The author critiques the record of development enterprises of the past and assesses how some theoreticians are beginning to take the priorities of those sectors that were ignored or excluded (women and indigenous peoples) into account in programs that promise to promote human development. The critique of development projects shows that global free trade policies have often subverted the goals of what became “target groups,” undermining the agency of new figures in the global market economy, and distorting their communal goals. Assessing the development goals of Zapatista rebels who oppose neoliberal policies and seek autonomy within their communities, the author suggests that the course of autonomous development is a necessary alternative in the global economy. It not only enhances the life opportunities of indigenous families and communities but can ensure the future of the rainforest environment that they have colonized and the highland villages they have occupied since primordial times.
