The Entrepreneurs Who Became Radicals

...In spite of his declining fortunes, it was Quirino, not Barbosa, who made it into Mexico City's big leagues...

...Quirino is of a very different political persuasion than Barbosa, being a member of the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD...

...All in all, the barzonistas say that through court action, they have saved nearly 12,000 properties from the auctioneer's gavel...

...farmers who enjoyed federal subsidies for the production of grains and milk, while they, along with other Mexican producers, were forced to shoulder financial costs five to ten times higher than those paid in the United States...

...When the current economic crisis rolled over Mexico, the squeeze between rising fuel, water and fertilizer prices on the one hand, and government-controlled sugar cane and corn prices on the other, cost him dearly...

...In November of the same year, their pleas for debt relief still unheeded, the barzonistas aimed their tractors southward, toward Mexico City...

...Although official government programs have provided solutions and long-term rescheduling of the debts of more than five million people, experts estimate that 50% of the nation's credit problems are still hanging fire...

...The group has maintained a relentless publicity campaign to keep its cause ever in the public eye, staging sit-ins in municipal palaces, courtrooms, bank offices, manufacturing plants and other key locales...

...The authorities refused to receive them, so the barzonistas stepped up the pace of their protest, using their tractors to block the highway between Guadalajara and Chapala, home to a large U.S colony...

...In most cases, prospective buyers have backed off...

...This debtors' alliance quickly spread throughout the state, and in August, about 500 barzonistas attracted national attention by walking or driving their tractors onto the main plaza in Guadalajara, Jalisco's capital, and announcing that they had come to "negotiate with the authorities...

...They took the name El Barz6n to demonstrate to the community that there is strength in a united front, a barz6n being the piece of steel, wood or leather which joins traditional plows to teams of mules or a tractor...

...The group has formed a youth affiliate to train the upcoming generation, and it was talking about forming its own bank...

...In early spring, 1993, a group of small farmers and rural-commune (ejido) members in the town of Autldn, in the west coast state of Jalisco, got together to defend themselves against the local banks that were preparing to repossess their land...

...The barzonistas have been relatively welltreated by the Mexican federal authorities-a sharp contrast to the cold shoulder which human rights advocates, unionists and indigenous leaders have received from the past few administrations...

...Since that campaign, he has retreated from the public eye, and the barzonista torch has passed on to Juan Jos6 Quirino, a 35-year old economist from Zacatecas who has recruited merchants, manufacturers and service companies into the fold...

...Significantly, he carried off his campaign with no violent encounters...

...Since then, El Barz6n has rapidly become a national movement...

...Before his business dealings began to wind down, he also traded in grains, fertilizers, cheese and cattle, interests which he says he can no longer afford to pursue, since he has exhausted his working capital and still owes the banks some $300,000...

...At year's end, El Barz6n was showing signs of institutional maturity...

...Last summer, Quirino announced that his Barz6n group was joining forces with the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (ELZN) of Chiapas to establish a democratic front opposed to Mexico's current neoliberal economic model...

...When a series of torrential rains caused by the El Niho current washed out all his crops in early 1993 and reduced him to his last and original farm, Barbosa became an overnight militant and the organizer of a new civic movement...

...Estimates of the size of the organizations under the Barz6n umbrella vary between 500,000 and a million members...

...Not surprisingly, given the class origins of most barzonistas, many of these groups are located in states now governed by the centerright opposition National Action Party (PAN...

...They have engaged the services of nearly 500 Mexican lawyers and presently have a total of 350,000 cases pending in the courts...

...The group's basic argument hasn't changed since its first appearance, when members protested against the sudden opening of Mexico's border to international trade of all kinds, including agricultural products...

...In addition, the barzonistas know Mexican law better than most...

...He led a big barzonista group to the main entrance of the Mexican Senate building last April, where he successfully attacked a stringent new debtors' law and forced the legislators to rewrite it...

...At the same time, other members of the movement traveled up to the U.S...

...Although political analysts doubt that the barzonistas are presently capable of forming a new political party, they say there is little doubt that the group will continue to be highly influential in Mexican politics in the coming years...

...Barbosa used to cultivate sugar cane, corn and about 500 acres of watermelon and cantaloupe for export to the United States...

...So long as this continues to be the case, the role of El Barz6n can only grow...

...Figueroa's proposal is not likely to prosper in the Mexican Congress, but it may serve to pressure for more solutions to Mexico's widespread debt problems...

...border to carry out a similar blockade on the international bridge between Ciudad Juirez and El Paso...

...In addition to the groups organized by Barbosa and Quirino, other groups have emerged that also call themselves barzonista and focus on the problems of creditcard holders, small restaurant owners and other debtors...

...Yet he could hardly be called a working man who has risen within the ranks...

...he first Barz6n group was organized by Maximiano Barbosa, a young militant of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), who was born in the village of Casimiro Castillo, 25 miles from Autlin...

...Although the organiz- ers of the march were soon released on bail, the "nto the tractors never reached Mexico City...

...The movement has smoothed over some of its rough edges, and it is in the process of forming political alliances with like-minded groups, and perhaps moving a bit toward the left...

...Quirino has two master's degrees and owns an Englishlanguage school in Zacatecas, in addition to holding 500 acres which he still farms...

...Juan Figueroa, national secretary of the organization, says he has written a proposal for a new law which would penalize the banks on counts of usury if they repossess more property than they can use for their own operations...

...Since the date of the protest was close to that of the unveiling of the ruling party's presidential candidate, fed- eral authorities stopped the barzonistas while they were still a day away from the capital and arrested their leaders, claiming violation of fed- eral highway regulations...

...Considered by his friends to be a natural political leader and by his enemies an opportunist, Barbosa, now 36, and his followers have managed to force the banks to develop more tolerant policies regarding overdue debts...

...The Barz6n movement, in fact, is described by some as a catchall organization for persons with any kind of financial grievance involving the banks or the federal, state and municipal governments...

...El Barz6n alleges that associates of high government officials engaged in illicit enrichment during the process of privatization of the country's banking system...

...He sold off various plots of land, one by one, to settle his accounts with the banks...

...This, they argued, placed Mexican farmers in direct competi28NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 28 NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICASREPORT ON MEXICO tion with U.S...

...On November 12, the group presented formal accusations of criminal negligence against former President Carlos Salinas and his finance minister, Pedro Aspe...

...The reason for this difference in attitude is relatively simple: the barzonistas are generally well-educated, well-connected, and until recently, fairly prosperous...

...El Barz6n was also moving onto new political terrain when it demanded the partition and return to ejidos of over a million acres which it claims the banks took over during the ongoing internal debt crisis...

...Barbosa ran for federal deputy in his district on the PRI ballot, but did not win because of a lack of backing from the party hierarchy...

...Mexican law defines usury as charging interest on interest...

...The movement has become so effective that it has prevented the auction of a number of properties scheduled to be repossessed by the banks simply by sending the word around that Barz6n was opposed to the foreclosure...