For the past three years, Marco Antonio Velasquez Navarrete has been traveling around the country representing the activist organization, Witness For Peace; a group initially discovered to see Nicaraguan government policy first hand, now with a broadened focus on other countries, such as Mexico.
Signed in 1994, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is a US economic policy that seeks to reform Mexican markets in terms of economic growth, job development, better wages and other factors that would influence a positive change in Mexico’s market. However, this instrument of U.S economic policy actually increases competition of industrialized countries for dominance in certain markets and has made Mexico even more dependent of the US then ever before. For example, 85% of Mexico’s exports go to the United States. Despite the goals of NAFTA, there has been no evidence to support its success. In 2006, there were 14.8% less jobs in Mexico then in 1993, one year before NAFTA was formed. The Rate of growth in Mexico is currently 1.58%, the lowest rate since 1910. Foreign direct investment is 4.2 times higher then it was before NAFTA, leading to the buyout of companies rather then creating new industries. This may conserve jobs of the people, but definitely does not create any.
NAFTA’s failures also include the migration of 575,000 legal immigrants to the U.S each year and between 2000 and 2006, 12 million undocumented workers in the U.S as well. In the agricultural sector of NAFTA, Mexico cannot produce without the help of its government and cannot compete with huge multinational corporations, forcing natives to abandon their land and migrate to the United States. This brings up the idea of the plight of disempowered groups. The Mexican population is being exploited and forced to move out and migrate to U.S, only to end up mopping a dirty floor or mowing a lawn for minimum pay. United States economic policy is taking advantage of our neighboring peoples desperation for jobs in order to provide for their families. Personally, I am shocked to hear the extent of the failure of such policy. I always knew the reasons for Mexican migration to the U.S, but I have overlooked the complexities and trouble Mexicans face that put them in situations where they need to leave everything behind and endure dangerous travels across the United States Border.
