Word: mexicanization
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Some communities report burgeoning crime by illegal aliens. In Dallas, an outcry erupted last January when a Mexican who had been deported five times was charged with killing a policeman. "I've had 5,712 people in jail since the first of the year," says Sheriff Marshall Rousseau of Cameron County on the Texas border, "and 39% have been illegal aliens...
...goods, but there are few customers; bored clerks chat idle hours away. Auto showrooms are deserted, and understandably so: a Volkswagen Rabbit sells for 800,000 pesos, more than double the 360,000 of last summer. Ford, GM and Chrysler have stopped including fancy U.S.-made electronics in their Mexican-built cars to get around import restrictions...
Then, almost as suddenly as it began, the Mexican "economic miracle" ended. In August, Finance Secretary Silva Herzog announced at a gathering of bankers in New York that Mexico would not be able to make scheduled payments, due over the following 90 days, of more than $3 billion. Weak oil prices had robbed the country of anticipated revenues and left it almost penniless. Says Jorge Chapa, co-owner of a large Mexican supermarket chain: "We were rich at $16 per bbl. of oil, and at $32 we were broke because we spent as if the price were already...
Washington, mindful of the $7.2 billion invested by American companies in Mexican enterprise and fearful of economic and political instability on its border, moved in with nearly $3 billion in emergency funds, including $1 billion in advance payments for strategic reserve oil purchases from Mexico, $1 billion in short-term funds to tide the country over, and another $1 billion in credits for such commodities as corn and beans. The International Monetary Fund gave promise of support but in return demanded the austerity program that De la Madrid has put in place...
Despite all the troubles, a few signs are beginning to indicate that the economy may be starting to pick up. At the Bolsa, the Mexican stock exchange, the mood is improving. Analysts there lightly chide each other for being perhaps a little too apocalyptic. "Not all is lost," said one observer, "because of weak demand, lack of investments and sales." Mexican companies, he feels, will just have to learn to live without profits for a while. The Bolsa's stock index, which anticipated the crisis last year and sank to 450 points in August after hitting a high...