By Farrukh Abadi
Often, monopoly media reporting on Mexico is reduced to drug trafficking and violence. The focus on drugs and cartels obscures the reality of the source of Mexico’s problems: its relationship with the United States. US imperialism dominates Mexico’s bureaucratic capitalist system, a stunted capitalist system wholly subservient to imperialism; it is semi-feudal and semi-colonial. US companies “invest”—or rather, export—unimaginable sums of money into impoverished countries like Mexico, and in return not only receive high interest rates, but gain access to cheaper labor and land that allows them to realize higher profits at a greater expense to the Mexican people. Today, this process is concentrated in the construction of the Inter-oceanic Corridor (IOC), an imperialist mega-project in the south-southeast region of Mexico known as the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.
The area was chosen because it is the shortest distance in Mexico between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, aiming to be another Panama Canal. The mega-project, funded largely by US companies, seeks to update the railway system connecting the two oceans, renovating the ports, and building ten industrial parks between them. Four of these will be wind farms. The process requires the destruction of the land and homes of the over twenty indigenous communities that live in the region, removing them from their native lands while poisoning the environment. This is part of Biden’s so called “environmentalism” right next to the fact that he has leased more lands to oil monopolies than his predecessor.
The irony of capitalist logic is not lost when the leaders of both the US and Mexico have justified the project under the argument that it will uplift the indigenous peoples of the area while at the same time contributing to the fight against global warming. Despite being fully aware of and admitting the miserable conditions the indigenous people have been forced to subsist under—50% of the isthmus population does not have access to clean water, sewage, gas or electricity—the capitalists argue that it is simply because their golden touch of super-exploitation has not yet reached them.
And yet—what has been the result of the hundreds of industrial parks constructed under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)? An increase in employment at the newly established US firms—eager to take advantage of a virtually unregulated labor force and environment—and a decrease in employment at Mexican businesses. Real wages decreased and unionization among Mexican workers dropped by 50% over the first two decades of its implementation. In recent years, poverty and extreme poverty actually increased in areas with industrial parks.
Essentially, what is taking place is a constriction of the Mexican economy and the increasing dominance of US imperialism. US economic relations with Mexico have been and continue to be attacks on the sovereignty of Mexico and in particular on the rights of the Mexican people.USS monopolies like Visa, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, and Uber are all big players in the IOC. Their representatives have made several visits to the region to make sure their plans are being implemented, openly taking on the old role of colonial overseer. The US has so far promised $30 million to invest in the region, financing the four wind farms—nearly half of the industrial parks. It is no wonder that the governor of Chiapas—an affected state in the region—thanked the US for “triggering” the IOC: it is in fact a US mega-project in Mexico!
The indigenous communities in the affected areas have fought back against the encroachments on their land and sovereignty. Unified under the slogan “The Inter-oceanic Corridor is plundering and killing poor peasants and indigenous peoples in Mexico!” an ongoing blockade of major highways since the beginning of March has successfully slowed operations. At the same time, 3,000 people representing tens of organizations marched on the capital of Oaxaca—a central player in the region—displaying the strength of the people united in their common struggle against imperialist oppression and semi-feudal bondage. Thus the imperialists also reap the bitterness of the people from the poison they sow: as more and more people are concentrated in conditions of oppression and exploitation, their unity and struggle against the handful of imperialists becomes inevitable—as does the people’s victory.
The Mexican government as well as the US imperialists have made use of drug cartels, the national guard, and navy in an attempt to stop these rebellions. They continue their practice of intimidating and murdering journalists and activists, creating so-called “silence zones” to prevent reporting about the Inter-oceanic Corridor, connections with the cartels, and the corrupt and phony elections that are used to legitimize it. These are the practices that make Mexico the deadliest country in the world for journalists (outside of active war zones) and environmental activists.
In response to the repression that the democratic-revolutionary movement has faced, they have called for justice for the comrades who have been disappeared, assassinated and imprisoned: Dr. Ernesto Sernas García, a professor and lawyer for political prisoners in Oaxaca who was kidnapped in 2018 following a legal victory against the government; Luis Armando Fuentes Aquino and Jesús Manuel García Martínez, affiliated with the anti-imperialist organization Current of the People – Red Sun, who were assassinated; Salvador Pinal Meléndez, a Zapotec community member who was arrested, tortured, and currently remains under house arrest for resisting the IOC; and Félix Vicente Cruz, who was shot to death just two weeks ago in the Isthmus and was active in the ongoing struggles in the region.
Demands also include an end to the IOC and other imperialist mega-projects that cause dispossession and death, and imprisoning cartel leader “Tacho Canasta” and his gang, who violently attacked the ongoing blockade against the construction of the railroad while the national guard stood by.
International solidarity actions have taken place in Latin America and Europe, including protests outside of Mexican embassies, hanging banners, and painting walls, broadcasting the demands and slogans of the struggle. Front and center has been the central slogan of the movement: “The Inter-oceanic Corridor is plundering and killing poor peasants and indigenous peoples in Mexico!”
Here in the United States, the country that is propelling this murderous project, class conscious workers, revolutionaries and all progressive people have a special duty to carry out actions in solidarity with the people of Mexico resisting the IOC. It is the politicians in the US calling for war with Mexico: Congressmen Mike Waltz (R-FL), Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and former attorney general William Barr. It is the US monopolies plundering the region and pushing for the project: Visa, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, and Uber. Workers in the US must use their proximity to the main imperialists as an opportunity to combat the ongoing exploitation and murder of the Mexican people. The Worker amplifies the people’s slogan: The Interoceanic Corridor is plundering and killing poor peasants and indigenous peoples in Mexico!
We call upon our readers, all honest revolutionaries, and class-conscious working people to take part in the international campaign against the Interoceanic Corridor!
