Environmental awareness or rejection of foreign investment. Is Mexico developing greater environmental awareness, or simply a greater rejection of projects driven by foreign actors? By Sofia Espinoza. For many decades, Mexico competed to attract foreign investment by promising cheap labor, geographic advantages, and abundant natural resources. The situation seems to have changed, as a different question has arisen in various sectors of society. Does every investment project deserve to be celebrated? Recent controversies surrounding industrial, energy, and tourism projects reveal an interesting phenomenon. What was once hailed as synonymous with economic development now faces increasingly organized resistance. The question is whether we are witnessing a rise in environmental awareness or simply a new form of rejection of foreign influences. On the one hand, we can say that there is greater environmental awareness due to increased access to information through social media. Social media has served as a mechanism for raising awareness among young people. Another factor that has likely generated more awareness is climate change, which is already affecting various regions in Mexico. In addition to these two factors, I would add that past experiences with projects that caused environmental damage, such as the Maya train, have likely led people to question whether what companies or the government are doing with our resources is right. On the other hand, there is also mistrust, the resistance cannot be explained solely by environmental reasons. In many cases, there is a deep distrust of large corporations, especially when they are foreign and perceived as exploiting local resources while profits end up abroad. At least from my perspective, I see that many developed countries have very strict environmental laws, yet they seek to extract or destroy the resources of less developed countries. So I don't blame the people who distrust them. Many of their companies become rich at the expense of destroying the ecosystems of developing countries. Perhaps the phenomenon isn't one thing or the other, it could be a combination. Perhaps we are witnessing the emergence of a more demanding citizenry, one that no longer accepts the outdated notion that any investment automatically equates to progress. The discussion is no longer centered on investment that harms the environment. The discussion is about what kind of development Mexicans are willing to accept and under what conditions.