Wal-Mart at Mexico Ruins Sparks Protest

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/ns/news/story.jsp?id=2004091117440002000379&dt=20040911174400&w=RTR&coview=


TEOTIHUACAN, Mexico (Reuters) - Burning incense and sounding a conch shell horn, residents of an ancient Mexican city protested on Saturday at the construction of a Wal-Mart store on the edge of the ruins.

The sprawling warehouse-style Bodega Aurrera, a unit of Wal-Mart in Mexico, is due to open in December in Teotihuacan, a major archeological site outside Mexico City.

Opponents say it will ruin a way of life that dates back centuries and have taken legal action to stop it, in a fight that gives a grand dimension to the classic battle between big business and small-town values.

"What they are doing in Teotihuacan is destroying Mexico's deepest roots for short-term interests like lower prices," local teacher Emanuel D'Herrera told about a dozen protesters outside Teotihuacan's town hall. "This is the flag of conquest by global interests, the symbol of the destruction of our culture."

SOMEBODY PLEASE STOP THEM

That's insane! I've been to Teotihuacan twice to see the pyramids. It's not that heavily populated - lots of undeveloped land around it and only small pockets of dwellings of people who rely on selling souveneirs as a primary source of income. Maybe there was a vilalge nearby, but I didn't see any sign of it. That sucks.

TlalocW

another facet of the empire.

With a starbucks inside the Forbidden City in China, I guess nothing is in fact inviolate. As one of my students said the other day, "if there are only starbucks and mcdonalds, where do I go if I want something different?".

I don't mind globalization, as long as globilzation means a way for local producers to have access to global markets and not a way for global producers to have access to local markets...

Hopefully they will have more sense than our citizens and completely boycott the dive.

no one will go to that wal-mart hopefully, there arent verry manny locals in that area if i remember right