Coca Cola is a global beverage giant, making over €2. 23 billion in profits in the first term of 2024, and this hegemony is also manifested by the company’s ubiquitous presence around the world.

This very dominant position in the market allows Coca Cola to endorse a real coca-colonization of the world and to exploit the primary ressource-rich countries. Its beverage manufacturing activities are, on one hand, particularly aggressive in water and, on the other hand, responsible for 11% of the world’s plastic pollution.

From that point on , it is crucial to realize the need to boycott the brand regardless of its political implications . If you are not interested in the close ties between the Coca Cola company and the State of Israel, the perpetrator of the genocidal crimes that are turning the Gaza Strip into an open-air mass grave, it is imperative to look at Coca Cola’s responsibility for the climate, environmental and health destruction in the countries of the South.

Indeed, Coca Cola is responsible for the depletion of Mexico’s aquifer (water) resources. Since the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994 between the United States, Canada and Mexico, a country known for its groundwater reserves, has seen its supply of running water eroded and people’s access to drinking water restricted. The indigenous region of Al Chiapas, located in the southern part of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, is particularly facing an unprecedented situation. Moreover, by exploiting the water tables of this region, the water cycle is irreversibly deregulated. Water is now a scarce resource and the population is seeing water prices multiply compared to advantageous reductions in soft drinks, which has led the population to consume more and more Coca-Cola, to the point of generating degenerative diseases that affect not only the indigenous region but the entire Mexican territory. Mexico’s coca-colonization is manifested through the omnipresence of this brand in Mexican culture, moreover there is talk of a possible patrimonialization of Coca-Cola since the Mexicans themselves claim that this beverage, made from cane sugar, is fully inscribed in Mexican culinary and food traditions. Moreover, Mexico is the leading consumer of Coca-Cola in the world, with a consumption of 163L per year, which is 7 times more than the average in France. For example, under this appalling overconsumption, Mexico has seen rates of diabetes, hypertension and obesity skyrocket. On the other hand, from an economic point of view, this coca-colonization refers to a monopoly situation that allowed it to prosper thanks to its very aggressive approach to the water market. It has also obtained numerous concessions and authorizations from the Mexican State to exploit the country’s water reserves, allowing the company to establish a sustainable presence in the country. Indeed, the production of one litre of coca requires six litres of water, and in total Coca Cola pumps about 100M litres of water annually. From these ideas we can see how Coca Coca has become a must-have drink on the Mexican market.

However, the image of Coca Cola is crumbling due to its responsibility for the explosion of overweight and the successive water shortages affecting Mexico. Moreover, civil society is directing all its efforts to remedy these catastrophes by acting on several fronts. On the other hand, state action remains ambivalent. Indeed under the chairmanship of AMLO the State is gradually engaged in the fight against the predation of natural resources and moreover the president to call on companies whose activity is greedy of water to reduce their consumption by 20%, the lobby of Coca-Cola has accepted a reduction of only 10%. On the other hand, due to lack of protection, several environmental activists were murdered for denouncing the overexploitation of FTNs.

As suggested by the assassination of Isidro Baltenegro Lopez, a leader and environmental activist in the indigenous region of Sierra Madre who awarded the Goldman Prize for the Defense of the Environment, who was shot dead in 2017. But his death remains an enigma as the presidents who ruled the country avoided investigating his assassination. Therefore the government's complicity and passivity have made Mexico one of the most dangerous countries in the world for “leaders of social movements. ”