Mexico will have a tough year in 2017 – not only because of the ” beautiful, big wall” that it must pay for (or will not).
After the Mexican government’s decision, the price of gas in the country increased by 14% to 20 % on New Year’s Day.
Mexico’s president of the central bank has also described US politics as unleashing a ” Hurricane.” The Mexican peso fell 12 in value against the US dollar immediately after Donald Trump was elected. This is a sign that the future of Mexican products, including automobiles and crude oil, remains uncertain.
The currency dropped another 2,5% last week as investors pondered possible changes to trade policies. Ford Motors has, for instance, bowed to Trump’s threats and canceled Mexican projects worth millions of dollars. Fiat Chrysler may also close its Mexican factories.
Fuel prices have risen dramatically, or ” Gasolinazo,” and the weakening currency has caused discontent in the entire country.
Mexicans are angry and have blocked highways, fuel stations, and gas stations in 25 states. The looting led to Thousands of arrests.
The calls for Enrique Pena Nieto’s resignation are growing. Carlos Jasso/Reuters
Or, as Mexican journalist Carmen Aristegui suggested, are we witnessing a “Mexican Spring” – a protest movement that could blossom into an organized force for political change? Is this a “Mexican Spring,” as Mexican journalist Carmen Aristegui suggested? Or are we seeing a violent protest that could turn into a force for political change, like the one described by Slavoj Zizek, a Slovenian cultural critic?
Gasoline is flammable
In 2013, Mexico allowed the private industry to open service stations and import gasoline, areas that Petroleos Mexicanos previously monopolized. Prices will gradually be lifted in 2017.
The changes will improve the competitiveness and efficiency of Mexico’s economic system. The price of gasoline in Mexico is almost the same as that paid by Australians or Canadians. This is despite the fact that the minimum wage for Mexicans is currently 80 pesos ($3.60).
The Mexican government asserts this process of domestic privatization has coincided, unfortunately, with an increase in international oil prices.
In a television address, President Enrique Pena Nieto called for understanding and said that the government would have had to cut social services if it hadn’t increased petrol prices.
Pena Nieto asked, “What would you have done?”
#WhatWouldYouHaveDone?
His question became a meme on social media, with thousands tweeting alternatives such as “lower President’s salary” or “Make Mexico Great Again.”
Combating corruption is one of the most popular proposals among serious responses. Pena Nieto apologized recently for the conflict that arose when his wife purchased a $7 million house from a government contractor. And several prominent members of his Revolutionary Institutional Party face criminal charges. Javier Duarte is one of them. He was the former governor of Veracruz and went missing after he was accused of embezzlement.
Another popular suggestion was to cut government spending, which includes some that are spent for extravagant benefits for public officials.
Although Pena Nieto claimed that the government had already cut spending by 190 billion dollars ($ US8.8 billion) before increasing gas prices, this was false. In 2015, the government was over budget by approximately 186 billion dollars ($ US8.6 billion).
The shortfall in social spending is not always due to costly programs. Pena Nieto pays ” christmas bonuses ” of US$11,000 for each senator and US$6,500 for each congressman in a country with an average income of US$12,806 per year.
Pena Nieto finally outlined measures to help families reduce the impact of rising petrol prices. Pena Nieto promised to, for instance, police price increases on staple goods and invest in modernizing public transport.
Mexicans will not be so easily appeased this time. Recent opinion polls across the country have shown that 87 people surveyed believe these measures won’t make up for an overnight increase of 20% in gasoline prices.
The price hikes for gas seem to be the final straw. In the last week, gasoline prices have fueled the flames as Mexicans are deeply dissatisfied with a culture that is corrupt, stagnant in politics, and a decade-long of unceasing violence.
The Apprentice
It’s a surprise to announce a cabinet shake-up, and even more surprising that Pena Nieto, on January 4, would appoint the former Finance Minister Luis Videgaray as Mexico’s Foreign Ministry.
Videgaray is not only blamed by Mexicans for the economic problems of their country (as Finance Minister, he had promised that the gas prices wouldn’t increase), but he was also the one who pushed to make then-candidate Trump visit Mexico in August 2016.
Mexico’s foreign minister is “no diplomat.” Gannett Riquelme/Reuters
This strategic mistake – an embarrassment in public relations for Pena Nieto and a legitimacy booster for Trump – forced Videgaray to quit as Finance Minister.
Videgaray, in apparent humility, has admitted that he does not qualify as a diplomat. He said that he was “here to listen.” After that statement, a social network backlash followed.
Mexico has a large number of career diplomats. But Videgaray is tied to Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law. Pena Nieto might believe that having an amigo at the White House would help to temper the Mexico-US relations under Trump.
Pena Nieto sent Trump a student (pun intended!). Mexico is at a critical political point, and the Mexican public has been infuriated by the government’s apparent gullibility and meekness when it comes to Trump’s aggressiveness.
Donald Trump is a revolutionary
Slavoj Zizek famously stated that he preferred Donald Trump to win the US elections because of his blatantly oppressive and discriminatory policy proposals.
What’s going on in Mexico?
In Tweet after Tweet, Trump has destroyed everything Mexicans believed they knew about the relationship between their country and the US. Since Woodrow Wilson invaded Veracruz in 1914, the US has not shown an interest in destabilizing Mexico openly or extensively.
It’s a simple matter of caution: If you burn down your neighbor’s home, you run the risk of burning your own house to ashes.
The president-elect of the United States is quite pleased with his misfortunes in South America. He boasted that Ford’s Mexican investments would be rescinded in the future.
Mexico Trump is like Karl Marx’s revolutionary class. He has turned all that was solid into the air and made everything holy profane.
No strangers to revolution, Mexican citizens have been forced to revolt by the Mexican government’s inability to handle the social and economic consequences of Trump’s electoral victory – let alone what happens when he takes actual power. Marx would be disappointed.
Looting won’t change society, obviously. According to Zygmunt Bauman, a Polish sociologist, looting is merely an expression of ” defective consumers,” a result of global capitalism failures.
Will Mexico’s social media protests and gas riots lead to a real social and political shift, a “Mexican Spring” that will follow this winter of unrest? It’s up to the people.
