Tacoma SDS

Local citizens and environmentalists in Balandra, located outside the city of La Paz, have gathered over 18,000 signatures to halt the development of the untouched beach town.

The area has been the target of ambitious tourist developers for years hoping to emulate other successful Mexican tourist destinations such as Cancun and Cabo San Lucas. The developer’s interest, led by the son of a former state governor of Veracruz, included an elaborate hotel and golf course scheme.

On January 1, 1994, Mexico was set to enter the “first world” with the implementation of NAFTA (North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement). Then president Carlos Salinas de Gortari had made multiple free trade deals, NAFTA being the most comprehensive and important. In order to enter NAFTA, Article 27 of the Mexican Constitution protecting ejidal or communally-held lands had been modified to allow for their possession as private property and thus their availability for sale or appropriation through debt collateral and investment strategies.