Mexico

New America Media has compiled a summary of the top news in Latin America for 2007, ranging from natural disasters and the election of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner as President of Argentina, to the failure of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to consolidate his power through an electoral referendum. President Calderon of Mexico also made the list for dispatching federal troops to combat drug traffickers within the country. 

For this blog’s summary of 2007 for Mexico, see the Year in Review page.

Fourteen years after its passage, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is still widely debated, with concerns over issues such as job movement, workers’ rights, and environmental protection. Laura Carlsen, Director of the Americas Policy Program in Mexico City, testified before the U.S. Congress on December 6th that NAFTA has been disastrous for small farmers in Mexico. A detailed report with the findings and analysis she presented to Congress can be found here.

The full text of NAFTA is available here on the website of the Organization of American States (OAS).

Jose Narro Robles was named the new rector of Mexico’s National Autonomous University (UNAM). Robles is a doctor who previously headed the university’s medical school. UNAM, with approximately 160,000 undergraduates and 21,000 graduate students, is the largest – and often ranked the best — university in Latin America. 

Director Luis Mandoki’s latest release, “Fraud: Mexico 2006,” opened in Mexico to large audiences, generating interest and controversy. The documentary suggests that Felipe Calderon defeated Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in a fraudulent process that included improprieties at polling places and an unlawful smear campaign against the leftist candidate, Obrador. The film’s pro-Calderon critics dismiss it as propaganda, while Mandoki says he hopes the film “will open our eyes and leave us asking what kind of country do we want, and what are we going to do to achieve it?” (Cambio de Michoacan)