Troubled Mexico

Report Outline
Economic Aftershocks
American Relations
Internal Challenges

Economic Aftershocks

Earthquake's Political, Financial Impact

The Sympathy of the world went out to Mexico when a massive earthquake leveled clusters of buildings in its populous capital, killing possibly as many as 10,000 people and leaving more than 100,000 homeless. Mexico's trauma and grief were palpable as rescue workers frantically searched for victims in the rubble of buildings that were shattered by the quake. But the grim salvage effort was only a foretaste of the difficult times that lie ahead. Beset by an enormous foreign debt, a stagnant economy and rising political and social discontent, Mexico will need a continued outpouring of support and assistance for years if it is to regain its former position as Latin America's most politically stable and economically powerful nation.

Long after the debris from the earthquake has been cleared, Mexico will still be reeling from the political and economic aftershocks. The earthquake destroyed more than buildings: it effectively ended whatever hope the Mexican government had for a rapid resolution of its foreign debt problem and a return to economic normalcy. Worse still, from the standpoint of Mexican political leaders, the earthquake exposed to the Mexican people and the world the weakness, impotence and outright corruption of the government that, for more than half a century, has seemed unshakeable.

The Mexican government is not expected to fall, now or in the near future. But the morass into which the country has toppled—as much from economic mismanagement as from natural disaster—makes it clear that, in the words of one commentator, “Mexico has arrived at a significant crossroads in its long, complex, deceptive history. Things—if not exactly falling apart—cannot continue on their present course if the center is to hold.”