One cause of the discontent of the rural poor is the rise

1. Plan Puebla PanamaPaul R EarlFacultad de Ciencias BiológicasUniversidad Autónoma de Nuevo LeónSan Nicolás, NL 66451, Mexico

2. Rural poverty and a call for its solution: Education, industrialization and family planningThe purpose of this lecture is to acquaint you with some plans for the Latin society from the Mexican state of Puebla through Chiapas to the nation of Panama--white, mestizo and Indian. The welfare of over 65 million people is involved. The central theme of the most interest is the improvement of the standard of living in the very poor mesoamerican area. • One cause of the discontent of the rural poor is the rise • in the earnings of the more educated of the population. • Still, soil erosion coupled with much larger • rural populations is causing starvation.

3. Worldwide, the quality of life is being examined from many points of view, some involving medicine and economics. Finding a job is the first thing. Earning a living that provides for a long, comfortable and happy life is another. Overpopulation, soil erosion influenced poverty, lack of educational and lack of work opportunities often cause migration, war and revolution. Regardless, Indian nostalgia might well be replaced by lessons focusing on family planning and soil erosion.Governments—all know that hunger causes revolution—are quick to counteract movements that they clearly see can overthrow them. Raising the standard of living of the victims of some system is a pleasant solution.

4. Objections to free tradeLet’s begin with the socialists who have done such a grand job in a book called A Globilization Handbook by Caroline, Ellen, Walter, Wendy, Siamak, Moses, Victor, Shannon and Chad of the Social Justice Alliance, Stony Brook, NY at justice@ic.sunysb.edu and www.ic.sunysb.edu/clubs/justiceVery many Internet references that you need are found in this glorious text which is sometimes quiet juvenile. Try this for Mexico after 1994, “Child labor has grown dramatically.”--Maude Barlow in a free trade analysis at http://www.canadians.org/It is so very far from the truth as to damage the left ! There is no child labor in Mexico.

5. The PPP is designed for large infrastructure projects like toll highways, airports, deepwater ports, electrical and telecommunications grids), that together with ongoing projects like hydroelectric dams, “dry” transisthmus of Tehuantepec canals, more big highways that are to motivate large private companies to locate in Puebla-Panama. These activities, including those of Pulsar, a highly successful Mexican private organization, are typical yet infrequent TV news items of Mexico today.

6. Free trade food examplesEggs and meat. The grain is imported to Mexico from the US, and the eggs produced in Mexico. If the grain were produced there, the eggs & meat would cost more. Simple enough now.Milk, Leche en polvo importada. Imported powdered milk has been the only milk, with due exceptions, in Mexico for MANY YEARS, having nothing—really—to do with the NAFTA of 1994. It is very easy to make native whole milk. Buy airconditioners for the cows. The only problem left is your electric bill.Melons in La Laguna, Coahuila in 2002 could not be grown, because the energy cost of irrigation pumps was too high.

7. La Programa Nacional de Desmontes and erosion From Brazil north the fires of the 80s and even in the 90s sent black clouds out over the Atlantic. Mexico was # 2 deforester. The method was slash-n-burn forest for beef cattle. An enormous deforestation was federally directed in Mexico as La Programa Nacional de Desmontes, 1976 and financed by the World Bank (WB). Still Mexico and CA have been seriously eroded for at least 3,500 years by the Mayans and others. To put cattle on erodable arid lands seems odd so some OTHER goal was being sought. Heavy machinery was purchased from the US at very high prices. Later in the 80s much of it was abandoned on the ranches of political deputies.

8. The ZapatistasThey have done well in fostering the democratic right to protest and have gained worldwide recognition with 4 million visitors to their web site http://www.ezln.org The representation of indigenous rights is either imperative or simply just. Nevertheless, the world or much of it does not have the factual data, living on in an anthropologic mist. Dogooders sometimes spread false information. The Good Old Days never existed, and things are inevitably worsening, because now rural uneducated populations from Puebla to Panamá are much more numerous than they were. The rather large number of people, the great distances and the mountains need recognition as giant problems.

9. Cheaper imported food much replaced native products.The principal Issues inspiring this uprising are: 1/ Mexican government's unilateral change of indigenous constitutional rights, especially land rights. Indigenous ejidos (eh-HEE-doz, collective farms) were privatized or simply abandoned as no longer legal.2/. Desire for meaningful elections after the1988 elections were stolen.3/. Human rights interpreted as violated, involving political repression.4/. Economic reforms of NAFTA hurt small farmers by loss of subsudies.5/. Decline in world coffee prices.

10. The Zapatists are supporting a way of life that the climate, soils and economy no longer support well. Many other politics have developed tons of failures, because the human demands far exceed the capacity of the environment to produce that food, and because they are missing industrial skills. Nonetheless, recall that dumping of subsidized or other foods should never be allowed. Regardless of what happens in the market, it is still possible for a man to grow enough corn and beans to feed his family. His solution may be cutting down trees for land he will soon erode. He may be nomadic, moving to another patch of forest. But perhaps that is not the point, whereas getting a job is.

11. The old ways no longer provide a living. Overpopulation is recorded as soil erosion and grotesque deforestation. Where are the trees? The World Bank financed the national deforestation of Mexico in the 70s and 80s just as Malasian-headed multinational businesses are deforesting Belize now. The financing of the national destruction of Mexican forests in the 70s & 80s by WB cannot be erased. The theft of much overpriced heavy equipment like bulldozers shows that millions of dollars can evaporate without being noticed. What a bank ! WB financed La Programa Nacional de Desmontes, 1976 that caused new national soil erosion.

12. Some organizationsA large job is identifying the major organizations and treaties. The first group is easy: all federal and state governments as found in Internet. National and state bank data could be interesting or necessary. Many other organizations can be reached by such links. Thanks to Wendy Call for supplying most of them.http://www.datacenter.org/research/ppp.htmExtensive list of web links about the PPP compiled by an Oakland, CA organization that does research on the PPP in collaboration with the Mexican organization Grupo de Trabajo Colectivo del Istmo (Collective Working Group of the Isthmus). (bilingual Spanish-English)

13. http://www.mesoamericaresiste.org/This web site, edited by two community organizations in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec – UCIZONI (Association of Indigenous Communities in the Northern Zone of the Isthmus) and the Grupo de Trabajo Colectivo del Istmo (Collective Working Group of the Isthmus) – gathers information about the PPP and gives the perspective of communities that live in the region.Though it hasn’t been updated in the last few months, it contains some good information. (Spanish only, use Internet Explorer only with this page)

14. http://www.americaspolicy.org/citizen-action/spotlight/index.htmlThe Americas Policy “PPP Spotlight” includes an occasional series of articles about the Plan Puebla Panama and links to other sites that provide information. (English with some Spanish) http://www.mesaglobal.net/This web site from Mesa Global de Guatemala focuses on information about FTAA (ALCA), CAFTA (TLCAUSA), and other free trade agreements, but includes some information about the Plan Puebla Panama. (Spanish only, use Internet Explorer only)

15. The countries involved in PPPThe 9 southern Mexican states of Puebla, Veracruz, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán and Quintana Roo, and the 7 CA countries Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panamá make up the territories of PPP. The extremely poor countries are 1/ Guatemala and 2/ Nicaragua.The US has concluded the US-Chile FTA; the Central American Free Trade Agreement, (CAFTA) with Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala,Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic.

16. Demographic data Correlation MatrixPOP AREA YTH ADLT ELDPOP 1.0000AREA 0.6926 1.0000YTH -0.5571 -0.8430 1.0000ADLT 0.4740 0.7143 -0.9742 1.0000ELD 0.6359 0.9546 -0.9420 0.8420 1.0000TFR -0.4069 -0.6460 0.9270 -0.9728 -0.7703GDP 0.7765 0.9683 -0.8835 0.7731 0.9642AGR -0.5046 -0.6058 0.8082 -0.7885 -0.7616IND 0.0785 0.2164 -0.2038 0.1922 0.2027SERV 0.4488 0.5258 -0.7317 0.7004 0.7093TFR GDP AGR IND SERVTFR 1.0000GDP -0.6886 1.0000AGR 0.7278 -0.6744 1.0000IND -0.2624 0.2076 -0.3527 1.0000SERV -0.5845 0.6121 -0.7946 -0.2514 1.0000

18. The more rural these disasterous people are, the more disasterous babies they have. Are they really poor because they want to be? Long ago they made things miserable for themselves. When off-farm jobs are found, misery will reduce CUBICALLY !The soil has abandoned these people so they cut down trees.What is the problem? LONGTIME OVERPOPULATION.Their behavior is excused, because they are hungry !

20. ConclusionsForest reserves, hydroelectric potentials and petroleum are the resources of the area. The area contains far too many rural people without much hope for a better life. Solidifying an electricity net seems most important. However, the eradication of tropical diseases like Chagas and the promotion of family planning are just as important just as persistent poverty also is.Getting computerized education into the primary schools might be more important than widening a road. Nonetheless, the basic proposition to industrialize mesoamerica is basically sound, necessary and challenging. All of these people need a new way of life.