Costco is building a new mega store in Cuernavaca Mexico. Not an unusual occurrence in the NAFTA era. There are already 21 other Costco warehouse stores throughout Mexico.

Jim Sinegal, president of Redmond, Washington, based Costco claims there is overwhelming support in Cuernavaca for the new store and its promise of new jobs, and he says the company has done everything it can to be sensitive to the community.

But in Cuernavaca, they're calling it a Costcological catastrophe--the destruction of a historic hotel and a treasured 24-acre wooded park near the heart of the city. A citizens' group, Frente Civico Pro Casino de la Selva (Civic Front for the Casino of the Forest) has come together to oppose Costco's plans, and for the last 18 months has pleaded with the company not to destroy their "civic, artistic and national heritage, but instead to build their store in another location--any other location!"

The citizens' opposition to the American mega-chain's destruction of Cuernavaca's heritage has gotten wide media coverage in Mexico, and the notoriety has begun to affect the company's image. According to Bruce Herbert, President of Seattle Newground Investment Services, "the perception of Costco as an insensitive multinational, creates significant brand risk."

Juan Robert, of Cuernavaca, recently in Seattle to address Costco's annual shareholders meeting, put it more bluntly. "The costcological catastrophe--that joke of the powerless is quickly becoming the brand of your company."

"This phrase hums through the head of the passer-by when she contemplates the devastation of the once vibrant economic center of her town. All that she now sees where there had been hundreds of trees, public playgrounds, a theater, a hotel, a concert hall and celebrated works of art is a desert of sand and concrete."

Juan Robert, a retired architect, and Vera Sisniega, a college student, came to Seattle to get the attention of the company at the shareholders' meeting on January 30. Armed with proxies from sympathetic shareholders, the pair attempted to address company officials during the question and answer session but were quickly cut off. After trying to talk over the Pro Casino activists, and with catcalls such as "go home," and "are you here illegally?" coming from the shareholders in the audience, Sinegal abruptly and unceremoniously adjourned the meeting.

"We are very disappointed to get the same runaround from Costco senior management in the US that we have experienced in Mexico," said Sisniega after the meeting. "This shows that Costco refuses to dialogue and disrespects our community." In 2002, while Costco representatives were engaged in dialogue with the community, "instead of listening to the people's concerns, the company started to cut down the trees and destroy the buildings," said Vera. "People tried to block the development, but dozens were attacked by police and arrested."

Sinegal says that Costco "feels obligated to consider responsible opinions," but dismisses opposition as merely a "vocal minority," and claims that "the citizens of Cuernavaca overwhelmingly support the development."

Last August, 15,000 members of this "vocal minority," marched in Cuernavaca in opposition to the project. A pro-Costco rally, organized by the local government attracted, "only 3000 people," according to Vera "and most of them were paid to attend."

"For some reason, you don't see the chaos and the pain that you're causing in another culture," Mary Jo Stansbury, a founding Costco shareholder, told Costco officials before the shareholders meeting broke up in chaos.

The visiting Pro Casino activists said they thought that Costco management simply doesn't understand the extent of the destruction caused by their Mexican subsidiary. They allow that it could be a case of not wanting to understand.

Costco purchased the property from the Federal government at a tax auction for $10 million, a fraction of its real value. Invited to bid by the government, it has had the enthusiastic support of government officials, excited about the promise of jobs, and, some opponents suggest, personal enrichment, a not unheard of practice in Mexico.

Costco says that it has relocated many of the site's trees and promises to donate 30,000 new trees to the city in replacement for the ones removed to make way for construction. Sinegal accuses activists of overstating the number of trees cut and claims the completed site will, in the end, have more trees than before. He says the murals and other art works will be restored, and displayed in a replica of the hotel built on the site.

Contradicting Costco's claims of sensitivity, Pro Casino shows photos of vandalized murals and says that the company went so far as to pay a worker to deface some of the murals with a power sander--to preempt the community's efforts to protect them.

The once beautiful park is now a ruined scar. It is too late to stop the destruction. But Pro Casino continues its campaign and insists that Costco abandon the site and allow a new park to be constructed.

Something else is at stake as well: the local economy. Juan Robert says that "It is easier to focus on trees and murals than on a relationship, but the organic economy is also threatened by Costco." The city's historic main market place, supporting many times more families, at a much higher standard of living, than the 1500 jobs Costco claims it will create, is only a short distance from the impending mega-store with its absentee ownership.

While the trees and murals are gone, the people of Cuernavaca are now fighting even harder to defend their community's very livelihood, and its living heart, from the depredations of a distant, unresponsive multinational behemoth, that just happens to be based in our own Seattle community.

In Cuernavaca, activists have been holding a sit-in at the governor's office building and other actions.

In Seattle, the Community Alliance for Global Justice (CAGJ) has been supporting Pro Casino's attempts to dialogue with Costco management and the Seattle community. CAGJ suggests that folks contact Costco and demand that construction at the Casino de la Selva site stop immediately: Phone 425-313-8100, Fax 425-313-6592.

To get involved locally contact CAGJ at cagj@riseup.net, or 206-405-4600. Pro-Casino's web site, with photos and further information, is at www.procasino.org.