In a city of over 200,000 residents, a struggle for survival unfolds daily as The Coca-Cola Company siphons away the community’s most vital resource—water—leaving behind a parched landscape and a way of life teetering on the brink of collapse.

“San Cristobal de las Casas” is situated in Chiapas, Mexico. While it is one of Mexico’s rainiest regions, potable water is nearly inaccessible. With undrinkable tap water and water delivery trucks without certifications, the only way to access clean and safe water would be by buying it in-store. Once you’ve been to a store in San Cristobal, you will realise that water is usually only a few pence cheaper than the soft drink of your choice. Occasionally, a Coke would even be cheaper per litre.

The region has a huge groundwater reservoir, but no purification plant or sewage system.

But why is there no water?

Coca-Cola Company has been draining the region since 1994 by drawing 1 million litres of water from their groundwater. Hence the water shortage. But no worries; Coca-Cola’s got them covered! The average citizen of San Cristobal drinks more than 2 l of soft drinks a day. The World Health Organisation recommends 50g of sugar a day. By drinking more than 2 litres of Coke a day, the average citizen of San Cristobal is consuming more than 5 times the recommended amount of sugar a day by drinking soft drinks alone.

Dr. Jaime Page Pliego, a professor in San Cristobal, is working on a healthcare project for the indigenous population: “Los Altos de Chiapas is the region with the highest Coca-Cola consumption in the world.”

Maybe it makes people happy; nothing beats an ice-cold Coke after a long day out in the sun, right? Wrong.

In the Chiapas region, the 4 most common causes of death are all consequences of excessive sugar intake: coronary heart disease, chronic kidney disease, diabetes, and cirrhosis. According to Marcos Arana, a researcher at the National Institute of Medical Sciences and Nutrition, the region can be described as the “epicentre” of Mexico’s “soft drink consumption epidemic.”

Coca-Cola has not only made its way into the accommodations of the population but also into their indigenous rituals. Approximately one third of San Cristobal’s population consists of indigenous people. With targeted marketing and manipulation, some communities have even started to sacrifice a bottle of Coke to thank the Gods or, ironically, to even perform healing rituals within the community.

But how could it ever come this far? Well, to build their empire and maintain it through protests in 2017 and 2020, the Coca-Cola Company needed connections. What a lucky coincidence that Vicente Fox, Mexico’s president from 2000-2006, was previously an employee at Coca-Cola for over 10 years and had even climbed the employment ladder all the way to CEO of Coca-Cola Mexico. His election campaign was partially funded by Coca-Cola, and in return, he declined proposals for taxing soft drinks during his mandate. He further declined the proposal to raise awareness of excessive sugar consumption by displaying educational posters in hospitals.

In 2013, Coca-Cola sponsored a speech at the Mexican Diabetes Federation (Federación Mexicana de Diabetes, A.C.), where scientist Dr. María Guadalupe Fabián San Miguel took a stance against the introduction of taxing soft drinks. The company she was working for was co-founded by the Coca-Cola Company.

Mercedes Juan López, Secretary of Health from 2012 to 2016, also took a stance against the taxing of soft drinks. Before her position in the Secretariat of Health, she was part of the board of directors of the Mexican Health Foundation “Funsalud,” which systematically works together with Nestlé, The Coca-Cola Company, and the Dr Pepper Snapple Group.

In 2014, the tax was introduced anyway, which means that the price of soft drinks went up, which resulted in fewer soft drink purchases in Mexico. But how much does that impact Coca-Cola? Not a lot, considering that they provide one of the most popular mineral water brands in Mexico, namely “Ciel.”

The sophisticated web of corruption, indoctrination, and manipulation that the Coca-Cola Company has created over time should be a wake-up call for everyone who likes soft drinks or essentially everything produced by global companies. Coca-Cola is just an example, an uncovered case among many, still hidden in the shadows.