The schools are closed. Soccer matches are played in empty stadiums and movie theaters have closed their doors. There are no public events and it is no longer possible to have lunch in a restaurant. The army has been giving out masks out on the streets. Shopping malls are nearly empty, as well as the hallways of supermarkets. This is life in Mexico City.

The outbreak of the swine flu has left the city paralyzed and the country closely monitored by its neighbors and international organizations. Countries around the globe are considering canceling flights to Mexico. Tourism has already dropped: who would go to a country hit by a deadly virus? This will not help the Mexican economy.

The Mexican government seems to be on top of things. Indeed, the number of suspected cases of the virus decreases day by day. However, a city of more than 24 million people cannot leave on takeouts and children need to go to school. The question everybody in Mexico City is asking is when will this be over? More importantly, how will the country recover from the economic and social consequences of the outbreak? Only time will tell.

Imagine closing all schools in a metropolitan area three times the size of New York City. Such an order was just the beginning of an aggressive government initiative to stop an outbreak of influenza in Mexico City. The federal government has closed public buildings and suspended public events. Additional orders include a massive vaccination campaign as well as the power to isolate potential carriers of the disease and enter their homes in order to control the epidemic. The World Health Organization is currently on an emergency session whereas the US government is closely monitoring the development of the disease. So far more than 60 people have died due to this new swine flu strain since mid-March 2009.

President Barack Obama is visiting Mexico. Not surprisingly, drug trafficking will be at the center of the agenda as the violence fueled by American weapons threatens to cross the border into American territory. Presidents Obama and Calderón will have to work out the details of how a strong state can help a weak one to curb violence along the long US-Mexico border. Hopefully, Obama and Calderón will present potential solutions beyond stopping the illegal smuggling of arms to Mexico and reducing corruption in Mexican law enforcement agencies. Otherwise, the results of the meeting will be as boring as usual.

Well, not too far. Apart from an Aeromexico direct flight from Mexico City to Shanghai, Mexico’s foreign policy is not particularly global in scope. Of course it could be argued that Mexico has now a prominent place in the community of nations because it just recently assumed the Presidency of the UN Security Council. Unfortunately, the Security Council is not the most effective international organization in the planet (in general international organizations are not that effective).

The office of Mexican President Felipe Calderon also announced that the country has recovered its leadership of Latin America. However, this is quite a vague statement since Mexico has not led anything since the 1980s. But at least the administration tries its best: President Calderon was on a state visit to the United Kingdom. In order to improve Mexico’s strategic position in the world, the Mexican President had dinner with the Queen. It is unclear if he wore a hat to the dinner. It is unfortunate that at the time of the visit Mexico had not fired Sven-Goran Eriksson as coach of the national soccer team. Otherwise, Mexican officials could have convinced their British counterparts that Mexico knows what it is doing.

In other happy news, the Mexican government received a 47 billion dollar loan from the IMF. However, according to the Finance Minister, Mexico does not really need the money. They just asked for it in case things go wrong. Unfortunately, things seem to get worse by the day. The IMF can just put the loan on Mexico’s tab: this would not be the first time this happens.

And last but not least, Mexico was also present at the G-20 meeting. The Mexican President did not steal the show this time. In this occasion, and once again, Barack and Michelle Obama were the stars of the meeting. Yet, the Mexican administration should not feel too bad about the lack of publicity during the meeting (even though Mexico has now recovered its leadership of Latin America). At least Janet Napolitano and Eric Holder, US Secretary of Homeland Security and US Attorney General respectively, just visited Mexico and met with President Calderon. The office of the Mexican presidency has not reported whether they hugged each other.