Mexico

Tropical storm Dolly was upgraded to a Level 2 hurricane only a few hours before it’s due to hit the land border near Brownsville, Texas and Matamoros.

Last week Barack Obama and John McCain once again aimed to court the Latino vote in the United States by presenting their platforms at the annual gathering National Council of La Raza in San Diego. The text of their speeches is available here.

John McCain talked about growing the economy through low taxes on minority-owned businesses and comprehensive immigration reform and continued support of free trade (NAFTA, DR-CAFTA, Colombia, and eventually a hemisphere-wide agreement).  He also emphasized his credentials and appreciation of latinos as he as served as Senator from Arizona.  Notably, he suggested Barack Obama should visit Latin America for the first time.

Barack Obama promoted a legal path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, tax relief to low-income families, and emphasizing affordable college education.

There were two finds in Mexico this week that I thought really interesting:

1) the Mexican navy for the first time caught a drugs submarine from Colombia carrying 6 tons of cocaine (see BBC video here)

2) a cemetery outside Monterrey that was thought to contain only Mexican soldiers from the Mexican-American war was found to contain the remains of four Americans.  Story here.

Mexico City’s Police Chief, Joel Ortega, resigned today under pressure from the city’s mayor, Marcelo Ebrard, to reconstruct the police force.  Ortega’s firing is a direct result of a botched police operation to catch underage drinking at a nightclub, which prompted a stampede that killed 12 people in late June (see story).  Mexico D.F.’s human rights commission recently released a report that concluded the tragedy occurred from bad planning and excessive use of police force, implicating Ortega.

Today’s front page of BBC World News Online contains an excellent article summing up the complexity of Mexico’s drug war.  The reporters went into cartel-controlled territory to expose the topics that Alejandro and I have been covering: 1) the flow of US arms to Mexican cartels 2) the resulting violence of public officials and drug lords 3) the increasing efforts of cartels to recruit and find increasingly more unique ways to smuggle drugs and 4) the cooperation between Mexican and American authorities.  It’s an outstanding five minute read.

With corn prices rising due in part to global climate changes, flooding, and droughts, the question arises: should Mexico use genetically modified seeds to improve crop yields, particularly corn?  If a seed species were available that was drought and pest resistant, should it be used?  The fact of the matter is that such a miracle seed is available from none other than agricultural behemoth Monsanto.

Even now Mexico has postponed the debate on genetically modified foods.  Surely the issue will arise as its population struggles to cope with rising food prices and its agricultural sector is presented with lucrative export opportunities.  The country is well-positioned to take advantage of export opportunities to the American market.  NAFTA provides the coveted duty-free access of goods into the United States, and vastly simplifies the regulations of agricultural goods.

At the same time, expanding the domestic food supply would lower prices for basic foodstuffs.  If such a simple solution as using better seeds were available, why wouldn’t it be taken?  First are costs for small-scale farmers.  The large Mexican agricultural firms can certainly afford to improve yields using GM seeds.  However, the average small-scale farmer in Mexico has little or no access to credit and/or technical expertise.  Thus, even the option of GM seeds is out of the reach of many. 

 Nevertheless, cultural barriers may present the strongest obstacle to GM use.  With Mexico, along with the rest of Mesoamerica, being the originator of maize thousands of years before Christ, resistance to changing a national staple can be great, particularly when change comes at the helm of a major U.S. corporation.  Concerns about GM transfer to non-target species and species monoculture are also very real.

Despite these concerns, GM seeds are catching on.  Crucially, their use can reduce the risk-prone and cyclical nature of farming.  GM seeds bring a huge increase in crop yields , greatly lowering the relative increase in their cost.  As a result of NAFTA, Mexican farmers face especially stiff competition from farmers in the United States, in part due to massive U.S. government subsidies.  Using GM seeds would be a significant step to level the playing field, and requires little additional technical know-how, training, or capital investment beyond the purchase of seeds.

Thus, it is only a matter of time before a national debate is faced by Mexico.  Crop prices will continue to increase in the near and medium-term and the search for and debate over affordable alternatives will not be far behind.

For further reading (in Spanish): http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/spanish/specials/newsid_6317000/6317903.stm

Former Mexican President Vicente Fox spoke at the New York Democracy Forum last week, giving a candid presentation that outlined his anger at the wall being constructed along the U.S.-Mexico border, his support for revamping NAFTA and the creation of a temporary guest worker program for Mexican migrants.