If war means for the United States isolating one’s enemy in geographic, military, political, economic and social terms, then terrorists will do the same.  Thus Mexico could become a flank of attack, susceptible on all fronts.

Mexico’s foreign policy regarding the war, as defined by the Foreign Secretary Jorge Castañeda unleashed a wave of sharp criticism from politicians of all stripes.  Castañeda stated “We can't have half-hearted measures with the United States.  The Americans are our most important partners and they have given us first-class treatment.  We can’t dicker over our support”.  President Vicente Fox declared that “the attack against the United States is an attack against Mexico” and stated that support to the US would not be military.  Let us look at, then, some examples of the consequences for Mexico over the past 70 days following the terrorist attacks, to help us detect tendencies in the short and mid-terms.  Some indicators vary according to the source, but all agree that the crisis and the recession of the Mexican economy is worsening at an accelerating pace, within the wider scope of the world economic recession.

ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES

Before September 11 the country’s economy was in a sharp crisis.  Exports had dropped 11% and maquiladora (in-bond assembly plants) sales dropped 16%.  There was a already negative trade balance that worsened.  The Secretary of the Treasury confirmed that 400,000 persons had lost their jobs, including the sacking of 33,000 bureaucrats.  Likewise, the Secretary of Labor, Carlos Abascal, conceded that at year’s end some 346,000 jobs in Mexico would be lost.  After the terrorist attacks indicators fell ever more sharply, while maquiladoras were closing and the ongoing crisis continued in the sugar, coffee, corn and pineapple sectors, among other agricultural products affected by the opening of Mexico’s market.  During Fox’s government, three budget cuts have topped 30 billion (thousand million) pesos (US$1 = MX$9.20).  Inflation is on the rise and now totals 394,013.92% over the past 30 years.  At the end of October the federal government conceded that Mexico had entered an economic recession and the country’s growth would be zero this year.  The reason?  Not because of neoliberal policies, but, according to the government, due to kamikaze terrorists.  Following the attacks, the most affected sectors have been tourism, air and land transportation, petroleum, import and export companies, foreign direct investment, the automobile industry, maquiladoras, manufacturing, food-processing, especially those companies linked to the export sector, and the agricultural sector, among others.

Some sources foresee that the maquiladoras will lose 20% of their foreign sales.  Growth in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will continue to fall; foreign trade (exports and imports) will lose US$52 billion due solely to the terrorist attacks.  It is estimated that by the end of 2001 unemployment will reach 2,200,000 workers in the country; of these 250,000 will lose formal employment, 750,000 will lose their jobs in the informal sector, and 1,300,000 people that work less than 40 hours a week (the underemployed), will lose even those jobs.  The Center for Economic Studies of the Private Sector predicted capital flight, a contraction of the internal market by 10% over the coming months and a 30% drop in exports and investment.  For the American Chamber of Commerce, 40% of the almost 2,800 U.S. companies in Mexico could significantly reduce their operations.

Mexico’s dependence on the US increased following enactment of the free-trade agreement (NAFTA) with North America.  But now Americans are saving rather than consuming, leading to a drop in trade with Mexico.  Trade between the two countries is the second largest worldwide and hovers at 4% of world trade.  Eight-seven percent of Mexico’s exports go to the US, as does 85% of the cars produced here and 80% of our oil.  Eight percent of the tourist who visit Mexico are from the US, as is 79% of foreign direct investment (FDI) and some 40,000 companies (including 3,600 maquiladoras) trade with the US.  Eighty percent of Mexico’s agricultural market is with the US (US$1.6 billion); exports and imports run at US$10 billion, a sum similar to our oil exports.  Mexico brings from the US 60% of its food, 60% of its tourism and around US$8.5 billion FDI yearly.  Following a historic pattern in which the US provokes a loss of food sovereignty in a number of countries, we can foresee a drop in US agricultural subsidies, leading to increase in prices for basic goods.  US agriculture already controls around 50% of the world food market, In 1999 Mexico imported from the US 43% of the sorghum it consumed, 97% of soy (almost totally genetically modified), 40% of cotton seed, 27% of sesame, 50% of its wheat; 50% of corn, 60% rice and 30% boned meat.  US companies have bought and invested in practically all sectors: tobacco, railroads, automobiles, agricultural chemicals, auto parts, banks, drinks, trade, construction, electricity, gasoline stations, water, supermarkets, insurance, appliances, food, seeds, electronic equipment, pharmaceuticals, mining, petroleum, gas, telecommunications, textiles, hotels, computers, machinery and equipment, fishing, etc.  US dominates the following sectors: banks, trade, industry and employment.  In other words, the food we eat, the clothes we wear, and how we work.  This is our dependence and our loss of food sovereignty, and our loss of control over our economy and society, a fact many people don’t wish to understand.  This is what NAFTA has created.  The Mexican maquiladora industry alone represents more than 90% of our exports.  Yet, in spite of it all, the Foreign Secretary warned recently that no effort would be made to reopen NAFTA negotiations.

Some 7.8% of the country’s income comes from trade duties, now sure to drop as trade itself diminishes.  Just in the first few days after the terrorist attacks, the Treasury Department loss 25% of its income from border crossings.  The volume of exports by sea dropped between 15% and 40% throughout this year.  Inspection times for cargo vessels have affected 50% of the export companies.  70,000 people who worked in the maquiladora industry along the US border had lost their job before September.  The country with the lowest costs for raw materials and labor wins the market.  And now Mexico will enter into trade competition with China, which will surely inundate the Mexican market with its cheaper products, taking with it some of the maquiladoras.  Before Vicente Fox’s term is over, company closures and unemployment, due to China’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), will have wreaked havoc in the country.  Yet the doors opened to multinational corporations by trade treaties are not open to the poor.  Borders are being closed to migrants heading for the US.  Many Mexicans that worked in New York have returned to Mexico.  Just in New York there are at least 500,000 residents from the state of Puebla and 100,000 head each year to their home towns.  In New York, Los Angeles and Chicago reside 75% of the Mixtecos that have emigrated to the US.  It’s estimated that in the first few days after the attacks, some one million dollars stopped flowing into Mexico due to a drop in the remittances from Mexican residents in the US.  One million people from Puebla in the US send back to their families some US$800,000, a flow of funds that has led to the opening of bank branches and exchange houses in small municipalities.  (The situation is worse in El Salvador and Honduras, whose economies depend heavily on remittances from the US).  In 2000 Hispanics resident in the US made up 12% of the total population (32.8 million).  Mexicans are 66% of the Hispanics, i.e., 22 million people who send remittances equivalent to 2% of the national GDP, one of the principal sources of income for Mexico.  In 2000 remittances totaled US$6.572 billion, equivalent to 40% of oil exports, outstripping tourism, in spite of the fact that 71.5% of the Mexicans in the US earn less than the US national average.  A footnote: of the 8 million Mexico-born people living in the US, only 2 million have taken up US citizenship with full voting rights.

The consequences along the Mexico’s northern border have been disastrous.  Some 12 million people live along the 3,152 kilometers of the border with the US, and some 950,000 legal border crossings occur daily.  Tijuana is the world’s most visited spot.  Of the 50,000 trailers that crossed into the US recently, 10,000 could not later return when the US drew up new guidelines for the forge-proof laser visas.  Border traffic dropped up to 90% and in many cities offices and businesses closed.  In Ciudad Juárez the local office of the State Employment Service reported that more than 10,000 persons, overwhelmingly from the maquiladoras, are now unemployed.

The aviation industry generates 26,000 direct jobs.  Yearly some 11 million people travel between Mexico and the US on Mexican and foreign airlines, in addition to 407,282 tons of cargo in the same period.  This activity generated income for the country of some US$9.935 billion per year.  Tourism is the third source of hard-currency income in the country and employs 1.9 million persons.  After the terrorist attacks a drop of 30% in tourism was foreseen, with losses of some 300 million dollars, and the hotel industry will lose US$1 billion, as cancellations rise dramatically.  The number of airline passengers dropped 40% in Cozumel, 23.6% in Cancún and 18.7% in Huatulco.  Mexicana and Aeroméxico airlines cancelled 100 flights and air traffic has dropped some 20%.  The sale of tickets to the US dropped 60% and the losses in Aeroméxico and Mexicana reached US$16.5 million days after the attacks.  Adding to the Mexican airlines’ woes, US airlines offer cheaper tickets on national flights and to Mexico thanks to the US government’s rescue package, thus competing unfairly with Mexican airlines that are in danger of going bankrupt or falling into the hands of multinational corporations.  And so history repeats itself: the US can subsidize and rescue its economy, but poor countries can’t.  Aeroméxico announced it would lay off between 700 and 1,400 workers and, meanwhile, at least a hundred travel agencies have closed.  The crisis has also much affected the mail services that have seen losses in business activity of up to 30%.  Likewise earnings of insurance companies that underwrite Mexico’s trade credit operations have plummeted.

Losses of up to US$2 billion are foreseen at the end of this year for the tourism sector.  This would mean greater unemployment especially for the region’s poor who migrate to seek jobs.  Mexico’s southeast received 6 million visitors during 2000.  Cancún is the most visited spot, with some 4 million foreign visitors during 2000, but now the sector has lost 75% of its business.  Interestingly, the “Arab-Mexican Peoples Together” Seminar, that was to bring together entrepreneurs and diplomats from the Middle East in the state of Quintana Roo, was cancelled.  Some 29,000 jobs have been lost in Cancún, and in other locales some 40,000 jobs have disappeared, between formal and informal employment.  A significant drop in tax revenues is foreseen and so too social spending in the region, dependent on tourism for some 85% of its economy.  As a sign of the times, 30 new pawn shops opened.  The port city of Acapulco, site of some 20,000 workers in the tourism industry, has already seen layoffs of up to 40%.  To jump start the tourism industry, the government will have to spend some 300 million pesos in publicity.  In Yucatán hotels have dropped their tariffs by 35%, and Mexicana and Aerocaribe airlines have dropped their tariffs 30%.  In the state of Guerrero tourism has plummeted, where 45% of the population works in the service sector, and where tourism is the principal source of income.  Studies show that 60% of the hotels could face liquidity shortages by the end of the year, which has led to layoffs.  Exporters in Guerrero report initial losses of US$2 million due to cancellation of sales in the US of perishable goods and other products due to customs controls and the snail’s pace at the border.  For some business sources, losses of around US$8 billion this year will be due to the drop in trade with the US.  In Guerrero the secretary of the Economy Luis Ernesto Derbez predicted that the textile industry will lay off thousands this year alone.

Some days after the attacks some bank branches in Mexico City closed and the US embassy was evacuated as greater security measures were taken.  The stock exchange took a tumble and the peso lost value against the dollar.  Now more pesos are required to buy a dollar and those companies that had dollar-valued debts took a loss.  Other importing firms have had to cancel orders placed abroad and lose shipments.  For its part the Mexican government searched among the 30 million banks accounts in the country that allegedly had to do with terrorists.  The government’s plan to arise from the ashes of recession is none other than to use the funds deposited by workers in the Retirement Savings System, an amount equal to 16% of the GDP, for financial speculation and investment.  In any event the general population continues losing: either through more taxes, greater foreign debt, or workers’ funds  used for speculation and to “rescue” the economy. Programs from the Plan Puebla Panama were stalled when economic growth stagnated.  Foreign Minister Castañeda denied that this plan is “clandestine”, emphasizing rather its investments.  Nonetheless credits from the Inter American Development Bank (IDB) for Mexico this year totaled 600 million pesos.  Soon loans for 2002 will be agreed upon, which will lead to greater foreign debt and to the design of an internal economic policy by the multilateral banks.  The IDB, pillar of the PPP’s financial structure, has stated that it will be difficult to fulfill in the short run the objectives foreseen , since more than US$4 billion will be necessary.  Faced with a crisis, the Mexican government announced it would avail itself of the financial “bullet-proofing” plans previously drawn up with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (WB) and the IDB in the amount of US$26 billion.

Vicente Fox announced that Mexico is ready to sell the US all the oil it needs.  “We have the oil and are ready to go to work.  Basically we are supply a goodly portion of the oil that the Americans are consuming.  We have oil ready for sale to the US and other countries”.  President Bush recently ordered the US to increase its strategic oil reserves to their maximum level.  Up to now, Mexico has sent 1.714 million barrels of oil per day to the US, giving Mexico a third of the country’s foreign income.  Although oil prices are falling, leading to the government’s decision to cut the budget for the third time this year, they may increase again, which would allow Mexico to honor its foreign debt commitments, including those with the US.  Today Vicente Fox is giving in to the US’s desire to keep the price of oil low to the benefit of the U.S., but to Mexico’s detriment.  Fox has proposed raising oil exports to 1.825 million barrels per day during 2002, further flooding the world supply and lowering prices.  These measures put Mexico at odds with measures adopted by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).  There is also demand for electricity.  The US government has gone out of its way to firm up a strategic alliance so as to guarantee energy resources for the country.  Two electrical generating plans are being built in Baja California, with 100% US capital, in order to satisfy California’s energy needs.

Passage of the Fiscal Reform package in the Mexican congress is crucial to Fox.  But to push it through congress, the PAN has 207 of the lower chamber’s 500 deputies, and needs 44 more votes in order to be in the majority and support the executive’s proposals.  Unless the PAN lines up sufficient votes, Fox is seeing mirages.  He recently stated at the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC) that globalization is “a means by which all of our countries can improve our tasks...it is thus more than welcome (...) it’s an error to view globalization as unequitable”.  Regarding inequality, Fox added “it’s there, among the poor that exist in all our countries...it’s a movie that is repeated in all countries, and it’s precisely trade cooperation, exchange and investment that can offer change and improvement for our peoples (...) and for that reason we can now state that we are working to open ourselves to other economies.  Mexico wants to invest, it’s a good option for investment and nowadays we are open to capital from any source”.

POLITICAL CONSEQUENCES

On Sunday October 7 the US began bombing Afghanistan.  That same day Fox and the political parties in the Mexican congress signed a “Political Agreement for National Development” and, one day later, Mexico was accepted into the Security Council of the United Nations (UN).  Forty Arab countries belong to the UN.  To earn a seat on the Council the Mexican government waged a huge campaign from its more than 70 embassies throughout the world.  Mexico’s membership within the Council, beginning in 2002 for a period of two years, could lead either to a diplomatic confrontation with the US, or backsliding to American interests.  Foreign Secretary Castañeda warned that Mexico’s position is “to align itself as closely as possible with the definitions made by the Security Council and by the General Assembly of the United Nations”.  All UN members are required to comply with Security Council decisions.  When war breaks out it calls for peace, or at least for an end to the conflict as soon as possible.  The Council also sends United Nations troops (the Blue Helmets) to maintain peace in some territories.  The Council can adopt coercive measures, economic sanctions or joint military actions.  Yet reports from the UN state that of the 109 armed conflicts during the 90s, the Council (composed of 15 members, 10 of which are elected every two years and five with a permanent status: China, US, Russia, France and England) has been able to do relatively little to solve them.  All of these countries, with the exception of China, are part of the G-8 along with Canada, Italy, Germany and Japan.  In addition, the US owes hundreds of millions of dollars of unpaid fees to the UN, of which it paid US$600 million after the terrorist attacks, in order to obtain support against Afghanistan.  Meanwhile the political agenda between the US and Mexico has been postponed, including topics of undocumented migrant regulation in the US, increasing the number of permanent visas and visas for the temporary worker program, increasing border security and the encouragement of economic development in Mexico.

The Secretary of the Interior Santiago Creel sent to the US a list of those people considered “terrorists” in Mexico.  Whomever is on the list, rightly or wrongly, could soon be facing the music.  Coincidentally guerrilla groups have again been identified as terrorist groups.  Within this context two Mexican federal judges were murdered, as was Digna Ochoa, who had defended the imprisoned “indigenous ecologists”, Montiel and Cabrera, considered prisoners of conscience by Amnesty International.  AI has also taken on the cases of alleged members of the Revolutionary Popular Army (EPR), a politically sensitive issue, due to links to the army and high government officials.  There was tremendous national and international pressure due to the terrible murder of Digna Ochoa that sullied President Fox’s image on human rights.  Days after Digna’s murder Fox freed Montiel and Cabrera, and offered to free General Gallardo, imprisoned for two years for having pointed out abuses and corruption within the armed forces.  Yet Fox shows no willingness to free the Zapatistas in jail, one of the conditions placed by the EZLN to restart talks, because dialogue would seem to be what least interests him.  This difficult relationship with the EZLN, and with human rights groups, adds to his woes due to tensions with the press, with Congress and with other power groups.  There is a vacuum of power in the country and no candidate for a successful transition has come forth.

MILITARY CONSEQUENCES

President Fox stated that Mexico would take its support for the US’s fight against terrorism “as far as necessary, up to the end.  We are totally committed [to the response of] the events of September 11 (...) Obviously not militarily, no, we are not a military country.  We do not have a strong army”, he stated.  The last conflict in which Mexico participated was World War II when in 1942 it declared war on Germany, Italy and Japan, after a German submarine sank the Mexican tankers “Potrero del Llano” and “Faja de Oro”, that were carrying oil to the US.  Now, in this war, Mexico changes strategies in matters of intelligence, migratory matters and national security.  But Mexico’s territory and its infrastructure are beyond the capabilities of the country’s security forces.  Mexico has almost two million square kilometers of land, plus another three million square kilometers of territorial seas; two thousand kilometers of shoreline and more than two thousand islands.  The US has nine consulates in Mexico, more than in any other country, and Mexico has 46 consulates in the US.  In Mexico there are 1,200 airstrips and national and international airports.  The most important airports are Mexico City, Cancún, Guadalajara, Monterry, Tijuana, Puerto Vallarta, Acapulco, El Bajío, Tampico, Mérida and San José del Cabo.  New contingency plans were put into place to strengthen control posts, security systems, lock-up of parked planes, human or machine inspection of all luggage, etc.  This will all become a Herculean task if there are terrorist attacks.  The navy has no submarines, cruisers or aircraft carriers.  Equipment is old, remodeled, and dates from the World War II, or is a castoff from the US.  Further, Mexico has 53 geothermal electrical plants that, in a war setting, could be a strategic source of energy for the US.  Many are located in the border area of the states of Baja California, Coahuila and Tamaulipas.  Mexico is currently selling between 150 and 250 megawatts of electricity to California.

The Mexican armed forces “doubled” the number of soldiers defending the security of 135 strategic installations in the country.  There are four “vital zones” to be watched: the Channel of Yucatán, the Golf of Mexico and the Campeche Sound, the Isthmus and Gulf of Tehuantepec and the US and Guatemala borders.  The Mexican army is on alert in its 12 military regions and 44 military zones.  The Navy-Coast Guard has 32,000 people to watch the coasts.  An increase in the security control zone has been decreed, from 6,000 to 12,000 square kilometers, around the oil wells in Campeche Sound, source of 75% of the country’s oil production and 45% of our natural gas.  The measure has hit the fishing industry the hardest, which was already in crisis.  Some 1,600 soldiers, a destroyer, a frigate and four gun boats, six interceptor boats, 14 planes and eight helicopters have been pressed into service to defend the area where the country’s most important oil reserves are located.  More than 200 marine platforms, mostly  in Campeche Sound, are theoretically in PEMEX’s hands, but the operation, machinery and oil tankers belong to US companies.  The Laguna Verde nuclear plant in Veracruz is guarded by boat and 120 navy marines.  Mexico’s Attorney General’s office (PGR) decided to create an elite antiterrorist group with the US’s FBI, and announced the creation of the Federal Investigations Agency (AFI), a local version of the CIA in the struggle against terrorism.  The AFI will take the place of the Federal Judicial Police (PFP), and the local office of Interpol-Mexico will maintain contact with 177 countries, sharing intelligence information.  Thus the global circle tightens, dominated by the US in economic, political, military and law-enforcement terms.  Meanwhile the PFP unleashes its 9,500 members in order to guard ports, airports, roads, borders, bus terminals and strategic and energy-related installations such as electrical, thermo-electric, hydroelectric, and nuclear-electric plants, including oil platforms, refineries, etc.  The PFP has an elite group called the Special Operations Group that received training in France, Israel and Spain.

Once again, as in the last century, the US government is doling out propaganda to undocumented migrants, offering to legalize their stay in the US in return for service within the US armed forces.  Some sources state that New York is home to almost one million Mexicans, 80% of whom are undocumented.  The Federation of Zacatecas Clubs in the US declared than between 150,000 and 200,000 young people above 18 years of age, born in the US, could be recruited.  The government of the state of Zacatecas, meanwhile, declared that at least 900 Mexican citizen had already been called by the US army, and the government of the state of Mexico stated than some 500,000 of its native sons were in the US, some of whom could be called into the National Guard, where 7% of its soldiers are Hispanic.  This is yet another reason behind the return of Mexicans.  After September 11, some 600,000 Mexicans in the US requested a “presumption of nationality” document in order to return to Mexico as soon as possible.

According to Mexico’s Secretary of Defense, the number of military personnel increased from 169,746 to 230,000 between 1990 and 2000.  Mexico has increased the purchase of war equipment by 300%.  The Secretary also reports than in the past few years some 7,000 land vehicles and 86 airplanes have been purchased and that the budget for national security –including the PGR—had increased 15% annually.  Equipment comes from manufacturers such as Northrop, Lockheed, Pilatus, Douglas, Fairchild-Hiller, Cessna, Aerospatiale, Bell, Rockwell, Beech, Swearingen, Mercedes Benz, among others, from the US, Switzerland, France, Germany, England and Belgium.  In 1994 the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London released information regarding the shipment of 80 French tanks for maneuvers in Chiapas.  Meanwhile in Switzerland the shipment of 48 military planes, worth US$231 million, has been blocked since 1995.

The day following the terrorist attacks a report from Mexico’s Center of Investigations and National Security (CISEN) confirmed the presence of at least 32 subversive groups in Mexico, among them the EZLN, EPR, FARP and FLN (see www.ciepac.org/mapas).  We recall that on September 1, the day President Fox gave his annual report, two explosive devices went off at shops located in Mexico City’s international airport, one at a McDonald’s restaurant, and the other at a car dealership.  The National Guerrilla Coordination “José María Morelos y Pavón” claimed credit for the explosions.  Bombs were also detonated in three bank branches not too long ago.  But these events aside, governments have used the climate of world war to eliminate internal enemies under the guise of the struggle against terrorism.

SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES

Restrictions on civil liberties are now occurring.  At borders and airports stricter migratory controls are in place, and official identification is being requested.  In the first few days after the attacks, some 200,000 persons were forbidden to enter the US because they lacked documents now being required.  At some airports travelers are being ask to show documents that prove they are not Muslims.  In Mexico there are 800 Muslims and very little Muslim investment.  The Mexican government drew up a list of some 60 countries whose citizens are now required to obtain previous permission in order to obtain an entry visa for Mexico.  Among the countries: Cuba, Colombia, Congo, Korea, China, Russia, Mongolia, Vietnam, Taiwan, but the ones under special supervision are Afghanistan, Azerbajyan, Bosnia, India, Macedonia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Turkey.  Days after the attacks, 96 undocumented Iraqis were detained at naval installations in Campeche.  In Mexico City, 126 undocumented persons (96 from Iraq, 6 Albanians, 9 Bangladeshis, 4 Burmese, 6 Sierra Leonans and 7 Sri Lankans) were under detention in the Iztapalapa naval facility .

Social effects will worsen if Fox’s Fiscal Reform package is passed, which would guarantee payment of the foreign debt and promises to end the losses in the pension system.  This Reform includes the elimination of subsidies for water supplies.  Privatization of water services is rumored, with interest being shown by firms from Spain, France, US and Mexico.  The Reform package would impose a uniform 15% tax on food, medicine, school tuition, books and magazines, public transportation, and taxis, all presently exempt.  It would also reduce workers’ profit plans, as well as the elimination of other subsidies, in order to raise some 130 billion pesos, while the Fox government spends 12 million pesos daily for publicity campaigns and millions more on trips abroad.  In one year, Fox has gone on 16 trips abroad, visiting 25 countries and signing 14 agreements on foreign investment, which has yet to arrive.  As governor of Guanajuato he took more than 30 trips abroad, visiting 22 countries.  Thus, neoliberal tendencies are deepened: unemployment and inflation go up, as do military spending, company bankruptcies, limited government bailouts, foreign debt and political polarization.

In light of the crisis, it is imperative that we find, strengthen and continue to search for autonomous alternatives for the countryside, for the rural, campesino and indigenous economy.  We must keep present conditions from expelling people from their lands, because returning and reclaiming possession will be difficult.  We must strengthen the local economies in an integral manner, in spite of the worsening situation.  Means of survival and resistance must be tried out in order to strengthen internal market alternatives and barter systems.  New education and health systems must be tried out.  It will be important to maintain encounters, exchange of experiences, and a search for alternatives among diverse population groups.  At this crucial time the indigenous people and campesinos will find less jobs in the cities and far fewer possibilities of crossing the militarized border with the US, and if successful, finding a job will become a nightmare.

Gustavo E. Castro Soto

Sources: Uno más Uno, Milenio, Crónica, Este país, La Jornada, Proceso, Quehacer Político, Vértigo, Cambio, Proceso Sur, Impacto, La Crisis, Época, Economía Nacional, Reforma, Cancún Voz del Caribe, USA Today, UNICEF, ONU, INEGI, SEDENA, Subsecretaría de Asuntos Religiosos de Gobernación, Secretaría de Economía, Secretaría de Seguridad Pública.

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