Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto announced an $8.6 billion plan to revive Mexico’s tourist industry this week after years of violence associated with the war on drugs has depressed the national tourist economy. At least 60,000 Mexican citizens have died as a result of cartel violence in the past few years, but such violence is virtually nonexistent inside the well-protected tourist destinations frequented by Americans.
Grisly headlines of kidnappings, rapes and murders have scared off many would-be beachgoers. To make matters worse, the global economic recession in 2008 resulted in a 15 percent decrease in revenue across the industry. The infusion of cash from private companies could create 100,000 jobs associated directly or indirectly with the $12 billion per year industry that relies heavily upon travelers from the U.S., Canada and European countries.
Tourism remains a pillar of the Mexican economy, but a look back at development in recent years reveals a troubling trend for citizens who worry that the tourist industry and corporate development have come at the expense of the environment and communities losing access to lands.
Reviving the tourist industry at what cost?
Reuters reports that the latest tourism plan calls for private companies to invest in building new hotels, refurbishing existing ones and giving public spaces a facelift. It’s been touted as a boost for the economy and for tourists, who will have the benefit of enjoying new facilities at Mexico’s numerous beachfront resorts.
The announcement is expected to add to recent reports that when it comes to tourism, “all is well” in the resort areas and visitors have little to fear. “Crime takes the path of least resistance,” said Stephen Barth, a lawyer and professor of hospitality law at the University of Houston. “You are generally going to be safer in hotels or resorts. Individual houses frequently do not have the same level of security and protection,” Barth said in a statement to NBC news.
Pablo Azcarraga, the head of Mexico’s board of tourism, boasts that the businesses would create roughly 28,000 jobs directly involved in the industry and another 78,000 jobs indirectly linked to it. It’s far from a win-win, as advertised.
Some see it as a positive sign for the economy, but it’s unlikely to change much when it comes to the state of poverty across the country. According to one Reuters report last month, 53.3 million people, about 45.5 percent of the total population lives in poverty.
Many of Mexico’s poorest residents have also had to deal with years of violence associated with the drug cartels, especially in communities along the tumultuous U.S-Mexico border. During President Felipe Calderon’s time in office 2006–2012, at least 60,000 had been killed by cartels. Peña Nieto was elected in 2012 on a platform promising to turn the chapter on years of failed anti-drug trafficking policies, including a plan to create a 10,000-person “national gendarmerie” — or paramilitary police force capable of patrolling rural areas and routing smuggling networks.
Reports in recent years show that when the tourist industry comes to town, it’s the locals who are often pushed out to make way for posh resorts and swanky restaurants. The Christian Science Monitor reported in 2007 that many local residents were ousted when developers came to areas in South Cancun seeking to build new resorts. Many were offered money, but the lure was not enough for some, who have called the area home for generations.
“They always say, ‘It will be so much money, you will be able to take your family and live abroad, or wherever you want,'” said Rosalio Mezo, a local resident. “I don’t want to live anywhere else. This is where I want to live.” Many of Mezo’s relatives accepted the buyouts, selling their property to resort developers in a region known as the Mayan Riviera, a once quiet fishing area now populated by over 30,000 resorts and hotels.
“While it [tourism] may bring new inhabitants, it also displaces lifelong residents — particularly those with prime beach-front property,” reports Sara Miller Llana. “Though Mezo, a fisherman, makes his living from tourism, with a small seafood restaurant and by running fishing tours, others were ousted by it.”
Mezo was one of the lucky few with a clear land title who could keep his land. Others were simply told to leave, or bribed, according to claims by Patricio Martín, a representative with the Mexican Center for Environmental Law. “There were people who had the land, but they were bribed or threatened. Land speculators just took control,” says Martín. “They are building more rooms than is sustainable in the region.”
It can’t all be blamed upon outside corporations. The Mexican government has been accused of violating its own environmental laws, paving the way for mega-resorts that critics charge are harmful to the ecosystem.
Toward that end, 11 conservation groups co-signed a petition in April accusing the Mexican government of failing to enforce its own environmental laws when it authorized the construction of four “mega resorts” in the Gulf of California.
Earth Justice and Greenpeace, along with nine other groups wrote, “Current development trends in the Gulf of California illustrate tourism investment policies aimed at converting the towns and cities of the region into attractive destinations for foreigners, in large part North Americans from the southwest United States. For this reason, the Mexican government is authorizing various construction projects and tourist real estate operations in ecologically sensitive areas without considering the damage these activities could cause to biodiversity and the human communities that inhabit the area.”
It also threatens to eliminate the fishing industry that provides employment for 50,000 in the region. “These natural treasures are of importance to Mexican communities that depend on them as cultural, economic and recreational resources,” says Judith Castro with the Friends for the Conservation of Cabo Pulmo. “Mexico cannot continue to approve mega projects that displace residents, bulldoze wildlife habitat and pollute the waters of this vital ecosystem.”
Corporate takeovers threaten cultural sites
It’s not the only time that the Mexican government has looked the other way or accepted bribes when it comes to developing areas. The 2004 fight to keep a Wal-Mart from being built barely a mile from ancient Aztec ruins, in violation of town zoning laws, was pushed through with a $52,000 bribe, according to a New York Times report published last year.
Here’s how that incident played out. Wal-Mart developers saw an alfalfa field owned by Elda Pineda as the prime location to build a new store location. Just 30 miles from Mexico City, a major metropolitan area, the store was projected to attract numerous customers. The only problem was that the projected construction site was in the middle of an area filled with ancient Aztec ruins.
So wouldn’t Mexico seek to preserve the ancient ruins, if not for national heritage, then at least for tourist dollars? Far from it.
The Wal-Mart now overshadows the ancient pyramids of Teotihuacan, about 30 miles northeast of Mexico City. The area, populated by UNESCO world heritage sites has numerous artifacts, including several temples, the Avenue of the Dead, and the pyramids of the sun and moon dating back at least 2,500 years.
To complicate matters, researchers were still discovering artifacts in the area. At the time of construction in 2004, Wal-Mart’s private archeologist insisted that only a few isolated artifacts had been found on the construction site. The company says an unearthed altar will be displayed under Plexiglas in the store’s parking lot.
For months Mexican news was filled with stories about local protests, sit-ins and even hunger strikes in opposition to the plan.
“We don’t want to prostitute our national symbols for the betterment of a corporation,” said Emanuel D’Herrera, a school teacher and member of the opposition group, the Civic Front to Defend the Teotihuacan Valley.