Corrupción institucionalizada y el mito de las multinacionales: la lógica tras la contaminación industrial del río Santiago, Jalisco

Abstract

ResumenEn este texto, la pretensión es hilvanar una explicación teórico-conceptual de la degradación del río Santiago, en Jalisco, a partir de las nociones de "corrupción institucionalizada" y "mito de las multinacionales". Para ello, partiendo del enfoque de la "neoliberalización de la naturaleza", examino el ambientalismo de mercado como una respuesta a las crisis ecológicas engendradas por la tendencia de la producción capitalista, y en particular de su forma actual neoliberal, a degradar sus condiciones de producción y a la naturaleza más ampliamente. Posteriormente analizo la adaptación del ambientalismo de mercado "para países pobres" de maneras que empoderan al sector privado en la regulación ambiental; para ello tomo como ejemplo la regulación mexicana. A partir de la investigación de campo, asimismo, presento un resumen de algunos datos empíricos que sustentan la hipótesis de la corrupción institucionalizada. Finalmente, las conclusiones versan sobre cómo la regulación de las descargas industriales en México refleja el sesgo del ambientalismo de mercado en su versión "para países pobres", que se basa en supuestos no verificables del cumplimiento de las empresas transnacionales, o lo que propongo llamar el "mito de las multinacionales".

Social Reproduction, Ecological Dispossession and Dependency: Life Beside the Río Santiago in Mexico

“…Río Santiago is one of Mexico's most contaminated rivers (Álvarez, 2019; Conant, 2009; Enciso, 2015; Fisher and Malkin, 2019; Huerta, 2020; McCulligh, 2017; Rubiano, 2017; Tucker, 2016). It wraps around Guadalajara's peri‐urban corridor before heading hundreds of kilometres to the sea.…”

“…The contamination of the Río Santiago and pollution produced by nearby industrial facilities has caused a series of well‐documented deaths, in addition to people suffering from elevated levels of skin, eye and gastro‐intestinal infections, kidney failures, cancers and other health concerns (Chávez, 2013; Greenpeace, 2016). Residents complain of pungent rank odours that constantly emanate from the region's industrial facilities, concentrated in chemical, plastic, metal, electronic and food production and processing (McCulligh, 2017). Adding complexity to the problem, El Salto hosts ZMG's garbage dump, which has long operated beyond its capacity, leaching, just beyond El Salto, into the area's ground and surface waters (Chávez, 2013; Vargas, 2017).…”

“…Despite the difficult living conditions, the population here has exploded, growing from a sleepy area of 9,014 residents in 1960 to one of 185,000 today (INEGI, 2017; McCulligh, 2017). Chaos and deprivation have become common throughout Mexico, where in the last 20 years developers have built millions of homes in peripheral areas, far from urban services (Marosi, 2017).…”

“…Using the European model of locating heavy industry outside of the city centres, Guadalajara's first Industrial Park opened in El Salto in 1967 (Rodríguez Bautista and Cota Yañez, 2006: 90). Development accelerated when President Echeverría (1970–76) established an industrial rail corridor between Jalisco and Mexico City in 1972, and IBM launched Mexico's Silicon Valley in El Salto (McCulligh, 2017: 13). Today, about 700 firms have installed their operations along this El Salto‒Ocotlán industrial corridor (ibid.…”

“…Residents noted a change in the river's colour in the 1960s when ‘ecosystem services began to fade, reducing the river's value not only economically, but socially and culturally’ (Sherrard, 2016: 32). In the 1970s, the number of people with asthma, respiratory and skin infections, conditions common to the area today ( El Informador , 2020a), began to be associated with the river's airborne emissions (McCulligh et al., 2007).…”