Poverty, violence mar Mexico’s bicentennial

Celebrations this week marking the start of the country’s 1810 revolution are being overshadowed by drug violence and slow development.

The mood of the Mexican public is so pessimistic these days that even national birthday celebrations have drawn sharp criticism. Many say the government’s lavish, multi-million dollar bicentennial bash in Mexico City last night was a waste of money that could have been spent on alleviating the country’s poor. Forty per cent of Mexicans live in desperate poverty. A sharp increase in drug violence in recent years, rampant corruption, and a lack of the economic development promised by NAFTA means that this anniversary is a dubious ones for Mexicans, who have watched Latin American countries like Brazil shoot past them in the development race.