Tropic of Chaos

by Christian Parenti

  37 Enrique “Desmond” Arias, “The Dynamics of Criminal Governance: Networks and Social Order in Rio de Janeiro,” Journal of Latin American Studies 38, no. 2 (May 2006): 293–325.

  38 For details, see Mike Davis, Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World (London: Verso, 2002).

  39 Timothy Finan, “Drought and Demagoguery: A Political Ecology of Climate Variability in Northeast Brazil” (paper presented at the workshop “Public Philosophy, Environment, and Social Justice,” Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs, October 21–22, 1999), 3.

  40 Liqiang Sun et al., “Climate Variability and Corn Yields in Semiarid Ceara, Brazil,” Journal of Applied Meteorology 46, no. 2 (February 1, 2007), 226–239.

  41 Sun et al., “Climate Variability,” 227.

  42 Rob Wilby, “Review of Climate Scenarios in Northeast Brazil” (a technical brief for Tearfund, Teddington, UK, June 2008), 2; Saulo Araujo, “Lessons from Northeast Brazil: ‘You Can’t Fight the Environment,’” Grassroots International, March 2, 2009, www.grassrootsonline.org/news/blog/lessons-northeast-brazil-you-can’t-fight-environment.

  43 Joseph A. Page, The Brazilians (New York: Da Capo Press, 1996), 186.

  44 Section 13.5.1.1, “Natural Ecosystems,” in Magrin et al., Climate Change 2007.

  45 Edmund Conway, “Economics IMF Warns That It May Soon Be Broke,” Daily Telegraph, May 5, 2006. The heading for this section comes from the excellent book by Theda Skocpol, Peter B. Evans, and Dietrich Rueschemeyer, eds., Bringing the State Back In (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985).

  46 Christian Parenti, “Retaking Rio,” The Nation, May 31, 2010.

  47 Donald R. Nelson and Timothy J. Finan, “Praying for Drought: Persistent Vulnerability and the Politics of Patronage in Ceara, Northeast Brazil,” American Anthropologist 111, no. 3 (September 2009): 302–316: 305.

  Chapter 14

  1 Darlene Superville, “Michelle Obama Launches Solo Agenda on Mexico Tour,” Associated Press, April 14, 2010.

  2 Charles Bowden on Democracy Now, April 14 2010.

  3 Kevin Johnson, “Violence Drops in U.S. Cities Neighboring Mexico,” USA Today, December 28, 2009.

  4 “Juarez Massacres: Where Will Cartels Attack Next?” El Paso Times, February 2, 2010.

  5 Elisabeth Malkin, “Gunmen in Mexico Kill 13 at Party,” New York Times, January 31, 2010.

  6 William Booth, “Mexico’s Drug Gangs Go on the Offensive Against Authorities,” Washington Post, May 2, 2010.

  7 Shuaizhang Feng, Alan B. Krueger, and Michael Oppenheimer, “Linkages Among Climate Change, Crop Yields and Mexico-US Cross-Border Migration,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107, no. 32 (August 10, 2010): 14257–14262.

  8 Nacha Cattan, “Climate Change Set to Boost Mexican Immigration to the US, Says Study,” Christian Science Monitor, July 27, 2010.

  9 Oli Brown, Migration and Climate Change (Geneva: International Organization for Migration, 2008), 10.

  10 Sam Knight, “Human Tsunami,” Financial Times, June 19, 2009.

  11 Quoted in Amy Kazmin, “Rising Sea Levels Hit Bangladesh Livelihoods,” Financial Times, September 22, 2009.

  12 William Lacy Swing, “Let’s Invest Now for Tomorrow’s Migration,” Migration (Magazine of the International Organization for Migration), winter 2010.

  13 Kazmin, “Rising Sea Levels Hit Bangladesh Livelihoods.”

  14 A similar, but different, story could be told about Africans and Middle Easterners moving to Europe. The best book on these dynamics is still Saskia Sassen, The Mobility of Labor and Capital (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990).

  15 A 2007 longitudinal country profile plotting Mexico’s loss of mangroves, titled “Mangroves of North and Central America, 1980–2005: Country Reports,” can be found on the Food and Agriculture Organization website at ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/010/ai446t/ai446t00.pdf ; for more on the crisis, see “President Felipe Calderon Signs Legislation to Protect Coastal Wetlands; Governors Threatened to Define New Law,” Mex Economic News & Analysis on Mexico, February 14, 2007.

  16 The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations keeps data on fisheries. Its country profile of Mexico notes, “The current status of the decreasing production trend in fisheries yield is due to overexploitation, poor management, an increase of fishing effort, lack of surveillance, naturally occurring changes in each reservoir and the poor quality of broodstock and fingerlings produced at government fish culture centers that have resulted in smaller fish size and hybridization.” This is found at “Fishery and Aquaculture Country Profiles: Mexico,” FAO, Fisheries and Aquaculture Department, www.fao.org/fishery/countrysector/FI-CP_MX/en. For a graph of total catch over time, see www.fao.org/fishery/countrysector/FI-CP_MX/3/en.

  17 Alonso Aguilar Ibarra, Chris Reid, and Andy Thorpe, “The Political Economy of Marine Fisheries Development in Peru, Chile and Mexico,” Journal of Latin American Studies 32, no. 2 (May 2000): 503–527: 521.

  18 For a full discussion of Mexican corporatism and fisheries policy, see Emily Young, “State Intervention and Abuse of the Commons: Fisheries Development in Baja California Sur, Mexico,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 91, no. 2 (June 2001): 283–306: 242.

  19 Ibarra, Reid, and Thorpe, “The Political Economy of Marine Fisheries,” 526.

  20 John Wright, “Mexico Announces Liberalization of Foreign Investment Rules,” AP Online, May 15, 1989.

  21 Young, “State Intervention and Abuse of the Commons,” 288.

  22 Young, “State Intervention and Abuse of the Commons,” 300.

  23 Tim Weiner, “In Mexico, Greed Kills Fish by the Seaful,” New York Times, April 10, 2002.

  24 Tim L. Merrill and Ramón Miró, eds., Mexico: A Country Study (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1996).

  25 Richard Grant, God ’s Middle Finger: Into the Lawless Heart of the Sierra Madre (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008), 242.

  26 Mexico lost 6.9 percent from FAO 2005 assessment. “A lingering question in economic geography is the degree to which there is a link between neoliberal policies and environmental degradation. Research is needed to relate such policies empirically to local-level decision making, both to evaluate their consequences and to contribute to an understanding of how cross-scalar dynamics drive processes of land-use change” (Martín Ricker, “The Role of Mexican Forests in the Storage of Carbon to Mitigate Climate Change” [“El papel de los bosques mexicanos en el almacenamiento de carbono para mitigar el cambio climático”], Sociedad Mexicana de Física, April 2008,www.smf.mx/C-Global/webElpapelbosquesmex2.htm); COSYDDAC, The Forest Industry and Forest Resources in the Sierra Madre de Chihuahua: Social, Economic, and Ecological Impacts (La industria forestal y los recursos forestales en la Sierra Madre de Chihuahua: Impactos sociales, económicos y ecológicos), Texas Center for Policy Studies, December 1999, www.texascenter.org/publications/forestal.pdf.

  27 Rene Dumont, “Mexico: The ‘Sabotage’ of the Agrarian Reform,” New Left Review I/17 (winter 1962): 46–63.

  28 Elisabeth Malkin, “Mexico Now Enduring Worst Drought in Years,” New York Times, September 12, 2009.

  29 “Mexico Says Corn Supply Not Threatened by Drought,” EFE World News Service, January 5, 2010.

  30 Koko Warner et al., “In Search of Shelter: Mapping the Effects of Climate Change on Human Migration” (report by CARE International and UN University, 2009), http://ciesin.columbia.edu/documents/ClimMigr-rpt-june09.pdf.

  31 Herbert Ingram Priestley, “The Contemporary Program of Nationalization in Mexico,” The Pacific Historical Review 8, no. 1 (March 1939): 59–74: 60. Under Diaz, however, Mexico was hardly a banana republic; in fact he began as something of a progressive, nineteenth-century liberal and presided over some meaningful development—encouraging railroads, telegraphs, and basic factories—but declined into sclerotic corruption.

  32 Carleton Beals, Porfirio Diaz, Dictator of Mexico (Philadelphia: J. P. L
ippincott, 1932), 307.

  33 Paul Garner, Porfirio Diaz (London: Longman, 2001).

  34 Beals, Porfirio Diaz, 334.

  35 Adolfo Gilly, The Mexican Revolution (New York: New Press, 2005); John Womack Jr., Zapata and the Mexican Revolution (New York: Vintage, 1970); there was, in fact, quite a bit of behind-the-scenes jockeying and rivalry between foreign capitalists to support either the Diaz government or the revolution. Even among American firms, which generally supported President Francisco Madera, there was subterfuge and division. John Skirius, “Railroad, Oil and Other Foreign Interests in the Mexican Revolution, 1911–1914,” Journal of Latin American Studies 35, no. 1 (February 2003): 25–51.

  36 Frank Tannenbaum, Peace by Revolution: An Interpretation of Mexico (New York: Columbia University Press, 1933), 115.

  37 COSYDDAC, The Forest Industry and Forest Resources.

  38 This translation of Mexico’s 1917 constitution can be found at www.latinamericanstudies.org/mexico/1917-Constitution.htm.

  39 Gilly, The Mexican Revolution, 338.

  40 Dumont, “Mexico.”

  41 Remonda Bensabat Kleinberg, “Strategic Alliances: State-Business Relations in Mexico Under Neo-Liberalism and Crisis,” Bulletin of Latin American Research 18, no. 1 (January 1999): 71–87: 72.

  42 Kleinberg, “Strategic Alliances.”

  43 Terry McKinley and Diana Alarcon, “Mexican Bank Nationalization,” Latin American Perspectives 20, no. 3 (summer 1993): 80–82: 80.

  44 Priestley, “The Contemporary Program of Nationalization in Mexico,” 66.

  45 Priestley, “The Contemporary Program,” 62.

  46 Of course, as one academic reminds us, the postrevolutionary Mexico “never operated along purely corporatist lines, and some sectors of society were tied to these arrangements much more closely than others.” James G. Samstad, “Corporatism and Democratic Transition: State and Labor During the Salinas and Zedillo Administrations,” Latin American Politics and Society 44, no. 4 (winter 2002): 1–28: 3. See Gilly’s classic radical history The Mexican Revolution.

  47 For a good overview of the changing relationship between the state and capital in Mexico, see Kleinberg, “Strategic Alliances,” 72.

  48 As Leo Panitch described it in a classic essay, corporatism is “a political structure within advanced capitalism which integrates organized socioeconomic producer groups through a system of representation and cooperative mutual interaction at the leadership level and mobilization and social control at the mass level.” Leo Panitch, “Recent Theorizations of Corporatism: Reflections on a Growth Industry,” British Journal of Sociology 31 (1980): 159–187: 173. For more on the subject and its links to authoritarian states, see David Collier, ed., The New Authoritarianism in Latin America (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1980).

  49 George Philip, Oil and Politics in Latin America: Nationalist Movements and State Companies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982); George W. Grayson, Oil and Mexican Foreign Policy (Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1988). It was during this crisis of nationalization that the current ruling party, the Partido Accion Nacional (PAN), was formed from a coalition of right-wing groups, including bankers, industrial capitalists, landowners, religious elements, and even members of the Union Nacional Sinarquista, a Catholic and cryptofascist party on the model of the Falange. Michelle Dion, “The Political Origins of Social Security in Mexico During the Cárdenas and Ávila Camacho Administrations,” Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos 21, no. 1 (winter 2005): 59–95.

  50 Kleinberg, “Strategic Alliances,” 72.

  51 George W. Grayson, “Oil and U.S.-Mexican Relations,” Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs 21, no. 4 (November 1979): 427–456: 428; Arthur Howe, “OPEC’S Grip on Oil Markets Slipping Away,” Philadelphia Inquirer, December 7, 1983.

  52 On the guerilla movements of Mexico, see O’Neill Blacker, “Cold War in the Countryside: Conflict in Guerrero, Mexico,” The Americas 66, no. 2 (October 2009): 181–210; on labor, see Dale A. Hathaway, Allies Across the Border: Mexico’s “Authentic Labor Front” and Global Solidarity (Boston: South End Press, 2000).

  53 Adam David Morton, “Structural Change and Neoliberalism in Mexico : ‘Passive Revolution’ in the Global Political Economy,” Third World Quarterly 24, no. 4 (August 2003): 631–653.

  54 William Chislett, “Black Gold Fuels Economic Turnaround,” Globe and Mail, May 26, 1980. In 1978, it looked as though the shah of Iran’s regime might collapse, and if Iran tipped into chaos, oil would spike. Just as prices were rising, Pemex Mexico found another enormous petroleum patch. By the end of 1976, Mexico was producing eight hundred thousand barrels daily and exporting about ninety-four thousand barrels each day. By 1980 production was approaching 2.2 million barrels a day, and exports had increased ninefold, to 850,000 barrels a day. This was the fastest increase in oil production in world history.

  55 John Crewdson and Vincent J. Schodolski, “Price of Reform Cripples Mexico,” Chicago Tribune, November 23, 1986.

  56 Chislett, “Black Gold Fuels Economic Turnaround.”

  57 Alan Ridding, “Taming Mexico’s Passion for More,” New York Times, September 12, 1982.

  58 Michael Kevane, “Commodities in Crisis: The Commodity Crisis of the 1980s and the Political Economy of International Commodity Policies, by Alfred Maizels,” Economic Development and Cultural Change 45, no. 1 (October 1996): 205–208.

  59 James Thompson and Sean O’Grady, “Commodity Crisis Sparks Fear of Food Inflation on High Street,” The Independent (UK), August 10, 2010. For a historical chart of commodity prices, see the Index Mundi website (www.indexmundi.com). The IMF’s Commodity Price Index is found at www.indexmundi.com/commodities/?commodity=commodity-price-index&months=300.

  60 Walden Below, Dark Victory: The United States and Global Poverty (Oakland, CA: Food First Books, 1999).

  61 Oakland Ross, “Dropping Oil Prices Leave Mexico in Economic Limbo,” Globe and Mail, August 6, 1982.

  62 Michael Vaply, “Today’s Catastrophe,” Globe and Mail, August 20, 1982.

  63 Marlise Simons, “Mexican Peso Devalued for Second Time in 6 Months,” New York Times, August 7, 1982.

  64 Alan Riding, “Mexico Devalues Peso 30%,” New York Times, February 19, 1982; Alan Riding, “Worry Spreads After Peso Curbs,” New York Times, August 14, 1982.

  65 Robert A. Bennett, “Mexico Seeking Postponement of Part of Debt,” New York Times, August 20, 1982.

  66 Richard J. Meislin, “Mexico Is Selling Stock Held by Seized Banks,” New York Times, May 22, 1984.

  67 “Mexican Peso Plunges in Value,” Globe and Mail, August 20, 1982; Robert Bennett, “Bankers Pressured to Assist Mexico,” New York Times, August 21, 1982.

  68 “Mexico Plans 106 Closings,” New York Times, November 17, 1982; on Ocean Garden Products, see Young, “State Intervention and Abuse of the Commons,” 288.

  69 Katherine Ellison, “Mexico Sheds Its Assets,” San Jose Mercury News, October 22, 1989.

  70 Alan Riding, “Bankers Cheer Mexico’s Austerity Plan,” New York Times, December 3, 1982.

  71 Crewdson and Schodolski, “Price of Reform Cripples Mexico.”

  72 Penny Lernoux, “Rescue Missions Impossible: Lessons of the Mexican Bailout,” The Nation, October 6, 1984.

  73 Steven Zahniser and Zachary Crago, “NAFTA at 15: Building on Free Trade,” Outlook Report No. WRS-09-03, March 2009.

  74 Noam Chomsky, Profit over People (New York: Seven Stories Press, 1999).

  75 Elisabeth Malkin, “Nafta’s Promise, Unfulfilled,” New York Times, March 23, 2009.

  76 Timothy Wise, “Fields of Free Trade: Mexico’s Small Farmers in a Global Economy,” Dollars & Sense, December 2003.

  77 Malkin, “Nafta’s Promise.”

  78 Malkin, “Nafta’s Promise.”

  79 Wise, “Fields of Free Trade.”

  80 George Dyer-Leal and Antonio Yúnez-Naude, “NAFTA and Conservation of Maize Diversity in Mexico,” Commission for
Environmental Cooperation of North America, 2003, www.cec.org/Page.asp?PageID=1180&ContentID=&SiteNodeID=472.

  81 Matilde Pérez, “En materia alimentaria para México, el TLCAN está reprobado: Oxfam.” La Jornada, January 2, 2010, www.jornada.unam.mx/2010/01/02/index.php?section=politica&article=008n2pol.

  82 Chomsky, Profit over People.

  83 Dyer-Leal and Yúnez-Naude, “NAFTA and Conservation of Maize Diversity.”

  84 Olivier Pavón, “Afrontar ‘con mucho corazón’ apertura total del TLC, aconseja Alberto Cárdenas,” La Crónica de Hoy, December 20, 2007, www.cronica.com.mx/nota.php?id_nota=338675.

  85 Gilly, The Mexican Revolution, 337.

  86 Rural Poverty in Mexico, vol. 4 of Mexico: Income Generation and Social Protection for the Poor, Report No. 32867MX (World Bank: Washington DC, 2005), 170. The CIA’s World Factbook lists poverty rates as “18.2% using food-based definition of poverty; asset based poverty amounted to more than 47% (2006).”

  87 Mark Smith, “Serial Murders a Source of Fear and Mystery/New Spate of Killings Baffle Police, Who Hold a Suspect,” Houston Chronicle, March 31, 1996; Sam Dillon, “Rape and Murder Stalk Women in Northern Mexico,” New York Times, April 18, 1998; Jodi Bizar, “9 Held in Juarez Slayings 6 Teen-Agers Among Serial Killing Suspects,” San Antonio Express-News, May 7, 1998.

  88 Charles Bowden, Murder City: Ciudad Juárez and the Global Economy’s New Killing Fields (New York: Nation Books, 2010), xiii.

  89 Bowden, Murder City, 104–105.

  90 Jen Phillips, “The Cartels Next Door,” Mother Jones Magazine, July/August 2009.

  91 Warren Richey, “Drug Runners Shift Routes As U.S. Steps Up Pressure,” South Florida Sun-Sentinel, November 24, 1989; Jole Williams, “U.S. Border’s War on Drugs Shifts to Texas,” Denver Rocky Mountain News, October 15, 1989; William Overend, “Adventures in the Drug Trade,” Los Angeles Times Magazine, May 7, 1989.

  92 “Columbia Drug Smugglers Using ‘Mexican Pipeline,’” San Francisco Chronicle, January 1, 1988.