When I was working for a federal agency in D.C., I had to travel to Mexico on a couple of occasions. This was more than 20 years ago, and even then, most of Mexico was rated as a "hazardous duty" post. I wouldn't go back there now on a bet. "Fake Mexico tour agency accused of chopping people up with machetes".
Mexico is a Narco-State, with large swaths of the country controlled by cartel bosses and their private armies, and virtually every government institution has been penetrated by narco-trafficantes. And there's considerable evidence that Mexico's blowhard president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has benefited, directly or indirectly, from ties to the cartels.
So, it's pretty obvious that implementing controls on border traffic is a task that will have to be undertaken by an American president - but certainly not the current one.
Not that the Mexican president is powerless in this matter, however: "Mexico Repays Biden by Slashing Migration in 2024 Campaign Year". If this hijo de puta can stop his people from pouring across the border temporarily, he can do it permanently - but that, of course, would put too much pressure on the perennially corrupt Mexican government to implement policies that would make staying in Mexico economically attractive (by, among other things, reducing the amount of money wasted on graft).
Having lived at various times in Southern CA, I have been to Mexico a few times (Well... Baja... but that still counts). Not in many years though.
ReplyDeleteWas a time wealthy people would skip across the border to the race track or jai alai, and of course there were excellent places to eat there. For example, Tijuana is where the Caesar salad was created. And if all you know about Mexican food is tacos and enchiladas, the seafood in Baja is amazing.
I admit to driving down to Ciudad Acuna with friends and Not-Then-Mr. H when we were in college in Texas (imagine the tilde in the appropriate spots). At that time, Acuna was a little village with dirt roads, little curio shops, and plenty of little boys offering their sisters for a price (it was fifty-five years ago, before the cartels took over). We bought several bottles of booze because they were cheap and smuggled them back across in the engine compartment of the car (yes, we were stupid). Many years later Mr. H and I took a cruise that stopped in Playa del Carmen and enjoyed a bus trip to a Mayan ruin, and the pleasures of window shopping. Those are my only trips to Mexico. I figure I'll never go again.
ReplyDeleteI've googled Ciudad Acuna and it appears they entered the 21st century. Maybe.