Jul 23, 2026 · 51 min · 4 segments
The ratification of NAFTA—the North American Free Trade Agreement—in 1994 transformed Mexico in profound ways. Over the next thirty years it deepened and expanded the resource frontier across the…
Darcy TetreaultGuest
Youssef BouchiHost
Sol Pérez GiménezGuest
[gentle music] So far in Continental Shift, we've explored the ways global capitalism shapes and is shaped by resource extraction, from the ways in which trade architectures constrain national policymaking to the processes through which major mining companies seek new ways to access natural resources with the least amount of friction possible, applying pressures on social and ecological protections.
The ratification of NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, in 1994 transformed Mexico in profound ways.
Over the next 30 years, it deepened and expanded the resource frontier across the country, disproportionately benefiting national and global elites.
Mining activity exploded, and with it, the socioecological violence that follows large-scale extraction.
Anti-extractivist struggles cannot be ignored, especially as Morena, the self-proclaimed progressive political party that holds power in Mexico after breaking seven decades of political duopoly in 2018, tries to navigate competing pressures.
Morena's landmark program, the so-called Fourth Transformation, frames greater state involvement and control over strategic resources and royalties as a means to fund social programs and reclaim national sovereignty, though its policies and outcomes remain uncertain.
This episode offers a closer look at extractivism in Mexico, tracing developments from the colonial silver boom to state-led industrialization, and from neoliberal open-pit expansion to present-day state-led extractivism.
Darcy Tetro and Sol Pérez Giménez join us from Mexico to offer granular historical knowledge and field-based evidence mapping how policy and capital have reshaped labor, land, and water regimes in the country.
We discuss the deepening of resource frontiers, the persistence of elite mining interests, and the complex, contested forms of resistance from legal reforms to grassroots refusal and struggle for territorial autonomy.
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[gentle music] So far in Continental Shift, we've explored the ways global capitalism shapes and is shaped by resource extraction, from the ways in which trade architectures constrain national policymaking to the processes through which major mining companies seek new ways to access natural resources with the least amount of friction possible, applying pressures on social and ecological protections.
The ratification of NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, in 1994 transformed Mexico in profound ways.
Over the next 30 years, it deepened and expanded the resource frontier across the country, disproportionately benefiting national and global elites.
Mining activity exploded, and with it, the socioecological violence that follows large-scale extraction.
Anti-extractivist struggles cannot be ignored, especially as Morena, the self-proclaimed progressive political party that holds power in Mexico after breaking seven decades of political duopoly in 2018, tries to navigate competing pressures.
Morena's landmark program, the so-called Fourth Transformation, frames greater state involvement and control over strategic resources and royalties as a means to fund social programs and reclaim national sovereignty, though its policies and outcomes remain uncertain.
This episode offers a closer look at extractivism in Mexico, tracing developments from the colonial silver boom to state-led industrialization, and from neoliberal open-pit expansion to present-day state-led extractivism.
Darcy Tetro and Sol Pérez Giménez join us from Mexico to offer granular historical knowledge and field-based evidence mapping how policy and capital have reshaped labor, land, and water regimes in the country.
We discuss the deepening of resource frontiers, the persistence of elite mining interests, and the complex, contested forms of resistance from legal reforms to grassroots refusal and struggle for territorial autonomy.