their children; all of them said Cancun was more violent than what it was five years ago, 41% feared their children consumed drugs and 29% feared their children would end up joining gangs. Violence against women increase by 50% between 2005 and 2006.

Out-of-bound beaches: Locals find it difficult to use the last remaining public beaches because the access points are in bad shape, there are not enough facilities or simply because they are not allowed to enter, say local Deputies who toured the area.

Illegal Constructions: More than 10 tourist megaprojects were approved in 2007 despite violating environmental laws, according to the Mexico Centre of Environmental Rights (Cemda). Fourteen building workers were killed in the first 45 days of 2007.

Environmental Damage: Dolphin Discovery, an American company which caused the destruction of 200 square metres of corals off Cancun and accused of mistreating dolphins and illegally taking over public land, was put in charge of a civic group in 2007 entrusted with promoting environmental consciousness among school children.

Health: Despite having 150,000 permanent inhabitants and a floating population of 12,000 building workers, Playa del Carmen has one hospital with 13 beds. Seriously ill residents and tourists have to travel more than 70 km to the Cancun general hospital for treatment.

A dengue case was detected everyday in January 2007 while 120 cases were reported in 2006. In 2005, Cancun came to within two weeks of having a health emergency, unable to deal with the 750 tons of garbage that is generated daily.

Crime: Cancun is a destination of choice for fugitives on the run, people smugglers and sexual predators like Mark C. Hollstrom, wanted in the United States in several cases of sexual molestation. He set up shop in Cancun, widely advertising his chiropractic clinic. A former Argentinian military officer complicit in tortures was outed by a magazine. Cancun is also a preferred destination for people smugglers ferrying Cubans to the USA and child traffickers.

Demons of Eden: In 2006, there was one sexual attack on a minor each day.
Mexican journalist Lydia Cacho retired to Cancun hoping to write books in idyllic surroundings. Instead, she stumbled upon a flourishing child sex racket involving Mexico’s leading textile magnate who was taped confessing to “sleeping only with virgins”. When she exposed this, Lydia was arrested at the instigation of a powerful state governor, a friend of the magnate. He tried to have Lydia raped in prison. The Mexican Supreme Court by a 6-4 verdict said the governor had no case to answer.

Sources:
La Jornada 2006: April 25; Nov 18,21; Dec 31; 2007: Feb 2,16; March 22; April 20; June 7,26; Aug 7,15; Sep 30; Oct 28; Nov 1; Dec 11; 2008: Jan 15, 28
Child Pornography and Human Trafficking: Cancun's Dark Side
Lydia Cacho Website

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Peace is anti-capitalist: Naomi Klein

“Peace is anti-capitalist,” Naomi Klein recently told a conference in Mexico that she attended with others such as John Berger and the Zapatista leader, Subcomandante Marcos. “It is capitalism which wants war”… the experience of the Latin American people offers a pointer. Here “resistance has not ceased”. The journalist spoke of another disaster, that of the “movement of movements” which touched the cities of the United States and Europe at the end of the last decade, from Seattle to Genoa. It seemed to raise a new anti-capitalist alternative from within the centre of power, but it was scattered and lost after the attacks of September 11, 2001, the “crisis point” in the hopes that another world is possible.

She thanked the Zapatistas for resisting and recognised that the movements of Latin America are the major source of inspiration for the world’s social activists. “It is not a coincidence that the indigenous people are the base of resistance to disaster.” Without dipping too deeply into the ink of Apocalypse, Klein pointed out, “never has there been a more important fight for the planet. Capitalism has led us to a suicidal route. It is not about dealing with another of its crisis. It can bring us to the end of life”.

In the world market, “the ultimate luxury on offer will be survival”. The “embedded journalist in social movements”, as she defined herself, questioned the sudden weakness of the anti-globalisation resistance which obliged activists in the United States to be “miners of inspiration” needing to look for it as their ancestors did with gold and silver in the lands of the South. The Zapatistas and the MST possess “the powerful force of resistance to the shock” of current capitalism. They have historical memory, mistrust the state and do not experience regression, that “other arm of shock”.

Far from what Gore Vidal called the “United States of Amnesia”, the people of Bolivia, Thailand, Mexico, Brazil and India certainly remember; it is not the first time they have suffered the brutal attack of the empires. “In Tabasco, many people do not believe the state will solve their problem”. She cited the popular response to the crisis in Argentina, the bombings in Madrid, the tsunami in Thailand. “Resistance started at once”.

Klein returned over and again to the concept of stories. The anti-globalisation movements told stories that the world could be changed and believed in them. Came the terrorist attacks and while they “lost faith in their stories”, power “told us new stories: clash of civilisations, war on Islam, terrorism”, that “spread like virus” in the United States, Canada and Europe. They sowed fear with torture, with Guantanamo, “and our coalition fell apart”. The writer expressed the need “almost to ask pardon” of the Zapatistas, “who did not stop resisting”. After identifying them as the initial inspiration of the anti-globalisation movement, Klein said the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) carried its message beyong the frontiers but “resistance is not exported”; it is constructed in each place.

“The current crisis of capitalism is not its last, only the vehicle to achieve the corporate advance. She described Baghdad’s Green Zone as a future model: the “paradise” for the chosen ones after the destruction. She noted the strong links among capitalism, imperialism and the major religions: they all sell the “flight of the chosen one” to the “paradise” of the “born agains” like the Christian George W. Bush. The indigenous people do not believe in these stories, “they know there is no escape”, and have the notion of their own place”.

Later in a Press conference with the alternative media, Klein said that with the Zapatistas, “you’re welcomed, but you don’t get a free ride”. She recognised them as one of the movements “most open in the world” and “one of the toughest” which “opened to us the idea of exchanging solidarity, of inter exchanges”.

Published in La Jornada, Mexico on December 18, 2007. Link:
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2007/12/18/index.php?section=politica&article=010n1pol

Related Articles: Zapatista Code Red: Naomi Klein
New Massacres Loom in Mexico
Zapatistas, Sex Workers & Transvestites

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Zapatistas Need Solidarity Now: Berger

The Zapatista project is truly threatened and if it disappears, the consequences will be felt all over the world, warned John Berger while presenting his book, With Hope Between the Teeth (‘Con la esperanza entre los dientes’, a collection of poems which has been published in Spanish before English by La Jornada). “Don’t forget that the Zapatistas need the support of civil society now, immediately”.

He said the possible causes of the decline in civil society support were the position of Subcomandante Marcos and of the Zapatistas in general of not voting in the last elections and “there is a tendency to blame them almost as much as the fraud for the disastrous consequences of the elections”.

“The Zapatista position of not voting appears to me a rational decision; debatable but rational. The exaggerated tones with which they referred to Andrés Manuel López Obrador perhaps were an error. But political errors happen, it is a question of perspective towards them.

“Those small errors – because in this long sense of time were small but important – simply cannot serve to destroy the vision and the project of the Zapatistas which are relevant not only for Chiapas but also for the whole world.

“What they have achieved in Chiapas is like an archipelago which the passage of time could take towards a continent, a new continent of social justice and dignity. Arriving at the continent from the archipelago could take 10, 20 years or a century but we should have that kind of perspective.

“Paradoxically that long perspective of time means that now, at once, we have to mobilise in every possible sense to prevent that threat of extinction”.

Published in La Jornada, Mexico, on Dec 21, 2007 Link;
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2007/12/21/index.php?section=cultura&article=a04n1cul
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Support For Radical Mexican Priest

Diego Cevallos, IPS

Former members of the Catholic Church hierarchy and over 100 social organisations closed ranks behind Monsignor Raúl Vera, the only Catholic bishop in Mexico who still adheres to liberation theology, and whose unorthodox stances and confrontational style are disturbing conservative sectors.

"The Vatican is wary of Vera, and there are rumours that proceedings may have been initiated against him. But we want to state that the bishop is not alone, and that we will defend him," the head of the non-governmental Ecclesiastical Observatory (OE), José Guadalupe Sánchez, told IPS.

In an open letter published... by several newspapers, social organisations in Mexico and abroad, and bishops like Pedro Casaldáliga of Spain and Samuel Ruiz of Mexico, who are adherents of liberation theology... declared an "alert" because of the accusations against Vera, whom they call "a pastor and prophet for our time."

Vera, 62, was ordained bishop in 1988. He originally served in the impoverished southern state of Guerrero and then in nearby Chiapas where he was auxiliary bishop to Ruiz in San Cristóbal de las Casas. From 2000, Vera has been the bishop in the city of Saltillo, the capital of the state of Coahuila, in northwestern Mexico. In November a judge in Coahuila formally complained to the Vatican, in his personal capacity as a Catholic churchgoer, that Vera had abused his ecclesiastical powers under canon law.

Vera had called Judge Hiradier Huerta a "ruffian" from the pulpit, in criticism for sentences he passed against army troops accused of raping local women. Huerta accused Vera of slander and asked the Vatican to impose the maximum penalty, which is removal from office.

Vera is known for his outspoken criticism of government leaders and members of the business community, as well as for his demands for justice for the poor, especially indigenous people, and for the views he shares with the left. Those he criticises, in turn, say that he is more of an activist than a man of God.

The Mexican Church has made no official comment, at least in public, about Vera, who is the only active bishop among its numbers who openly adheres to the principles of liberation theology, which grew out of the Second Vatican Council but which was soon frowned on by the Vatican. During the nearly 27 years of the papacy of John Paul II, who died in 2005, this progressive current in the Latin American Church was combated by the retirement or transfer of nearly all the bishops that supported it, and the silencing of several of its theological writers.

Vera wrote the foreword to a book about the Church and pederasty, recently published in Mexico, which may have upset his peers. In it, the bishop appears to give credence to reports that archbishop Norberto Rivera, primate of Mexico, might have covered up for a paedophile priest. When Vera worked in San Cristóbal de las Casas with Bishop Ruiz, who retired in 2000, the Vatican was openly critical of their diocese, which it viewed as "irregular" for ordaining too many indigenous deacons, and teaching unorthodox doctrines.

A member of the Dominican order, Vera is critical of the government of conservative President Felipe Calderón, a devout Catholic who, in Vera’s view, is not living up to his promise to fight poverty, and is mistakenly following free-market economic strategies. When Calderón referred to the supposed achievements of his administration on its first anniversary, Dec. 1, Vera’s comment was that either his advisers were pulling the wool over the president’s eyes, or Calderón was a liar. "The truth is, it makes me see red; forgive me, you know what I’m like," he said.

Abridged. Published by Inter Press Service. Link:
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40436

Related Articles:
Revolutionary Priest Camillo Torres
Brazil: Catholic Hierarchy Backs Bishop's Hunger Strike

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Mexico's Maquiladoras Fail The Dream

Wikipedia: A maquiladora or maquila is a factory that imports materials and equipment on a duty-free and tariff-free basis for assembly or manufacturing and then re-exports the assembled product, usually back to the originating country. "Maquiladora" is primarily used to refer to factories in Mexican towns along the United States–Mexico border, but increasingly is used to refer to factories all over Latin America. The term "maquiladora", in the Spanish language, refers to the practice of millers charging a "maquila", or "miller's portion" for processing other people's grain.

Alejandro Nadal

At times, an academic report has the flavour of a mystery novel. That is the case with a recent study about the maquiladora (assembling) industry in Mexico and the global strategy of the transnational electronic industries. The sold investigation of Kevin Gallagher and Lyuba Zarsky, researchers of Boston University and Monterrey Institute respectively, explains why the model to move on from maquiladora assemblages to an industrial complex with high value added national exports has failed.

A little history is necessary to understand the report’s context. Probably the most important objective of the North American Free Trade Agreement was to attract a massive dose of foreign direct investment (FDI). It was thought that this would allow leaving behind stagnation and, via exports, the chronic deficit in the trade balance.

The low cost of Mexican labour favoured the flourishing of the maquiladora industry: for the year 2000 more than 50% of the manufacturing exports originated in this activity. But the delinking of the maquiladoras from the rest of the productive apparatus always constituted a worrying matter. Despite everything, the maquiladora rests on a modus operandi that does not have the effect of bringing along the entire economy to promote growth: importing inputs, assembling them and returning them back to the head office is synonymous with exporting cheap labour.

Faced with criticisms of the maquiladora model, an optimistic hypothesis developed about the evolution of this branch of industry. The reasoning was that the maquiladoras would gradually evolve towards an important growth in the aggregate value of exports owing to technological assimilation and greater linkages among industries. A second and even a third generation maquiladora industry was spoken about.

But the dream did not materialise. The aforementioned reports concentrated on electronics because it was thought the process of industrial development would be the most rapid in it. Their studies were located around Guadalajara, region in which this industry quintupled between 1994 and 2000 and exports grew by 400%. The emblematic electronic industries settled in the area (Hewlett Packard, IBM, Intel, Lucent, NEC) and were followed by a second pack of U.S. contractor businesses (like Flextronics, Solectron, Jabil Circuit and SCI-Sanmina). By 1998, the electronic industry of Guadalajara was exporting more than $8 million and that started the talk of Guadalajara as the new ‘Silicon Valley.

But later came the crisis of 2002-2003 and almost all the large transnational industries closed their production plants of computers and peripheral equipment in Guadalajara, relocating their operations to China and other Asian countries. Exports slumped by 60%, FDI suffered a 123% cut and 20,00 employees lost their jobs overnight. Gallagher and Zarsky explain how the only ones that survived were the ensemble of U.S. contractors who had been able to diversify their maquiladora lines of production.

The electronic maquiladora industry did not recover and achieve the dream of constructing an industrial complex with endogenous technological capacity. The interviews in the report reveal that the large transnational businesses adopted a strategy of subcontracting their manufacturing operations from the start of the Nineties and reconfiguring an industry at three levels. At the very top are the large conglomerates (like Hewlett, Dell, IBM) that possess the capacity of design, brands and marketing on an international scale. At the second level are the manufacturing contractors who assemble components to manufacture various electronic goods under contract with the first group. The third level houses business providers of components which is what they sell as inputs to the contractors. These providers are units of all sizes and, in general, survive on very slim profit margins.

In their global strategy, the transnationals preferred the manufacturing contractors with their base in California who, in turn, constitute large conglomerates with a very flexible global supply chain. These contractors ignored the incipient component industry in Guadalajara and in 2004 some 37 local businesses went bankrupt. Today more than 95% of the components utilised by the businesses in the first two levels are imported. The transition from assembling activities based on low wages to an industrial complex strong in knowledge of design and production has not materialised.

This does not seem to worry the Mexican government and, well, some time ago it abandoned the idea of having an industrial policy. It naively preferred to play a game the rules of which it did not understand and the results of which started to surprise it. The main lesson of this important study by Gallagher and Zarsky is that entering the game of “globalisation” without protective gear can be dangerous.
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Published in La Jornada, Mexico City, November 14, 2007 Link:
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2007/11/14/index.php?section=opinion&article=031a1eco

Cowboys, Astronauts and Natural Resources

Alejandro Nadal

From 1965 till his death in 1993, the economist Kenneth Boulding kept repeating his message with an effective metaphor: there two types of economies, that of the cowboy style and that of the astronaut type. The first is based on the idea that the natural resource base is so extensive as to be practically unlimited. The cowboy of the plains can hunt, drill mines, dig wells and churn the soil for whatever he wishes to sow. The spread of resources is so great that the environmental impact of his activities passes unnoticed. The key words in the vocabulary of the cowboy are spread and growth.

The economy of the astronaut is different. Travelling in a small space capsule, his spread of resources is limited and each activity leaves an important ecological footprint at every step. Even exhaling can poison his restricted atmosphere if not filtered. The astronaut has to be very careful; travelling in a closed system he has to look for “zero waste” and recycle everything he can. The touchstone in the vocabulary of the capsule is the word metabolism.

Boulding’s central message concluded convincingly: we should see the Planet Earth as a type of space capsule in which humanity is the astronaut. It is necessary to rethink the logic of economic growth in this closed system and develop instruments that let us convert the world economy in a type of self-regulated metabolism. It has to start with the careful and rational use of natural resources.

But if we want to revisit Boulding’s metaphor, we have to imagine that in the space capsule there are at least two astronauts. Unfortunately, both are looking to fight for the resources on the craft. In the solitude of space, their conflict has degenerated into a series of wars, latent and open, that threatens to destroy the spacecraft in which they are travelling. The curse of the natural resources has caught up with them.

Access to the natural resources is marked by ethnic conflicts, corruption, strategic competition and wars, civil and international. The case of the conflict diamonds is one example among many. Minerals, coltan, wood, petroleum and natural gas are only some of the resources at the heart of these conflicts. But where does the curse come from?

Studies sponsored by the World Bank on the relation between natural resources and conflicts concentrate on the relation between these resources and ethnic disputes, dictatorships, corruption and trafficking of arms. For this, the predominant references in these studies are to civil wars in Sierra Leone, Liberia or the Democratic Republic of Congo.

These reports try to analyse how the generous spread of minerals, wood or petroleum provoke greed and drive conflicts. The typical cycle is simple: a dictator uses natural resources to create a repressive apparatus and to maintain himself in power. The rebel groups look to do the same. The end result of death and environmental destruction are terrible and costly for all, including the international community, which ends up intervening to help the refugees and the displaced.

Natural resources are at the heart of the World Bank studies because an army needs money. Conflicting groups see in the natural resources the platform to obtain financial resources to buy arms and pay the wages of the soldiers. Independent of the motives of the rebellion, the rebel organisation has to behave like a commercial organisation. And for the World Bank, the problem then is that that there are companies and banks willing to resell these resources in the international market. The corruption of multinational firms is truly allied to these conflicts.

But the narrative of this vision is very myopic. The true link between natural resource and conflicts lies somewhere else. Of course, corruption and ethnic conflicts play a sinister part in conflicts over natural resources but perhaps they are not the most important ingredients.

Anonymous economic forces (the market and inter-capitalist competition) generate growing pressure at the world’s natural resources. The neo-colonial model is no different from the neo-liberal model in this sense: both promote the export of natural resources towards the industrialised countries and the strategic competition among these powers make use of everything, even promoting civil wars or invading a country alleging it has weapons of mass destruction. That line of thought brings into question the world economic model; for this, the World Bank prefers to blame the corrupt government of these poor countries.

Corrupt leaders or anonymous economic forces, what is certain is that the astronauts of the spacecraft Planet Earth have chosen war to access natural resources. Heady with having discovered the dark side of the Moon, we have not stretched out to look at the dark side of natural resources.
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Published in La Jornada, Mexico City, on March 14, 2007 Link:
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2007/03/14/index.php?section=opinion&article=026a1eco