POSTMODERN MEXICAN POLITICS FOR DUMMIES. In 1988, after the biggest election fraud ever seen in Mexico took place, only compared with that of the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz one century before, Carlos Salinas de Gortari was elected president. As soon as the most important competitor of the official candidate started to show clear advantage, data stopped flowing and the iconic phrase of “se cayó el sistema” shamelessly entered to our painful democratic dictionary. After two hours of a general failure in our election system, the same one that a day before promised to portrait ballot results in real time, Cuauhtémoc Cardenas was officially defeated according to unbelievable government results. Carlos Salinas de Gortari, an economist with a PHD trained in the best Universities in the US, and the most important engineer of the painful economic reforms dictated by the Washington Consensus (World bank, IMF, etc) was rewarded with the presidency after saving the country by paying international banks and funds when previous Mexican governments irresponsible management led to our severe payment crisis. Carlos Salinas de Gortari started to dismantle all the social structure of welfare built in decades after the Mexican revolution and literary sacrificed the Mexican population in order to fulfill irresponsible debts hired by his predecessors pressured by the International Financial Community. Balancing our debt and a very interesting international ambience due to “the end of history” by end of cold war and the fall of Berlin wall and communism, Salinas decided that it was time for Mexico to become The United States. In order to Americanize Mexico he had first to open the border for commerce and become a trade partner. So, Even though only few years after Mexico jeopardized the entire Financial System of the world by its irresponsible waste, US and Canada happily welcome us as their dearest partners. The opening for foreign investment in telecommunications and other previously government controlled areas in the ambitious sale of Mexican assets was made benefiting highly and mainly people near the president, people still think that the current highly profitable former State companies such as TELMEX are secretly owned by Salinas. His entire family was involved in negotiations and later his brother was accused as he could not explain the origin of millions of dollars in accounts in Switzerland. (Which, by the way, inexplicably have been returned to him as he was released from jail). While dismantling these structures and signing international agreements, Mexico was happily driven to an all mighty neoliberal model that established that the merciful market was going to solve all social problems, The Mexican population only had to be patient. International competition was by itself provider of full employment and the necessary jobs. However our poverty gap grew and some of our rich became richer and most of our poor became even poorer. This second socially irresponsible attitude conducted to an unbearable instability and after almost one century of relative peace, postmodern Mexico witnessed a war, The Zapatista uprising in Chiapas was iconic, since it came from the most neglected sector of our society, the same sector that one century before gave origin to the same Political party that now has quit supporting the Mexican indigenous people from the poorest State of Mexico. Terrible political instability, assassination of the Presidential candidate, Chiapas war and an even worse financial Crisis in 1994 led to a democratic pressure that ended in 1997, for the first time in modern history, with a President without a majority in the Mexican Congress. That Congress, not controlled by the president for the first time in 70 years, allowed Political groups previously invisible by the Mexican government shape a highly reliable bullet proof electoral institution and by the year 2000 the Mexican presidency was finally won by a different political group opening a new era of more effective power alternation. A change in the executive did not represent better conditions for the general population. At the contrary, the new political elite represented a painful disappointment by those who expected a drastic change to stop corruption and look for “pesces gordos” as it was promised. Once in power, the new government as heirs of extreme right allowed factual powers such as the Catholic Church and monopolies improved their influence and increase social differences. Government’s lack of political experience, open stupidity and daily corruption scandals along with a severe security crisis caused by uncontrollable organized crime as never seen before allowed PRI to return to recover the presidential office. Once again PRI is back in office and they continued their labor stopped 12 years ago. By dismantling the only source of important income for the government which is Mexico’s ownership of oil production and starting an aggressive tax reform to improve income other than oil’s means that Mexico is giving up this important source of financial autonomy and passing over our necessary growth to the decision of international oil companies. Once more Mexican growth will depend only by forces of the market, once more our politicians want to make Mexico a new America. Democracy has shown our politicians that there is no longer a safe future in politics. Successful privatization of the past shows now that the future lays on private businesses. Perhaps we will see politicians signing the sale of the energy independence today as prosperous oil entrepreneurs of the future. International Oil companies in Mexico were about to militarily invade our country after President Cardenas (the father of the losing candidate in 1988) took oil production control for Mexico in 1938. Thanks to Hitler and his world war it was better that Mexico became a partner than an enemy, so it was allowed to proceed with its oil experiment that ended up in the growth and transformation to a modern country until bad administration took over. Today our president has returned to private companies what only a world war allowed us to keep in the past. Will we need another world war to get it back? And the number of poor Mexicans continues growing, when will they understand that there is no point to look for a job in USA? When will they understand that they should stay? After all Mexico is becoming America.
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 01:13:31 +0000
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