MV Note: The IMF is an archenemy of the present President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, aka AMLO, members of the party he created, Morena (Movement for National Regeneration), and his other supporters. They see it, not without real historical reasons, as a tool of world economic powers, especially the U.S., to control developing countries such as Mexico. Nevertheless, it is a source of objective facts and analysis of the economic and quality of life status of various countries vis a vis one another.
As an English-language article that was published almost a year ago, referencing it and linking to it are exceptions to our publishing focus on translations of articles from the Mexican press. However, we feel it makes two essential points about Mexico's failure to grow economically. This is so even though it is next door to the U.S. and, as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement (which went into effect twenty-seven years ago, on January 1, 1994) and its recent revisions as "the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (which came into effect on July 1, 2020), its economy has become integrally tied to that of the U.S. and, as of the end of 2019, was the U.S.'s leading trade partner, moving ahead of China and Canada!
We quote from the article's conclusion:
We quote from the article's conclusion:
"We studied the different components of GDP growth for Poland and Mexico since 1995 and the picture is very clear: the combination of human capital and productivity is a major contributor for the European country, while often a negative factor for the North American one.
"Strong governance and good business climate matter for productivity growth. In countries where property rights are not secure and governance is poor, firms will remain small and productivity low. In well-run countries, successful firms can become large and more efficient.
"Our paper shows that countries with higher human capital and better governance and business climate tend to be richer than those with low scores on these variables. High human capital alone is not sufficient: our analysis shows that countries become rich only when governance also improves (MV emphasis)...Not surprisingly, Mexico has worse readings in both areas than Poland. Read full IMF article
One reason for Mexico's failure to grow economically, as the article states, is due to its lack of adequate "human capital" i.e., a well-educated population (the average years of schooling have remained fixed for many years at the 9th grade, i.e. the end of 'secundaria' or middle school) and good governance. The quality of the Mexican public education system, which includes a large number of public universities, is a serious problem.
The second, and actually foundational reason for the country's failure to grow is the quality of the Mexican government. The quality of government operations depends, of course, on laws that are clear, the integrity (freedom from corruption) of the agency of the government that is responsible for enforcing those laws and the quality of knowledge and performance of the personnel. All of these depend in part, of course, on the amount of public funding matching the needs, which depends on taxation. Mexico's level of taxation is lower than any developed country.
So, Mexico's public education and government functioning have always been two of the major issues to which Mexico Voices has attended assiduously. The IMF article provides an objective framework for evaluating those dimensions of Mexican life and, thus, motivates our decision to base this editorial on it and provide a link to the full article, which is not long.
We cite the article and present this editorial in the context of the supposed "Fourth Transformation" of Mexico promised by President López Obrador at his inauguration and the initiation of his administration (Dec. 1, 2018-Nov. 30, 2024). His election was by an unprecedented, absolute majority of Mexicans in a three-way race. It was seen by them as a chance for real change. Citizens hoped he would eliminate the remaining authoritarianism and corruption of past administrations.
AMLO's administration is now in its third year. He has not focused on the quality of public education. He has provided more scholarships and promised to build a number of new public universities in order to provide more opportunities for higher education. But he had Congress repeal the Education Reform passed by the previous administration of Enrique Peña Nieto.
The reform took back government control of teacher appointments and promotions from the National Union of Education Workers (SNTE) and its radical sector, the National Coordinating Committee of Education Workers (CNTE, which controls the union's state "sections" in some states, primarily poor, rural, highly indigenous ones in the south). The reform also established a professionally developed and supervised system of evaluation of those applying for teaching positions and of teachers already holding positions. The CNTE protested the reform vigorously, with strikes and, at times, violent destruction of government property. As part of his presidential campaign, AMLO promised repeal of the legislation.
The reform had its bad points (reliance virtually solely on standardized testing for evaluation of teachers and no raises in pay for teachers performing well), but its repeal handed control of filling teaching positions back to the union and eliminated evaluation of teachers.
Good governance is also being undermined by AMLO'S autocratic rule, in which he surrounds himself with cabinet members and advisers who are subservient to him and dismisses criticism and any facts that contradict what he believes to be true. He also verbally attacks and acts to dismiss and subvert the powers of democratic institutions that have been established only in recent years after much hard work by activists. He likewise attacks the press.
Also, regarding the critical issue of police reform, he has not sought to create a professionally trained, uncorrupted civilian police force to deal with criminals, especially the drug gangs. They have multiplied in number due to the U.S.-imposed strategy of taking out cartel leaders and have expanded their businesses into other crimes such as extortion, human trafficking, and control of legitimate businesses.
Instead, AMLO has sidestepped the constitutional prohibition of using the Army in domestic security, i.e. to fight the drug gangs, which it has been doing with a tenuous legal rationale since 2008, and had the Congress his party controls create a National Guard composed mostly of soldiers "transferred" from the Army and Marines. Furthermore, while it is "officially" under civilian control, he has placed it under de facto military command.
He has also given the military many other non-military tasks rather than seeking private contracts to do them. These include building a new international airport on the site of an air force base north of Mexico City and constructing sections of the so-called "Maya Train", which is intended to circle the Yucatán Peninsula to connect nature preserves and archeological sites for tourists (this is being done without the required pre-consultation with and agreement of the indigenous Maya people whose territory it largely is).
These are only some of the disturbing actions taken by the President of Mexico which will be at the forefront as we revive the publication of Mexico Voices.
The second, and actually foundational reason for the country's failure to grow is the quality of the Mexican government. The quality of government operations depends, of course, on laws that are clear, the integrity (freedom from corruption) of the agency of the government that is responsible for enforcing those laws and the quality of knowledge and performance of the personnel. All of these depend in part, of course, on the amount of public funding matching the needs, which depends on taxation. Mexico's level of taxation is lower than any developed country.
So, Mexico's public education and government functioning have always been two of the major issues to which Mexico Voices has attended assiduously. The IMF article provides an objective framework for evaluating those dimensions of Mexican life and, thus, motivates our decision to base this editorial on it and provide a link to the full article, which is not long.
We cite the article and present this editorial in the context of the supposed "Fourth Transformation" of Mexico promised by President López Obrador at his inauguration and the initiation of his administration (Dec. 1, 2018-Nov. 30, 2024). His election was by an unprecedented, absolute majority of Mexicans in a three-way race. It was seen by them as a chance for real change. Citizens hoped he would eliminate the remaining authoritarianism and corruption of past administrations.
AMLO's administration is now in its third year. He has not focused on the quality of public education. He has provided more scholarships and promised to build a number of new public universities in order to provide more opportunities for higher education. But he had Congress repeal the Education Reform passed by the previous administration of Enrique Peña Nieto.
The reform took back government control of teacher appointments and promotions from the National Union of Education Workers (SNTE) and its radical sector, the National Coordinating Committee of Education Workers (CNTE, which controls the union's state "sections" in some states, primarily poor, rural, highly indigenous ones in the south). The reform also established a professionally developed and supervised system of evaluation of those applying for teaching positions and of teachers already holding positions. The CNTE protested the reform vigorously, with strikes and, at times, violent destruction of government property. As part of his presidential campaign, AMLO promised repeal of the legislation.
The reform had its bad points (reliance virtually solely on standardized testing for evaluation of teachers and no raises in pay for teachers performing well), but its repeal handed control of filling teaching positions back to the union and eliminated evaluation of teachers.
Good governance is also being undermined by AMLO'S autocratic rule, in which he surrounds himself with cabinet members and advisers who are subservient to him and dismisses criticism and any facts that contradict what he believes to be true. He also verbally attacks and acts to dismiss and subvert the powers of democratic institutions that have been established only in recent years after much hard work by activists. He likewise attacks the press.
Also, regarding the critical issue of police reform, he has not sought to create a professionally trained, uncorrupted civilian police force to deal with criminals, especially the drug gangs. They have multiplied in number due to the U.S.-imposed strategy of taking out cartel leaders and have expanded their businesses into other crimes such as extortion, human trafficking, and control of legitimate businesses.
Instead, AMLO has sidestepped the constitutional prohibition of using the Army in domestic security, i.e. to fight the drug gangs, which it has been doing with a tenuous legal rationale since 2008, and had the Congress his party controls create a National Guard composed mostly of soldiers "transferred" from the Army and Marines. Furthermore, while it is "officially" under civilian control, he has placed it under de facto military command.
He has also given the military many other non-military tasks rather than seeking private contracts to do them. These include building a new international airport on the site of an air force base north of Mexico City and constructing sections of the so-called "Maya Train", which is intended to circle the Yucatán Peninsula to connect nature preserves and archeological sites for tourists (this is being done without the required pre-consultation with and agreement of the indigenous Maya people whose territory it largely is).
These are only some of the disturbing actions taken by the President of Mexico which will be at the forefront as we revive the publication of Mexico Voices.