Mexico Elite Sees Leftist as a Danger

[Judi Lynn]

Mexico Elite Sees Leftist as a Danger
Some fear that Lopez Obrador will take from the rich to give to the poor if he is president.
By Héctor Tobar, Times Staff Writer
May 24, 2006

MEXICO CITY — An insidious force is threatening the collective peace of mind in Lomas de Chapultepec, the Beverly Hills of this capital city.

The 10-foot walls and the electrified fences that are de rigueur for most homes can't keep the force out, nor can the neighborhood's ubiquitous private security guards. It seeps in, like a noxious vapor: the possibility that a certain leftist politician with a tropical accent might be elected the next president of Mexico in July.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a native of the sultry state of Tabasco and onetime mayor of Mexico City, is the boogeyman of the rich here. Once the clear front-runner, he is now in a tight race with Felipe Calderon, the candidate of the center-right National Action Party. The possibility of a Lopez Obrador victory has some wealthy Mexicans preparing as if for an earthquake or a hurricane.

"If he wins, this country will be ruined. I'll be better off leaving," declared Marta Garcia at the Starbucks in Lomas de Chapultepec, where a cafe mocha and a blueberry muffin cost slightly more than the daily minimum wage of $4.50. "I'll move to Guatemala."
(snip/...)

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexrich24may24,1,4686707.story?coll=la-headlines-world&track=crosspromo

[951-Riverside]

1. This is probably why they are sending Nat'l Guard troops

Changes are coming for Mexico and I think Venezuela is going to have a wonderful influence

[hogwyld]

10. We can only hope...

That some of that leftist karma starts seeping into our country as well. Chavez will straighten out this country if given the chance!

[Mythsaje]

2. The minimum wage in that part of Mexico is $4.50?

Hell, that's not much less than our federal minimum wage. I'm surprised to hear this.

[Kutjara]

3. That's $4.50 per day, not per hour. n/t

[Mythsaje]

6. That makes more sense...

I missed the "daily" part.

If I was someone who could afford to spend the average day's wages on a cup of coffee and a blueberry muffin, I'd be pretty freakin' worried too.

Is it just me, or is that just wrong?

[Kutjara]

8. I agree, its horribly wrong. But it isn't rare.

Daily wage rates around the developing world are almost impossible for most Americans to believe. Wage rates in Eastern Europe have only recently risen from an average of $200 per month. In much of Africa, $30 a month is a damned good wage. In the poorer parts of Asia, people live on considerably less than that (sometimes as little as 50 cents per day.

I have a friend who's a journalist in Cuba and his wages, if converted into dollars, work out at about $2 per month. He thinks he's pretty well off, however, because his job as a boxing journalist means he has to travel abroad a lot and so he can live on expenses. His colleagues don't have that option.

[Judi Lynn]

9. I've seen it explained as learning to find out what the money will buy

within the country. A Cuban who posts on U.S. message boards wrote this article to explain it:
http://members.aol.com/merengue123/cubaeng2.html

[Judi Lynn]

5. Make that the DAILY minimum wage. I'll bet it means for the entire day.

I liked this quote:

"He doesn't have the intellectual capacity to be president," Oropeza said. "He can't win. It would be absurd."

Since WHEN did it ever take an intellect to be elected?

[Mythsaje]

7. I can't speak for Mexico

but most of the real smart folks here are on the left side of the aisle.

Just saying.

[Up2Late]

4. Nice find Judi Lynn! Yes America, Mexico does have a Super Rich...

...Elite, and the are mostly White!

I know, I was shocked too when I first realized that not all Mexicans were like the poor, hard working men, waiting for work across the street from the Home Depot. Most of them are the result of a deliberate policy in Mexico to keep the poor so poor, that they risk there lives to come here to work, so that their families won't starve.

[Bridget Burke]

11. PAN has been presenting Lopez Obrador as "the new Chavez"....

And the campaigns have apparently been effective.

Can Calderon win with only the votes of the rich? Or will the middle class be frightened into following along? (Mexico has worse "wealth distribution" than the USA, but there ARE folks who are neither stinking rich nor destitute.)

The first PRD candidate "lost" the election in 1988 in the most bald-faced election theft I'd seen--at the time. If Lopez should manage to get elected--expect The Usual Suspects at DU to add him to their gallery of "leftist thugs."

[Up2Late]

13. They are probably more worried about how fast the Mexican...

...middle class is growing. This recent Buisness Week article says it is growing very fast in recent years:

MARCH 13, 2006

Piggybanks Full Of Pesos

Mexico's middle class is exploding, and that's good for U.S. business

Lucia Jimenez and Benjamín Macias have been married for just a month, but they're already buying their first home: a newly built two-bedroom bungalow in an attractive subdivision a half-hour's drive from Mexico City. Lucia, 23, a clothing store clerk, and Benjamín, 24, an office worker at an eyeglass retailer, have a combined income of nearly $650 a month, enough to qualify for a 30-year loan to buy their $25,200 house. "Before, it was much more difficult to buy your own home," says Lucia. "Things have gotten a lot better."

American conceptions of Mexico usually focus on the country's poverty and the endless flow of illegal immigrants to the U.S. But another Mexico is starting to emerge: a middle-class nation where millions have access to mortgages, solid jobs provide security, and a class of strivers saves to put its kids through college (page 52). This has the makings of a much more stable Mexico, and a much more lucrative market for U.S. companies. "We're very interested in the Mexican middle class," says Edmundo Vallejo, chief executive of GE Latin America, a big provider of consumer finance.

The ranks of that middle class, or those making between $7,200 and $50,000 a year, have swelled to record levels of around 10 million families. That's equal to nearly 40% of all Mexican households, vs. 30% just a few years ago. It helps that for almost a decade now, wages have been rising faster than inflation. In addition, women are having fewer children, and more of them are joining the workforce, giving households more money to spend and save.

(more at link)

<http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_11/b3975071.htm>

[Igel]

12. Oddly enough, I met the daughter of one such

"elite" last year; I didn't realize she was Mexican until we met again a month or two ago. The company her father works for a company that bought a few factories in one of the Carolinas, and he's there as their on-site rep/manager.

Quite a nice person; she's going for a doctorate in physiology, IIRC. Her brother went for a doctorate in some related or similar field at another university, Stanford. They all want to teturn to Mexico to teach or do research there.

edited to remove superfluous articles.