The Mexican Opinion (from Lorena)

CIDE, Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas and COMEXI, Consejo Mexicano de Asuntos Internacionales are institutions that provide Mexican research in the social sciences and support analytical, multi-disciplinary studies on Mexico’s global role, respectively. Their recent co-study was conducted in a survey format, Mexico and the World 2006: Public Opinion and Foreign Policy in Mexico, and presented at a conference hosted by the Chicago Council for Global Affairs.

The study provided a composite look at the way Mexican citizens view their nations’ concerns as well as their opinion on global matters; this survey commenced in 2004 and consisted of 1,499 “house-to house” interviews and 259 telephone interviews with foreign affair leaders. The importance of these surveys is two-fold: Provide knowledge to the public and policymakers alike with the interest in presenting an analytical perspective of international interests.

Background:

Mexico faces three obstacles in its foreign policies. Foremost, Mexico’s relationship with the United States was repressed by the September 11 attacks (this catastrophe focused US attention on the anti-terror campaign, souring, for example, any hope for immediate immigration reform along with delaying discussions on border control and drug-trafficking issues). The second obstacle concerns its economical affairs. The US created new partnerships with other Latin American countries, in particular, Central America, and China gained a stronghold in the US market as the second largest exporter, lessening Mexico’s market strategies. The third obstacle is the reformation of its relationship with both Northern and Southern countries; the fast-growing leftist, populist leaders of Latin American countries and the continual immigration distress in the US formulate a challenging foreign policy agenda for Mexico. Mexico’s foreign policy has been guided by different stances, all reactions to the pre-and-post NAFTA, North American Free Trade Agreement, dealings. Traditionally, Mexico behaved as an entirely nationalistic society by conserving a non-interventionist foreign policy. This defensive attitude changed with NAFTA as it converted to closer ties with the US, while maintaining a pacifist view and move towards promoting human rights and democracy as seen with the Fox administration.

The 2006 presidential election made for an interesting introspection of Mexican home front matters. The PRI party lost its centralizing, larger position (PRI maintained power for 71 years until 2000), while the PRD, center-left party, and the PAN, center-right has grown, producing a polarized system—the division of voters can be easily broken down into a northern states component, PAN, and a southern states component, PRD. Within this political division of states, the socioeconomic status of the country is also divided whereby the south and southeast are significantly poorer than the rest of the nation, and, according to government statistics, about fifty-percent of Mexicans live in poverty. It is interesting to point out that despite its high poverty levels, Mexico ranks as the fourteenth largest economy in the world based on Gross Domestic Product, GDP, standards.

Study: The Mexican Opinion

One would expect a gross division of Mexican opinion; after all, the political system is greatly polarized and Mexico’s fear of growing competition in the economy, together with the disparity in social and economical equalities, would make one think so. Surprisingly, the results of the survey show a favorable attitude of citizens’ views on Mexico and global relations.

Here are some highlights from the Study:

• Mexicans favor pragmatic foreign policy that allows economical stability and a safe homeland, and, most would favor an active foreign policy, i.e. helping improve human rights such as in Cuba

• Mexicans see Latin American countries more as friends than as partners, and believe they should pay attention to its relations with Latin American countries

• Mexicans have a more favorable attitude towards the US and Canada than any other country

• Mexicans believe that having the US as a neighbor is more advantageous than disadvantageous

• Mexicans are generally ambivalent (they also hold opposing) views on their admiration and trust for the US

As a closing thought:

Mexican citizens rank the following as concerns: drug-trafficking, international terrorism, global warming, and US immigration policy.

The entire report can be found at: http://mexicoyelmundo.cide.edu/