PASCI project

March 19th, 2004, Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico
written by Johanne Pelletier and Francis Murchison

Sanctioned by the Mexican government, Metales y sus Derivados, an American lead recycling company came to Tijuana in the North of Mexico, to install itself in an industrial park of maquiladoras. Just like numerous American companies and Asian ones registered in the States, this enterprise came to profit from advantageous conditions since the ratification of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), to settle on a plateau called Mesa de Otai, overhanging the Colonia Chilpancingo. A few years later, the company declared bankruptcy and said it was incapable of clearing the contaminants. The site was therefore abandoned without any management, the large containers of lead decomposing as time went on.

The Colonia Chilpancingo houses almost ten thousand residents, by majority young families. Many are immigrants from the south of Mexico who have been expelled from their land and rent a room in this area in order to save on the transportation to the maquila where they work. Transportation is a minimum of one US dollar a day while a worker makes a daily equivalent of five US dollars.

These needy inhabitants are therefore in the front lines of exposure to lead pollution, only 300 meters from Metales y sus Derivados. Because the absorption of lead occurs primarily through food and water for adults and through dust for children, the lack of infrastructure such as unpaved roads increases the risk posed by the toxins coming from Metales y sus Derivados and other maquiladoras. Lead accumulates in the bones can cause serious anemia problems as well as brain damage through neurotoxins especially in the case of infants. Lead brings about a reduction in intelligence as well as changes in behavior.

What’s more, the other maquiladora industries on the Mesa throw out their chemical laden wastewater in the streets of the Colonia. This water then accumulates in a nearby stream containing a high concentration of toxins. The majority of the inhabitants are in age of reproduction and the incidence of miscarriages is frequent. Seven cases of anocephalus and hydrocephalus have been reported, while a statement of three cases in a community this size is sign of indubitable danger.

A heavy metal environmental resistance!

Four years ago, members of the Colonia who began to have meetings in different houses formed the Chilpancingo Collective for Environmental Justice. The Collective is a community organization of ample participation with a count of 10 to 20 active members. These members are mostly unemployed, ex-maquila workers, or from the families of workers. For two years now, the group has occupied an office and received support from the Environmental Health Coalition. This San Diego organization pays for the rent, the phone, the internet, and the business supplies. An executive committee of five is responsible for making connections with other organizations, attending meetings, distributing information, and writing documents. This committee is also given the task of representing the voice of the community in communication with the Mexican government.

Demanding State responsibility

In fact, the Colectivo Chilpancingo undertook a dialogue with the government so that they would clean up the site of Metales y sus Derivados. In response, a committee was formed where the three levels of government were represented namely federal, state, and municipal. However, the responsibility for contamination by toxic substances is federal. For good reason, the community wants to be represented on the committee because the residents of the Colony are the only ones affected.

Shortly, the members of the organization will initiate a health inquest to obtain scientific proof of what is going on in the Colony. From that, they hope the government will recognize the results and do something. For the purpose of the inquest, they are preparing a questionnaire for families in order to verify if they have illnesses that could result from lead poisoning.

An information chain

After being trained, the members of the Colective become promoters who give information to other people in the area. Among other things they educate the people of the Colonia about toxic products in an attempt to prevent contact with contaminants as much as possible. They also endeavor to bring the people to demand that they not be contaminated.

On another side of things, the Colectivo Chilpancingo gives workshops about toxic products in the home such as cleaning products, insecticides, and disinfectants. The aim is to eliminate toxic products whose use could be avoided and can be replaced by cheaper products such as vinegar or baking soda. They work to offer an environmental education to groups of women who perpetuate the information chain by giving more workshops to other women and for parents in schools and daycares. Therefore, they don’t encourage industrial production of contaminants that are dangerous for the environment as well as the workers who produce them.

Magdalena Cerda, member of the Collective, laughingly told us how during the workshops they use the example of an advertisement to talk about toxic products “If it kills cockroaches, what won’t it kill. -Si mata cucaracha que no matara. »

An international alliance to face adversity

The Colectivo Chilpancingo of Tijuana and the Environmental Health Coalition of San Diego have decided to form an international alliance in order to submit a complaint at the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC). The CEC is in charge of looking into environmental conflicts that are brought about by commercial relations since the signing of NAFTA. They have meanwhile made a statement in order to stipulate that the community is right about the essence of the complaint. Nonetheless, the Commission has done nothing.

An injustice for Mexico

After battling with Metales y sus Derivados, the alliance recognized some obvious faults in NAFTA. This Agreement doesn’t furnish effective resources to protect communities and the environment. In fact, it includes no sanction for company owners or polluters. There are no funds available to resolve problems that are caused by free trade nor to defend or compensate citizens. The government therefore remains responsible to settle any problems that are caused by companies that profit from NAFTA. Magdalena maintained : “It’s an injustice for Mexico because the only benefit that the country makes is salary (of maquiladora employees), salaries of hunger where the people leave their life and live without dignity. – Es una injusticia para Mexico porque el unico quel pais gana es salario y salario de hambre donde la gente deja su vida y viven sin dignidad.”

Hence, the Colonia Chilpancingo remains stuck with the problems of lead contamination, without any help on the behalf of those responsible for the establishment of this foundry in Tijuana, namely NAFTA. No mechanism existing in this Agreement responds in any effective manner to the lead contamination that menaces the health, integrity, and the life in the community of the Colonia Chilpancingo. This population for whom the situation is so precarious doesn’t have the means by which to move to a less polluted place, to buy uncontaminated foods, and to pay for medical treatment for their children. We see a clear line being drawn between the rich and the poor, the rich being able to pay for a healthy environment while the poor must suffer the pollution associated with their crime of living in poverty. Here’s one of the brilliant results of NAFTA.

Fortunately, the members of the community organize and struggle hard to demand that they not be contaminated. The Colectivo Chilpancingo continues to fight for justice in numerous forms, including the cleanup of Metales y sus Derivados. The decontamination of the site remains a task for the government, who would be better off planning a renegotiation of NAFTA as other similar injustices accumulate in their territory. Instead, they negotiate for the Free Trade Area of the Americas…


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Maquiladoras in Tijuana - CCPJA Colectivo Chilpancingo Pro Justicia Ambiental Chilpancingo Collective For Environmental Justice March 19th, 2004, Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico written by Johanne Pelletier and Francis Murchison Sanctioned by the Mexican government, Metales y sus Derivados, an American lead recycling company came to Tijuana in the North of Mexico, to install itself in an industrial park of maquiladoras. Just like numerous American companies and Asian ones registered in the States, this enterprise came to profit from advantageous conditions since the ratification of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), to settle on a plateau called Mesa de Otai, overhanging the Colonia Chilpancingo. A few years later, the company declared bankruptcy and said it was incapable of clearing the contaminants. The site was therefore abandoned without any management, the large containers of lead decomposing as time went on. The Colonia Chilpancingo houses almost ten thousand residents, by majority young families. Many are immigrants from the south of Mexico who have been expelled from their land and rent a room in this area in order to save on the transportation to the maquila where they work. Transportation is a minimum of one US dollar a day while a worker makes a daily equivalent of five US dollars. These needy inhabitants are therefore in the front lines of exposure to lead pollution, only 300 meters from Metales y sus Derivados. Because the absorption of lead occurs primarily through food and water for adults and through dust for children, the lack of infrastructure such as unpaved roads increases the risk posed by the toxins coming from Metales y sus Derivados and other maquiladoras. Lead accumulates in the bones can cause serious anemia problems as well as brain damage through neurotoxins especially in the case of infants. Lead brings about a reduction in intelligence as well as changes in behavior. What’s more, the other maquiladora industries on the Mesa throw out their chemical laden wastewater in the streets of the Colonia. This water then accumulates in a nearby stream containing a high concentration of toxins. The majority of the inhabitants are in age of reproduction and the incidence of miscarriages is frequent. Seven cases of anocephalus and hydrocephalus have been reported, while a statement of three cases in a community this size is sign of indubitable danger. A heavy metal environmental resistance! Four years ago, members of the Colonia who began to have meetings in different houses formed the Chilpancingo Collective for Environmental Justice. The Collective is a community organization of ample participation with a count of 10 to 20 active members. These members are mostly unemployed, ex-maquila workers, or from the families of workers. For two years now, the group has occupied an office and received support from the Environmental Health Coalition. This San Diego organization pays for the rent, the phone, the internet, and the business supplies. An executive committee of five is responsible for making connections with other organizations, attending meetings, distributing information, and writing documents. This committee is also given the task of representing the voice of the community in communication with the Mexican government. Demanding State responsibility In fact, the Colectivo Chilpancingo undertook a dialogue with the government so that they would clean up the site of Metales y sus Derivados. In response, a committee was formed where the three levels of government were represented namely federal, state, and municipal. However, the responsibility for contamination by toxic substances is federal. For good reason, the community wants to be represented on the committee because the residents of the Colony are the only ones affected. Shortly, the members of the organization will initiate a health inquest to obtain scientific proof of what is going on in the Colony. From that, they hope the government will recognize the results and do something. For the purpose of the inquest, they are preparing a questionnaire for families in order to verify if they have illnesses that could result from lead poisoning. An information chain After being trained, the members of the Colective become promoters who give information to other people in the area. Among other things they educate the people of the Colonia about toxic products in an attempt to prevent contact with contaminants as much as possible. They also endeavor to bring the people to demand that they not be contaminated. On another side of things, the Colectivo Chilpancingo gives workshops about toxic products in the home such as cleaning products, insecticides, and disinfectants. The aim is to eliminate toxic products whose use could be avoided and can be replaced by cheaper products such as vinegar or baking soda. They work to offer an environmental education to groups of women who perpetuate the information chain by giving more workshops to other women and for parents in schools and daycares. Therefore, they don’t encourage industrial production of contaminants that are dangerous for the environment as well as the workers who produce them. Magdalena Cerda, member of the Collective, laughingly told us how during the workshops they use the example of an advertisement to talk about toxic products “If it kills cockroaches, what won’t it kill. -Si mata cucaracha que no matara. » An international alliance to face adversity The Colectivo Chilpancingo of Tijuana and the Environmental Health Coalition of San Diego have decided to form an international alliance in order to submit a complaint at the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC). The CEC is in charge of looking into environmental conflicts that are brought about by commercial relations since the signing of NAFTA. They have meanwhile made a statement in order to stipulate that the community is right about the essence of the complaint. Nonetheless, the Commission has done nothing. An injustice for Mexico After battling with Metales y sus Derivados, the alliance recognized some obvious faults in NAFTA. This Agreement doesn’t furnish effective resources to protect communities and the environment. In fact, it includes no sanction for company owners or polluters. There are no funds available to resolve problems that are caused by free trade nor to defend or compensate citizens. The government therefore remains responsible to settle any problems that are caused by companies that profit from NAFTA. Magdalena maintained : “It’s an injustice for Mexico because the only benefit that the country makes is salary (of maquiladora employees), salaries of hunger where the people leave their life and live without dignity. – Es una injusticia para Mexico porque el unico quel pais gana es salario y salario de hambre donde la gente deja su vida y viven sin dignidad.” Hence, the Colonia Chilpancingo remains stuck with the problems of lead contamination, without any help on the behalf of those responsible for the establishment of this foundry in Tijuana, namely NAFTA. No mechanism existing in this Agreement responds in any effective manner to the lead contamination that menaces the health, integrity, and the life in the community of the Colonia Chilpancingo. This population for whom the situation is so precarious doesn’t have the means by which to move to a less polluted place, to buy uncontaminated foods, and to pay for medical treatment for their children. We see a clear line being drawn between the rich and the poor, the rich being able to pay for a healthy environment while the poor must suffer the pollution associated with their crime of living in poverty. Here’s one of the brilliant results of NAFTA. Fortunately, the members of the community organize and struggle hard to demand that they not be contaminated. The Colectivo Chilpancingo continues to fight for justice in numerous forms, including the cleanup of Metales y sus Derivados. The decontamination of the site remains a task for the government, who would be better off planning a renegotiation of NAFTA as other similar injustices accumulate in their territory. Instead, they negotiate for the Free Trade Area of the Americas…