Human Rights and Free Trade in Mexico

ARIADNA ESTÉVEZ is a Researcher at the Centre for Research on North America, National Autonomous University of Mexico (CISAN-UNAM).

• Introduction: A Discursive and Sociopolitical Approach to Free Trade and Human Rights The Neoliberal Paradox: Conservative Economic Change and the Rise of Democratic Politics The Emergence of Human Rights Discourse in Mexico The Exhaustion of Transition to Democracy Discourse: Human Rights Discourse Enters Anti-Free Trade Struggles Constructing Free Trade Worldviews with Human Rights Discourse The Construction of Identities and Specific Agendas with Human Rights Discourse Articulating Anti-Free Trade Struggles with Human Rights Discourse Conclusions

"This is a highly original and ground-breaking study, a sophisticated empirical look at the use of human rights discourse to construct collective identities in order to address social and economic grievances. Estevez also deals with some important theoretical issues in the field of human rights, particularly whether there is a specific Latin American approach human rights, different from dominant Western mainstream discourses. This theoretical and substantive approach will be valuable to scholars of human rights, social movements, and contemporary Mexican and Latin American politics." - Francisco Panizza, Senior Lecturer in Latin American Politics, London School of Economics