‘You can’t even wash your hands’: is a global industrial hub responsible for the destruction of Mexico’s Atoyac River?
Pollution from a cluster of foreign factories is contributing to a threat to public health, allege campaigners, who say the country is prioritising economic growth over the environment
On the outskirts of Puebla in central Mexico sits an area on the Atoyac River known as Nueva Alemania, or “New Germany”. Between two factories, under-construction houses pepper streets with names such as Frankfurt, Hamburg, Kiel, Hanover and Berlin.
New Germany is part of a broader region, an industrial district covering about 4,000 square kilometres that has been a hub for Mexican and global multinationals – notably German conglomerates – since the 1960s. Spanning 47 municipalities in the state of Tlaxcala and 22 in the state of Puebla, it is home to 1.1 million people.
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