Too Much & Too Fast

The campesino's resistance to the anti-aftosa cattle slaughter had been tragically bitter. A veterinarian and his seven-man soldier escort had been murdered in Senguio; bands of armed men, threatening violence to cattle-shooters, roamed the states of Guerrero, Michoacan and Zacatecas. Only last week, sanitation workers who had come to disinfect a village in the state of Queretaro were driven out with cries of: "You've killed our cattle, now you can't kill our children!"

The Record. The estimates of infected cattle ran between 1,500,000 and 2,000,000 of Mexico's 13 million. Up to last week, approximately half a million diseased cattle had been shot and buried in lime pits, and thousands of exposed but uninfected animals had been sent to market. The anti-aftosa campaign, in which the U.S. alone has spent about $35 million, has enlisted 500 U.S. and 500 Mexican technicians, 2,000 civilian workers. More than 15,000 Mexican troops have assisted. From the U.S. has come about $3,000,000 worth of equipment--bulldozers for digging mass graves, spraying outfits.

But the campesino's opposition has only grown stouter. He wants oxen for plowing and cows for milk--not pesos, which he is afraid either to put in a bank or keep at home. The fact that his neighbor's cattle are infected with foot-&-mouth disease seems to him a poor reason for shooting his own herd.

Last week, the U.S. and Mexican Governments heeded the campesino's wails. Henceforth only infected animals would be killed. Exposed animals would not have to be sent to market. To curb the disease's spread, the campaigners would rely on strict quarantine and vaccination. Said U.S. Agriculture Under-Secretary Norris Dodd: "Maybe we've been going too fast. Mexico says the impact on her economy is too great."

The Prospect. Some Mexican papers hailed the decision as a triumph of Mexico over the gringos; others praised U.S. cooperation, expressed regret that the campaign had not been successful. U.S. cattle-raisers attacked the new policy, charged that it would tend to fasten the plague on Mexico, leave the way open for its spread to the U.S.

The best that many an expert could argue was that the new policy would bring greater campesino cooperation. In that case, it would be possible to hold the line and perhaps push it back. Said B. T. Simms, the U.S. Agriculture Department official who has been directing the campaign: "We've got to push it back or it will push us back. Foot-&-mouth disease does not play a tie game."

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