Millennium Development Goals in Mexico

Mexican children © Comunicación e Información de la Mujer

The latest progress report for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) dated 2006 expresses confidence that Mexico will achieve the Goals, with doubts conceded only in relation to individual targets for maternal mortality, women’s representation in politics and deforestation. Based on the international guideline of $1 per day, the Goal for halving extreme poverty has indeed already been achieved, the rate falling from 10.8% in 1989 to 3.5% in 2005. Likewise for education where higher government spending over the last 10 years has fulfilled the vision of universal primary education for both boys and girls.

However, such conclusions fail to convey a true picture of poverty in Mexico where pressures of a population in excess of 100 million combine with the faultlines of a largely deregulated open market economy to create extremes of inequality. Bottlenecks of poverty are particularly found amongst rural indigenous groups and in the overcrowded shanty towns of the country’s vast cities. According to one government department, in 2005 47% of the population had difficulty in providing for basic needs, a fall of only 7% since 2000.

Many households lack access to adequate health facilities, partly due to restrictions on overall government expenditure and partly due to the fiscal relationship between Federal and State governments which leaves some regions struggling to obtain an appropriate share of resources. A mix of welfare schemes attempts to help those in need - including the respected oportunidades which provides cash to households on condition that children attend school and health clinics – but these fail to reach all those in the informal employment sector, believed to account for over 25% of the workforce.

There is increasing consensus that the National Development Plan (2007-2012) should introduce “MDG plus” targets to accelerate poverty reduction and achieve greater clarity in the benchmarks. The government of President Calderón, elected in 2006, has so far proved more adept at announcing piecemeal poverty initiatives rather than fundamental reform.

Food Security in Mexico

Working in the fields in Mexico © RECEPAC Chiapas

The scale of real poverty in Mexico is illustrated by public sensitivity to any rise in the price of tortillas, a staple food made from corn. Whereas in 1993 Mexico imported only 2% of its corn consumption, dependence on imports has escalated to 40%, exposing prices to the whim of US corn production which is increasingly steered towards biofuels. As the cost of tortillas rocketed in early 2007 and again through 2008, angry protests led to government intervention to cap the price of tortillas and other foodstuffs whilst providing a small cash allowance to the poorest households.

Appeals by some sections of civil society for the country to return to self-sufficiency in corn are frustrated by the limited capacity to increase production. Although 60% of cultivated land is dedicated to corn, the crop is grown by the poorest farmers on inefficient small plots. The government has come under pressure from representatives of some of these farmers to overturn a longstanding ban on genetically modified maize, in order to raise yields. Such a move in Mexico would carry great symbolism as the country is regarded as the genetic home of corn.
The Economy in Mexico

The sorry decline of Mexican agriculture is widely attributed to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), signed by US, Canada and Mexico in 1994. Although the elimination of tariffs to protect local corn and beans has been phased over a long period to January 2008, the exposure of Mexican farmers to dumping of subsidised US maize has led to the displacement of 2 million people from agriculture, partly to the cities and partly across the border to the US. Others have tried the maquiladoras, the US-owned factories relocated south of the Mexican border to take advantage of lower wages, labour standards and environmental regulations.

NAFTA is a controversial subject in all three member countries but the consensus is that it has failed in its central promise to halt migration by converging the Mexican economy with the two richer parties. Mexico remains no less dependent on its oil resources which contribute 40% of government spending – and which finance the current round of food subsidies. This nest egg is under threat with production and reserves falling - the flagging state oil company, Pemex, needs international expertise to exploit its offshore fields but is prevented by the constitution from engaging in joint ventures. Government attempts to amend the constitution have revived painful memories of failed privatisations in Mexico and have encountered an increasing wave of popular opposition.

Mexican border

A dying rural economy together with inhuman living conditions prevailing in Mexico’s peri-urban slums force the consideration of an alternative life in the United States. Every day over 1,000 Mexicans are believed to cross the US border to join 12 million compatriots already living in the north, over half of them illegally. Border issues dominate the relationship with the US, especially since the 9/11 tragedy. There is strong opposition within Mexico’s poor communities, and indeed from President Calderón, to the initiative of President Bush to engage a total of 18,000 security guards and to construct a massive 700 mile fence, optimistically due for completion by the end of 2008 at a cost of over $1 billion. This barrier solution fails totally to address the economic inequality which underpins the migration. Remittances from the diaspora amounting to $23 billion in 2007 provide some compensation for rural communities but this source is believed to be falling sharply in 2008 as the US economy slows.
Politics in Mexico

Mexico is governed by an elected president and ministers; the legislative body (Union Congress) is made up of two elected houses; the House of Representatives (with 500 deputies) and the House of Senators (with 128 senators). Judicial power is exercised by 11 ministers of a Supreme Court.

For more than 70 years the country was governed by the same political party, the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI). Principles of democracy and human rights established in the constitution were consistently undermined in this period and it was not until parliamentary elections in 1997 that an alternative political party, Partido Acción Nacional (PAN), gained power. But although the people wanted a change, the "new" party found it very difficult to root out corruption and reduce inequality, the two main promises made by its leaders. Drug-related and violent crime also proved intractable.

Felipe Calderón

The emergence of a further party, the left-wing Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), created a clear-cut choice for the electorate in presidential and parliamentary elections held in July 2006. Its candidate, the former Mayor of Mexico City, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, stood on a slogan of "first the poor, for the good of all" with promises to relieve poor farmers by renegotiating the NAFTA treaty. By contrast the more conservative PAN candidate, Felipe Calderón, is closely aligned to business interests and neo-liberal economics. Calderón emerged the winner but only by the narrowest of margins and only after the Federal Electoral Tribunal rejected Obrador's claims of fraud.

Initially Calderón established his authority through tough action on crime, despatching the army to root out the drugs gangs. But the lack of an absolute majority in parliament for his PAN party has enabled Obrador to make a storming comeback by presenting the president’s proposals for Pemex as handing over national oil assets to foreign corporations. Flourishing civil society organisations in Mexico, which are normally most active in support of minority and indigenous groups, are also participating in the Pemex debate.
Human Rights in Mexico

As in other Latin American countries, Mexico has a “dirty war” history from the 1970s, a period of unexplained political killings and about 600 disappearances. It also has difficulty in shaking off a culture of human rights abuses from that time, in particular the heavy-handed and corrupt police treatment of suspects and their prolonged detention without trial, currently estimated to apply to 40% of all prisoners. Amnesty International has pointed out that there is no presumption of innocence in Mexico’s constitution and that flaws in the legal system are therefore inevitable.

The PAN government of President Fox, elected in 2000, expressed commitment to addressing these problems and made all the right moves – a new law was proposed which would render evidence obtained under torture as unadmissable, a Special Prosecutor was appointed to investigate crimes of previous governments or the military, and there is a well-funded National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).

Luis Echeverría, former president of Mexico © Radio Netherlands Wereldomroep

But somehow none of these initiatives has been able to gain real momentum or reach the outer layers of State administration. The NHRC has been criticised by Human Rights Watch as ineffective, despite its 1,000 employees; the Special Prosecutor’s office was closed in 2007 having failed to bring a single case to court except that against former president Luis Echeverria whose charge of student killings in 1968 was suspended in 2007 for lack of evidence.

Journalists reporting on corruption or drugs issues are putting their lives at risk according to Reporters Without Borders which classifies Mexico as the most dangerous country for journalists in the Americas. Calderón has taken the positive step of decriminalising defamation by the media but this Federal ruling is as yet ineffective at State level and Mexico is positioned close to the bottom of the Press Freedom Index.
Conflict in Mexico

The government’s lack of commitment to human rights issues may prove to be an expensive oversight. The “Merida Initiative” negotiated between Bush and Calderón has been amended in its passage through the new Democrat-controlled US Congress by human rights conditonality. Aid worth an initial $350 million, perhaps rising to $1.4 billion, for equipment and support for the fight against drugs cartels will not be forthcoming without reform of the judiciary and other shortcomings in the criminal justice system. Calderón and his government say that they cannot accept this imposition on national sovereignty.

Almost all of the cocaine produced in South America now passes through Mexico via the hands of drugs cartels fighting each other and the authorities for control of revenues estimated at $14 billion pa. Since his election Calderón has deployed 30,000 troops to take on these cartels as well as the heroin poppy production in Mexico itself. Concern over the rapid escalation of violence - over 4,000 deaths including hundreds of police officers - is tempered by a degree of optimism that the trade has been disrupted.

Zapatistas in Mexico City © Ramon Cavallo/AFP

Calderón has also adopted an aggressive stance against political violence. This potentially centres on the poorest states of Chiapas and Oaxaca where a large proportion of the population is indigenous, suffering particular discrimination in land rights and access to education and health resources. It was from Chiapas that an uprising of Zapatista rebels against the government erupted in 1994, led by the charismatic pipe-smoking Subcomandante Marcos. The cause for more rights for indigenous people has gained sympathy within Mexico and beyond. After a long period of little violence, Marcos is currently engaged in the peaceful political arena on a left-wing agenda, as yet rejecting any alliance with the left-wing PRD.
The Environment in Mexico

Cascada Tarahumara, México

Mexico City itself is the focus for the country's most severe environmental problems as its infrastructure and regulations fail to keep pace with rapid population growth. Air quality is below safety standards for most of the year whilst depletion of the aquifers and lakes for which the City was famous condemns much of the population to intermittent and inadequate supplies of low quality water.

Over-extraction of water is a problem throughout Mexico, not helped by the freedom granted to the agriculture sector to use water without charge, accounting for 75% of all water use in the country. The government has promised a massive $21 billion investment to achieve access to clean drinking water for 95% of the population by 2012, benefiting 10 million people, accompanied by improved sanitation for 6.5 million. The extent to which such plans may be affected by climate change is not clear; a painful warning was delivered in November 2007 with the worst flooding in 50 years in Tabasco State. Over 150,000 people were displaced and damage has been estimated at about $650 million.



The OneWorld Mexico Guide was first published in this format in December 2005 with a text written by Volunteer Editor Solange Márquez

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