PHOTO: Flickr/OSWALDO
By SONIA GOLDMAN, age 15
In Elda Pineda’s alfalfa field in San Juan Teotihuacan, Mexico, the enormous corporation that is Wal-Mart yearned for this exemplary site to build a new location for the franchise. A hurdle in Wal-Mart’s proposition was that the town’s leaders had just recently validated a new zoning map forbidding “commercial development” miles away from the ancient pyramids on sacred land. Wal-Mart then bribed a government newspaper with $52,000 to publish the zoning map redrawn to be in their favor and allow the new location in Mrs. Pineda’s field. When protesters began to take action, investigators became involved and they discovered the falsities of the bribe. The Wal-Mart gained ground eight years ago, and to this day it remains the most disputed Wal-Mart in Mexico.
