Mexico: The Other Side of the Wall

This is a very interesting podcast from the Center for International and Strategic Studies at Georgetown, focused on Mexico.  In this episode, the host, Mariana Campero, speaks with Lisa Sanchez, the CEO of Mexico United Against Crime.  I will try to capture here some of the key points in their conversation. First, femicides against Mexican women are increasing faster than the Mexican murder rate; so too are disappearances of Mexican adolescents, aged 12-18.  These trends are rooted in the lack of governmental capacity, particularly to engage in criminal investigations. Only 8% of murders in Mexico are investigates and only 2% of murders result in convictions, which leads to the conclusion that violence is a low cost strategy for individuals. The result to violence is exacerbated by the influx of illegal firearms into Mexico - there are some 16 million such weapons in Mexico, almost all of which come from the United States.  More women are, in fact, being killed by...

  While Mexico is failing to come to terms with water shortages, the country is also becoming increasingly militarized.  The government of AMLO has done an about face by first of all establishing the national guard that would be subject to civil authority and then by transferring authority of the National Guard to the Secretary of Defense - or Sedena - so that the guard is now under military command.  AMLO says that he does not need the authority of the Mexican Congress to do this and can transfer control by means of a presidential order, but he would like this arrangement to be constitutionalized so that it could not be reversed by whoever his successor might be.   The key security rationale is the corruption of civilian bureaucracies, which was the story, supposedly, with the disbandment of the federal police with the establishment of the National Guard and the dissolution of previous federal police forces in the wake of corruption scandals - the most notable ...

There is recent a piece in the New York Times about Mexico’s water crisis , which is affecting Monterrey most sevely, but over half of Mexico’s municipalities as well.  This drought is similar to the drought affecting the Western regions of the U.S. - reservoirs are drying up and aquifers are being depleted. The government is trucking water to the driest neighborhoods around the city, many of them illegal settlements of migrant squatters. In the meantime, Monterrey’s business sector continues to hum and to consume its large and unchallenged quota of water, white small businesses are collapsing from the drought.  With this particular article, it is interesting to peruse the readers’ comments.  Many of the North American commenters evince a neo-Malthusian view of the issue. Reader #1:  I wonder how many of these people have more than two children.  I wonder how easy it is to access contraception or abortion services, and whether or not sex education is taught. The...