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Mexico’s Ghost Towns

The other side of the immigration debate

By John Gibler

Cerrito del Agua, population 3,000, has no paved roads — either leading to it or within it. No restaurants, no movie theaters, no shopping malls. In fact, the small town located in the central Mexican state of Zacatecas has no middle schools, high schools or colleges; no cell phone service, no hospital. Its surrounding fields are dry and untended. The… return to article

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    Perhaps there is something worse than an empty town.

    In “Who will tell the people?” Richard Greider tells what it can be like to work for a U.S. corporation which builds a new factory on a well manicured lawn and draws a large number of workers to the area.

    Delphi built such a facility a few years ago.

    When the mayor of the now far over populated village appealed to Delphi for help in providing drinking water and sewage disposal and better housing (makeshift shacks) he was turned down and threatened.  The company said if taxes were levied they would simply walk away and get far cheaper labor in China.

    According to the Wall Street Journal, (April 14, 2002 pg R7) Delphi CEO, J.T. Battenburg, received $6,745,000 total compensation that same year.

    Not what supporters of NAFTA talk about a whole lot.

    United States Posted by whattheheck on Jun 1, 2008 at 6:02 AM
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