Revolutionizing the river: The politics of water management in southeastern Mexico, 1951--1974
This dissertation examines Mexico's water management policies in the Grijalva River Basin between 1951 and 1974. The periodization begins with the formation of the Grijalva River Commission (Comision del Rio Grijalva, CRG) and ends with the completion of the Belisario Dominguez dam in 1974 by the Federal Electric Commission (Comision Federal de Electricidad, CFE). Contrasting the works of the CRG with those of the CFE illustrates the ability of the state to muster unprecedented levels of political and financial capital for the construction of large-scale irrigation works, extensive levee systems and most importantly a series of large dams throughout the river basin. During this period the state relocated almost 30,000 people and submerged approximately 30 population centers. Further, the river management policies of the state re-ordered a diverse and dynamic riparian ecosystem, often with unpredicted results. Studying the relationship between the state, local communities and the environment yields a body of data that further complicates notions of a monolithic state determining developmental and modernization imperatives. Local communities resisted state plans on the local, municipal, state and national level, sometimes successfully at others not. The third actor, the environment, also belied state plans to rapidly develop the impoverished states of Chiapas and Tabasco. By the late 1960's state planners abandoned the multi-purpose development plans that were central to building the dam at Malpaso. Instead, CFE bureaucrats replaced CRG engineers as it concerned dam building on the river. The lofty goals of multi-purpose development, modeled on the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) were discarded in favor of single purpose dams for hydroelectricity. Ultimately, dam building did not necessarily lead to an explosion in electrical or agricultural development. Instead, dams stand as monuments to revolutionary heroes and promises, whose legacy is yet to be determined