Mexico in Ruins

SinEmbargo: Rogelio Guedea*

Translated by: Amanda Coe

The headline did not cause ruin, but, it announced the beginning of the end of a Mexico without a clear course: Gulf will be the first foreign gas station in Mexico. In other words, the only asset [state ownership of oil] actually used by the government to counteract the corruption of the political class and social ignorance has already begun to slip through our fingertips. [Oil revenues have funded up to one-third of the federal budget.]

In a country without the rule of law (where 98% of crimes go unpunished...), with industry in crisis (mainly oil) and a countryside that is practically dead (60% of industrial agricultural production is imported), but with the political class extensively looting the treasury, rampant violence, and serious flaws in our educational system (which has not touched the deep crisis being experienced), the idea of a Mexico that is transformed, competitive and an architect of its own future has disappeared.

Hope cannot exist in a Mexico where, as stated by the PAN Senator Francisco Búrquez:

"Direct debt has risen 50 percent since 2012, equating to a debt of more than 300,000 pesos [US$16,700] per family. In terms of contingent debt, every Mexican family owes more than 1,000,000 pesos [US$56,000]. Imagine that in a country where more than 40% of the population is poor."

Unfortunately, countries (like their inhabitants) that are unprepared for survival and incapable of meeting the demands of an increasingly competitive world will be overpowered by stronger countries, for example, in Mexico’s case, its closest neighbor: the United States.

Not changing course would result in our sovereignty being trampled and our natural resources being looted (by ourselves and foreigners) and would demonstrate the worst image of a country that is already tarnished from violence, poverty and inequality.

I have said it and I will say it again: the 900 million pesos [US$50 million] cut from the National Council for Science and Technology [provides grants for research and scholarships for students] budget is a serious mistake that the federal government should correct immediately. The National Council for Science and Technology is one of the government’s key bodies for scientific and technological development in our, now ruined, country. Spanish Original

*Rogelio Guedea is a Mexican poet, essayist, novelist and translator. He graduated in Law and Spanish Language and Literature from the University of Colima and holds a Doctor of Letters from the University of Cordoba (Spain). He is currently a columnist for the newspapers El Financiero and La Jornada and a full professor at the University of Otago in New Zealand.