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REPORT: MEXICO'S GOVERNMENT COULD COLLAPSE
Monday, January 19th, 2009 -- 11:13 am
Posted by Riley Hebert-News Director
We all know of troubled regions in the world—the Middle East comes to mind—but a new military report indicates our neighbor to the south is in dire straits, as well.
The U.S. Joint Forces Command report says the governments of Pakistan and Mexico are at risk of “sudden collapse.”
"I found that very surprising that they would put Mexico on the same level as Pakistan for imminent collapse," says Jennifer Collins, Assistant Professor of Political Science at UW-St. Point, "I don't think that's the case."
The report indicates the government is under extreme pressure from drug cartels and organized crime, something Collins concedes has been going on since the 80s.
"When the U.S., in the 1980s, kind of shut down Florida, the Columbian (drug dealers) then looked to Mexico and started making connections with illegal Mexican cartels during that period." she explains, "Since then, this has been an escalating problem in Mexico."
Still, Collins wonders if the report was issued to justify more U.S. military intervention at the border, where some Mexican towns have become virtually "lawless".
"These drug cartels have lots of money at their disposal. They have enough guns to out-gun the police and military," says Collins, "and the U.S. has been working with Mexico for a number of years to build elite units, primarily in the Mexican military."
A major factor in the instability in the region is the failure of NAFTA to produce on promises to good-paying jobs for Mexico’s shrinking middle class, Collins says.
Experts don’t believe the nation-state of Mexico will ever just cease to exist, but regions of the country are no longer under its control.
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