Viewpoint: Five myths about Mexico

1 May 2013 

Mexico is a country with a growing middle class and strong democracy

As US President Barack Obama visits Mexico this week, he may want to consider the new realities of the country, says Shannon O'Neil, from the Council on Foreign Relations.

President Obama's visit to Mexico is part of a long tradition of diplomatic relations between the US and its neighbour to the south.

But while many Americans feel that they understand the basic economic and social forces that drive Mexico, the realities are much more interesting.

Here five myths about Mexico, that have a direct impact on American foreign policy, are debunked.

Mexico is no longer a poor country

Mexico City is a modern hub of commerce and culture

Though many Americans think of Mexico as a country of either wealth or poverty, by most accounts it is now a middle-class country.

A majority of Mexican households - incorporating roughly 60m people - now have disposable income. Half of the people in Mexico own their own car, and one-third own a computer. Nearly everyone has a television and mobile phone.

These new urban middle-class Mexicans are also investing in their children's education. There are now 45,000 private schools, comprising nearly a third of all Mexico's schools.

Student enrollment in universities and beyond has tripled in the past 30 years, from under a million in 1980 to almost three million today.

The rise of the middle class has affected Mexico's politics, too, with this segment pivotal in voting out the long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in 2000, and then voting them back in to Los Pinos, Mexico's White House, last year.

This crucial voting bloc is increasingly up for grabs, rapidly joining the ranks of Mexico's proclaimed political independents.

They mirror the US middle class in their concerns, paying close attention to economic opportunities and security, two important issues in US-Mexico relations.

Mexican manufacturing doesn't harm US workers

Basing factories in Mexico allows American companies to be more competitive

For Mexico, the biggest issues in the US-Mexico relationship are economic, and President Enrique Pena Nieto is hoping to deepen commercial ties between the two nations.

In his State of the Union address, President Obama praised Ford Motor Company for bringing jobs back from Mexico as part of a strategy to make "America a magnet for new jobs and manufacturing".

Yet this statement, at least with regard to Mexico, is mistaken.

It isn't that globalisation doesn't lead some jobs to foreign lands. It does. But by expanding abroad, companies become more competitive, supporting and creating jobs at home.

Ford increased its US workforce (and plans on adding thousands more jobs by 2015), but it hasn't stopped hiring in Mexico. It is expanding a plant in Hermosillo and adding over 1,000 positions in the last few years in the state of Sonora.

A study by two Harvard business professors and a University of Michigan colleague shows that for every 10 people hired overseas by American corporations, two new jobs are created in the United States.

Mexican immigrants are not going to keep flooding the US

The net migration from Mexico to the US is zero, due to many factors. The US has cracked down on undocumented immigrants like these Mexican men being held by Border Control

The images of hundreds of thousands of Mexican immigrants illegally entering the United States each year, chased down by border patrol agents on foot, horseback, or truck, resonates widely. But this reality has changed.

The estimated numbers coming north each year are down to levels last seen in the 1970s.

In fact, a 2012 Pew Hispanic Report noted that the net immigration for Mexicans in and out of the United States was "zero". In other words the same numbers of Mexicans entered and left.

This can in part be explained by the US recession, but it also reflects changes within Mexico.

Mexico has undergone a major demographic shift in the last generation. In the 1970s, women were having an average of seven children, but today that number is closer to two - the same as the US.

With fewer citizens coming of age each year relative to the overall population, the decades where Mexico's "extra youths" headed to the US are over.

Mexico's democracy is not weakening

Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto wants to expand business dealings between the US and his country

Although many feared that the 2012 return of the PRI would push Mexico back into its authoritarian past, checks and balances now exist and constrain whomever wears the presidential sash.

In Mexico's Congress, the three major political parties must negotiate to get any bill passed, and the nation's Supreme Court has increasingly exercised its autonomy to restrain both political officials and vested interests.

The country's media and civil society groups more generally are beginning to play an important watchdog role, questioning policies and exposing bad behaviour.

And finally, Mexico has reached a relatively enviable space, ranking in the upper tiers of nearly all relative international measures of democracy.

Mexico is not at risk of becoming a failed state

Mexico has its share of protests, corruption and violence, but the country continues to improve its institutions

Over the last six years, some 70,000 Mexicans have been killed in drug-related violence, and tens of thousands more have disappeared.

Mexico's police have often been unwilling or unable to stem the bloodshed, and the judicial system too has failed - with just 2% of all crimes ending in convictions.

But while Mexico faces a serious security threat from organised criminal groups, the country continues to collect taxes, build roads, run schools, expand social welfare programmes and hold free and fair elections.

Its economy has grown steadily, if somewhat slowly, and Mexico maintains an important presence in multilateral groups and summits.

It has also begun the long and arduous path of professionalising its police forces and transforming its courts to create a democratic rule of law.

One thing about Mexico that remains true is the deep and now permanent economic, political, security, and personal links between Mexico and the United States.

For Presidents Obama and Pena Nieto, there is much to gain from a better understanding of each other's country.

Shannon K. O'Neil is a senior fellow for Latin America Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and the author of Two Nations Indivisible: Mexico, the United States, and the Road Ahead
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Rosarito 2009 Crime Rate Falls 21%

To A Baja California Best 5-Year Low

By  Ron Raposa


ROSARITO BEACH , BAJA CALIFORNIA , MEXICO ---For 2009 Rosarito had the largest year-to-year decline in crime of any city in Baja California --- 21 percent --- and was the only city to reach a five-year low, according to state figures.



“These are very encouraging figures for Rosarito, especially in difficult economic times, when crime historically increases,” said Mayor Hugo Torres.



Calling the fight against crime a lifelong challenge for any city, Torres, who ran in 2007 on a platform of public security, said strong efforts will continue this year to reduce crime.



Those efforts, he said, will include increased policing in certain areas, more emphasis on neighborhood watch and private security, plus sports and other programs to keep city youth from delinquency and drug use.



Baja Gov. Jose Guadalupe Osuna Millan told the San Diego Union that Rosarito’s reduction in crime was one of Baja California ’s success stories.



Overall, Baja California crime declined by an average of 10 percent in 2009 from 2008 and was lower than the level of the previous two years. The state’s rate was the same as 2006 and higher only than 2005.



Rosarito led all five Baja cities in major categories for 2009, recording a 24 percent year-to-year decline in robbery and burglaries, 38 percent in violent crimes and 56 percent in murders, from 61 to 27, according to the state figures.



Five of the killings were between members of rival drug cartels as the government makes it more difficult for them to operate, and three were of police officers.



Torres said that the drug-related killings are very troubling but even with them Rosarito has a lower homicide rate than many U.S. cities, including New Orleans, St. Louis and Baltimore, and Washington , D.C. (Based on FBI figures for 2008, the latest published)



“Understandably, much of the media coverage in the U.S. has focused on the crackdown on organized crime --- it’s a vital international issue,” he said. “But that has helped create a misleading impression about security here.”


Since taking office, Torres has led efforts to replace more than half of the city’s police force while expanding its size from about 150 to 230 officers.


He also established a special tourist police force that uses bilingual traffic tickets that can be mailed in from the U.S. , an ombudsman office and a city department for visitor assistance.


The mayor also brought in former Army Capt. Jorge Montero to lead the police department as director of public security. He has praised his work as well as the support of the City Council.


Torres also cited federal and state support plus a close working relationship with the Rosarito office of the state attorney general, which is responsible for most reporting and investigation of crime.


“Prevention is the key to crime reduction,” said Torres, who added that the city’s focus would remain on public security.


Rosarito also is working on expanding positive activities including sports and drug prevention programs for youth. Torres has personally talked to more than 15,000 of the city’s 23,000 school children and plans to visit the remainder this year.


Many programs have been intiated to benefit city youth, including the start of construction last year on the city’s first Boys & Girls Club.

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Punta Colonet Mega Port

Wordpress.com

Jose Rubio Soto, regional coordinator of the Punta Colonet project, said today that the backers of the mega-port are sharing with the Mexican government’s communications and transportation agency (the SCT) details about existing railroad crossing points between Baja California and the U.S. The objective is to choose one of those for the new rail line that will funnel containers arriving from Asia into Punta Colonet and destined for U.S. cities.

Jose Rubio noted the important time advantage of having Mexico and the U.S. agree to add Punta Colonet rail approval to an exisiting border crossing. The alternative of establishing an entirely new crossing can take eight years to arrange, he and others have noted. Mexicali, Mexico, west of Yuma, is favored by many involved in the development process, according to Jose Rubio. But he noted that more than one rail crossing will likely be required, as import volume grows at Punta Colonet.

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