Trabajadores fronterizos para el flujo mercantil global entre México y Centroamérica

Abstract

Al analizar las experiencias de los actores transfronterizos que viven y laboran entre Tecún-Umán (Guatemala) y Ciudad Hidalgo (México), se evidencia cómo ellos, a través de los servicios que ofrecen y los vínculos comerciales que generan, hacen posible un nodo mercantil a escala global —entre Norte y Centroamérica—; y de forma simultánea reproducen sus propios mecanismos locales de movilidad. El dinamismo comercial y la aglutinación de redes de distribución global que se interceptan en las ciudades transfronterizas no solo se debe a las modernas tecnologías de comunicación y transporte multimodal generadas por las necesidades de circulación del capital global, sino a la combinación de mecanismos que podríamos considerar económicamente formales con otros informales. Esta combinación de mecanismos “(in)formales” está localizada en lugares concretos y contribuye a la extracción de valor de la mano de obra local y migrante. Las narrativas de los trabajadores y los datos etnográficos esclarecen la estrecha relación entre la desigualdad social de la población local y la próspera actividad mercantil a escala global.

Those Who “Don’t Move” Dynamics of Mobility at Two Crossing Points on the Guatemala-Mexico Borderland, from the Experience of Workers Who Vitalize the Region

“…Importantly, the Guatemala-Mexico border constitutes a crucial territory connecting Central and South America with North America in terms of (1) transnational trade and (2) human mobility. This historical circumstance, serving as a strategic node connecting global trade flows and shaping human mobility, was enhanced after NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) was signed in 1994, and later on with the Puebla Panama Plan (PPP), now named the Mesoamerican Integration and Development Project (PM) (see [22][23][24][25][26]).…”

“…First, in the context of these agreements, this border, as Rojas [22] explains, has a dilapidated infrastructure and relies on local, low-wage workers who hold informal and insecure employment. However, as he explains, it is a border that not only engages in global trade but also shapes the dynamics and provisions at the local and regional commerce level.…”

“…The mayor's success in administrative affairs allowed him an unquestioned, de facto control of the city. As Rojas [22] explains, there is a clear contrast between the power that the municipality of Ciudad Hidalgo and the mayor's office of Tecún Umán have in their respective jurisdictions because, in the former, the municipal president (or mayor) is elected for only three years, unlike the mayor on the Guatemalan side, who can be reelected indefinitely and whose team can be permanent.…”

“…Additionally, border externalization policies are interested in blocking international migration, not international trade, whether it is formal or informal (for a deeper review of commerce across this border, see Galemba [19]; see also Rojas [22]). Indeed, local workers know that this blurred distinction between what is formal or informal, legal or illegal, benefits not only local social and economic life within the borderland.…”

“…Trade across this border would require a deeper examination. For an insightful analysis on the matter, see Galemba[19] and Rojas[22]. For an analy-sis of socio-political and economic macro-structures framing these border dynamics, see Villafuerte[24].…”