Word: mexicanization
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Mexicans give their new President breathing space to deal with the country's crises, Washington has wisely chosen to do the same. The turbulent history of U.S. involvement with Mexico, which has included three invasions and the seizure or forcible purchase of fully half of Mexico's territory (now parts of Texas, California and five other states), means that overt American intervention in its neighbor's affairs, even of the most helpful kind, is anathema to Mexican leaders. The U.S. infusion of cash that averted Mexican bankruptcy last summer, for example, was arranged with a minimum...
...help also by adopting what Indiana University Political Scientist Kevin Middlebrook describes as an "open and flexible" attitude toward Mexico. Economist Clark Reynolds of Stanford University warns that Washington should avoid closing the U.S. border to Mexican immigrants in such a way as to spark social conflict within Mexico. The U.S., most experts agree, must also reject any protectionist demands that would put additional pressure on Mexican exporters. Perhaps most counterproductive would be any attempt to seize upon Mexico's troubles as an opportunity to exercise more leverage and, for example, demand preferential oil prices. Says Carlos Rico...
...year will be even worse: gross domestic product is expected to decline 2% or more. The unemployment rate is between 10% and 15%, and rising. Another 1 million workers are expected to lose their jobs next year. Yet those figures, harsh as they are, understate the problem. According to Mexican labor leaders, 40% of the labor force is underemployed, meaning a hand-to-mouth existence of marginal, unskilled, part-time work. In the grimy urban jungle of Netzahualcóyotl, a onetime Mexico City slum that has now become a full-scale city of nearly 3 million, Plumber...
...assembly plants, many of them concentrated in the smog belt that envelops Mexico City, are wilting. Because of foreign-exchange controls imposed last September, the dollars necessary to buy imported raw materials and spare parts are not available. About 36,000 trucks and 25,000 buses are stuck on Mexican assembly lines, while auto production is down 20%. Nor is manufacturing the only industry affected. The Mexican association of chicken farmers has predicted that 30% to 40% of the country's poultry will soon die for lack of imported feeds and chemicals...
...only thing that has evaporated faster than the water supply in Mexico's major food-producing states of Chihuahua and Sonora is Mexican confidence in the future. Says a U.S. businessman in Mexico City: "People are scared and confused. There is no confidence left in the government, and people are going to give De la Madrid only so long to prove he can be trusted. If there is no sign of change in a few months, a lot of Mexicans are just going to leave the country." Many of them have already done the next best thing: they have...