Mexico Reeling after Combination Punch

Cross posted from World Impulse.

Mexico is the populous, next-door neighbor to the United States. “El Norte,” the Mexicans say when referring to the US. The United States of Mexico (Estados Unidos Mexicanos), as the country is properly labeled, is the fifth largest state in the Americas and the 14th largest independent nation in the world, according to Wikipedia.

With a population of over 109 million, Mexico is now reeling from three hard blows in succession. First, Mexico is losing the drug war against well-armed, internal narco-gangs. They seem to have co-opted all levels of authority and operate with considerable impunity around the country. Not surprising. Even when The Author was originally learning El Espanol, living and traveling in Mexico, the central government was largely seen as the authority on the borders and the Plateau – and not much else. The Mexican plateau, with a majority of the country’s population and three of its most important cities: the Federal District (DF, Mexico City); Guadalajara; and, Pueblo, (with the addition of Monterrey in the north) has long been the focus of the central government’s attention and funding. The same appears to be true for the administration of president Calderon. Rural areas, especially those in the south, have gone without similar attention or funding and are abjectly poor and feudal. Crime remains a serious and growing problem throughout the country, especially kidnapping and murder.

Second: The economic crisis in the US, coupled with punitive and restrictive immigration laws, has resulted in a significant decrease in remittances by Mexican workers to their home villages. Adding to this blow, Mexican laborers are being forced by rising unemployment in the US to return to Mexico at an inopportune moment for both the families of the workers and the government of the state.

Third: The new Swine flu, A: H1N1, appears to have originated in Mexico and is now on its way to being the first major global pandemic in years. So tourism, Mexico’s trustworthy source of foreign currency, has dried up and commerce is slowing dramatically as the country shutters to avoid spreading contagion. Evidence is mounting that the contagion is not only viral, it is economic as well. And Mexico's economy will continue to suffer.

Technorati Tags: Mexico, Economy, Flu