The new Mexican government recently announced its project "Puebla- Panama," directed toward the development of the country's southern area and reaching toward Central America. Meanwhile, on February 15th, the Guatemalan Congress authorized the creation of the "New Horizons" exercise between the armies of the United States and Guatemala, of a "humanitarian" nature, in the El Petén zone bordering Chiapas. More over, the Mexican portion of the isthmus has just integrated an ecological program that the World Bank manages in Central America known as "The Mesoamerican Biological Corridor." Three seemingly distinct projects that coincide, not only in their declared ecological, civic and humanitarian intentions but also for their particular interest in the zone near the Mexican-Guatemalan border. These common interests raise questions in terms of intentions in the realm of economic interests and security. It is well known that the isthmus that extends from the South of Mexico toward Panama contains areas of exceptional biodiversity. The zone covering Southern Mexico and Northern Guatemala is particularly rich in natural resources (forests, sources of water and petroleum, among others). New Horizons The plan New Horizons 2001, which was finally approved in the Guatemalan Congress after encountering resistance, will organize joint task-force "exercises" with the U.S. and the Guatemalan armies. According to a document released by the U.S. embassy in Guatemala: "New Horizons is strictly a training and humanitarian support mission. It is not an anti-narcotics operation." The majority of U.S. troops will be army reserves or members of the National Guard, who will be spending two-week periods in Guatemala. The construction of schools and wells, road-improvement and medical assistance has been announced. A similar program took place in El Salvador last year, with the participation of Guatemalan troops. César Montes, secretary of the Unity of the Democratic Left, who describes the agreement as "the historical shame of the new millenium," has denounced on his part, with the support of declarations made by the Chief of the Southen Command of the American army, the arrival of up to 12 thousand troops in Guatemala, "which is technically an invasion." Likewise, he recalls that during the brief presidency of General Efraín Ríos Montt, the current President of Parliament, "there were 200 thousand deaths, 400 destroyed villages, a million exiled, and, of the 400 destroyed villages, 399 were Maya and one was mestizo." El Petén is an area of Mayan population. Puebla-Panama The Puebla-Panama project, designed by the Mexican government as a broad-reaching program "to assure that the fruits of globalization find their way to all corners of Mexico," has as its goal the "promotion of structural change in the Southern and Southeastern states in the longer-term." The project, which covers the states of Chiapas, Oaxaca, Guerrero, Quintana Roo, Yucatán, Campeche, Tabasco y Veracruz, will incorporate: "the instrumentation of strategic projects and changes that permit the flowering of regional diversity and richness and overcome the enormous backwardness and inequality that so damage our country and that are incompatible with the process of democratic consolidation." In consideration are road-works and hydroelectric infrastructure, as well as improvements of railroad tracks and ports, among others. Mexico's richest biodiversity happens to be concentrated in this zone, where more than 90% of the petroleum is extracted, and the greater part of the country's capacity for electrical generation is found. According to official sources: "This program falls within the framework of another program of greater magnitude, whose objective is to eliminate obstacles that have blocked the area's productive potential, and also to promote its development and aid its integration into national and international markets, not only with North America but also with Central America." As it seems, one of these obstacles would be indigenous communities, in the case of the Montes Azules biosphere reserve - bordering on the Guatemalan portion of El Petén -- whose eviction is seen as a necessary part of the plan, and which, according to the advisor of the National Security Adviser, Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, "must be one theme of the dialogue and peace in Chiapas." The official commented before military and civilian specialists in National Security that the communities that will have to leave the reserve have already been identified, signaling that the presence of the Mexican army is strategic, because this is the country's last reserve and "if in ten years it has been stripped of its resources all the basins in the state of Chiapas will be dislocated." With such ecological arguments, Aguilar attempts to incorporate the country's natural resources into the scope of his authority, according to sources from La Journada. The Mesoamerican Biological Corridor The Mesoamerican Biological Corridor's goal is to "integrate policies of conservation through the establishment of biological connectors between the protected areas of Southeast Mexico, in order to avoid their biological isolation and to guarantee the equilibrium of terrestrial and marine ecosystems, under a philosophy of sustainable development," affirms the World Bank. This is an ecological project already taking place in Central American countries, including Panama, of seven years duration, for which the Bank has just approved a budget of 19.1 million for the project's incorporation in Mexico. It deals with the same region of the country as plan "Puebla-Panamá (with the exception of the state of Guerrero). The project looks to promote "innovative" forms of managing the region's biodiversity, including exploitation, for economic ends, of the zone's vast natural resources. It will try to "maintain or reestablish a functional continuity between the ecosystems of Southeast Mexico and those of Guatemala and Belize, thereby integrating the northern portion of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor," in order to, among other things, maintain species' migratory routes. The World Bank also stated that "the area covered by the Corridor, which extends from Mexico to Panama, is home to many indigenous communities as well as abundant and uncommon plant and animal life." Although it represents only 0.5% of the earth's surface, it is estimated that this area contains 7% of the planet's known biodiversity. The program "uses environmental conservation as a catalyst in order to reduce poverty and improve quality of life, to incite regional cooperation, to conserve the region's rich cultural heritage and to promote a new image of Central America on an international level," according to the Bank. Coincidences Juan Antonio Zúñiga, in the newspaper La Journada (2-18-2002), comments in respect to these three programs that: "The interest of the U.S. Armed Forces and the World Bank seem to coincide with the proposition of President Vincente Fox's administration of bringing globalization into the region of Southeastern Mexico, using arguments among which also figure ecological elements." Furthermore, Zúñiga points out that Fox is counting on "the participation of at least one of the richest men in Mexico who is already part of the advice of the Pemex administration: Arturo Romo." He also notes another "coincidence": "The Guatemalan region of El Petén is in communication, via the Lacantún river, with the area known as Las Cañadas, in the Lacandona forest, where the EZLN (zapatista army) has a good portion of its support bases." In effect, the Guatemalan-Mexican border is not only an area rich in natural resources but also inhabited by indigenous populations who have suffered centuries of abandonment and repression by the central powers. In recent decades it has been the scene of internal conflicts. One of the central questions raised, then, in respect to these projects, is whether they will be carried out in consultation with these populations, or if these peoples will only be taken into account as a security risk. (*) Translator's note: quotations are free translations from the Spanish version of the documents.