Mining, Megaprojects, and Metrosexuals in Mexico Tom Barry - CIP Americas
go to original December 24, 2014

“Lo metrosexuales nos ha ganado.” (“The metrosexual culture has beaten us.”) –Sonoran Mining Association (AMSAC) president Joaquin Rojo de la Vega Ulloa, 2011

Public officials in Mexico routinely boast of the megaprojects undertaken during their administrations. Presidents, state governors, and mayors assert that it was their leadership that brought major infrastructure projects to Mexican communities, thereby boosting social well-being and economic growth.

The operating assumption is that the bigger the megaproject, the better Mexico is. Since the 1930s this megaproject logic has served as a driving force in the country’s development plans.

To some extent, the political economy of megaprojects can be found the world over. But in few other countries do public officials so unabashedly brandish the term megaproject (megaproyecto) to promote their own political legacies as in Mexico. Politics and megaproyectos are inextricably linked – regarded as a political necessity because these construction megaprojects provide jobs to constituents and government revenues to the allies, friends, and families of politicians in the business community.

Rarely do the announcement of the initiation of new megaprojects preceded by any cost-benefit evaluations or even rigorous assessments of need for the projects or of their budgets.

Dams and the building of tourism centers (such as Cancún or Los Cabos) have long been among some of the most favored type of megaprojects in Mexico.

In the case of Sonora, Governor Guillermo Padrés points to the water megaprojects of Sonora SI (dams and aqueducts) and the natural gas pipeline from the U.S. border as among his top accomplishments.

Never, however, do Mexican presidents or governors refer to the major mining operations that are initiated or expanded on their watch as part of their megaproject legacy – even though most of the mining projects depend on the close cooperation of the government through the provision of water, roads, subsidies, and technical assistance.

However, measured by most any standard – quantity of investment, associated infrastructure, contracts and subcontracts, and land and natural resources affected – mining projects are certainly megaproyectos.

Read the rest at CIP Americas

NOTE: This article is the thirteenth in a series by the CIP TransBorder Project that examines the water crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border.

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!