The Death of Ramon Gonzalez and the 21st Century Dilemma

urning of chlorinated chemicals, would also have been liberated.” There were no
immediate fatalities, and most of the 759 patients diagnosed as suffering from pesticide
poisoning were released from the hospital in less than twenty-four hours. Dr. de Leon and
his team of medical students, however, discovered that of twenty women in their first
trimester of pregnancy who were nearby at the time of the accident, four gave birth to
malformed babies and two of these died shortly after birth. The normal rate for the type
of malformation involved is one in ten thousand. xxxi
Residents began to question the larger situation in which they lived. Not only did
they live near ANAVERSA, but two other pesticide plants were within 500 meters of
ANAVERSA. The government clean-up effort, which included sweeping up large
quantities for disposal in the open municipal landfill and washing material down the
ordinary storm drains, was perfunctory at best. Community people formed an association
that launched formal protests that came to little, and public demonstrations, including the
stacking of coffins in front of the Municipal Palace. The highly politicized issue brought
charges and countercharges of exploitation or political gain on one hand, and repression
of data and protests on the other.
Dr. de Leon’s view gives a sense of the context into which the issue was put by
many in Mexico. After citing the anger of local residents and the failure of the
government to authorize sufficient resources to care for patients, he writes, “One can only
wonder if the government’s stubbornness is related to the fact that ANAVERSA has
strong economic ties with transnational companies, and that agreements the government
has made through the North American Free Trade Agreement are stronger than pressure
from one sector of the affected community of Cordoba, Veracruz.” Since the incident at