Galen Bene - Water Wars: Coca-cola’s Effects in Mexico

Out of all the entities contributing towards the exploitation of resources within Mexico, Coca-Cola is one of the top culprits. I could not believe that the executive in the documentary could claim with a straight face that the company has never received special treatment especially as Vicente Fox doubled as the chief executive of the company in Mexico while being president. From my experience, Coca-Cola is one of the most powerful entities in Mexico and has used an approach of exploitation and injustice to get there. I came across a building covered in zapatista posters in January of 2023 and entered out of curiosity. We were told that this building was claimed by 150 indigenous families called the Otomí, who were displaced by Coca-Cola in order to extract groundwater. These people had been living on that land for generations, but as soon as Coca-Cola discovered that they had groundwater, they used their power to push the Otomí out of their territory with the Mexican government backing them up. Unfortunately this happens frequently in Mexico, and usually only benefits Coca-Cola. Another claim from the executive in the documentary was that water was more expensive than Coke because the bottling process is more expensive for plastic than glass, and that the people only want plastic bottles for water. This did not make sense to me since many consumers buy Coke in glass, even 2 liter bottles, so why would they refuse to buy a glass container just because it contains water instead? Additionally, how can the consumers choose to buy glass-bottled water if it does not exist? To me it seems that they just want to use this excuse to continue price-gouging the mexican people for water, and claim that they are sustainable by using glass bottles for Coke. Another major example of Coca-Cola contributing to the water issues in Mexico, is the city of San Cristóbal in Chiapas. Coca-Cola has bought the rights to the water sources that the city has relied on in the past, and extracts 300,000 gallons of water a day, while the people only have running water a few times per week. On top of this, the money that Coca-Cola pays for this water goes to the federal government, not back to the city or the state that it is extracted from. Coca-Cola claims that it offers the residents of San Cristóbal free drinking water but does not provide any means of transportation to collect the water or any services to deliver the water to the community. This essentially makes this “free water” inaccesible, however Coca-Cola continues to claim that they give back to each community that they affect. 

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