Environmental Conflicts and Environmentalist Conflicts in Porfirian Mexico

Abstract

This paper discusses environmentalist conflicts in a historical perspective. Two case studies will be presented on public and private water service in Mexico City and water supplies from Desierto de los Leones during the time of Porfirio Díaz. The parties in the conflict include: private entrepreneurs, the Mexico City Town Hall government, the Federal District government and central power. The conflict is presented as part of a con­frontation between local and central power at a critical point in Mexican history prior to the Revolution and the debate will include environmental concerns of the time. This confrontation led to the first laws of environmental protection, understood as the defense of a “national Project” in which the defense of the environment is regarded as the defense of the nation’s heritage.