Learn more or change your cookie preferences. By continuing to use our service, you agree to our use of cookies. We use cookies why? You can change cookie preferences. He is remembered for sponsoring the creation of NAFTA , and also for attracting a gaudy string of criminal accusations. Carlos Salinas fled the country, claiming that he and his family were being persecuted, and spent most of the next four years in Havana, Dublin, and London, before returning to Mexico in Salinas is extremely wealthy and retains tremendous influence in the PRI , with his niece, Claudia Ruiz Massieu, serving as the secretary-general.
He received me one morning in his library, a two-story room outfitted with oak bookshelves and an exquisitely embossed saddle on a mount—Salinas is a keen horseman. The walls were hung with photographs showing Salinas with an array of world leaders, including George H.
Salinas and his allies, of course, are waging their own fight to hold on to power. To a great extent, the outcome will depend on how the current government meets the challenge from Trump—and particularly on the handling of NAFTA. American voters tend to assess NAFTA based on its effects on the job market during the past two decades. Mexicans, or at least those who oppose NAFTA , see it as a continuation of an oppressive relationship that dates back at least to the start of the Mexican-American War, in In that conflict, known locally as the United States Intervention in Mexico, a trumped-up border dispute in Texas ended with U.
After the Mexican Revolution began, in , the U. In , when Mexican authorities briefly detained nine American sailors, Woodrow Wilson ordered the Marines to invade the port city of Veracruz, which they held for six months. In Mexico, these incidents can seem as relevant to the current negotiations as foreign-exchange markets do.
Ambassador, told me. NAFTA went into effect on January 1, , and was greeted by an armed revolt: Zapatista fighters, their faces covered with bandannas and balaclavas, seized a series of towns in Chiapas. The agricultural sector, centered in the mostly indigenous southern regions, has been devastated. Towns and villages that relied on the sale of produce have seen their markets collapse, and many have fallen into surging criminal economies imposed by drug cartels.
At the same time, Mexico has become utterly dependent on the U. Several people I spoke to pointed out a particularly painful absurdity: even as farming communities struggle, the country imports corn from the U.
It has created a class of superwealthy, consisting of a couple of dozen people who are closely linked to political power. The memory of the problems between Mexico and the United States belonged to the remote past—prehistoric! Above all, because the U. Mexico has Americanized in so many ways.
Everyone is travelling, consuming, speaking English, listening to the same music. Rushmore for shitty Presidents, it will just be your bloated, orange head—four times.
Facebook Twitter Email. President Trump says Mexico will 'absolutely' pay for border wall. Better late than never: President Donald Trump and Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto sat down Friday for their first face-to-face meeting since Trump took office with plans for a border wall still looming. Share your feedback to help improve our site! Your email address will not be published. Search this site Submit Search. The Observer. November 9,
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