Regina Martinez
Information and Comunication Inc.
November 2001

Xalapa, Veracruz (Mexico) - To the environmental groups and civilian organizations of southeastern Mexico and Central American countries, the so called Mesoamerican Biological Corridor being financed by the World Bank, is the most dangerous project included in the Panama Puebla Plan (PPP), "since it looks to exploit the vast natural resources of the region and favors big transnational corporations".

According to the people opposed to the project, the transnational corporations will be allowed to freely patent food and medicine extracted from the enormous natural resources found in this region, by having institutional permission from the countries belonging to the PPP, because it is being sponsored by Vicente Fox's goverment, and through biological investigation and exploitation.

In one analysis surfacing from meetings held by civilian organizations, indigenous and farming communities of the region, the foreign companies hoping to patent genomes in the Central American jungles: Dupont, Pulsar, Monsanto, Novartis, Bayer and Diversa, have financed the development of new technologies in agrobiology, and better seed production under the patented manufacture of fertilizers and insecticides.

This same analysis questions the fact that while the Mexican goverment sponsores the PPP (destined for the development of the south-southeastern part of the country and with ramifications toward Central America), on February 15 (of 2001) the Guatemalan congress authorized the creation of the New Horizons military exercises between the armies of the United States and Guatemala, in the El Peten region, across the border from Chiapas.

These organizations also maintain that within the Puebla Panama Plan (which involves nine states in south-southeastern Mexico and six Central American countries), an ecological program has been integrated on the Mexican side of the isthmus and is being managed by the World Bank in Central America with the name of Mesoamerican Biological Corridor.

They consider projects like this one, coincide not only in their declared environmental, civic, and humanitarian purposes, but also in their particular interest to the region near the Mexico-Guatemala border, "which arouse questions about economic interest and security".

"We already know that the Isthmus extends from southern Mexico to Panama", they note, "it includes zones of exceptional biodiversity". This region that stretches from south-southeastern Mexico and northern Guatemala is particularly abundant in natural resources, among others, they point out, "forests, hydro sources, and oil".

According to an internal document from the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala, they refer, "New Horizons is strictly a humanitarian support and training mission, that this is not an antinorcotics operation and that the majority of the U.S. contingent will be from the army reserve or from members of the National Guard who will be staying in Guatemala for a period of two weeks".

However, they take up the considerations of the Secretary of the Democratic Union, Cesar Montes, in the sense that "technically this is an invasion", the possible arrival of twelve-thousand U.S. soldiers to Guatemala, as having been announced by the leadership of the Army of the South Unit from the USA.

They draw attention towards the PPP, which takes in the states of Puebla, Chiapas, Oaxaca, Guerrero, Quintana Roo, Yucatan, Campeche, Tabasco and Veracruz, it is said that the PPP forsees the application of strategic projects of change that will permit regional wealth and diversity to flourish, and to overcome this country's enormous surplus and inequality, of which, the organizations sustain, are "incompatible with the process of democratic consolidation".

This region is where Mexico's biological wealth is concentrated, where more than 90 percent of the nation's oil production is extracted, and it has the greatest capacity for the generation of electricity. And apparently, report the people oppossed to the PPP, "one of the obstacles to the development of this plan is the indegenous communities living in the reserve of the Montes Azules biosphere, across the border from El Peten Guatemala."

According to the World Bank, the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor has the objective of integrating conservation policies, by establishing connectors in the protected areas of southeastern Mexico, "to prevent their isolation and to guarantee the equilibrium of marine and terrestrial ecosystems, under the plan of sustainable development".

The project will take seven years, already under way in Central America, including Panama. Coincidentally, they emphasize, their objectives "are the same as those of the PPP", and for this the World Bank approved a budget of 9.1 million dollars, with the aim of incorporating Mexico.

The World Bank itself, according to the representatives of the civilian organizations, recognizes that the area covered by the Biological Corridor is home to many indegenous communities and to an abundance of plants and animals. Seven percent of the biodiversity known to the planet is found in this region, even though it only represents 0.5% of the total of earth's surface.