NEWS & LETTERS, October - November 2009
World in View
Latin American Notes
MexicoWhile the U.S. economy is supposedly in recovery (though unemployment continues to skyrocket), no such recovery can be claimed for Mexico. The economy has been in free-fall, first in relation to the global economic crisis, particularly in the U.S., and second in relation to the swine flu problems of this spring. The economy is expected to decrease by some 7% for the year. Almost half of Mexico's population currently live in conditions of poverty.
There has been a continual increase in numbers of the poor during President Calderon's first three years in office, including an estimated poverty rate of 61% in the countryside.
This economic statistic does not speak concretely enough to the raw reality of widespread poverty and outright misery that affects so many ordinary Mexicans today.
Nor does it speak to the developing resistance:
• An organization has been formed in Mexico City called "Women and Single Mothers Without Housing," who are fighting for a place to live, education, worthwhile projects and self-employment.
• In the state of Tamaulipas, residents of an informal neighborhood, Mano a Mano (Hand to Hand), fought to keep their makeshift housing before being expelled with clubs and tear gas by Tampico police, who arrested 200.
South America and the U.S.The Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) has voiced opposition to the proposed U.S.-Colombia Defense Cooperation Agreement which would allow "U.S. access to three Colombian air force bases...two naval bases, and two army installations, and other Colombian military facilities." The stated reason for the bases agreement is to fight drug trafficking. However, the governments of Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador openly wonder whether these bases have another purpose: to keep an eye on these countries in terms of their anti-U.S. rhetoric and policies, and to keep in check the rise of Brazil as the dominant economic power of the continent.
The proposed Colombian base agreement comes after the Ecuadorian government of Rafael Correa declined to renew the Manta base pact with the U.S., which had allowed a U.S. military presence in Ecuador. UNASUR was founded in 2005 as a South American political, military, financial, and energy alliance. Its entry into a debate on the U.S.-Colombia military arrangements marks a possible new stage. Not to be forgotten in Latin America-U.S. military relations is the re-establishment of the U.S. Fourth Naval Fleet in 2008, with responsibility in the Caribbean and South America. Its new deployment, in relation to the decade- plus-long rise of progressive social movements and new governments, is taking shape this year.
--Eugene Walker
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