EXPORTATION INDUSTRIES AND THE “OTHER FRONTIER” OF MEXICO: ABOUT THE “MAQUILAS” ECONOMY IN YUCATAN

Resumo

This article highlights the illicit levers of the system of impunity that is characteristic of the day-to-day practice of workers’ rights in Guatemala, in particular in
the outsourced apparel factories, the so-called “maquilas”. Beyond the anti-union
repertoire of action and the modalities of social control in the workplace, the diffuse
impunity is built on a specific interaction with the State, whose permissiveness relies on a process of politization of State’s institutions in charge of world of work’s
regulation (labor administration and inspection, labor justice). The system of impunity, which is favourable to economic accumulation of certain sectors of the
economy, is built on several configurations of politization of these mere institutions,
including bargaining practices involving State officials and economic players