Global Policy Forum

President Vicente Fox on Monday opened negotiations on ways to help Mexico's impoverished farmers, but the groups he meant to woo boycotted the event. Hundreds of farmers, administrators, lawmakers and experts turned up, but three major farm coalitions kept away, accusing the government of imposing the format and site of the talks.

"It's imperative that we make working in the countryside a more human and dignified experience in order to achieve the better life and greater well-being we are all entitled to," Fox said.

He said that farmers and the government would have to "put forth a gigantic effort to put aside our differences" during the scheduled hearings meant to bring his Cabinet together with farm leaders.

Missing were three groups that have staged protests around the country in recent months to demand more protection and aid for Mexico's small farms: The Countryside Can't Stand More, the Permanent Agrarian Congress and El Barzon, or "the yoke-strap," which takes its name from a famous Mexican song.

The groups complained about the site of the meeting and accused the government of trying to impose a format that will let it direct the course of talks. But they say they may participate in forthcoming hearings.

The groups want a renegotiation of the farm clauses of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which they say has been disastrous for the small-plot farmers they represent. They also claim that Mexico has been cutting farm subsidies while the U.S. has been increasing them.

Fox said his government would spend 117 billion pesos ($1=MXN10.97) on farm programs this year and he said that was the highest agricultural budget in history. He called the talks "the only opportunity to start together down the road to a solution and to establish the necessary agreements to repay the historic debt our population owes to its rural population."

Despite the boycott, more than 300 farmers in cowboy hats and dirt-smudged boots packed a sweltering gymnasium on the grounds of the Agricultural Department as Fox opened the talks. His speech was interrupted by cries of "We want a solution!"

"They say this is an unprecedented negotiation, but it doesn't mean anything if they don't find a solution," said Yolanda Juarez, a 58-year-old cattle rancher from Fox's home state of Guanajuato. "We trust that everyone wants to improve the plight of the farmer. We don't believe that we will agree on how to do that."

An estimated 25% of Mexico's 100 million people live in rural areas, where poverty is widespread.

"We are very humble, very poor people," said Juan Ramos, a corn and sugarcane farmer from western Jalisco state. "The president comes and speaks to us but then he leaves. The question is what happens now."

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