The latest chapter in Mexico’s struggle with drug gangs is shocking in scale. The arrest of Arnoldo Rueda Medina, a co-leader of La Familia, sent the drug syndicate on a rampage against the state in Michoacán. Monday morning 12 bodies were found and quickly identified as federal police officers. The 11 men and one woman were off […]
Sunday’s election exposed a disoriented left in Mexico. The PRD, the largest left-of-center party, nearly won the presidency in 2006. Now a shell of its former self, having acquired just 12% of the vote on Sunday it will shrink from 123 to 75 seats in the lower house. Rather than gelling to form a cohesive […]
The centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party was the big winner in Mexico’s mid-term elections held Sunday, as widely forecast. Results show the party, known as the PRI, gained 37% of the vote, while President Calderón’s conservative National Action Party (PAN) garnered 28%. The left-wing Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), which enjoyed substantial support in the 2006 presidential […]
One of the most fascinating aspects of the drug trade is the unceasing ingenuity of traffickers. Navy inspectors at the port of Progreso, in Yucutan, recently uncovered a new strategy—hiding cocaine in frozen sharks. They noticed something amiss during routine X-ray inspections of two shipping containers on board the freighter Dover Strait. Directing their suspicions […]
Drug violence in Mexico has decreased this year, though gruesome narratives still dominate headlines. In the first quarter of 2009 deaths from drug violence dropped 25% compared the same period in 2008, thanks to the deployment of 50,000 troops to 18 anomic locales by President Calderón in February. The violence is shocking, but instructive—while the vast […]
A fire swept through the ABC day care center in Hermosillo, capital city of the northern state of Sonora, on Friday afternoon. The New York Times reports 38 children are dead, between six months of age and five years. Another 30 are wounded, some from asphyxia, and others from burns. The children with serious burns […]
The drug trade embodies a ruthless logic. In a world where governments have limited resources, and the financial incentives for trafficking are great (90% of a cocaine shipment can be “lost” and the endeavor is still profitable), slaying the industry can seem impossible. If demand remains strong, successful governmental action— arrests, seizures and eradication—pushes the […]
The fever of global panic has broken. Mexico is receding from the headlines, though H1N1 continues to claim lives—85 worldwide as of May 22nd. With the luxury of some hindsight, several trends are becoming apparent. My posts over the next few days will discuss some of the more salient trends. First, the Calderón administration deserves […]
Mexican immigration to the US bodes well for the American economy. This is a politically inconvenient phenomenon—one of correlation and not causation—but when Mexican migration to the US increases, the US economy grows and unemployment ebbs. The most prominent example is the decade after passage of the NAFTA. Amidst howls of a “giant sucking sound” […]
Mexico is writhing from H1N1 two weeks after “swine flu” entered the global lexicon. At least 64 people are dead there as a result of the virus, over 2,600 have been made ill, and the economy is crippled. Mexico’s stock market and currency were initially pummeled from already depressed levels. Mexico City was closed down […]
Normality is returning to Mexico City. Unfortunately, the Mexican economy is not. The economy is clearly beginning to lag, which has enormous implications for public finances and employment. The Ministry of Finance has just revealed that federal income has decreased while government expenditures have increased. This cannot be good for the national debt. It seems […]
The schools are closed. Soccer matches are played in empty stadiums and movie theaters have closed their doors. There are no public events and it is no longer possible to have lunch in a restaurant. The army has been giving out masks out on the streets. Shopping malls are nearly empty, as well as the […]
Imagine closing all schools in a metropolitan area three times the size of New York City. Such an order was just the beginning of an aggressive government initiative to stop an outbreak of influenza in Mexico City. The federal government has closed public buildings and suspended public events. Additional orders include a massive vaccination campaign […]
President Barack Obama is visiting Mexico. Not surprisingly, drug trafficking will be at the center of the agenda as the violence fueled by American weapons threatens to cross the border into American territory. Presidents Obama and Calderón will have to work out the details of how a strong state can help a weak one to […]