POS 203: 11302006

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POS 203 11/30/2006

• Course status.
• Paper assignment 3 due today, e-copy (including
  dataset) due w/n 24 hours.
• Final exam guide distributed December 7.
• Final paper due 12/14, draft feedback guaranteed
  by evening of 12/12.
• Final Exam Tuesday December 19th, 1100-130pm.
• Course Agenda
• Lecture/Discussion.
• Mexico.
• Presentations.
• Mexican Revolution, PRI hegemony, EZLN.
• Latin America, Narcotics Trafficking, and Human
  Rights.
• Cases Colombia and Mexico.

2

• Human Development Index.
• UNDP Website animations re HDI and other
  indicators.
• Poverty and State Failure.
• State Failure Project.
• 1300 variables on every country 1955 1998.
• Definition of State Failure
• Revolutionary wars.
• Ethnic wars.
• Adverse regime changes. Major, abrupt shifts in
  patterns of governance.
• Genocides and politicides.
• Mexico makes it into State Failure Project.
• Colombia does as well.

3

• Mexico HIV/AIDS as of end of 2003. Source WHO.
• Reasons less than US Conservative culture, lower
  urbanization rates, underreporting, dynamics of
  disease diffusion.
• Update UN AIDS WHO 2006 data. World AIDS Day
  tomorrow (Dec. 1)

4

• Pobre Mexico! Tan lejos de Dios y tan cerca de
  los Estados Unidos.
• Mexico in 19th Century.
• US-Mexican War.
• Rise of Díaz and the Porfiriato.
• Classic Liberalism.
• Encourage foreign investment, European
  immigration, concessions to US and European
  investors.
• Ruthless repression of peasants and labor.
• Mexico in the 20th Century.
• Growing resentment against Díaz.
• Mexican Revolution highly complex multiple
  fronts and actors.
• Anarchists and peasant/rural revolts.
• Provides much of the symbolic stock form Mexican
  political culture.
• Revolutionary consolidation - Cardenas.
  Nationalization.
• Eventual development of the PRI 1934-2000?
  (perhaps power resumes in 2006).

5

• Mexico Contemporary Problems.
• Early signs of fragmentation of PRI.
• Student revolt 1968.
• National Security Archives George Washington
  University.
• Tlatelolco Massacre.
• Mexicos Dirty War.
• Mexican Government just released report
  (11/21/2006) admitting to guerra suicia.
• New York Times 11/23/06 article re above.
• During 1970s counterinsurgency 645
  disappearances, 99 extrajudicial executions,
  2000 cases of torture.
• Above are examples of transnational NGO
  cooperation on human rights, and Truth
  Commissions (discusses in Landman, Chapter 9, p.
  209-214).
• NSA works with Mexican national investigative
  reporters.

6

• Mexico Contemporary Problems.
• 1994 Major Political Instability and Transition
  from PRI dominance to contested hegemony.
• EZLN uprising January 1st, 1994.
• PRI Reformist Candidate Colosio Assassination
  March 1994.
• 10th Anniversary last year.
• San Diego Union Tribune. March 23, 2004 Article.
• Nacotics Cartels penetration/corruption of
  Mexican polity (including security organs and
  federal and local political elites).

7

• Elections 2006.
• Latin America.
• Washington Post.
• Election Map.
• Mexico 2006 Election.
• Contested for 2 months.
• Protests continue
• Oaxaca, Mexico.
• Indymedia coverage.
• US journalist Brad Will killed.

8

• Article ODay, Patrick. 2001. The Mexican Army
  as Cartel. Journal of Contemporary Criminal
  Justice. 7(3) 278-295.
• Origins back as far as 1960s cultivation of small
  marijuana fields.
• Mid 1980s Military Police providing escort for
  narcotics shipments.
• Growing literature in early 1990s to present
  detailing cartel penetration of Mexican military.
• Difficult to research.
• National Context.
• Soborno bribe to government official to protect
  traffic.
• La compra de la plaza.
• Findings of article.
• Corrupt Mexican military units disguise smuggling
  as military maneuvers.
• Details a number of engagements in Rio Grande
  area between US Border Patrol and Mexican
  Military units.
• US beginning to attempt to train Mexican Army
  special forces for counternarcotics, initially
  successful, but penetrated by cartels.
• Militarization of border, militarization of
  Mexican society as possible outcome.

9

• Mexico Contemporary Problems.
• Videos
• Frontline Drug Wars (PBS 1999).
• Profile of the Arellano-Felix Organization/Cartel
  AFO.
• Size of global drug trade 300 - 400 billion
  annually (1999).

10

• US Influence Global and Regional (Latin
  American) Patterns in Narcotics Trafficking.
• UN.
• Office on Drugs and Crime.
• 2006 World Drug Report.
• OAS
• Inter American Drug Abuse Control Commission.
• United States.
• DEA.
• Narco-Terrorism Website.
• Department of State.
• Plan Colombia.
• Dept. of Treasury
• FINCEN.
• Political Instability Task Force/State Failure
  Project.
• Phase 5 Reports.

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Thinking About Mexico

• The Basics
• Poverty
• Diversity
• Big Brother is Watching

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Thinking About Mexico

• Key Questions
• Why was the PRI so dominant for so long?
• What undermined that success?
• Why was structural adjustment embraced?
• How have those economic reforms addressed
  Mexicos needs?
• How have events of the past two decades affected
  the Mexico-US relationship?

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The Evolution of Mexican Politics

• The colonial era
• Independence
• The revolution
• Institutionalizing the revolution
• Cárdenas and his legacy
• An institutional revolutionary party

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Political Culture

• National identity
• Authoritarianism
• Patron-client relations
• Political sub-cultures

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Political Participation

• The PRI and its hold on power
• The other parties
• PAN
• PRD
• The people, the PRI, and civil society

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The Mexican State

• Nonreelection and presidential domination
• The cabinet, the bureaucracy and the judiciary
• Congress and the legislative process
• The federal system
• The military
• Corporatism and corruption

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Public Policy

• Debt and Development
• Early success
• The crisis
• Reform
• Debt reduction
• Sharp cuts in government spending
• Privatization
• Opening up the economy
• US-Mexican relations
• Immigration
• Drugs

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Feedback

• Mexican newspapers, magazines, and television
  stations are seemingly independent of government
  control, but it rarely took on PRI governments
• PRI had virtual monopoly on newsprint and
  provided underfunded papers with information
• The press censored itself for the most part
• Pressures to open up the media have been building
  and have had an impact more independent outlets
• Opening up of the economy and the technological
  revolution have brought in more media that are
  not controllable by the government

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• Next Week 12/05/2006.
• Come to class having done the assigned readings.
• No other specific announcements.