From the cartels to the glory of cinema, five things about Mexico

Mexicowhich will hold general elections next Sunday, is the second economy of Latin America, but he is shaken by the violence linked to organized crime and tensions with USA due to migration.

Gateway to the USA

Mexico, the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world with 129 million inhabitants (Statistics Institute, 2023), shares a border of almost 3,200 km with the United States where a record number of 2.4 million undocumented migrants were detained in 2023 who escape violence, poverty or the onslaught of climate change.

It is estimated that in December about 10,000 people per day crossed the border clandestinely. Migration is one of the hottest topics in the election campaign in the United States, where Democratic President Joe Biden faces Republican Donald Trump.

Another source of tension is Mexico’s demand that the United States stop the transfer of weapons that cause death in its territory, while Washington demands that its neighbor combat the trafficking of fentanyl, a powerful opioid that leaves thousands of dead every year.

Criminal violence

With a homicide rate of 23.3 per 100,000 residents last year, according to Insight Crime, Mexico is one of the most violent countries in the world. Three-quarters of the murders are linked to clashes between criminal groups, according to outgoing president Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Several cartels dispute control of drug routes to the United States, as well as other criminal activities, such as extortion, migrant smuggling and fuel theft.

Since 2006, when the federal government launched a controversial military anti-drug operation, Mexico has recorded some 450,000 murders and some 100,000 disappearances, most attributed to criminal violence. About thirty candidates for local office have been murdered in this electoral process, which began last September.

Since 1995, at least 156 journalists have been murdered, 37 of them during López Obrador’s term, according to Reporters Without Borders. A total of 31 are missing.

Women are also hit by violence, with 852 femicides in 2023, according to official figures.

Black gold, green gold and tourist pole

Rich in natural resources such as oil, Mexico is also the world’s leading producer of avocado, the so-called “green gold”. Just for him “guacamole” Of the 2023 American Football Super Bowl, 100,000 tons were exported to the United States.

The country, which has beautiful beaches, archaeological ruins and majestic colonial cities, attracted 41 million tourists last year, more than half of them Americans. This sector represented 8.5% of GDP in 2022, according to the state National Institute of Statistics.

Remittances sent by Mexicans from abroad, the vast majority from the United States, represented 4.2% of GDP in 2022, according to the World Bank. However, more than a third of the population (36%) remained below the poverty line in 2021.

planetary stars

The filmmakers Alfonso Cuarón, Guillermo del Toro and Alejandro González Iñárritu, nicknamed the “Three friends”, They have each won an Oscar for best director. Actors Salma Hayek, Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna are also well-known faces in Hollywood.

The renowned muralist Diego Rivera and his wife, the popular painter Frida Kahlo, as well as the Nobel Prize in Literature Octavio Paz were born in this country.

The celebration of the Day of the Dead, with pre-Hispanic roots and immortalized by Disney in the film “Coco”, and the recognition of one of its cuisines as intangible heritage of Humanity by UNESCO are other of its cultural expressions.

Mexico has 18 Michelin-starred restaurants, including a stand-up taqueria.

Pre-Columbian civilizations

Cradle of pre-Columbian civilizations such as the Olmecs, Mayans and Aztecs, Mexico has 35 sites declared world heritage sites by UNESCO, including Chichén Itzá (east) and Teotihuacán (center).

The archaeological excavations carried out in different places yield new findings, while the government has been fighting for years to recover thousands of pre-Hispanic pieces illegally taken out of the country.

In addition to their contributions to architecture or mathematics, the Mayans bequeathed the cultivation of corn, cocoa and, according to some, chicle (from the sap of a tree that was cooked), the famous chewing gum.

It may interest you

• Which is the city that has become the main irregular crossing of migrants from Mexico to the United States?
• Mexico hopes to be the big economic winner from US-China tensions
• Migrants, the “backbone” of the United States economy