From Tijuana to Matamoros

Concerning Chiapas and NAFTA: "The problem is not limited to a small fringe group in Chiapas... In July issue of the New York Times it was stated that the trade agreement was expected to destroy the corn economy that sustains Mexico's indigenous peoples - some 29% of the population...Similar effects can be expected in Canada, where efforts are being made to pass the First Nations Chartered Lands Act, which will make it easier for corporations to get at natural resources on Indian Lands..." Jeffrey Wollock,New York, Jan. 6 1994. Research Director of the Solidarity Foundation, the information and research service of the Native American Council of New York.

In Mexico: The gap between poor and rich is wider today than ever before and getting worse. A decade or so ago, the middle class made up more than 30 percent of the Mexican Republic; today, because it is no more than one-fifth.

From Tijuana to Matamoros, where more than 2,000 mostly American-owned maquiladoras employ largely young women 14 to 24 years old, paying them 60 cents to a dollar 20 an hour, more and more of them and their families live in cardboard and plywood shacks lacking electricity, toilets, denied healthcare and schools for their childerns...