Wal-Mart is getting maddeningly hard to avoid in Mexico City. Owners of popular chains like Vips, Suburbia, Superama, Bodega Aurrera and Sam's Club, they are weakening the competition and workers rights throughout the country.
At a meeting of the Frente Nacional Contra Wal-Mart (Mexican Front Against Wal-Mart, link below) some of the following statistics about Wal-Mart in Mexico were discussed:
• There are currently 1,030 establishments in Mexico (of a total of about 8,000 worldwide), and they are promising to open a new one each day in 2008.
• 200,000 workers, making it Mexico's biggest single employer. Around 30,000 of those employees are UNPAID. (18,000 grocery baggers and 12,000 parking lot attendants). Seems incredible but I have spoken with baggers and parking lot attendants, who actually have to pay Wal-Mart part of their tips to keep their jobs!
• Fundación Wal-Mart, the group's philanthropic arm, gives away approximately .07% of the value of its sales in Mexico. Wal-Mart's U.S. foundation gives away approximately 2% of their profits.
• Wal-Mart has set up stores in delicate areas such as Teotihuacan, Amecameca, Cuernavaca and Acapulco, where it cut down 1000 trees for a new location in 2003.
The Mexican Front Against Wal-Mart has a meeting with the Mexican House of Representatives April 8-9 to put forth their arguments about Wal-Mart's tax evasion, environmental destruction and devastating effects on local business and workers.
The first meeting of Latin American countries against Wal-Mart is scheduled for Oct. 12 in Mexico City.
Americas Policy Program related article:
Wal-Mart Faces Accusations of Anti-union Practices in Argentina
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/4733
Sources for Mexico's anti-Wal-Mart campaign information:
Frente Nacional Contra Wal-Mart A.C.
www.geocities.com/frentenacionalac
Tianguis-Si-Wal-Mart-No
http://wal-mart-no.blogspot.com/
Video from "A Day Without Wal-Mart" Dec. 2, 2007
Posted by Katie Kohlstedt
The MexicoBlog of the Americas Program, a fiscally sponsored program of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), is written by Laura Carlsen. I monitor and analyze international press on Mexico, with a focus on security, immigration, human rights and social movements for peace and justice, from a feminist perspective. And sometimes I simply muse.
Feb 27, 2008
Feb 19, 2008
Human Rights Situation in Mexico "Extremely Critical"
Today the International Civil Commission on Human Rights presented its conclusions, following an intense fact-finding mission in parts of Mexico. The document was a harsh indictment of President Felipe Calderón's government and state and local governments for what the Commission calls the "extremely critical" situation of human rights in Mexico.
The Commission's work bears close examination because it is based not on rhetoric or officially arranged tours, but more than 280 carefully documented interviews with a wide range of victims, their family members, grassroots organizations, human rights groups and government officials. This often heart-breaking reservoir of material forms the basis for its preliminary conclusions and recommendations and the more detailed report that will follow.
I was commissioned as a member of the delegation and assisted with interviews in the Lacandon Jungle in Chiapas, in Oaxaca City and in Mexico City. While the report (available in Spanish at http://cciodh.pangea.org/, English coming up soon) is strong stuff, it can´t compare to the experience of actually listening to individuals who have been beaten and terrorized--like the men and women rounded up during the police crackdown in Oaxaca on November 25, 2006, or Zapatista sympathizers hounded by paramilitary groups. Nor can the words on the page convey the power of the tears on the cheek of a daughter whose father has been imprisoned, killed or disappeared.
I came back deeply dismayed. Although I had been at least somewhat prepared for what we´d find, the impact of the personal contact and the sheer number of violations reported provided a grimmer perspective than I´d expected.
Over the course of three weeks, the Commission examined the situation in the states of Chiapas, Oaxaca and Mexico. This visit was the sixth since the Commission was founded following the massacre of indigenous people in Acteal, Chiapas on December 22, 1997. Although it was intended to follow-up on previous investigations, the delegates heard scores of testimonies regarding new cases from 2007.
The testimonies of human rights violations were charged with fear, grief and indignation. It rapidly became clear that despite the government´s claims that the crisis is over in Oaxaca and that the conflict in Chiapas has been resolved, not only are both states embroiled in endemic violence, but the violence follows patterns that involve the active participation or at the least the complicity of governments and police forces. This pattern of human rights abuses, the Commission concludes, constitutes a conscious government policy. Practices such as arbitrary arrests of members of social movements are often justified by inventing false evidence for crimes of robbery, sexual aggression or even murder. The logic is to "criminalize members of social movements, thereby also avoiding that they be categorized as political prisoners."
The Commission's investigation and preliminary conclusions provide a wealth of information for analyzing what's really happening on the ground in Mexico. The more active role of the military, increased paramilitary activity and selective violence by police forces combine to create environments where the violation of human rights is commonplace. After the violations have occured they are compounded by a justice system that fails to punish the guilty, especiallywhen on the side of the state, and confuses impunity with keeping the peace.
We´ll talk more about the human rights situation in Mexico and the findings of the VI Commission in later blogs, and in articles on the webpage http://www.americaspolicy.org/. The work of the 51 Commission members deserves a broad airing and the situation they report should be widely known. Mexico is at a critical point at which it can continue down this road of stomping out dissidence and refusing to recognize injustices of the past, or it can reverse the present course and institute firm practices and institutions for the respect of human rights as a top priority.
Here's a video from the commission's interview of political prisoner Flavio Sosa:
The Commission's work bears close examination because it is based not on rhetoric or officially arranged tours, but more than 280 carefully documented interviews with a wide range of victims, their family members, grassroots organizations, human rights groups and government officials. This often heart-breaking reservoir of material forms the basis for its preliminary conclusions and recommendations and the more detailed report that will follow.
I was commissioned as a member of the delegation and assisted with interviews in the Lacandon Jungle in Chiapas, in Oaxaca City and in Mexico City. While the report (available in Spanish at http://cciodh.pangea.org/, English coming up soon) is strong stuff, it can´t compare to the experience of actually listening to individuals who have been beaten and terrorized--like the men and women rounded up during the police crackdown in Oaxaca on November 25, 2006, or Zapatista sympathizers hounded by paramilitary groups. Nor can the words on the page convey the power of the tears on the cheek of a daughter whose father has been imprisoned, killed or disappeared.
I came back deeply dismayed. Although I had been at least somewhat prepared for what we´d find, the impact of the personal contact and the sheer number of violations reported provided a grimmer perspective than I´d expected.
Over the course of three weeks, the Commission examined the situation in the states of Chiapas, Oaxaca and Mexico. This visit was the sixth since the Commission was founded following the massacre of indigenous people in Acteal, Chiapas on December 22, 1997. Although it was intended to follow-up on previous investigations, the delegates heard scores of testimonies regarding new cases from 2007.
The testimonies of human rights violations were charged with fear, grief and indignation. It rapidly became clear that despite the government´s claims that the crisis is over in Oaxaca and that the conflict in Chiapas has been resolved, not only are both states embroiled in endemic violence, but the violence follows patterns that involve the active participation or at the least the complicity of governments and police forces. This pattern of human rights abuses, the Commission concludes, constitutes a conscious government policy. Practices such as arbitrary arrests of members of social movements are often justified by inventing false evidence for crimes of robbery, sexual aggression or even murder. The logic is to "criminalize members of social movements, thereby also avoiding that they be categorized as political prisoners."
The Commission's investigation and preliminary conclusions provide a wealth of information for analyzing what's really happening on the ground in Mexico. The more active role of the military, increased paramilitary activity and selective violence by police forces combine to create environments where the violation of human rights is commonplace. After the violations have occured they are compounded by a justice system that fails to punish the guilty, especiallywhen on the side of the state, and confuses impunity with keeping the peace.
We´ll talk more about the human rights situation in Mexico and the findings of the VI Commission in later blogs, and in articles on the webpage http://www.americaspolicy.org/. The work of the 51 Commission members deserves a broad airing and the situation they report should be widely known. Mexico is at a critical point at which it can continue down this road of stomping out dissidence and refusing to recognize injustices of the past, or it can reverse the present course and institute firm practices and institutions for the respect of human rights as a top priority.
Here's a video from the commission's interview of political prisoner Flavio Sosa:
Feb 13, 2008
Welcome to Americas MexicoBlog!
Dear Americas Readers,
Welcome to our very first MexicoBlog!
As many of you already know, the Americas Policy Program (formerly of the IRC and now a fiscally sponsored program of the Center for International Policy) has its offices in Mexico City. We´ve been following Mexican politics, U.S. policy, and U.S.-Mexico relations for over twenty years and decided it was time to give it its own space in our program.
A lot is going on here that seldom gets attention in the mainstream U.S. or Mexican media. We feel our program has a unique ability to provide crossborder information and analysis, due to our long experience in both U.S. and Mexican policy analysis, our network of qualified analysts and contacts, and our bilingual website at www.americaspolicy.org
Rarely have so many issues converged to pose such urgent challenges to the binational relationship. We´ll be looking at the demands of hundreds of thousands of Mexican farmers and their supporters to renegotiate the NAFTA agricultural chapter, the relationship between NAFTA and immigration, the nefarious Plan Mexico, NAFTA´s impact after fifteen years, human rights violations, and indigenous autonomy.
Here you´ll find updates on the social movements that continue to give voice to the millions of Mexicans who did NOT vote to continue the neoliberal project of the Calderón government, including grassroots resistance to plans to privatize the state-owned oil and electricity companies and calls for national development that put poverty alleviation and human rights before the fortunes of transnational corporations and foreign investors.
And that's just for starters.
What this blog is not: this blog is not a space for us to pontificate. It´s a space to share. That´s where you all come in. Please use the comments section liberally. Tell us what you think--your questions, responses, interesting links, new ideas.
Dialogue is the perfect antidote to the wall-like mentality of U.S. policy toward Mexico that has done so much damage to the binational relationship over the past years. We´re excited about this new cyber-space and look forward to hearing from you soon.
Welcome to our very first MexicoBlog!
As many of you already know, the Americas Policy Program (formerly of the IRC and now a fiscally sponsored program of the Center for International Policy) has its offices in Mexico City. We´ve been following Mexican politics, U.S. policy, and U.S.-Mexico relations for over twenty years and decided it was time to give it its own space in our program.
A lot is going on here that seldom gets attention in the mainstream U.S. or Mexican media. We feel our program has a unique ability to provide crossborder information and analysis, due to our long experience in both U.S. and Mexican policy analysis, our network of qualified analysts and contacts, and our bilingual website at www.americaspolicy.org
Rarely have so many issues converged to pose such urgent challenges to the binational relationship. We´ll be looking at the demands of hundreds of thousands of Mexican farmers and their supporters to renegotiate the NAFTA agricultural chapter, the relationship between NAFTA and immigration, the nefarious Plan Mexico, NAFTA´s impact after fifteen years, human rights violations, and indigenous autonomy.
Here you´ll find updates on the social movements that continue to give voice to the millions of Mexicans who did NOT vote to continue the neoliberal project of the Calderón government, including grassroots resistance to plans to privatize the state-owned oil and electricity companies and calls for national development that put poverty alleviation and human rights before the fortunes of transnational corporations and foreign investors.
And that's just for starters.
What this blog is not: this blog is not a space for us to pontificate. It´s a space to share. That´s where you all come in. Please use the comments section liberally. Tell us what you think--your questions, responses, interesting links, new ideas.
Dialogue is the perfect antidote to the wall-like mentality of U.S. policy toward Mexico that has done so much damage to the binational relationship over the past years. We´re excited about this new cyber-space and look forward to hearing from you soon.
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