Some of you may remember the entry abour Xalapa’s precious reserve La Joyita. Tuesday, July 10, La Jornada’s Julio Hernández López wrote about Wal-Mart’s hypocrisy in his highly recommended column Astillero. Here’s my translation of what he had to say:

Global Exchange (GE) and El Centro de Investigación Laboral y Asesoría Sindical (CILAS) have together created a pronouncement to denounce Wal-Mart México’s publicity campaign, launched today to drive the belief that this transnational company respects the environment. “Wal-Mart lies: Their Practices Go Against Ecology,” is the title of the statement in which it is mentioned, for example, that this company “plans to build a megastore on the property La Joyita, in southeast Xalapa, Veracruz, covering nearly 40 hectares of reserved land.” La Joyita is “one of the last islands of forest and coffee plantation that remain in the city’s downtown area. This property, which makes up part of a corridor of treed areas belonging to Parque Natura, El Museo Interactivo de Xalapa and Murillo Vidal’s protected area, will inevitably disappear with the construction of the supercenter.” According to CILAS and GE, “it’s essential that we protect this entire corridor as it is an area where water sources are refilled to then feed the Las Animas lakes and is a refuge for local migratory birds.” Both of the organizations that signed the statement warn that even when Wal-Mart announces its reduction of “minimal things, like energy consumption and vehicles,” the reality is that the stores’ model is a crime against ecology, as much for building their stores in surrounding areas, thereby incrementing the use of vehicles to get to them, as for bringing in their supplies from far off, necessitating the excessive use of combustibles. “Apart from the ecological problem, there are also the areas that affect the quality of people’s lives: Can a company that declares itself sustainable continue to maintain low wages and refuse to pay more than 20,000 minors that work as cerillos in their stores, all the while keeping the unions that supposedly negotiate labor relations clandestine? If we’re not careful, Mexico could end up a country where there are more paved parking lots than marketplaces and ecological reserves…”