Saturday, February 08, 2014
The Violence of NAFTA
In his article about the violence in Mexico created by NAFTA, Victor M. Quintana describes how the imposition of poverty by NAFTA created a humanitarian crisis that left millions of peasant farmers broke, and thousands of communities broken down. Since 1994 when President Clinton pushed NAFTA through Congress, Mexico's aquifers have been over-exploited, and forests razed. After twenty years, impoverishment due to NAFTA has left 28 million people without enough to eat. Into this social vacuum, says Quintana, moved organized crime, issuing usurious credit, robbing day laborers, and requiring extortion payments. Gaining territorial control, organized crime now sows terror through executions, mutilations, kidnappings and arson. The violence promoted by neoliberals like Clinton through NAFTA has essentially destroyed community life.
