How
the Press & the CIA Killed Gary Webb's Career
Today's
Stories
December
16, 2004
Michael
Neumann
How We Became Barbarians
Merlin
Chowkwanyun
An Interview with Ralph Nader
Gabriel
Espinoza Gonzales
The Dubious Career of John Bolton
Christopher
Brauchli
Louis Freeh's New Gig: Usurer
Patrick
Cockburn
Allawi's Pre-Election Ploy: Putting "Chemical Ali"
on Trial
Mike
Whitney
Gearing Up for a Draft?
Walter
Brasch
Hillbilly Humvees and Rumsfeld's New Physics
Bill
Conroy
How Gary Webb Saved My Ass from the FBI
Website
of the Day
Saturday Memorial for Gary Webb
December
15, 2004
Robert
Fisk
Who Killed Baha Mousa?
Jennifer
Van Bergen
The Monster Under the Bed
Heather
Gray
Will the Real Christians Please Stand?: a Personal Testimony
Dave
Lindorff
The DNC, Albright and the Iraq Elections
Luis
Hernandez Navarro
To Die a Little: Migration and Coffee
in Mexico and Central America
Joshua
Frank
The Ohio Recount: an Exercise in "Dumbocracy"
Greg
Moses
Eighty-Sixing Civil Rights in Ohio?
George
Caffentzis
The Petroleum Commons
December
14, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
DNC Meddling in the Ukraine Elections
Larry
Birns / Seth DeLong
Haiti is Unraveling and No One is Saying
Anything
Richard
Thieme
My Last Talk with Gary Webb: "I Knew It Was the Truth and
That's What Kept Me Going"
Patrick
Cockburn
A Year After Saddam's Capture, Iraq
is Getting Worse
Chris
Floyd
Client State: Moral Values and Voluntary Servitude in Bush's
America
Akiva
Eldar
A One-time Hanukkah Miracle
Burbach
/ Cantor
The Legacy of Pinochet: Kissinger
and the Teflon Tyrant
December
13, 2004
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Gary Webb: a Great Reporter, Trashed
by the CIA's Claque
David
Phinney
"Contract Meal Disaster" for Iraqi Prisoners: Rancid
Food Sparked Abu Ghraib Riots
Paul
Craig Roberts
A Dose of Non-Delusional Reality
for Douglas Feith
M.
Junaid Alam
The War is the War Crime
Robert
Jensen
The US Has Lost the Iraq War...and That's a Good Thing
Richard
Oxman
Kafkaesque Lessons for the Left
Greg
Moses
Send No Messengers of Defeat
Douglas
Lummis
The Pentagon's Neurosis: Fallujah
Gulag
December
11 / 12, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
Running an Empire on the Cheap
Ron
Jacobs
The Drugs of War: Getting High in the Green Zone?
Saul
Landau
Listening and Talking to God About
Invading Other Countries
Gary
Leupp
Bush's Capital
Sharon
Smith
The Horrible Toll on US Troops
Dave
Lindorff
Deja Vu All Over Again: 5,000 Desertions and Counting
Uri
Avnery
The Boss Has Gone Crazy
Jude
Wanniski
The Neo-Con Smear on Kofi Annan: What Food-for-Oil Scandal?
Heather
Gray
How the South Became Republican: an Interview with John Egerton
Patrick
Cockburn / Ken Sengupta
Fallujah: the Homecoming and the Homeless
John
Pilger
Return to Kosovo: Calling the Humanitarian Bombers to Account
Joshua
Frank
All the Rage: Mr. Solomon, Say You're Sorry
Ben
Tripp
O Canada!: the Truth About the Election of 2004
John
Stanton
God Speaks!
Laura
Nathan
Porn Stars are People, Too: a Talk with Christi Lake
Poets'
Basement
Capaccio, Davies, Louise, Ford and Albert
Website
of the Day
Fallujah Photos: Killed in Their Beds
December
10, 2004
Ralph
Nader
President Bush, Stop Destroying the
Mosques of Iraq
Greg
Moses
Whitewashing Voter Fraud
Nicole
Colson
Rebellion in the Ranks: Grunts Are Resisting Stop-Loss Orders
Frederick
B. Hudson
"They Still Got Those Dogs": A New Book Probes Old
Civil Rights Lessons
Patrick
Cockburn
Iraq's Insurgents Oppose the Occupation, Not the Elections
Kathy
Kelly
From Haiti to Iraq: Burying Water
December
9, 2004
Greg
Moses
Ask Not Who Bankrolled Fallujah
Joshua
Frank
Cobb and the Ohio Recount: Vote Fraud as Fundraiser!
Ralph
Nader
An Open Letter to Bush: It's Time to
Disclose the Real Casualty Figures
Lee
Sustar
Bhopal: the Making of a Disaster
Tom
Barry
Restrictionist Resurgence
Mickey
Z.
Sander Hicks and the 9/11 Truth Movement
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush in the Bubble
Mark
Donham
Why are House Democrats Trying to
Deny Cynthia McKinney Seniority?
Gary
Corseri
On the Anniversary of John Lennon's Death, 2012
Paul
de Rooij
The Voices of Sharon's Little Helpers
December
8, 2004
Ralph
Nader
Will the Real Michael Moore Ever Re-Emerge?
Ann
Harrison
The Ohio Recount: Reluctant Officials
and Few Rules
Paul
Craig Roberts
War Crime
Dave
Lindorff
They've Got a Secret: Inside the $40 Billion Black Budget for
Spying
Patrick
Cockburn / Andrew Buncombe
CIA Warning on Iraq: Fallujah Did Not Break the Back of the Insurgency
Col.
Dan Smith
Rules of Engagement in Iraq
Emily
Alves / Michael Johnson
Paradise Lost: Corruption and Clientelism in Costa Rica
Richard
Oxman
The Dylan Bob Wouldn't Mention: Up With Dylan Thomas
Ron
Jacobs
In Fallujah, Freedom Isn't Free
December
7, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
Running Battles in Baghdad
Behrooz
Ghamari
Lost Muslim Voices of Dissent
Dave
Lindorff
American Fantasies: Psst! Hey Buddy,
Did You Hear How Well the War's Going?
Joshua
Frank
Dean at the DNC?
Richard
Oxman
Down with Dylan: the Insufferable Interview
Ray
McGovern
All Mosquitoes, No Swamp
John
Chuckman
The Invasion of Hallifax: The Imperial Wizard Visits Canada
James
Petras
Latin America: the Empire Changes Gears
Website
of the Day
ToxMap: Who's Poisoning You
December
6, 2004
Paul
Craig Roberts
Paranoia and Pre-emption: Is the
Bush Administration Certifiable?
December
4 / 6, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
Politicize the CIA? You've Got to
be Kidding
Joe
Bageant
Dining with the Rhinos
Alan
Maass
Reporting from the Ground in Iraq: an Interview with Patrick
Cockburn
Brian
Cloughley
Democracy, Bush-style, in the Gulf
Laura
Carlsen
Latin America Shifts Left
Lenni
Brenner
Jefferson, Madison, Bush and Religion
Anna
Ioakimedes
Brazil's Haitian Mission: Doing God's Work or Washington's?
Uri
Avnery
Widow of Opportunity?
Fred
Gardner
Supreme Court Hears Medical Pot Case
Dave
Zirin
Steroids to Heaven
Jackie
Corr
Mining Camp Blues: the Red State Variation
Don
Fitz
Will Greens Abandon IRV?
Lucy
Herschel
"Art can be a Weapon of the Oppressed": an Interview
with Artist Anthony Papa
Richard
Oxman
No Angels in America: Bashing the Gay Play
Ron
Jacobs
Holiday Greeting Card
Poets'
Basement
Collins, Albert, LaMorticella
December
3, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
Lie Then Escalate
Ben
Tripp
Fun With Boycotts: How to Shop in a
Time of Crisis
Joe
Allen
Murder in El Salvador: the Assassination of Teamster Organizer
Gilberto Soto
Matthew
B. Riley
Human Rights Court Fails Lori Berenson
Meir
Shalev
In the End, It is the Violin that Wins
Bob
Wing
The White Elephant in the Room: Race and Election 2004
Christopher
Brauchli
When McCain Bit His Tongue
Sasan
Fayazmanesh
The EU, the US, Israel and Iran
December
2, 2004
Tito
Tricot
No Justice in Chile: I'm a Torture
Survivor in a Country Where Torturers Still Run Free
Behzad
Yaghmaian
The Murder of Theo Van Gogh and Muslim Migration
Dr.
Susan Block
Lana and Me: Meetings with Remarkable Apes
Frank
/ Chowkwanyun
Liberalism and Its Bounds
Lee
Sustar
Standoff in Ukraine: the Bad v. the Corrupt
Patrick
Cockburn
Another Grim Record in Iraq
Mark
Engler
Seattle at Five
Michael
Donnelly
Something Stinks in South Bend: the Firing of Tyrone Willingham
Nate
Collins
The Bay Area Mall on an Ohlone Burial Grounds
Saul
Landau
The Assassination of Danilo Anderson
December
1, 2004
Phillip
Cryan
Associated with Whom? Rightist Bias
in Wire Coverage of Colombia
Dave
Zirin
What's the Matter with "Leon"?:
Budweiser's Racist Commercial
Ghali
Hassan
Iraq's Health Care Under the Occupation:
200 Children Die Every Day
Donna
J. Volatile
Beware Western Nations Threatening "Democracy"
Patrick
Cockburn
How Saddam Tried to Arm the Insurgency
Nick
Meo
Chemical War Over Afghanistan
Mike
Ferner
The Battle of Toledo
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Shame and Determination on Global AIDS Day: 40 Million and Rising
Kathy
Kelly
Looking the Other Way: the Real Crimes
of the UN in Iraq
November
30, 2004
Jennifer
Van Bergen
The Veil of Secrecy
Toni
Nelson Herrera
Meeting Kurtz: When Art is a Crime
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Bush Delusions: Successful at Incompetence
Patrick
Cockburn
The Insurgency Strikes Back: There Are No Safe Havens in Iraq
Chuck
Munson
WTO Protests Five Years Later: Seattle Weekly Trashes Anti-Globalization
Movement
Adam
Williams
Citizenship Sold: Back to Business in Indiana
Gregory
Elich
A Dangerous Turn in the US Plans for
North Korea
Website
of the Day
Read Lynne Cheney's Lesbian Novel Online!
November
29, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
Blowback in Ukraine: The Hand of
the CIA?
Omar
Barghouti
"The Pianist" of Palestine:
Roadblock Concerto at Gunpoint
Mike
Whitney
The US Media and Fallujah: How to
Market a Siege
Uri
Avnery
The Abu Mazen Style: "Give Me
Some Credit!"
Matt
Vidal
Globalization and Economic Inequality: a Look at the Numbers
Patrick
Cockburn
An Interview with Iraq's Foreign
Minister
Alan
Farago
Sex Change and Salvation: God, Girly Men and Endocrine Disrupters
Justin
Huggler
Bhopal 20 Years Later
Antony
Loewenstein
How Australia Reported Arafat's Death and Legacy
Gary
Leupp
Ukraine: Poll Results Aren't the Real
Issue
Website
of the Day
Mosul: Images from a Kill Zone
November
27 / 28, 2004
Peter
Linebaugh
Torture & Neo-Liberalism with
Sycorax in Iraq
Alexander
Cockburn
What Happened to O'Reilly's Loofa?
Fred
Gardner
Ashcroft v. Raich: Medical Marijuana and the Supreme Court
Kathy
Kelly
What We Can Control
Diane
Christian
The Other Cheek: "Empire Doesn't Analyze, It Acts"
Gary
Leupp
One More Neocon Target: South (Yes, South) Korea
Lenni
Brenner
Equality and Rights of Return: Jefferson Instructs the New York
Times
Ron
Jacobs
Death Squads and Iraq's Elections: the Mysterious Murders of
the AMS Clerics
Joshua
Frank
An Interview with Kevin Zeese on Nader, Kerry and the ABB Crowd
Toni
Solo
The Murder of Danilo Anderson
Saul
Landau
Fallujah, the 21st Century Guernica
JoAnn
Wypijewski
Matthew Shepard Case 6 Years Later: Why Hate Crimes Laws are
No Cure for Homophobia
Justin
Taylor
Empire's Lawless Opportunities
Amos
Harel
The Case of Captain R.
Walter
A. Davis
Tabloid Justice
Stephen
Hendricks
God's Kind of Men
Poets'
Basement
Albert, LaMorticella and Ford
November
26, 2004
Peter
Feng
Gavin Newsom: Man or Machine?
Greg
Moses
It's the White Vote, Stupid
Liaquat
Ali Khan
The Devil's Work: Bush's Minority Appointments
Michael
Mandel / Gail Davidson
Why Bush Should Be Banned from Canada: a Memo to the Ministry
of Immigration
Dave
Lindorff
Nation of Sheep, Turkey of an Election: Urkrainians Show the
Way
Gary
Corseri
When Black Friday Comes...
Paul
Craig Roberts
Whatever Happened to Conservatives?
Website
of the Day
Iraq Pipeline Watch
November
25, 2004
Willliam
Loren Katz
Giving Thanks to Whom?: "Thanks
to God We Sent 600 Heathen Souls to Hell Today"
Mitchel
Cohen
Why I Hate Thanksgiving
Mike
Ferner
An Uncommon Mom
November
24, 2004
Gila
Svirsky
License to Kill: the Example of Violence
is Set by the State
Winslow
T. Wheeler
The
Other Mess in Congress
Christopher
Brauchli
The Company He Keeps: the Syndicate of Tom Delay
Dave
Lindorff
Double Standards on Exit Polls: Hypocrisy Sans Irony
Ron
Jacobs
The Occupation of Iraq is the Root of t he Problem
Ken
Sengupta
Witnesses: War Crimes in Fallujah
Diana
Barahona
The Final Holocaust or Why I Voted for Ralph Nader
John
L. Hess
Safire the Shameless
Jason
Leopold
Did Harvard Hire (Another) War Criminal?
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Mark of McCain: the Senator Most Likely to Start a Nuclear
War
Map
of the Day
Now and Then: 2004 v. 1860
November
23, 2004
Forrest
Hylton
Bush and Uribe at the Beach
November
22, 2004
Dave
Zirin
Fight Night in the NBA: Selective Outrage
in Detroit
Paul
Craig Roberts
On to Iran: We Won't Get Fooled Again?
Michael
Mandel / Gail Davidson
Why Bush Should be Banned from Canada
Kathie
Helmkamp
Our Son: a Marine Who Won't Kill
Ken
Sengupta
The Triangle of Death: "This is Now the Most Dangerous Place
in Iraq"
Mike
Whitney
Greenspan's Hammer
Roger
Burbach
Why They Hate Bush in Chile
Website
of the Day
Fed Up with Government Lies and Corporate Spin?
November
20 / 21, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
The Poisoned Chalice
Todd
May
Religion, the Election and the Politics of Fear
Abbas
Ahmed Ibrahim
The Horrors of Fallujah: a First-Hand Account
Kevin
Zeese
Mishandling Nader
Landau
/ Hassen
After Arafat
Tom
Barry
The Vulcans Consolidate Power: The Rise of Stephen Hadley
Fred
Gardner
Pot Shots: Ask Dr. Todd
Justin
E.H. Smith
Triumph of the Will: the Sequel
Carl
Estabrook
Where We Are Now
Gary
Leupp
Imperial History-Making vs. Reality-Based Thought: a Dialogue
Dave
Lindorff
Apocalypse Soon
Jenna
Michelle Liut
Plans Colombia and Patriota: Wanton Wastes of Money, Manpower
and Lives
Mickey
Z.
The Granma Moses of Radical Writing: an Interview with William
Blum
Greg
Moses
The Same Old Struggle Against Imperial America
Sharon
Smith
Abortion Rights and the Election: What Now?
Ron
Jacobs
Sandwiches and Car Bombs
Ben
Tripp
Raising d'Etre: Finding Money in Hollywood These Days
Richard
Oxman
Basketbrawl Two Pointer: Iraq Rules!
Gilad
Atzmon
Politics and Jazz
Poets'
Basement
LaMorticella, Albert, Ford, & Anon.
Website
of the Day
Voice of the Forest
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
|
December 17, 2004
NAFTA
and the Environment
Trade
Still Runs Roughshod Over the Environment in Mexico
By
MARISA JACOTT
[This
essay is part of a detailed examination of the effectiveness
of NAFTA's Commission on Environmental Cooperation in Mexico
conducted by the America's Program of the International Relations
Center. The entire report was edited by Laura Carlsen and Talli
Nauman and can be read online. AC/JSC]
To assure passage of the North American
Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in the U.S. Congress it was necessary
to "add on" two issues that the governments of Mexico,
Canada, and the United States considered of little relevance
to the new neoliberal trade model they were establishing. These
were the side agreements on labor and environment.
Following formal negotiations
on the North American Free Trade Agreement, a new process was
opened up to discuss and elaborate on the side agreements. Labor
unions, environmentalists, and free-trade critics played a decisive
role during this period.
The environmental side agreement
was called the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation
(NAAEC) and was signed in 1993. In discussions on the creation
of the parallel agreement, the Mexican government never liked
the idea of a mechanism that would oversee environmental protection
and compliance with environmental legislation. Its main argument
against the agreement was "national sovereignty." The
real concern was clearly to avoid a supranational institution
that could place concern for the richness and balance of nature
above investment and trade flows.
The North American Commission
on Environmental Cooperation (CEC) was created to assure compliance
with NAAEC. The CEC is a trinational commission dedicated to
actions for the defense, knowledge, promotion, and care of the
environment. However, it has a weak point from the perspective
of Mexican civil society and nongovernmental organizations: it
is strictly a consulting body with no binding powers to resolve
issues. We have pointed out that limitation many times in our
work on the Commission, and environmental organizations have
been explicit that recommendations and advice are not great mechanisms
for pressuring the government and environmental authorities of
our country. In fact, this weakness is really a strong point
for the government and industrial sectors of Mexico, since they
only receive recommendations from the CEC to improve environmental
protection but are not obliged to carry out the legal, administrative,
and technological reforms necessary to carry them out.
In this sense, our evaluation
is that the non-binding character of the CEC could only work
if the trade and investment features of NAFTA were not implemented
above environmental protection. This is not the case.
The CEC
and Information on Toxic Substances
The Environmental Program of
Common Frontiers has participated in various CEC projects, all
on pollutants. Therefore, we will comment on the role of the
CEC in this area.
As regards pollutants, the
CEC has been:
* A crucial conduit for encouraging
a Register of Emissions and Pollutant Transfer in Mexico (RETC),
through which the industry must report and make public emissions
of pollutants. Moreover, this is now done through criteria comparable
to that of other registers in the United States and Canada .
* A forum to address concerns
with monitoring the transboundary movement of hazardous wastes;
* A promoter of research and
studies that allow us to evaluate the impacts of trade on the
environment;
* A key agent in the attempt
to implement environmental legislation on toxics.
To carry out these tasks, the
CEC has created mechanisms to develop collaboration between nongovernmental
organizations, industry, and government. It has also included
the participation of academics and other sectors. This process,
in particular, has been long and difficult but some progress
has been made. The special consultative groups for different
programs of the Commission are an example.
The CEC has also taught us
to understand environmental information on pollutants from a
broader and more integral perspective, which has enabled us to
think about the problem on a continent-wide basis and thus promote
a real exchange of information and experience among the three
countries.
The "Council Resolutions"
of the Commission are trinational declarations and commitments
in favor of environmental measures in the three countries. These
have been very useful in Mexico, since they are frequently cited
by environmental organizations to demand that the government
and the Ministry of the Environment comply with their legal obligations.
A useful additional step would be if some day industry in all
three countries also joined in signing trinational commitments
of environmental cooperation and protection.
The Joint Public Advisory Committee
(JPAC) has been doing important work on toxics. The JPAC has
elaborated recommendations for the development of an emissions
register, adequate monitoring and management of hazardous wastes,
and revision of Chapter 11 of NAFTA, among other things. But
from the perspective of a Mexican nongovernmental organization
there is a limitation to this committee regarding the top-down
way that it selects its members. Members of the committee are
chosen by the governments of each country without any mechanisms
of consultation or of systematically identifying the most sensitive
environmental problems of the moment. This often blocks the direct
participation of environmental organizations that are more critical
of the work of the Ministry of the Environment. A more even representation
is necessary because the work the committee does is important
and necessary for the CEC to maintain a link to the environmental
reality and politics of each country.
While the JPAC appears to be
achieving its main objective of guaranteeing citizen participation,
it should not forget that its task goes beyond opening up citizen
participation. The Committee must also work to make sure that
these civil society voices are heard beyond the policies and
programs of the CEC, and that way the JPAC can present issues
that currently have great social and environmental importance.
Structural
Problems in Mexico
That Affect Environmental Protection and Improvement
Citizen submissions on the
implementation of environmental legislation:
Although the citizen submissions
are designed to strengthen implementation of national environmental
legislation, they are seriously hampered by structural problems
in the country that impede and/or affect protection of the environment
and human health.
The opportunity to present
a complaint or citizen denouncement when the government does
not carry out its environmental legislation is a positive mechanism
for the protection of the environment and the health of communities.
But in Mexico, some cases denounced by the communities have not
been deemed sufficiently serious by the CEC to compile a Factual
Record. This has been the case with Cytrar other several other
cases of hazardous waste pollution. The problem is that hard
evidence is often difficult to present due to the lack of environmental
information, or access to when it exists. Another complicating
factor is that the laws themselves are often unclear in implementation
and management and the government tends to protect industry.
Only a single case--the case of lead pollution in Metales y Derivados
in Tijuana, Baja California--has passed from a citizen submission
to the formulation of a factual record.
North American Fund for
Environmental Cooperation:
Recent cutbacks in CEC funding
have directly affected nongovernmental organizations. The dissolution
of the North American Fund for Environmental Cooperation (NAFEC)
that allowed nearly ten years of support to community projects
for environmental protection projects was particularly damaging.
Also, cutbacks in funding for nongovernmental participation in
follow-up work on special programs of the Commission have limited
their capacity to monitor the work of the CEC. Further cutbacks
have affected civil society attendance at NGO-CEC meetings on
issues of trade, environment and sustainable development and
in general its capacity to further development participation,
research and implementation.
Mexico and
the Objectives of the CEC: Two Tasks to Conciliate
The CEC "was established
to address regional environmental concerns, help prevent potential
trade and environmental conflicts, and to promote the effective
enforcement of environmental law. The Agreement complements the
environmental provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA).1."
Although these objectives are
very important for watching that free trade dos not harm the
environment, it is the governments of the NAFTA countries that
have the last word. In general terms, and this is borne out in
the experience of toxics, Mexican environmental polices are still
inadequate. We do not have a complete emissions register that
allows us to know what types and quantities of substances an
industry emits and transfers to the environment through the air,
water, or soil; there is no reliable inventory of the hazardous
wastes generated in the country; there is no infrastructure for
monitoring the transboundary movement of hazardous wastes; there
are no integral management plans to encourage minimal waste generation;
the country lacks a culture of the right to information; infrastructure
for the environmental monitoring of companies is nonexistent;
there are no environmental policies that stimulate an increase
in the efficiency of production to move toward cleaner production;
and there has been no follow-up on the Basilea Convention on
the Transborder Movement of Dangerous Wastes and their Elimination.
In this context, Mexico's environmental policy is not based on
reality, since it is not based on facts and real measures.
After ten years of participation
in the CEC, has the Mexican government achieved compliance with
the NAAEC? In the case of hazardous wastes, we can say that it
has still not complied. This is not necessarily a fault of the
programs and tasks of the CEC, but of the grave asymmetries that
Mexico faces. This non-compliance makes articulated development
of environmental policy to be established in Mexico, Canada,
and the United States nearly impossible.
In the case of hazardous wastes,
there are three fundamental problems that hinder the work of
the CEC on the issue and that thwart programs of elimination,
reduction, monitoring, and waste management: 1) differing legislation
between the three countries. For example, a substance or material
could be a hazardous waste for one country and not for the other
or others; 2) the precarious environmental policies of the Mexican
government in regards to hazardous wastes. The lack of any infrastructure
that allows us to generate reliable information on current inventories
on the municipal, state, and federal levels of government impedes
establishing comparability of facts and precise tracing of wastes;
and 3) the absence of strict environmental legislation (and/or
its implementation) that often impedes the protection of the
environment from commercial and industrial activity.
Although there has been some
follow-up on some of the NAAEC objectives, the structural problem
of the asymmetries between the three countries must be resolved
before making any real progress toward sustainable development.
Mexico has entered a trade race, and it has had severe negative
impacts on the environment.
President Fox appears to have
little interest in the issue. He waited nearly two years to sign
the rule calling for the Register of Emissions and Pollutant
Transfer into law, making it finally possible to operate an obligatory
register throughout the country. Other actions reflect this disinterest
as well: the new law on hazardous wastes was delayed, policies
to actively avoid using up non-renewable resources have been
shelved, and when the president named a new Secretary of the
Environment he chose a person openly committed to the industrial
interests of the country who immediately surrounded himself with
advisers who had served as upper-level executives in the Chamber
of Industry and Cemex cement company.
Furthermore, in March the federal
government declared a one-year moratorium on environmental regulations
to "unleash investment and generate employment." This
decree has held back a series of initiatives, laws, and regulations
on environmental protection. In publicizing the measure, the
Mexican president referred to the regulatory decree as part of
a strategy to reactivate the economy and stated, "No more
unnecessary, onerous, disordered regulation that distracts the
entrepreneur, the investor, from his central task of innovating,
creating, taking risks, propitiating prosperity, and generating
employment and growth."2
With this, the Mexican government
left the door open to any type of investment, regardless of whether
it hurts the environment, the labor conditions of the workers,
or the health of communities. It is evident that the government,
lacking an integral vision of development, is solely interested
in attracting industrial investment and capital--a prime objective
of NAFTA--rather than to work toward a more democratic and sustainable
future for Mexico.
Marisa Jacott runs the Environmental Program of
Common Borders (Programa Ambiental de Fronteras Comunes) and
is a member of the Consulting Group of the Emissions Register
Project sponsored by the Commission on Environmental Cooperation
and of the Technical Consulting Committee of the Emissions Register
in Mexico, under the auspices of the Ministry of the Environment
and Natural Resources.
Endnotes
1. http://www.cec.org/programs_projects/index.cfm?varlan=espanol
2. http://mexico.gob.mx/?P=2&Orden=Leer&Art=7993
Weekend Edition
Features for November
27 / 28, 2004
Peter
Linebaugh
Torture & Neo-Liberalism with
Sycorax in Iraq
Alexander
Cockburn
What Happened to O'Reilly's Loofa?
Fred
Gardner
Ashcroft v. Raich: Medical Marijuana and the Supreme Court
Kathy
Kelly
What We Can Control
Diane
Christian
The Other Cheek: "Empire Doesn't Analyze, It Acts"
Gary
Leupp
One More Neocon Target: South (Yes, South) Korea
Lenni
Brenner
Equality and Rights of Return: Jefferson Instructs the New York
Times
Ron
Jacobs
Death Squads and Iraq's Elections: the Mysterious Murders of
the AMS Clerics
Joshua
Frank
An Interview with Kevin Zeese on Nader, Kerry and the ABB Crowd
Toni
Solo
The Murder of Danilo Anderson
Saul
Landau
Fallujah, the 21st Century Guernica
JoAnn
Wypijewski
Matthew Shepard Case 6 Years Later: Why Hate Crimes Laws are
No Cure for Homophobia
Justin
Taylor
Empire's Lawless Opportunities
Amos
Harel
The Case of Captain R.
Walter
A. Davis
Tabloid Justice
Stephen
Hendricks
God's Kind of Men
Poets'
Basement
Albert, LaMorticella and Ford
|