Since the end of the Cold War, we have seen the US government resort to widely varied arguments and alibis to justify its wars and foreign military operations, now that it can no longer invoke the famous communist threat. In Panama, it was to combat drug trafficking; in Iraq (1991) to liberate a small invaded country; in Haiti to overthrow a dictatorship and restore democracy; in Somalia to bring food to the hungry; in Kosovo to put an end to genocide; in Afghanistan to combat terrorism; and in Iraq again (2003) to eradicate weapons of mass destruction. The Pentagon and intelligence agencies continue searching for new missions (new excuses) to justify their budgets and their interventions in the internal affairs of other countries. How about invading a country under the pretext of protecting the environment? Will the United States armed forces pass up the opportunity to present themselves as environmentalist champions? The US Southern Command and the Biological Corridor In 2001, the Pentagon's Southern Command carried out maneuvers in El Petén, the Guatemalan jungle region adjacent to the Mexican border. The maneuvers, dubbed New Horizons, were of a strictly humanitarian nature, according to the Southern Command's PR people. The troops were there to repair roads, to give medical assistance, build schools and dig wells, assured the US embassy. But not all Guatemalans were impressed with Washington's supposed generosity. Cesar Montes, secretary of the United Democratic Left, called the maneuvers "the historical shame of the new millennium," and said that the presence of 12,000 US troops in his country was "technically an invasion." New Horizons took place precisely as the Plan Puebla- Panamá (PPP) and the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor were being formalized. The PPP is a massive infrastructure plan for Mexico and Central America to maximize exploitation of the natural resources and cheap labor of the region, while the Corridor seeks to consolidate the region's protected natural areas in a coordinated conservation program. The three initiatives may appear unconnected, but some in the Mesoamerican isthmus suspect that they represent new strategies and mechanisms of control. Commenting on the handiwork of the Southern Command, the PPP and the Biological Corridor in the Mexican daily La Jornada (Feb. 18, 2002), Juan Antonio Zuñiga wrote that "the interests of the United States armed forces and the World Bank appear to coincide with the proposition of the administration of [Mexican] President Vicente Fox to carry globalization to the southeast region of Mexico with arguments which contain ecological elements." The Biological Corridor "refers to the investment of capital for 'conservation and sustainable use' of the natural resources," says economist Gian Carlo Delgado- Ramos of the Interdisciplinary Research Center of the Mexican National Autonomous University (UNAM). "It is a scheme in which 'sustainable use' is understood as the exploitation of strategic resources (biodiversity, forests, water, etc.) by a select corporate group, foreign in its majority." Ecology and national security El Petén is adjacent to the Lacandon Selva, the rainforest region of the Mexican state of Chiapas, stronghold of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN). Since last year, various sectors aligned with the neoliberal strategy of Fox and Bush have been asking the Mexican government to intervene in the Lacandon Selva to put an end to deforestation. There is no doubt that deforestation is an urgent problem in the Lacandon. Two centuries ago, the selva had two million hectares, and has since been reduced to 500,000 due to the surge in such activities as logging and cattle ranching. In this besieged jungle is the Montes Azules nature reserve (331,200 hectares), established by the government in 1978 and recognized by the United Nation Environment Program. Within the reserve, 20,000 hectares have already been destroyed, and another 20,000 are in the process of destruction, according to the IPS news agency. In December 2001 Adolfo Aguilar-Zinser, ex-national security chief and Mexico's representative on the UN Security Council, declared that military force should be used agaist "environmental terrorism." Later, in March 2002, La Jornada reported that the environmental group Conservation International (CI) had asked the Mexican government to expel the EZLN from the Lacandon Selva. In a May 2003 telephone interview with the Puerto Rican weekly Claridad, Ignacio March, director of CI's Mexico projects, denied La Jornada's accusations, but stated that actions must be taken to put an end to invasions of Montes Azules. Since Fox assumed the presidency in December 2000, ten communities of "invaders" have been established in Montes Azules, bringing the total of ["illegal"] communities to 45, with a population of 35,000. These communities are made up of Indians and landless peasants from other parts of Chiapas, fleeing hunger and the violence of the paramilitaries. The majority are sympathizers of the EZLN, while others are affiliated with ARIC-Independiente, a grassroots organization which, in contrast to the Zapatistas, are not armed. Who are the real invaders? Progressive sectors in Mexico see the government's intention to evict "invaders" from the Lacandon as a charade of neoliberalism and counterinsurgency, with the real intention to depopulate the area to exploit its natural resources in concordance with the PPP and Biological Corridor. Delgado-Ramos claims that the government's real agenda in the Lacandona is neither humanitarian nor environmental, but "to facilitate the intensive plunder, privatization and exploitation of the natural, material and human assets of the region by multinationals involved in bio-genetics, agribusiness, [trade] in water and electricity/petroleum, and in minerals, as well as eco-tourism projects by the multinational hotel industry, which has been strongly promoted since the Biological Corridor." The US-based reporter Bill Weinberg, who recently visited "invader" communities, was impressed at the ecological and political sophistication of these supposed environmental delinquents. In his visit to the community Nuevo San Gregorio, founded twenty years ago, he found that they have a sustainable agriculture program, that they have agreed not to cut the forest, and only use their own traditional corn seeds, not those sold by agribusiness corporations. Far from being ignorant provincials, the villagers spoke with erudition and eloquence about their constitutional rights, of the relevant conventions of the International Labor Organization, and the San Andres Accords, the peace agreement signed by the EZLN and the government. This past April, the 32 communities threatened with eviction presented a formal complaint before the Inter- American Commission of Human Rights. Neither the "invader" communities nor the EZLN are willing to leave the selva. Subcomandante Marcos announced last December 29 that the Zapatistas will resist any attempt at eviction, and that they will not be expelled peacefully. Three months after these words, just on the border with Guatemala, American troops participated in new maneuvers with their Mexican counterparts with the supposed end of fortifying security and vigilance... just when the war against Iraq was launched. * Ruiz-Marrero is a Puerto Rican journalist. He is also a research associate of the institute for social ecology, and a fellow of the society of environmental journalists and the environmental leadership program. Translated to English by Bill Weinberg Originally published in Claridad, San Juan, Puerto Rico, June 27, 2003 PRIMARY SOURCES:: América Latina en Movimiento. "The Mesoamerican Isthmus: Globalization, Ecology and Security". Feb, 23, 2001. (http://alainet.org/active/show_text.php3?key=1162) Diego Cevallos. "Violence Brewing in Montes Azules Reserve". IPS, June 5, 2003. Gian Carlo Delgado Ramos. "GeopolÌtica Imperial y Recursos Naturales". Memoria (Mexico), May 2003. Bill Weinberg. "Lacandon Selva conflict grows". NACLA Report on the Americas, May 2003.