MexicoBlog Editorial: Welcome to PepsiLand - the Globalization of Mexcio Speeds Up

When we moved to Michoacán, México almost three years ago, we naively thought we were leaving the corporate U.S. behind. My wife was completing a consulting contract with Pepsi, but that was, we thought, the only left-over. However, as we rode from the Morelia airport to our newly adopted home and passed through numerous pueblos and into city, virtually every white wall welcomed us with the "all-American," red, white and blue logo of Pepsi, joined by the words, "Bienvenidos a Michoacán. Pepsi."

As we began to settle into our new home, we noticed the presence not only of Pepsi, but also its rival, Coke. Both had big distributing centers in town and their bottles and cans could be found in the remotest pueblo in the surrounding mountains. Walmart moved to town shortly after we did. The Kansas City Southern Railroad de México runs by our house, carrying containers full of Chinese goods from the Pacific port of Lázaro Cárdenas (named after the local son and presidential hero who nationalized Mexico's oil in th 1930's - and who must now be rolling over in his grave). The railroad runs to the U.S. Soon we learned that some 18,000 U.S. companies do business in Mexico and how tied Mexico is to the U.S. since trade liberalization - epitomized by NAFT - opened the country to the world economy. We discovered globalized Mexico.

NAFTA has disappeared from the U.S. political agenda, but other Latin American trade agreeements are moving to the fore in Washington. And since the New Year, we have noticed an upsurge in articles about various and varied concrete actions being taken by the U.S. government, the Mexican government, the World Bank, and international corporations to promote further integration of the Mexican economy with the U.S. and the global economy.

These include the re-opening of U.S.-Mexico talks on Mexican truckers being alllowed into the U.S., maquiladoras in Ciudad Juarez "rebounding" in spite of the drug war, Mexican state governors and leading business leaders attending the inauguration of the anti-immigrant governor of Texas, Rick Perry, and talking business with him and other Texans and U.S. businesses opening new factories in Mexico.

Meanwhile, the World Bank is loaning Mexico $752 million to build high-tech infrastructure and the Mexican economy minister is exploring trade deals with China, while Mexico benefits from rising wages in China. And this week, the third largest soft-drink bottling company in the world was created by one Mexican company purchasing another. It sells Coke through out Latin America. Mexico is the world's largest per-capita consumer of Coke. (That's why Pepsi has those ads on every public wall. Coke doesn't need any.) And, oh yes, the Kansas City Southern Railroad, which has half of its business in Mexico, announced that it is doing really well.

All this seems to say that the Great Recession is over as far as the plutocrats are concerned. And it's full steam ahead for globalization. (Excuse the metaphor, but as we write this, the Kansas City Southern train is blowing its whistle while passing our door.)