Zona Libre
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Zona Libre, or Free Zone, was a
free trade zone A free-trade zone (FTZ) is a class of special economic zone. It is a geographic area where goods may be imported, stored, handled, manufactured, or reconfigured and re- exported under specific customs regulation and generally not subject t ...
in the Mexican state of
Tamaulipas Tamaulipas, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tamaulipas, is a state in Mexico; one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It is divided into 43 municipalities. It is located in nor ...
O. Sánchez, G. J. (1995). ''Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, culture, and identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900–1945''. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 47 along the
Mexico–United States border The international border separating Mexico and the United States extends from the Pacific Ocean in the west to the Gulf of Mexico in the east. The border traverses a variety of terrains, ranging from urban areas to deserts. It is the List of ...
established in 1858. The goal of Zona Libre was to equalize the imbalanced
economic environment Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyses wh ...
s that had resulted after the
Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War (Spanish language, Spanish: ''guerra de Estados Unidos-México, guerra mexicano-estadounidense''), also known in the United States as the Mexican War, and in Mexico as the United States intervention in Mexico, ...
on either side of the
Rio Grande River The Rio Grande ( or ) in the United States or the Río Bravo (del Norte) in Mexico (), also known as Tó Ba'áadi in Navajo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the Southwestern United States and in northern Me ...
, which had become the international border between the United States and Mexico under the
Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo officially ended the Mexican–American War (1846–1848). It was signed on 2 February 1848 in the town of Guadalupe Hidalgo. After the defeat of its army and the fall of the capital in September 1847, Mexico e ...
. In January 1885, roughly three decades after the Zona Libre was established, the Mexican government extended the free trade zone along the entire US-Mexican border, which created a zone approximately a thousand miles long and six miles wide.


Mexican–American War

The duration of the
Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War (Spanish language, Spanish: ''guerra de Estados Unidos-México, guerra mexicano-estadounidense''), also known in the United States as the Mexican War, and in Mexico as the United States intervention in Mexico, ...
was from 1846–1848 During the war, the economy of the US-Mexican border towns had boomed as merchants' profits inflated while supplying the armed forces of both sides. War proved to be a profitable industry as the border towns swelled in size and in economy. In the decade previous to the war, border towns had actually shrunk in size, such as the town of Matamoros, which had been the largest of the border towns at 17,000, and by 1846 had dwindled to 7,000 inhabitants with only poorer prospects. However, with the coming of American troops, new life was breathed into the towns as an opportunity for commerce showed itself.


Establishment

Once the Mexican–American War had ended and the
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo officially ended the Mexican–American War (1846–1848). It was signed on 2 February 1848 in the town of Villa de Guadalupe, Mexico City, Guadalupe Hidalgo. After the defeat of its army and the fall of the cap ...
was approved, Mexico reinstated a preexisting system of
tariffs A tariff or import tax is a duty imposed by a national government, customs territory, or supranational union on imports of goods and is paid by the importer. Exceptionally, an export tax may be levied on exports of goods or raw materials and is ...
which angered merchants who planned to stay in the previously profitable region of Mexico and conduct business. The tariff caused goods to be so expensive they often could not be sold. In addition, the laws governing tariffs were changed frequently and often without reason, resulting in frustration among merchants and distrust among importers. Even worse, merchants grew more and more frustrated as they watched towns spring up and prosper on the American side of the border just opposite theirs, where business flourished without the high costs of the Mexican tariff system. In their book ''The Zona Libre'', Samuel E. Bell and James M. Smallwood argue that after the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, many American border towns prospered at the expense of Mexican villages. Because goods were so much cheaper in the American towns, Mexicans would cross the border to purchase goods and then
smuggle Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations. More broadly, soc ...
them back home across the
Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( or ) in the United States or the Río Bravo (del Norte) in Mexico (), also known as Tó Ba'áadi in Navajo language, Navajo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the Southwestern United States a ...
. Merchants and other larger-scale buyers also profited a great deal from this illicit smuggling, resulting in American towns that thrived on illegal operations, along with tense relationships among the towns north of the border in
Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...
and south of the border in Tamaulipas. These poor economic conditions also contributed to increased
emigration Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...
from Mexico to the US. To counteract emigration, the Mexican government passed a law in the spring of 1849 to slightly decrease the rates of which provisions could be imported. However, the law was not comprehensive enough and failed to curb emigration. In the next ten years, merchants would continue to find ways around the Mexican tariff system and the Mexican side of the US-Mexican border would relentlessly deteriorate. In 1857, politics changed dramatically in Mexico. The new Mexican President,
Ignacio Comonfort Ignacio Gregorio Comonfort de los Ríos (; 12 March 1812 – 13 November 1863), also known as Ignacio Comonfort, was a Mexican politician and soldier who was also president during La Reforma. He played a leading role in the liberal movement und ...
, elected under the
Mexican Constitution of 1857 The Political Constitution of the Mexican Republic of 1857 (), often called simply the Constitution of 1857, was the liberal constitution promulgated in 1857 by Constituent Congress of Mexico during the presidency of Ignacio Comonfort. Ratified ...
, effectively dissolved the
Mexican Congress The Congress of the Union (, ), formally known as the General Congress of the United Mexican States (''Congreso General de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos''), is the legislature of the federal government of Mexico. It consists of two chambers: t ...
and dismissed the Constitution. In response, several frightened Mexican states, including the state of Tamaulipas, granted incredible powers to their governors. Finally, in 1858, the ''ad interim''
Governor of Tamaulipas This is a list of governors of Tamaulipas since it became a state of Mexico in 1822, it includes the list of governors of Nuevo Santander (New Santander) the name of the Spanish province in northeast New Spain before the Mexican War of Independe ...
, Ramón Guerra, established the Zona Libre by special
decree A decree is a law, legal proclamation, usually issued by a head of state, judge, monarch, royal figure, or other relevant Authority, authorities, according to certain procedures. These procedures are usually defined by the constitution, Legislativ ...
in an attempt to grow the economic prowess of his state at the petitioned request of his citizens. Under this decree, goods remained
duty-free A duty-free shop or store is a retail outlet whose goods are exempt from the payment of certain local or national taxes and duties, on the requirement that the goods will be sold to travelers who will take them out of the country, who will ...
so long as they stayed within the boundaries of the free trade zone, loosely outlined by Guerra. Unlike the United States, however, goods could be stored in private or public warehouses indefinitely, giving Mexican merchants an edge over the American ones who were restricted to only two years by United States law.


Expansion

In April 1884,
Consul-General A consul is an official representative of a government who resides in a foreign country to assist and protect citizens of the consul's country, and to promote and facilitate commercial and diplomatic relations between the two countries. A consu ...
Warner P. Sutton alerted the United States
Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs ...
through telegraph that the Zona Libre was being extended from the state of Tamaulipas to the
Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...
, across the entire northern part of Mexico. This vote in the Mexican federal congress occurred despite numerous fears that the trade territory of Mexico would become obsolete due to the growing railroad industry and increased immigration to the United States. However, the expansion of Zona Libre did have positive effects on the towns within the zone, although the effects demonstrated to be fairly small.


United States reaction

The establishment of the original Zona Libre of 1858 caused mixed reactions in America. Most Americans merchants viewed the free trade zone in a positive manner as an opportunity to make money, and moved across the border to do just that. One American, Richard Fitzpatrick, the new U.S. consul at Matamoros (a city within Tamaulipas), however, voiced his concerns over smuggling within Zona Libre, explaining the process thusly: Over the next thirty years, many Americans came to agree with Fitzpatrick, their anti-Zona Libre sentiment filling the newspapers, with such headlines as "The Zona Libre and its Abuses—A Paradise of Smugglers", “A Trading Grievance” or sub-headlines such as "It Has Had a Semi-Legal Existence—Place of Refuge for Smugglers and Revolutionaries".


Abolishment

Zona Libre began to carry high costs for the Mexican government in the late 1880s. Anti-Zona Libre sentiment within the United States began to show itself in the
American Congress The United States Congress is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a bicameral legislature, including a lower body, the U.S. House of Representatives, and an upper body, the U.S. Senate. They both m ...
and within American border towns, affecting U.S.-Mexican relations and threatening trade among the two nations. The United States began efforts to suspend border routes and hamper trade in order to pressure Mexico to abolish the free trade zone. In response, rather than abolishing the zone, Mexico restricted the zone in 1891 by increasing the
levy Levy, Lévy or Levies may refer to: People * Levy (surname), people with the surname Levy or Lévy * Levy Adcock (born 1988), American football player * Levy Barent Cohen (1747–1808), Dutch-born British financier and community worker * Levy ...
on imports from 3% to 10%. In 1895 the United States Congress suspended all bonded routes from the U.S. to Zona Libre. However, this suspension was entirely ineffective, as Mexican railroads simply circumvented the suspended routes. While United States pressure failed to result in any change in regards to Zona Libre, a small group of businessmen were able to start a movement to abolish the
free trade zone A free-trade zone (FTZ) is a class of special economic zone. It is a geographic area where goods may be imported, stored, handled, manufactured, or reconfigured and re- exported under specific customs regulation and generally not subject t ...
, arguing that when Zona Libre was established, there had been no railroads, or even Telegraphic communications across the border, which was no longer true in the 1890s. In addition, a requirement to pay full tariffs on goods manufactured within Zona Libre resulted in a lack of industry in the region, which stunted growth—ironically, while the free zone was excellent for trade, heavy restrictions made it impossible for manufacturing, which resulted in few jobs. By abolishing Zona Libre, the hope was that the region could begin to prosper and grow once more. Finally, in July 1905 after over a decade of movements against Zona Libre, Mexican President Díaz executively abolished the free trade zone. Díaz cited his actions on the reasoning that the expansion of the railroad system and increased communications across the border no longer necessitated a free trade zone.Bell, S. E., & Smallwood, J. (1982). ''The Zona Libre, 1858–1905: A Problem in American Diplomacy''. El Paso: Texas Western Press, University of Texas at El Paso p. 58 Although some feared the abolishment of Zona Libre would prove negative for the region, Consul Lewis A. Martin of
Piedras Negras Piedras Negras may refer to: * Piedras Negras, Coahuila, a city in the state of Coahuila, Mexico ** Piedras Negras Municipality, a municipality in Mexico, with the center in the eponymous city * Piedras Negras (Maya site) Piedras Negras is the ...
reported positive news in 1906:


References

{{Reflist, 2 Tamaulipas