ustxtxb_obs_2002_04_12_50_00008-00000_000.pdf

FEATURE Roast Goats and Sacrificial Lambs Monterrey Goes Global BY JOHN ROSS The rusting skeleton of what was once Latin America’s flagship steel mill soars into the spotless sky, In another era, La Fundidora was the symbol of this powerhouse northern city, where mining and hot steel and the rail lines running north and south made it the nation’s industrial and financial titan, Shuttered by the Mexican government in 1985 over workers’ protests, the Fundidora’s production shifted to private steelmakers, Today the 12,000 workers who once toiled in the Fundidora’s foundries and furnaces are ghosts of the city’s proletarian past, The site has been remade into an exclusive enclave featuring the shiny new Monterrey International And it was at this icon of neo-liberal transformation that nearly 60 heads of state, their entourages and delegations, and “The Sultan of the North,” as Monterrey likes to call itself, is a city that takes great pride in its sparkling skyscrapers, impressive monuments, and roast goat, the local delicacy that packs the tourists into culinary salons like “El Rey verged for a landmark United. Nations-sponsored conclave that put Mexico and President Vicente Fox squarely in the global spotlight. The Forum On Financing World Development was convened to ratify The Monterrey Consensus, an agreement rubber-stamped by 189 United Nations members, despite criticism that the consensus had been imposed from Washington. The document \(reportedly crafted by ex-Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo and ex-Treasury Secretary-turned Citigroup Millennium Summit, to halve the number of the world’s extreme poor who survive on a dollar or less a day \(the price 1,2 billion destitute citizens of the planet, a fifth of the world’s population. The gathering was only the second such event since the September 11 terrorist attacks on NewYork and Washington; January, kicked off the global conclave season,The Monterrey meeting took place nearly a year after tear gas-saturated protests at the Quebec Summit of the Americas, and six months after the deadly Genoa G-7 meet, Most recently, a massive anti-globalization mobilization greeted the European Union Spring summit in Barcelona. Instigated at Kole Annan’s behest by Zedillo, a globalization booster who is credited with popularizing the term “globalphobe,” the Monterrey forum on financing development drew anti-globalists to town like moths to the proverbial flame, “The Sultan of the North,” as Monterrey likes to call itself, is a city that prides itself on its sparkling skyscrapers, impressive monuments, and roast goat, the local delicacy that packs the tourists into culinary salons like “El Rey de La Cabra” there farmers from the nearby town of Mina showed up on the first day of the forum with two dead goats.They claimed the critters had been poisoned by toxic outflow from a water treatment plant owned by a French transnational, “There is a plot by the globalphobes to stain the image of our city,” declared Mayor Jesus Cantil. The campesinos and toxic goats were the first in a serial pageant of anti-globalization vaudeville that so terrorized 11 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 4/12/02