¡Hablame!
If you’ve been wondering why I didn’t update over the weekend…
It’s this guy. I don’t even know his name, but he’s one of the most recognizable figures in Mexico. He’s the dad in a commercial for Ladatel (Telmex’ Long Distance Calling Plan) who just yacks away with his kids calling from the U.S.
Ladatel 100 is only 230 pesos a month for 100 minutes to the United States (about twenty cents a minute). I always thought it was kinda high. Then, I got my SBC bill. For 91 minutes to Mexico, I was charged
FOUR HUNDRED TWELVE DOLLARS AND THIRTY-SEVEN CENTS!
I didn’t post over the weekend, for a simple reason… no phone service, no internet, no habla ninguina…
SBC, somehow, forgot to mention until the last time they cut off my service (over Christmas, the rats) that for five bucks a month, I could call Mexico at ten cents a minute. “Uhhh… sorry about that”. At that time, they told me there was no way to discount the calls that SHOULD have been discounted.
Oh yes there is… swear at the automated operator until you get a human… then switch to your nice guy voice, but mention… oh… VONAGE a few times.
So, I’m back, with only a twelve dollar and something long distance charge, and now only scrambling to get the rent, the car insurance the electric bill…
Whitewash in Oaxaca… and reality bleeds through
Sombrero tip to The Unapologetic Mexican for picking up on this.
Vibrant as the Paint on the Walls
John Ross
The walls of this city of painters have been freshly whitewashed on orders from a much-lampooned governor, the whiteout financed by transnational tourist moguls to promote the illusion that peace has returned to Oaxaca. …there were seven months of dramatic confrontations between striking teachers and their allies in the Oaxaca Peoples Popular Assembly (APPO) and security forces backing the despotic governor Ulisis Ruiz whose removal from office the insurgents demand. Over 200 prisoners were taken during the skirmishing and another 60 are listed as disappeared. 19 dissidents have been gunned down by Ruiz’s death squads.
But despite the savage repression, if one keeps an ear to the ground and an eye to the whitewashed walls once plastered with revolutionary slogans, tags, full-length murals, throw-ups, and ingenious stencils, it doesn’t much sound or look like the Oaxaca Intifada is done with yet.
…The bitterness of those who have suffered seven months of depravities at the governor’s hands finds distinct outlets…
Oaxaca is a city of painters, the cradle of the late master colorist Rufino Tamayo and the very much-alive Francisco Toledo who stands with the resistance movement, and during the long struggle the walls of the city were transformed into a dizzying open-air gallery of popular art. Despite the thousands of gallons that have been expended to blot out the rebellion in a doomed campaign to assure tourists that “no pasa nada aqui”, that nothing is happening here and it is safe to return, the images, like the anger, endure just beneath the surface. “The white paint cannot erase the blood of our comrades” defiantly advertises a spray-painted wall scrawl. A remarkable archive of over a thousand images of the struggle for the walls of Oaxaca offers poignant witness to the ongoing resistance.
Some of the works were spray painted freehand, others stenciled onto every available space, still others printed out on paper and fastened to the walls with a wheat glue tough as steel so that to remove the offending art requires dismantling the buildings to which they were affixed brick by brick. Although Ulisis’s obliteration teams stalk the streets, new art goes up every day right under the noses of the police.
Indeed, Ulisis is everywhere on these walls – as a burro, as a rat, a raccoon, a chimpanzee, a skull and crossbones, with shit on his head. A mammoth Mayan head was painted to scale by an apparently well-coordinated team of throw-up artists, a Playboy nude appeared curled up on the wall of the Cathedral rectory and tagged as “The Pope’s Girlfriend” – the Church played an equivocal role in the Oaxaca uprising.
…
Zapata in a gas mask is still up there just under the whitewash, Benito Juarez with a Mohawk. Mug shots of Gandhi, the old anarchist Ricardo Flores Magon, the martyred guerrillero Lucio Cabanas, the Zapatistas’ Comandanta Ramona.
This ebullient outpouring of graphic resistance to the caprices of a governor whose sanity is openly questioned, and the connivance of a government under the “hard hand” of a president much of the electoral considers a usurper, is firmly rooted in the popular traditions of Oaxaca, the most indigenous entity in the Mexican union …
I’m of two minds about what to tell people. I know too many foreigners of limited means who live in Oaxaca — they can’t pack up and leave, having become Oaxaños themselves, and are (for the most part) sympathetic to the people’s demands. But, as foreigners, they can do nothing overt.
These foreigners have been the best witnesses (and, in “Mark-in-Mexico’s case … the worst). And, yes… Oaxaca is a very safe place for a foreigner to travel. If nothing else, a tourist on the spot will likely keep the goons from acting out (I admit once having invited a Mayan ambulanta to share a coffee at my outside table on the Mexico City Zocalo during a Granadero raid. No copper was going to seize her beads and trinkets that were shoved under the table … and not a damn thing the cop could do but stare daggers at me. We had a leisurely cafe til the coppers moved on with their three or four human sacrifices to the Gods of international commercial patents).
I don’t begrudge tourists going to other places with much more repressive governments — Guatemala or Haiti.
Do go… but buy from street vendors and tip the waiters. Shop til you drop… but get away from the tourist quarter and buy where the locals buy. You have a better time in Mexico that way anyway.
The Oaxacaños are wonderful people. Talk to them… they’re friendly. You’re not a missionary bringing “light and democracy” to those sitting in darkness. The Oaxacaños are trying to build a democracy, under difficult conditions. If anything, we should be humbled, and are the students, not the teachers.
Hey, but since when can’t students have fun? Eat, drink and merrily subvert the mal-administration… and please… do everyone a favor and send us back your adventures, even if it’s only a post on a tourism message board or a comment in some obscure blog…Sunlight is the best disinfectant.
Doing the jobs Americans won’t do…
Noe Reyes, Brooklyn deliveryman, sends home $500 a week to his family in Puebla. Photo by Dulce Pinzón, Kuntshaus.org
Hate crime?
I’ve written elsewhere that homosexuality isn’t a particularly big deal in Mexico, though a “don’t ask, don’t tell” attitude still is the norm, rather than the exception, especially outside the Capital.
As in wealthier countries a few decades ago, the “out” gays tend to be either already prominent in other fields (like Carlos Monsivias) or somewhat insulated by their social position (like President de la Madrid’s son… sorry, I don’t remember off-hand which one). Or… the “stereotyped” local entertainer or hairdresser.
José Ernesto Leal López was one of the latter — the owner of a popular hair salon in Matamoros. Leal had emceeded shows at Matamoros gay clubs for years, but recently took a more open and public role — lobbying state legislators and being profiled in local newspapers (where he also spoke on anti-gay discrimination). His murder last week is being described as a “crime of passion” unrelated to his political role.
José Manuel Nava Sánchez, who was murdered in November, was also out, but his case is troubling because he was nationally (and internationally) prominent — and because any time a newsman is murdered in Mexico there are questions. I don’t have any reason to suspect anything other than a gay bashing/robbery, and have some hope that the Mexico City police won’t just write it off as a “crime of passion” given Nava’s importantance, and the number of prominent people taking ian interest in this crime. And Mexico City the Federal District does actually make a good-faith effort to enforce the strict anti-discrimination laws.
Leal was not a tourist, nor was he involved in the drug trade (in which case, there wouldn’t have been much coverage of his murder on either side of the border). The simple fact that this murder is being reported on gives me some hope… Mexico and Mexicans are refusing to accept the old prejudices much harder to erradicate than the simple, obvious ones like “race.”
Desert mysteries… two Arizona border updates
The shooting of Mexican national may have been filmed, according to the Sierra Vista Herald (Bisbee, AZ). Crossing the border is obviously not a capital crime (and, you’re supposed to have a trial and evidence and things like that first), but an administrative offense. For the record, I think this may have been a terrible mistake by a Border Patrol agent, but with more inexperienced agents along the border, it was likely to happen. I don’t fault the BP on this one, but I was bothered by the xenophobic and racist rhetoric that creates a situation where this is seen not as a tragedy, but as something almost desirable.
And who was in the middle of the desert a couple of weeks back?
The Arizona Star editorialized on the speculation today:
Whatever happened with the National Guard at the Mexican border two weeks ago remains a mystery. Sadly, however, the absence of facts hasn’t slowed the bombast and bravado from a variety of bloggers, politicians and others who are outraged.
I got a lot of feedback from Heidi Theiss, one of the more outraged of the bloggers. Heidi… woman of mystery … claims she has “sources” with more information than, well, anybody, I guess.
Heidi runs a allegedly “pro-military” (meaning get soldiers killed, and then whine about them ferriners) site called EuphoricReality.com. In her comments to me, she said she’d been on the Guatemala-Mexico border for five years. She’s also, according to Heidi, been in the Special Forces (I didn’t know women served in that unit), and has claimed to be on the CIA and Halliburton payroll. She’s made mistakes in the past, but doesn’t seem to know how to write a correction/retraction. Hell, if she claimed the sun rose in the East and set in the West, I’d look for a reliable source.
As the Arizona Star editorial suggests, for all we know, the National Guard observers ran into a bunch of Minute Men running around out there. That particular scenario has been a concern whenever those city slickers show up out here. And, the Arizona desert is even more desolate than where I live.
Who is running around out in the hills where I live is sometimes hard to say. Yeah, there are drug runners and gun runners, some indocumenados and… hunters, old weird hippies, the burro lady, cowboys working late and who knows out there… mostly harmless folks.
Our local sheriff’s department depends on both the Border Patrol and the Forestry Service (Big Bend National Park is in my county) to provide backup. None of these people are yahoos (well, at least not the ones who live in my neighborhood), and they’re doing the best they can. The National Guardsmen and women sent to provide backup are just there to do observations and handle routine clerical tasks – why Heidi, or any of the other commentators think they were supposed to fire on unknown people in the middle of the desert says more about the ignorance and stupidity of the commentators than about any knowledge of the situation… which I don’t, the National Guard doesn’t and the right-wing bloggers certainly don’t have. Not even ex-(or is it present) CIA-Halliburton-Special Forces-Mexico Jungle Fighting Heidi Theiss.
Corn-y rationales for tortilla prices don’t sell
Although the Calderón administration has slapped price controls on tortillas ($8.50 per kilo) the price is still very, very high.
The NEW “salario minimo” — which is based on a broad market basket of goods and services in Zona “A” (the most expensive parts of the country) is only $50.57 a day. In theory this is enough for a family of four to get by… but just barely. The difference between 6 or 7 pesos and 8.50 pesos per day is a huge chunk of an already inadequate income.
The salario raise was set before the tortilla jump, and the explanations for the jump don’t quite make sense.
The USDA was reporting back in June 2004 that U.S. corn exports to Mexico had been rising since 1994 (when NAFTA went into effect).
It’s important to understand the types of corn being exported:
|
Most of the increased trade has been in yellow corn, used primarily to feed livestock. But over the past 3 years, about 10 percent of this trade has consisted of white corn, which is used to produce tortillas and other traditional Mexican foods. There are two fairly distinct markets for corn in Mexico: yellow corn for livestock feed and other industrial uses, such as the production of starch and high-fructose corn syrup, and white corn for direct human consumption. Over the next decade, the growth of yellow corn exports is largely assured by the anticipated expansion of Mexican livestock production. Prospects for white corn exports are more difficult to predict, given the changing structure of Mexico’s corn, milling, and tortilla industries. |
It’s WHITE CORN — for human consumption — that suddenly jumped. The standard explanation — that more yellow corn (used also for ethanol production) was planted at the expense of white corn doesn’t make sense.
I assume he means “that’s weird” as opposed to “ha-ha! That’s a laugh!” but it’s hard to tell. They call Economics the “dismal science” for a reason… the practicioners are cold-blooded SOBs to whom humor is a foreign language anyway.
From what I can decypher of Dikema’s ivory-towered economic gobbledy-gook, increased demand for yellow corn is driving white corn off the market, causing white corn (the kind people eat. Yellow corn is used for animal feed or ethanol or sweeteners) prices to jump. That’s a given. But to Dikeman:
… this price rise is just a perfect example of how globalization can even out the impact of something like ethanol demand on corn prices by spreading the effect across multiple markets and multiple commodities .
In other words… “Oh well, it all works out in the end.”
He’s just looking at this from an academic viewpoint, and one can safely assume, a few pesos difference (or double the price in some places) won’t hurt him. He probably doesn’t eat tortillas anyway. But if they are your “daily bread” this is a matter of life and death.
And, Dikeman’s theory would only make sense if Mexican farmers — white corn producers — are also planting yellow corn. They’re not. They’re being driven off the land by a number of other factors. Breaking up the ejitals (the collectively owned farms) was probably not done as well as it could have been. The small individual farms can’t compete against corporate entities in the United States and Canada. And those countries subsidize both the growers (through fuel rebates among other things) and exports.
I’ve recommened Jennifer Rodgers’ website since she’s an expert on the effects of genetically modified corn on indigenous communities. I’m dubious of the sustainability of corn strains that require chemical fertilizer and special harvesting techniques (i.e., fuel intensive agriculture) in a country where farms are small, independent units, and not huge corporate enterprises. I think in general, GM corn is going to destroy Mexican agriculture (and… given that Mexico — the motherland of corn — still grows varieties that would be needed if any plant disease was to wipe out a monoculture corn variety, it is very bad disaster planning).
I’m starting to think GM corn will do nothing but make Mexico more dependent on outside resources (fertilizer and fuel) and do nothing but force more farmers off their own land. I’m surprised the Mexican poster didn’t notice some other possible effects of the tortilla jump. Wal Mart has been undercutting the mom-n-pop tortilla vendors. With tortilla sales pretty much limited to two major distributors (Maseca and Cargill — the lattter being a U.S. owned company), Ethanol speculation MAY be a factor, but Dikeman also mentions that Wal-Mart has taken advantage of the situation and is starting to undersell neighborhood tortilla distributors.
Stories that Mexicans are crossing the border to buy tortillas at U.S. Wal Marts seem to fall in the category of “urban legends” (besides higher U.S. prices for basic commodities, there are the tolls and transit costs that wouldn’t make tortillas cheaper in U.S. stores, even with the sudden doubling in price… what people who’ve reported this are probably seeing is Mexican and Mexican-Americans who’ve always shopped at Wal Mart buying their weekly tortillas, and just never noticed before… and jumped to conclusions).
Tortillas always had a set price when I lived in Mexico City no matter where you bought them. But if you bought from the mom-n-pops, it was mom and pop and their daughter and their nephew and his buddy who were making a living and investing in your neighborhood (and sometimes feeding the neighbors who had late paychecks or hungry kids). Walmart has… employees, not owners (not owners in my neighborhood, anyway — and not owners who swept the sidewalk and gave handouts to the neighborhood dogs).
Dikeman also noticed the glut in yellow corn used for corn sweeteners. He also mentioned NAFTA… and OUR desire to sell genetically modified corn to the nation where corn production began (and where there are still a lot of varieties that aren’t found anywhere else).
Given that there has been a concerted effort to keep corn sweetners (which compete with Mexican grown sugar) on the market (and to avoid a soft-drink tax which would have hurt the foreign sweetner market more than the sugar growers) AND to go ahead with dropping protections for Mexican corn growers (and, probably allowing genetically modified corn to enter the country), both pushed by PAN, I think this post I saw (of all places on Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree Mexico Message Board — which sometimes has good political/cultural discussions not normally found on tourist message boards) — written by a Mexican national, not a tourist — is on a lot of Mexican’s minds and should be taken seriously:
ISN’T IT IRONIC that the first to suffer under the new PAN president are the poor with the price hikes for tortillas. Kind of gives a new meaning to the phrase “nuestro PAN de cada dia” for much of the population. My understanding is that there is no shortage of white corn here which is what is destined for human consumption. The shortage lies in yellow corn, used mainly for animal feed. So how are the price hikes justified? And is this just a ploy by some to lobby for lifting the ban on GM corn seed?
David Agren, a Canadian in Guadalajara, who makes his living (I hope sufficiently) covering Mexico for a number of his own country’s (and other) publications weighs in on the continuing saga of the late Adam de Prisco on his website: Tales From The Chicken Bus:
Canadians – even the ones that take winter junkets down the Puerto Vallarta and Cancun – really know very little about Mexico and thus a number of stupid and downright prejudiced comments have been appearing on message boards. These comments on the Globe and Mail’s site by someone called Lyn Alg tops them all for sheer ignorance:
“One would be safer and wiser to take a vacation in the centre of Baghdad or in Afghanistan than in Mexico.”
Please. It’s small town cheap comments like this that make me not miss Canada, which for all of its supposed tolerance and worldliness, is distressing parochial and small minded – not to mention ignorant of Latin America.
Immigrants — more economic impact than NAFTA
The “other” David Brooks (not the New York Times columnist, who is generally opposed to immigratin), but the one who writes for Jornada, and isn’t as well known, writes today about some startling research from UCLA.
I can’t find an English translation (if anyone finds one, let me know), and I’m not sure if Brooks writes first in English, then in Spanish, but I know he’s a damn good writer in both languages. I only translated these couple of eye-opening paragraphs:
Using the same methodology employed to measure commerical contributions to the national economy, the reserachers evaluated the economic contribution of immigrants to the GNP, factoring into their analysis the value of remittances sent to the home country.
The annual economic contribution of Mexican immigrants to the United States is a trillion dollars. Immigrants send more than 20 billion dollars back to Mexico every year in remittances. Compared to this, U.S. exports to Mexico totalled 120 billion in 2005, and Mexican exports to the U.S. were 170 billion out of a total of 213 billion in world-wide exports.
Therefore, bilateral commerce falls far below the total contribution of immigrants to the U.S. economy according to numbers presented by Dr. Hinojosa. It also indicates that remittances to Mexico vastly outweigh the total of direct foreign investment.
Why did the terrorist cross the border?
I can’t vouch for the source (it’s Cuba’s Prensa Latina), but this is interesting.
The one and only confirmed terrorist to cross the U.S. border from Mexico, Luis Posada Carriles, was recently transferred from the El Paso Immigration Detention Center to the Otero County (New Mexico) jail. He had a hearing last week on the technical charge, that he lied to federal immigration agents in a bid to become a naturalized citizen.
The El Paso Times (which refers to a guy who blew up a civilian airliner — and considered offing the Pope — a “militant”) notes the catch-22 we have with “OUR” terrorist:
An immigration judge last year ruled that Posada, who is wanted in Venezuela on a charge that he plotted the 1976 bombing of a Cuban jetliner, could not stay in the U.S. But Judge William L. Abbott also ruled that Posada, who was born in Cuba and is a naturalized Venezuelan citizen, could not be sent to either of those countries.
Several other countries, including Mexico, have refused to allow Posada in.
Posada is a real bad guy… and if anyone deserves the title of “international terrorist” he does. But, being part of the anti-Castro underground (heck, he even figures in JFK assassination conspiracy theories), his case just illustrates the whole problem with “anti-terrorist” agreements… one man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist.
Like I said, I always question Prensa Latina. They’re usually right, but whether this is just your usual aging Cuban exiles (aka OUR terrorists) or something more sinister, I don’t know. Just keep ’em away from my border!
Posada Cronies Fumble Attack on Witness
Washington, Jan 18 (Prensa Latina) Accomplices of international terrorist Luis Posada Carriles tried to murder a key witness in the judicial process against that criminal, the Miami press reported on Thursday.Gilberto Abascal, an FBI source who confirmed the illegal entrance of Posada Carriles in the US from Mexico, found a bomb in his car.Cronies of Posada planted the device in the Ford van of the witness on Sunday, with the intention of detonating it in the Florida locality of Hialeah, reported the Miami Herald in his Spanish edition.Abascal denounced the attempt to the Miami-Dade country police, informing he was an FBI witness.
The Bomb Disposal Unit defused the bomb and the FBI Anti Terrorism Special Force said that it would open an investigation, but denied to give details to the press.
In August, 2006, Abascal escaped unharmed from another attack carried out by unidentified people, who opened fire against his van on a road near Hialeah Gardens.
Last Thursday, a federal jury of western district of Texas accused Posada Carriles of seven charges, including one for fraud in the naturalization process and another six for giving false information to the immigration officials.
Begging, small town news and paradise
What living I make (and I barely scrape by) comes mostly from reporting for a couple of small local papers. Sometimes it pays the rent and electic and phone bill, and I do a little business writing to stretch my income.
My own writing doesn’t bring in anything (and I really don’t expect it to… Mexican history is an esoteric subject, and the readers generally aren’t in a position to pay for the material) and the Mex Files, which takes up even more time than figuring out the local chincanery and egos involved of your local gas board members, sometimes isn’t as well edited, or written as I’d like. But, without donations, I have to do other things. The pay pal links are there for a reason… somehow I have to pay for the computer, and keep eating while I’m putting time in here (and a decent haircut would be nice — even though I’m not going anywhere special).
Anyway… having to make my living by following the ins and outs of small town politics, the article below caught my attention. Toll roads, new developments, preserving ecological preserves, septic tank connections. Hey, this could be Alpine Texas (or West Des Moines Iowa, or Geneva New York or any small town I’ve lived in over the years). Change the names (though in Alpine, I probably wouldn’t) and this article could be almost anywhere in the big country north of Mexico. Et tu en arcadia ego!
| City gov’t braces for combative meeting |
| By Bob Kelly/Special to The Miami Herald El UniversalJueves 18 de enero de 2007 |
| SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE, Gto. – City officials are bracing for a second public meeting Thursday night after Tuesday´s session ended with boos and whistling when questions on contentious development issues were cut short.Officials promised all questions would be answered at Thursday´s 7:30 p.m. meeting, which has been moved to the 400-plus-seat Teatro Angela Peralta after Tuesday´s three-hour session skirted issues raised by a growing number of groups claiming illegal and unchecked development threatens the colonial heritage of this 450-year-old city.Mayor Jesús Correa, urban development director Ángel Gastelum and three consultants talked for two hours about the long-range plan that will be presented this summer as part of San Miguel´s application to UNESCO to be declared a world heritage site, seen as a boon to tourism, the city´s major revenue producer.The audience of Mexican and foreign residents in the 82-seat theater at the Biblioteca Pública and some 100 listening outside to a speaker came alive when the third hour brought questions dealing with more immediate issues.
The meeting was ended soon after environmentalist César Arias said the city´s long-range plan opened up much of the area northeast of San Miguel to development. The last plan, approved in 1993, restricted development in that area because of environmental concerns, Arias said, especially the additional sewage that would pass through ditches on its way to the Presa Allende. Arias also claimed the plan reduced the environmental buffer zone around the Charco del Ingenio, a 240-acre nature preserve, that the city adopted a year ago. Arias, who heads the non-profit group operating the preserve, persuaded former Mayor Luis Alberto Villarreal and city council to expand the buffer zone and strengthen restraints on development a year ago after homes were built to the edge of the preserve and developers planned homes on lots not connected to sewers and too small for septic tanks. After the meeting, former city ecology director Alberto Morales said the city´s plan would allow more residential development in 18 natural and environmental areas protected by the 1993 plan. Morales is a member of Basta Ya, the first of the 10 groups that have emerged the past two months to protest the pace and nature of development and the city´s failure to publicly discuss a broad range of issues. The audience applauded several times when Gastelum said a priority would be dealing with the declining levels in the aquifer that is the city´s major water source. Gastelum said the plan calls for efforts to persuade farmers to cut water use, which is roughly 85 percent of consumption. Experts have been warning for several years the city could face a serious problem in 15-20 years because water is being pumped out of the aquifer twice as fast as rainwater is flowing in. At an earlier meeting, Correa disclosed plans for a four-lane highway from San Miguel to Guanajuato, the state capital, and a toll road around the city connecting the roads to Celaya, Querétaro and Dolores Hidalgo. Correa said Gov. Juan Manuel Oliva had promised to support a four-lane highway to Dolores Hidalgo and Guanajuato but he did not say whether it would be new construction or a widening of existing two-lane routes. The toll road bypass, which Correa said would be designed to attract business development, also would for the first time link roads to Querétaro and Dolores Hidalgo, as well as Celaya, the major routes for vehicle traffic into the congested town center. |
| © 2007 Copyright El Universal-El Universal Online |
Left to their own defenses… Latin America and China
Maybe there’s a simple reason Latin American countries are “turning left”? The U.S. administration is encouraging business ties to a Communist country at the expense of democratic allies.
BEIJING, Jan. 17 — Bilateral trade between China and the United States increased dramatically in 2006, when China for the first time surpassed Mexico to become the second-largest trading partner of the US.
Trade volume between the two countries reached 238.7 billion U.S. dollars in 2006, an increase of 24.6 percent from 2005.
China imported goods worth 53.94 billion U.S. dollars from the US, up 22.9 percent year-on-year, and exported 184.76 billion U.S. dollars, 25.1 percent more than last year. China achieved a trade surplus of 130.8 billion U.S. dollars, a 26 percent increase.
The US is now China’s second-largest trade partner, biggest export market, sixth-largest import market and third-largest technology import market.
(Source: China Daily via Xinhuanet)
The claim that the U.S. opposes what used to be the ONE and ONLY overtly “leftist” government — Cuba — because it has a communist government makes no sense. It makes more sense that the problem was Cuba’s business relationships with everyone EXCEPT the U.S. Honduras nationalized the U.S. owned oil-tank farms the other day without much opposition from the U.S., maybe because they’re still doing so much business with the U.S. (and they’ll still be buying oil from U.S. companies… just a different one than Exxon-Mobil).
The U.S. — for a lot of reasons — is abandoning their tradtional business relationship with Latin America, and opting instead to do business in China. Latin American conservatives — being conservative — by definition are slow to change… including their economic thinking. They’re still tied to what seems to be in their long-term worst interest.
In addition to their anti-yanquí rhetoric, the “leftist” presidents (of Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Panama, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and now Ecuador) are “progressives” … and making progress in changing traditional patterns… building trade relationships with Europe and Asia, or within a Latin America.
Mexico, which has always been tied U.S., is a slighly different case… there is NAFTA. Still, the “left’s” call for renegotiating the treaty, and building those new markets, was popular in the last election. Even within PAN, you’re starting to see people who recognize the need for this (I give Vincente Fox a lot of credit for selling Mexico to non-traditional trading partners, like New Zealand and Japan). But, mild change may not be enough to keep PAN in power.
If you look at the voter results, PAN is actually losing support, even though they still had enough to squeak through in the Presidential election. Fox got 42.5 percent of the total vote, with 5 percent coming from the Greens and Social-Democratic “botique” parties. So… figure 37.5 percent for PAN in 2000, versus only about 30 percent in 2006… and that’s with a massive effort to paint AMLO as a “dangerous leftist”.
AMLO’s loss was only by a third of a percentage point, and the “left” (if we include PRI) won 2/3rds of the vote. Like other Latin American leftist and social-democratic parties, the Mexican left is looking to break U.S. economic “hegonomy.” And, AMLO had support from middle-class voters, and some of the business leadership.
Once this sinks in… I’m expecting PAN will be making even more concessions to the left…or lose still more support.
Lost Dog
Last I heard — just before Christmas (from KGMB-Channel 9 in Honolulu) — “Dog the Bounty Hunter” was due in court in Guadalajara today.
‘Dog’ Hearing Begins in Mexico
After being postponed earlier this month, the court hearing that could make or break Duane “Dog” Chapman began in Mexico Friday. The Dog wasn’t there, but his attorney represented him. The court heard both sides of the story, and then decided to recess and continue the hearing on January 16th.
Dog was arrested in September for a number of charges in connection with the capture of convicted rapist Andrew Luster, but now only faces one charge of deprivation of liberty.
Absolutely nothing in Mexican or U.S. media on Duane’s appearance in court. Could it be?
Could the “American Hero” skip tracer have… skipped? Be on the lookout for one missing Dog… not particularly valuable, but should be impounded before it causes any more problems.
Hey… is there a bounty out for him?
BAD DOG!
mexfiles.net 