Photo @ Oxfam
According to the international NGO Oxfam, the growing inequality crisis has become a recurring theme on international agendas due to the effects that this has on the world population. Mexico, Oaxaca and Chiapas are examples of this. On March 31, a group of researchers from the Autonomous University of Chiapas (UNACH in its Spanish acronym), from the Isitame Collective and from Oxfam Mexico presented the report “Inequality and Social Exclusion in Chiapas, a Long Term View.” Specifically, the document seeks to “find a reason for the inequalities in Mexico that different regions of the country experience, from territorial to local constructions as well as the solutions that can be locally outlined.” The report points out that Chiapas is considered to be “the state with the highest concentration of population in conditions of poverty and extreme poverty. As a result of a historical process of high rates of population growth, recurring crises and economic stagnation, a vicious circle of poverty and inequality has been generated, which reports the highest levels in all areas of poverty and inequality in the entity.” Jorge Alberto Lopez Arevalo, one of the researchers, commented that between 1995 and 2014 almost 40 million dollars have been invested in Social Development in Chiapas, a shocking figure, but poverty has not diminished. On the contrary, it is on the increase. ” We can say that this is the failure of social policy”, he said.
“Extreme Inequality and Development Tendencies. The Case of the Oaxaca State” was also presented in the report, produced in collaboration between Services for an Alternative Education (Servicios para una Educación Alternativa A.C. – EDUCA) and Oxfam Mexico in Oaxaca State on March 29. According to the report, Oaxaca not only suffers from income poverty but also lack of social rights, which prevents equal access to development opportunities for the population. According to the study carried out, “this poverty and inequality favored the growth of drug addiction and alcoholism among the inhabitants.” Although the report does not specifically address inequality among women, it reveals that some elements of social policy, such as those aimed at empowering women, in fact increase work duties for them while other programs also increase their responsibilities. It also evaluates mega-projects and points out that the refinery at Salina Cruz, for example, has not had an impact on the welfare of the population and that wind farm projects have resulted in the dispossession of lands in the region of Tehuantepec Isthmus.
Ricardo Fuentes of Oxfam Mexico said that there is a growing tendency of inequality and that it is a world phenomenon that Oxfam has been warning about since 2014, when they revealed that 85 people possess more wealth than half of the population of the world. As a result of their analysis they published the document “Extreme Inequality. Concentration of Economic and Political Power” in June 2015, in which they warned about the gap between those who have everything and those who have nothing.
For more information in Spanish:
Más de 20 años de millonaria de derrama económica y Chiapas sigue igual de pobre (Chiapas Paralelo, 1 de abril de 2016)
Presentaron diagnóstico de desigualdad social (Cuarto Poder, 1 de abril de 2016)
Millones de dólares y la pobreza sigue en Chiapas: OXFAM (Areópago, 1 de abril de 2016)
Megaproyectos, desigualdad en Oaxaca: OXFAM (IstmoPress, 31 de marzo de 2016)
Oaxaca un estado de desigualdad extrema (SEM México, 30 de marzo de 2016)
Informe Desigualdad Extrema y Tendencias de Desarrollo. El Caso del Estado de Oaxaca, México (EDUCA, 29 de marzo de 2016)
For more information from SIPAZ
Nacional: Múltiples críticas a la presentación del Tercer Informe de Gobierno de Peña Nieto (8 de septiembre de 2015)
Chiapas: Foro “Defendiendo la esperanza y la autonomía desde el Sureste mexicano” (28 de junio de 2013)
México: crece pobreza en el país, en particular en zonas urbanas. Oaxaca, Chiapas y Guerrero con mayor índice de pobres. Campaña por la ratificación del PF PIDESC (9 de diciembre de 2011)
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