Currently on tour with Carleen Pickard and Hector Sanchez, Miguel Pickard is researcher at CIEPAC (Center for Economic and Political Investigation for Community Action), which he helped co-found in 1998. Located in San Cristóbal, Chiapas, Mexico, CIEPAC is a non-profit, non-governmental alternative news, information and analysis center, that produces educational materials for grassroots organizations. Miguel is involved in research topics having to do with the SPPNA (Security and Prosperity Initiative of North America), NAFTA, the Plan Puebla Panama, the impact of mining activities in rural communities in Chiapas and Mexico, and the search for alternatives to neoliberal policies. Miguel has worked for a number of similar alternative information centers in Mexico and with international organizations such as Oxfam and Project Counselling Service, which support grassroots organizations in the creation and implementation of alternative livelihoods. Miguel holds a bachelor's degree from Cornell University and a master's in economics from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).

Topics covered

• Impacts of NAFTA on Mexico
• The Push and Pull of Free Trade and Immigration
• Security and Prosperity Partnership