The women of Mexico and the neoliberal revolution

Resumo

Miguel Angel Centeno's evaluation of the neoliberal reforms of President Carlos Salinas de Gortari were only half right. As shown by the near panic that ensued following the December 1994 devaluation, the macroeconomics weren't all that hot either. The deficit in the current account and the consequent strain on foreign currency reserves put enormous pressure on the Mexican peso. For every peso that foreign investors took out of the Mexican economy, two pesos were sent abroad by Mexican nationals, according to the IMF report of August 1995. Once again the full brunt of the new crisis fell not only upon the shoulders of the middle class, who suffe red inflationary price rises that reached 70 percent on an annualized basis in March 1995, but also on the working people of the country, who felt the double blow of inflation and unemployment. The United States loan averted similar blows to the investing classes, who escaped with their dollarized tesobonos and their consciences untouched.