Backyard Empire: The U.S. in Latin America · Episode 13 of 14 · 54 min
How Capital Flight Replaced Private Armies: Maquiladoras and Fast Fashion
Strip away the bananas and copper and what remains is the enclave system: foreign-owned production, tax-free, walled off from the national economy, with a young workforce. It returned as the maquiladora, built by Mexico's 1965 border program and NAFTA, then spread to Central America and Asia. Where La Forestal had private police, the maquiladora needs only to threaten to leave.
Where it happens
- Mexican border regionTax-free export zone where maquiladoras assemble goods
- Honduras+1 more episodeCentral American free trade zone with garment factories
- El Salvador+3 more episodesCentral American free trade zone with garment factories
- Guatemala+7 more episodesCentral American free trade zone with garment factories
- Tijuana, Mexico+1 more episodeSite of the Han Young independent-union case
Timeline
- 1965Mexico launches the Border Industrialization Program
- 1994NAFTA takes effect and expands the maquiladora sector
- 1995-1996Anti-sweatshop scandals break over Honduras and El Salvador factories
- 1996 and 1998Human Rights Watch documents mandatory pregnancy testing
- 2000sMany jobs migrate to China and Asia
Still debated
Critics and defenders disagree on whether maquiladora jobs are exploitative or better than the local alternatives, and on how much responsibility brands bear versus subcontractors and host states.
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