Ordered by Felipe Calderón in December 2006, the war came to Chihuahua in March 2008 with “Joint Operation Chihuahua”. This is a binational war–the only way to understand it is to think about the decision-making, capital flows, social networks, institutions, and beneficiaries on each side of the border.
The link between trade liberalization and food availability is becoming a critical factor that, far from improving living conditions, threatens to deepen and entrench the structural causes of hunger, violence and malnutrition in the region.
Sebastian Fernandez, 25, a graduate student born in Colombia, works the Spanish information desk of the Occupy Wall Street camp on the edge of Zucotti Park. At the corner of Liberty and Broadway, flanked by hot dog vendors and police barricades, he sits at a folding table laden with Spanish-language copies of the protest’s newspaper, the “Occupy Wall Street Journal”.
Wages that have less buying power than in China, “temporary” work contracts, firings to undermine labor organizing, and phantom “unions” are just a few of the day-to day realities experienced by Mexican electronic workers,
Colombia, traditionally Washington’s best ally in the region, is cozying up to Brazil and building a solid commercial, financial and political network with its neighbor while Washington becomes more and more isolated as a result of the geopolitical restructuring taking place globally and regionally.
Since NAFTA, millions of Mexicans have joined the ranks of the hungry. Malnutrition is highest among the country’s farm families, who used to produce enough food to feed the nation.
The increase in the cost of food, especially basic grains, has serious consequences for southern countries with low incomes and dependency on food imports, and for the millions of families in these countries.
