WTO-listed
Will antiglobalization activists be under surveillance at the world trade forum in Cancún?

By Rachel Brahinsky

More than 60 international antiglobalization activists have been tagged for surveillance while in Cancún, Mexico, for the high-profile meeting of the World Trade Organization in September, according to an Aug. 18 report in the Mexican journal La Reforma.

Citing an unidentified national security document, the report says Mexican police and military forces will keep an eye on the WTO critics named on the list. Policia Federal Preventiva (agents of the Preventative Federal Police force) will be deployed to Cancún beginning in the first week of September, and at least 100 undercover agents are expected to be in play, La Reforma reported.

It is unknown what form the surveillance might take, but the document consists of a detailed dossier on each activist, including photographs, age, and affiliations with well-known leftists like Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva.

The list includes lefty intellectual Noam Chomsky, French farmer-activist Jose Bove (known for taking on McDonald's), indigenous leaders from Ecuador, and members of the Brazilian landless workers movement Sin Tierra, along with leaders of mainstream groups like Oxfam, and activists working in Mexico. Bay Area activists on the list include Victor Menotti of the International Forum on Globalization and John Sellers of the Ruckus Society.

Bernardo Mendez, spokesperson for the Mexican Consulate in San Francisco, would not confirm or deny the report. "I imagine they are doing some intelligence work, when you are having more than 140 top officials from 140 countries coming, and when you have people saying they openly want to disrupt the meeting," he told the Bay Guardian. Mendez said the government is expecting some 100,000 demonstrators, half from Mexico.

One of the most controversial issues on the table for the WTO meeting is the Bush administration's promotion of genetically modified foods. The United States has been using the international trade forum to convince representatives from around the world to push forward its pro-GMO agenda (see "Let Them Eat GMOs," 7/02/03).

Mendez pointed out that the Mexican constitution permits deportation of noncitizens engaging in political activity that threatens national security.

But Food First codirector Peter Rosset said the WTO meeting is a unique political event in Mexico. "The WTO is not an issue of internal politics in Mexico. It affects every citizen of this planet," Rosset, who is named on the watch list, told us. The government should "make it possible for global civil society to arrive and demonstrate in a nonviolent manner."

Who's behind the list? We couldn't get Mexican WTO officials to tell us, but the Mexican press has recently reported that Cancún's hotel owners association – dominated by U.S. chain-hotel corporations – has been calling for officials to use "el mano duro" (a heavy hand) with protesters. Photos of black-clad demonstrators smashing Seattle storefronts in 1999 have been on the front pages.

Beyond the civil rights concerns represented by the list, representatives from nongovernmental organizations have been asked to purchase a special work visa to attend the meeting. The visa, which costs $99, has been used in the past to track and deport international observers visiting Zapatista rebels in the Chiapas jungle, Carleen Pickard of Global Exchange told us.

Pickard said she's also concerned for Mexicans who take the risk to attend demonstrations. "If this is what they're prepared to do to international visitors," she asked, "what will they do to nationals?"

Watch for more on the WTO meeting. Bay Guardian correspondent David Martinez will be reporting to us from Cancún in coming weeks.

E-mail Rachel Brahinsky