Swine flu outbreak caused by agribusiness and NAFTA free trade policies

The same way that happened centuries ago, when Europeans brought diseases that caused the biggest genocide in human history -millions of Indigenous peoples died- now the multinational companies are poised to repeat history.

Imagen via Texas Beyond History

For some days I was sceptical about the whole craze on the swine flu outbreak, especially because the media seem not to care about the 5,000 Mexicans dying annually because of the internal drugs war, but then again it is alarming that over 150 Mexicans have died of this influenza.

Reading the news today I understand there is a chance that this disease outbreak was caused by agro industries and free trade policies. This is not a joke nor a coincidence.


Granjas Carroll

This disease outbreak could have been caused by an industrial pork farm with over 56 thousand porks located in southest Mexico, owned by Grajas Carroll a binational corporation: created by Smithfield of the U.S and Agroindustrias Unidas of México. This corporation was founded in 1994 when NAFTA was implemented.

The British paper The Guardian, known by its partial independence among U.K. papers, posted this today:

Four-year-old could hold key in search for source of swine flu outbreak

Case confirmed in village in south-eastern Mexico where 60% of residents fell ill

A Mexican village whose inhabitants were overwhelmed by an outbreak of respiratory illness starting in February has emerged as a possible source of the swine flu outbreak which has now spread across the world.

The state government of Veracruz in eastern Mexico has confirmed one case of swine flu in the village of La Gloria with the sufferer named locally as a four-year-old boy, Edgar Hernández Hernández. The federal government said tonight that he tested positive for the same strain of the virus which has claimed lives in Mexico.

The boy's case earlier this month came amid an outbreak of respiratory illness in the area in which around 400 people requested medical help. The boy was treated in hospital and survived. But two babies from the same village died during the outbreak. Sufferers complained of symptoms including fever, severe cough, and large amounts of phlegm.

Indigenous boy Edgar Hernández in a photo from The Washington Post

The Guardian denounces:

[…] Early today the US owner of an industrial pig production facility around 12 miles from La Gloria said it had found no clinical signs or symptoms of swine flu in its herd or Mexican employees. The world's biggest pig meat producer, Virginia-based Smithfield, said it is co-operating with the Mexican authorities' attempts to locate the possible source of the outbreak and will submit samples from its herds at its Granjas Carroll subsidiary to the University of Mexico for tests.

[...] The statement came after Mexico's national public health authority, the Mexican social security institute, raised concerns that waste from the Granjas Carrol facility may be responsible for the outbreak of illness, according to local media.

"According to state agents of the Mexican social security institute, the vector of this outbreak are the clouds of flies that come out of the hog barns, and the waste lagoons into which the Mexican-US company spews tons of excrement," reported Mexico City newspaper La Jornada.

[..] The outbreak of respiratory illness in the area of the Granjas Carroll plant was first detected at the beginning of this month by Veratect, a company based in Washington state which monitors the spread of disease and pandemics around the world for corporate clients.

The Guardian information is true. Granjas Carroll has several facilities in the Perote valley, like this one located 12 miles fom La Gloria town:


And here you can read the press realese of Veratect (PDF file) and the denounce made days ago by a Mexican paper against Granjas Carroll in this link (in Spanish).


Free Trade flu

There is a relation between this flu outbreak and the pollution caused by industrial agribusinesses, and this was noted today also by the renowned journalist Amy Woodman:

The "NAFTA Flu": Critics Say Swine Flu Has Roots in Forcing Poor Countries to Accept Western Agribusiness

As the US reports its first known death from the global swine flu, the World Health Organization has raised its pandemic threat level. Several countries around the world have banned the import of US and Mexican pork products. We speak to professor and author Robert Wallace, who says the swine flu is partly the outcome of neoliberal policies that forced poorer countries to open their markets to poorly regulated Western agribusiness giants.

Liste/Watch/Read

Amy Woodman is not alone on this. CNN's Sanjay Gupta traveled to La Gloria and interviewed the parents of Edgar Hernández confirming that this disease is believed to be created by Granjas Carroll pollution, who forbid Gupta from entering its facilities.

Meanwhile, pseudo liberal blog Huffington Post blames the four-year-old Mexican boy for this outbreak, ignoring the whole story of Granjas Carrolll:

Edgar Hernandez Hernandez: Swine Flu's "Possible Source"
Read here

Now here is a Google map of La Gloria I made, check how close is to the Gulf of Mexico area, and all the resorts American tourists love to visit:

La Gloria, Veracruz, México

This disease outbreak should be a warning on the consequences that greediness of multinational corporations and free trade policies can cause. American corporations go to poorer countries and pollute, abuse and break laws with actions that otherwise couldn't do in the United States. And they do it in complicity with corrupted local elites who care little about their people, in this case the Indigenous Mexicans.

Diseases and pollution can be some of the worst consequences of free trade policies, and they need to be addressed urgently. Of course, nobody would care about Mexican Indigenous peoples dying -- but in this case the swine flu virus doesn't know of borders nor nationalities.


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