Mexico

In the 19th century, Mexican president, Porfirio Diaz, said, "Poor Mexico, so far from God and so close to the United States."  Military intervention from the north may no longer be Mexico’s principal worry but increasingly damaging trade relations are. No friend to the Mexican peasant, Diaz might not blink at the fact that free trade now undermines Mexico’s small farmer economy. After all, he would likely be among Mexico’s growing class of billionaires.

But millions of farmers do mind this gaping inequality and they are organizing to demand their fundamental rights to land, water and food. Among them are the dynamic organizations of farmers and their allies at the heart of Grassroots International’s work in Mexico.

Since 1994 when Mexico became part of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the average Mexican has watched real wages fall and cost of living rise. Mexico’s staple, the corn tortilla, is now too expensive for many families. The out-migration from Mexico’s countryside is astounding, leaving many once vibrant villages as ghost towns. Remittances from family members in the U.S. are the second most important source of national income after petroleum.

The human rights situation in Mexico continues to worsen, principally in states with disenfranchised indigenous majorities like Oaxaca and Chiapas. The recent presidential election, marred by allegations of fraud, leaves the authorities with little legitimacy in the eyes of the public.

Grassroots International’s partners in Oaxaca, CAMPO and CEPCO support crop diversification to limit dependence on an unstable global coffee market. Organizations such as SER Mixe and Enlace Civil work with indigenous communities on bottom-up economic development projects and advocacy for essential infrastructure.

While billions of pesos go into superhighways, rural roads to get harvests to market or people to essential services like hospitals are still neglected.

Our partner, the National Union of Autonomous Small Farmer Organizations (UNORCA) plays a leadership role in a campaign to overturn the agricultural chapters of NAFTA that have dumped so much under-priced corn on Mexican markets and contaminated fields with genetically modified varieties. They work to ensure that no Mexican be denied a tortilla and that the tortillas are milled from Mexican corn.