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Mexico and Central America. Latin America Day 2 Notes. Mexico’s Economic Issues. Huge oil reserves are discovered in Mexico in the 1970s. Mexican leaders borrow huge loans without fear of being able to repay them. World oil market slumps in the 1980s and leads to disaster and inflation.
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Mexico and Central America Latin America Day 2 Notes
Mexico’s Economic Issues • Huge oil reserves are discovered in Mexico in the 1970s. • Mexican leaders borrow huge loans without fear of being able to repay them. • World oil market slumps in the 1980s and leads to disaster and inflation. • Around the same time a massive earthquake hits Mexico City. • Mexico suffers it’s worst economic collapse in history in 1994. • Politically and economically it has been trying to recover ever since.
Immigration Issues • Around the same time as Mexico’s economy collapsed, the population was growing. • Many people begin looking for work but there was none to find. • Thousands of Mexicans begin crossing into the U.S. to find work. • The trend has continued into today. • As Mexico’s economic problems continue close to 7 million illegal immigrants from Mexico are inside the U.S. as we speak!
Key Question… • If there is no work to be found in Mexico, why do we hold it against people for coming to the U.S.? • Wouldn’t you do the same?
Mexico’s Drug Issues • Since 2000 Mexico’s drug war has dominated headlines. • Presidents Vicente Fox (2000-2006) and in Felipe Calderon (currently) have called on military and police officials to stop drug cartels. • The result has been a substantial increase of terroristic attacks. • Over 11,000 people died from drug cartel related attacks in 2010, and things are getting worse.
What should the role of the U.S. be concerning Drugs in Latin America?
Central America as a Cold War Battleground…. • The Cold War powers (the U.S. and the Soviet Union) divided Latin America based on the leader’s view of government. • The idea that all people should be economically equal scared U.S. leaders. • U.S. leaders considered it a communist way of thinking. • The U.S. tried to prevent revolutionary groups from taking power in many countries. • Sometimes they supported oppressive dictators that they knew would be allies with the U.S.!
Central America Cold War Case Study • By the late 1970s, revolutionary groups were trying to oust oppressive dictators in countries like Nicaragua and El Salvador. • In Nicaragua, an oppressive dictator named Anastasio Somoza ruled the country. • As people starved, a revolutionary group named the Sandinistastook control of the country. • Led by Daniel Ortega, the Sandinistas forged ties with Castro and leaned towards Communism.
The U.S. Interferes in Nicaragua • The U.S., led by Ronald Reagan, is concerned with Nicaragua becoming communist and decides to step in. • Reagan funds contras, or a counter-revolutionary group, to overthrow the Sandinistas. • The contras essentially start a civil war inside the country, as they recruit people to rise up against the Sandinistas and even kill leaders secretly. • By 1990, the Sandinistas were forced to conduct free elections. • Yet the problems of high inflation, unemployment, and political instability remain.
Key Question… • Does the end (democratic country) justify the means (civil war, instability). • Who is the U.S. to decide the fate of another nation? • Is it all done in the name of a greater good or is the U.S. playing God?
