The rapid growth of Mexico’s manufacturing and
services sectors arguably makes it the economic powerhouse of the
Post-China 16. Shannon O’Neil warns, however, that if the country wants
to build on its success, it needs to address a number of familiar
problems, most notably its struggle with organized crime.
Four tons of cocaine
confiscated by U.S. authorities off the California coast; 35 bodies
dumped by the side of a busy Veracruz highway in broad daylight; an
attack by gunmen on a birthday party in Ciudad Juárez killing 14, many
of them teenagers: tragedies like these, all of which occurred over the
past two years and were extensively covered by the media, are common in
Mexico today.