Page 52 - STRATEGY Magazine

have traditionally dominated national and state politics—the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the pre- vailing political party for much of the 20th century; the National Action Party (PAN); and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). Sever- al smaller parties also regularly field candidates but must form alliances in government. Today, the PRD is in disarray, beset with defections, while the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA), the party of presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Ob- rador, is on the rise.
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DICHOTOMIES
Although Mexico now enjoys a fully democratic political system, economic and social progress is mixed. Growth, while positive, has slowed. Economic opportunity for the nation’s poor re- mains limited and there is a marked imbalance of wealth, which some- times leads to regional uprisings and instability. Drug trafficking, which seems to be on the rise, continues to complicate the social divide and adds to corruption among the police and the judiciary, just another issue that threatens to increase the wealth gap in Mexico. Owing to alarming levels of organized crime, related violence, and rampant tax evasion, Mexico
is ranked by the Sustainable Gov- ernance Indicators as having the most serious domestic security crisis among the 41 nations rated.
“We have some of the most archaic laws on earth, and that has permit- ted corruption to flourish,” observes Fernando de Ovando, Partner at Jones Day, a top ten international law firm, “but we are working on repair- ing that, and we are clever enough to find an answer without destroy- ing the country.” Encouragingly, the nation has produced a generation of highly qualified policy makers and professionals educated at Ivy League universities as well as Mexico’s own increasingly competitive tertiary ed- ucational institutions. Meanwhile, Manuel Galicia R., the Founding Part- ner of Galicia Abogados, believes that many of Mexico’s problems are not exclusive to the country, but are born of external circumstances. “While we definitely are not overlooking our in- ternal difficulties like debt or the rule of law, they are international prob- lems. These issues don’t derive from the particular situation of Mexico.”
TOWARD EQUALITY
The new generation is working to address the various consequences of wealth disparity. Take, for instance, healthcare. Pablo Escandón Cusi,
President & CEO of pharmaceutical distributor Grupo NADRO, reports that Mexico is on a path toward “uni- versal health coverage, based on the notion that there is no better way to reduce social inequity than by im- proving the individual’s health.”
Education is another sector com- manding the concern of today’s lead- ers. Despite education spending on par with comparable countries, Mex- ican students do not perform at com- parable levels. “We need to work on basic competencies, like mathematics and language,” says Dr. Raúl Medina Mora, CTO of cloud technology com- pany TEC360. The achievement gap may be attributable to unsound allo- cation of resources, rather than ab- solute spending levels, given that the education system has been in the grip of a teachers’ union that has come under fire for alleged embezzlement and absence of meritocracy within the profession. Jorge Eduardo Familiar, the President of philanthropic center CEMEFI, suggests yet another factor: “Education is not just something that happens at schools. I believe that the home is the main school.” He explains that the family is the basis of Mexican society and as such serves as the pri- mary wellspring of learning.
NUISANCE NEIGHBOR
An unexpected cloud has appeared on the horizon with the election of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has soured Mexico’s previously harmo- nious relationship with its northern neighbor. Trump ran on an anti- immigrant platform, promising to build a wall along the Mexican border. In the first two months of his presi- dency, he began targeting undocu- mented immigrants, many of them Mexican—whose remittances back home represent 2 percent of Mexico’s GDP—more frequently for deporta- tion. President Trump also promised to return jobs to the United States by taxing products manufactured in oth- er countries and penalizing U.S. com- panies that build factories abroad, with Mexico a prime target. While it remains to be seen whether he will be able to deliver on campaign promises, the actions of Trump and his admin- istration could portend tension and economic disruption for Mexico.
Yet the looming existential threat
50 STRATEGY
Estimates for the cost of President Donald Trump’s wall between the United States and Mexico range from US$21.6 billion to US$150 billion. Who will pay? The latest idea is for the wall to pay for itself by covering it with solar panels and selling electricity to users on both sides of the border.
Credit: iStock.com/tiero