On 1 January 1994 Mexico entered the First World. They entered N.A.F.T.A. with a flurry of excitement from both American and Mexican big business. Within a year the grand illusion of the 'Mexican Miracle' had been laid to rest and the economy fell to its knees as close to $11 billion was taken out of the economy by investors. Clinton stepped in with a $40 million aid deal to save the Mexican economy and his face at home. Mexico's foreign debt increased and controls and burdens shackled the economy.
Mexico is a land divided into the extremely rich and the extremely poor. The economy run by large business and corrupt officials has consistently ignored and spat on a massive proportion of the population. Rural areas are worst hit. The indigenous people were without a voice for decades.
This 'First World economy', when studied, shows a lot of contradictions. 41% of the population have no running water; 34% are without electricity; 63% of the people live in accomodation of only one room; 19% of the workforce has no possible income, and 67% live on or below the minimum wage. The National Consumers Attorneys Office threw light on these statistics when a study they released showed that twenty of the most essential products that make up the basket of goods consumed by families in Mexico cost the equivalent of between 7 and 10 minimum wages. A litre of cooking oil and a kilo of rice costs roughly one day's pay. The economy for years has benefitted big business, foreign and national, and the divide between rich and poor is widening every day. Since 1988 the difference between the rich and the poor has become very severe. Fifty million people live in poverty, while twenty four billionaires top Forbes list of the wealthiest people in the world.
Neo-Liberal economic reform in the past decade in Mexico has to a large extent worsened conditions for the country's poor. The need for Mexico to preserve its market credibility for investors is driving towards what economist John Eatwell calls a low growth, high unemployment equilibrium. This provides huge profits for a few and misery and increased poverty for the majority of the population. In the past ten years the number of people living in extreme poverty in rural areas has increased by almost a third. Mexico's recent peso devaluation cut wages to an average of 34 cents per hour. The Mexican Secretary of Commerce hailed this fall as an inducement to foreign investment, aiding the privileged minority. The N.A.F.T.A. agreement will push people off their land and increase the unemployed labourforce, adding to problems in rural areas. Reforms have achieved nothing, but add to the debt the economy owes to private and foreign investors. The people of Mexico say ENOUGH.
In order to keep up with the demands of its labour force Mexico needs to create 19.2 million jobs. However N.A.F.T.A. turns a blind eye to the country's workers. The New York Times, the greatest ally of American Foreign Policy, predicts that several million Mexicans will lose their jobs in the first five years after the accord takes effect. Far from becoming the model for economic reform, the Mexican economy is plunging into a cesspool of economic debt, poverty, ruin of the manufacturing industry and death and impoverishment of millions. Since January 1995 foreign investment has declined by $2.5 billion a month (Banco de Mexico)
Analysis of the Mexican economy proves that far from being the bastion of economic reform, it is fragile and weak without foreign aid and investment. The majority of people gain nothing from a system that panders to the New World Order. For every day that the system continues children starve, families grow poorer and workers' grievances rise. Change must come. We support the indigenous people and all the downtrodden of Mexico. Viva la Revolucion!