A-Infos (en) Plan Puebla-Panama: Trojan Horse of Capital against EZLN

[Chiapaslink <chiapaslink@yahoo.com>]

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Plan Puebla-Panama: Trojan Horse of Capital against
EZLN


On the day that the Zapatista march reaches Puebla,
while Fox addresses big business at the World Economic
Forum in Cancun, the key issue of the development path
of the south/south-east of Mexico is again at stake,
and more acute than ever with the infamous "Plan
Puebla-Panama" - a new neoliberal offensive which aims
to kill two birds with one stone: promoting economic
globalisation and undermining the Zapatista struggle
for autonomy. 

We are enclosing two articles on the Puebla-Panama
Plan which appeared in La Jornada in Spanish, preceded
by a brief summary of both in English - the first by
Roberto Gonzales Amador from the 5th January 2001, the
second by Carlos Fazio from the 10th Jan 2001. Both
are available on the web at
http://unam.netgate.net/jornada/ (use the search
engine with dates.) 

We're trying to collect as much information as
possible on this project, so if you have any
documents/websites/articles on the Puebla-Panama plan,
please send them to us at chiapaslink@yahoo.com

Muchas gracias y saludos solidarios,
Chiapaslink


SUMMARY:
The project, which aims to turn the area between
Puebla (just south of Mexico City) and Panama into a
"development corridor" in order to integrate these
regions into the global economy, has a budget of
80,000 million pesos (US$9 billion). It is the
economic side of a counter-insurgency plan that has
its military side in the low intensity war against the
Zapatista rebellion. According to its promoters, the
central idea of the programme in relation to the
south-east of Mexico is to create the economic
conditions for the inhabitants of this region --
primarily subsistence farmers-- to work in the oil,
tourism, and maquiladora (sweat-shop) industries.

The "Proyecto Puebla-Panama" was originally devised by
a member of the previous PRI government and is now
being supervised by multi-millionaire Alfonso Romo,
president of the agro-biotechnology transnational
Grupo Pulsar. Referring to the Chiapas part of this
project, Romo has stated that it is "the one I like
best out of all my business enterprises" (see
www.ciepac.org/analysis/pulsar for more information on
Pulsar). 

Romo has a joint project in association with
Conservation International (of which he is a board
member) in the Lacandon rainforest in Chiapas,
allegedly for conservation purposes. According to
Miguel Pickard, from the Centre for Economic Research
and Community Action Policies (CIEPAC), it is very
likely that behind these so-called
environmentally-friendly projects lurk "biopiracy"
activities - the robbery of medicinal plants and
knowledge for patents by transnational corporations. 

The Lacandon rainforest hosts key resources in terms
of water, oil and biodiversity. According to the World
Bank, Chiapas is an "interesting experimental field in
biotechnology and biodiversity for business
investors". In the 1.9 million hectares of the
Lacandon rainforest, partly controlled by the
Zapatistas, there is 25% of the surface water of
Mexico (which generates 45% of it hydroelectric
power), more than half of the species of Mexican
tropical trees, 3,500 plant species, 114 of mammals,
and 345 of birds.  Oil reserves are equally located
under key areas of Zapatista influence, as are plans
for further hydroelectric dams and privatisation of
water supplies. 

In the area of the project that concerns Mexico, four
stages have been devised. The first is about
modernising the transport infrastructure (trains,
roads, airports) in order to facilitate the extraction
of goods and resources out of the area. The second is
a concerted drive towards agricultural modernisation
to increase exports (which includes biotechnology).
The third is support for small and medium sized
businesses, and attracting companies to the region,
including maquiladoras. The last is to exploit the
touristic potential of the region, principally through
further road constructions.

It is not difficult to deduce that the "modernisation"
of Chiapas implies the expulsion of indigenous
communities from these areas, which significantly
contradict the spirit of the San Andres Accords and
calls for autonomy by the Zapatistas and indigenous
populations of the south-east of Mexico. It is a
further step towards uprooting indigenous peoples from
their communal ways and orienting them towards an
individualistic monetarised economy, in line with
Fox's famous pre-election statement that what
indigenous people need is "tele, vocho y changarro"
(TV, a Volkswagen beetle, and a small business).


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