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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | May 2006 
Fox Under Fire For Failure Of Economic Plans
 S. Lynne Walker - Copley News Service
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Naked male farmers knock down a fence during a protest in front of Mexico's Interior Ministry in downtown Mexico City. In recent years, the protests from the group 400 Pueblos who fight for land rights for poor farmers have become an annual event for city residents, as the men and women from rural southern Mexico stand naked or partially naked along the city's busiest intersections. (AP) |
Mexico City As President Bush prepares to send the National Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border, political analysts say the troop deployment underscores the failure of President Vicente Fox's economic policies.
Fox cannot cope with the demand for jobs in Mexico, said political analyst Lorenzo Meyer. The economy is not working. We cannot blame the U.S. It's our own problem and it's a problem that we cannot solve.
Since Fox took office in 2000, more than 2 million Mexicans have crossed the border in search of jobs, according to calculations by his government. That means about 1,100 Mexicans have immigrated to the United States every day for the past five years.
It embarrasses Fox because it indicates that he's not providing opportunities for his people at home, said George Grayson, a Mexico scholar at the College of William & Mary. This is an indictment of his administration.
Mexico's economy showed a healthy 5 percent growth in the first quarter, and inflation has dropped to 3 percent, the lowest rate in decades.
Fox can say we don't have inflation in Mexico, said Meyer. Of course, we don't have inflation but we don't have jobs either. Low inflation is something that is really positive for those who have an income. But people need jobs.
From 2001 to 2005, per capita income grew at an annual rate of less than 1 percent, Meyer said. That stark fact has translated into a common complaint from poor Mexicans, who say that although there are jobs in their country, those jobs don't pay enough to support their families.
For Mexicans of all economic classes, the image of troops along the border heightens tensions in an already strained relationship. Mexico's Foreign Secretary, Luis Ernesto Derbez, warned yesterday that the Mexican government will file lawsuits in U.S. courts if National Guard troops begin to detain immigrants.
If there is a real wave of rights abuses, if we see the National Guard starting to directly participate in detaining people we would immediately start filing lawsuits through our consulates, he said.
S. Lynne Walker: slwalker@prodigy.net.mx |
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