BORDERING ON CHAOS
The book "Bordering on Chaos" tells an important stage in the history of Mexico. Everything happened just as Mexico enjoyed great success for growth and economic development in1994 when was recently signed the North American Free Trade Agreement and the president Salinas enjoyed and celebrated the economic growth of the country. The Mexicans had finally found a leader in which they could trust. Foreign investment in Mexico had grown by 98 Percent in 1993 and the streets were full of Mexican foreign brands and stores, such as Mcdonals, Dominos pizza, Pizza hut outlets,etc.. Mexico was about to be accepted as a full member of the OECD, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. The whole world was surprised by the rapid growth of Mexico and its citizens were proud of it. “Polls showed that Mexican people were more optimistic about the future than they had been in years”(12).Everything seemed too good to be true, until this happiness and celebration did not last long for Mexican people. Just when everything was going perfectly well, one night in1994 when the president Carlos Salinas de Gortari was celebrating the New year with his family and friends, it was reported that there had just been a guerrilla uprising in the southern state of Chiapas remote, “More than two thousand Mayan Indians, carrying everything from machetes to AK47 riffles, had taken the city of St Cristobal de las Casas shortly after midnight and were reported to have also seized the nearby cities of Ocosingo, Altamirano and Las Margaritas”(14). Mayan Indians were protesting and demanding their rights, abuse and exploitation of workers, this revolutionary group calling themselves The Zapatistas were willing to overthrow the government. This group was led by “Marcos”, a revolutionary who had arrived in Chiapas about years ago and had learned the native language to communicate with the Mayas. They were willing to fight for their rights, social injustice, land and freedom. The revolution started in January 1st in 1994, the night that The Zapatistas attacked the city of San Cristobal de las Casas, which was a city that attracted a lot of tourism, and then decided to head towards the city. The revolution had begun. The first representative of The Zapatistas spoke to the press, saying they were fighting for social equality and justice. “Chiapas supplied nearly 60 percent of Mexico’s hydroelectric power, 47 percent of its natural gas and 21 percent of the country’s oil” (176).
Chiapas was one of Mexico’s richest states of natural resources. But despite having so many natural resources, half of the people of Chiapas did not have electricity or access to drinking water. Marcos, who was the leader, not displayed as such, and preferred that Felipe, who was a native Indian, testified about the revolution that was taking place. The Mayans the Mayans were not happy with the agreement that had been signed (NAFTA), because it affected the Farmers in Chiapas, due to the flood of cheap corn and wheat Imports from the United States. This revolutionary movement wanted to show the world the real face of Mexico; while more than two dozen of people were on the list of the richest people in the world, others were dying of hunger in Chiapas.
“Why had they turned down February 1994 government offers of drastic increases in health and education funds for the Chiapas Indians? Weren’t they fighting for better living conditions for the poor? (75). The Zapatistas rejected the offer because its most important goal was a radical change of government and they considered that this was only a government strategy used to deceive people. “The Salinas group had tried to present to the world the image of a stable and prosperous Mexico, it had also tried to convince Mexicans that we were doing well, on our road to the first world. But on January first, we brought the mask down and showed the country’s real face to the world” (76). The Zapatistas wanted to overthrow the government for a change, the Native Indians were tired of not receiving what was promised to them, the government passed the positions from generation to generation and always followed the same ideology instead of fulfilling its promises. They did not agree with the Government free market ideas because this did not benefit the poor, only by bankrolling the PRI, the mexican political party that held power in the country at that time, would put an end to this injustice. “By the early nineties, the wealthiest 20 percent of the population was receiving 54 percent of the country’s income, while the bottom 20 percent was getting only 5 percent of it ”(89). The country was investing more money in political contributions to preserve their influence with the ruling party instead of spending that money on the reduction of poverty in the country.
Many other problems occurred during the Salinas government and even after it, corruption and injustice were more than seen in Mexico, President Salinas sold their private actions of government to mexican entreprenurs to pay the external debt of the country. there were problems with drug trafficking and politicians were involved in this “US officials estimated that about 75 percent of all cocaine shipments entering the United States were coming from Mexico and that Mexican drug mafias were earning annual profits of between $10 to $30 billion” (164). Many foreign investors left the country and this had a big impact on the Mexican economy.
Corruption continued even after the government of Salinas; Mario Ruiz Massieu's brother Jose Francisco Ruiz Massieu, brother in law of President Salinas, was arrested for drug trafficking and money laundering. Jose Francisco had become a Zedillo loyalist and Salinas was unwilling to have competition. They decided to get rid of him and killed him.
The author in the Bordering on Chaos book talks about past events that occurred in Mexico years ago and that had a big impact in the Mexican economy and its citizens. These political and economic problems in Mexico, occurred in the 1990s and destroyed the economic stability of the country. This book demonstrates how events that happened such as corruptions, increase of interest rates, exploitation of workers, violence, trafficking of drugs were devastating for Mexicans. All these problems mentioned affected the development of the economy in Mexico. The author makes the reader understand the effects that changes can caused in a country. In 1994 there was a devaluation of the peso, caused by the increased of interest rates in the United States. This caused the increase of external debt and increase of unemployment in Mexico. The author talks about how this problems lead to the illegal immigration in US since Mexicans had to leave their country to find a better life and opportunities. “the impact of the December 1994 devaluation on Mexicans’ lives was devastating: The gross domestic product was expected to fall by 7percent in 1995 – its biggest drop since the 1930s- and was not projected to rise in real terms in 1996; interest rates in recent months had reached 100 percent; car sales had plummeted by 70 percent, more than 10 thousand business had closed down and many more were threatened by a vicious circle of slumping sales and unpayable debts; more than one million people had been laid off, and the unofficial unemployment rate had reached a record 13 percent” (190).
The economic crisis that Mexico was facing was surprising to many countries and devastating for its citizens, it was probably one of the worst times for Mexico. People were desperate and had to even knock doors to ask for food and help for their family. The situation was getting worse every day and more Mexicans were losing more jobs every day. A problem that was also affecting Mexicans was the exploitations of workers, which was caused by the wealthy people that exploited poor people, making them work for long hours and paying them a very low salary. This is a common problem that often occurs in developing countries, people with power are the ones that take advantages of poor people and instead of helping them, and they just get richer, without caring about poor people and the future of the country.
Another major problem that affected Mexico was the violence that Mexican authorities could not control; there were political murders as the case of Jose Francisco Ruiz Massieu, who was a secretary-general of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in 1994 and brother in law of Carlos Salinas.
The author shows readers how the events actually occurred at that time and demonstrates actual arguments, analyzing how Mexico's economy was affected by corruption and many other factors mentioned before. This book also shows the suffering and rebellion of Natives Indians who were the the most affected by Free Trade Agreements with the United States, and in desperation decided to create a revolution against the Mexican government causing many deaths. Unfortunately, countries that are rich in natural resources are always be the most affected, and social inequality always benefit the wealthiest in developing countries.