In Mexico, a never-before-seen movement has arisen in 31 states over a gasoline shortage and a brutal 20 percent price increase for two kinds of gasoline and diesel fuel.
The shortage and price hike is called Gazolinazo and it comes during a huge corruption scandal and a crisis of credibility in the country’s government and its political parties.
Neither the Zapatista Army in 1994, nor Ayotzinapa in 2014 and 2015 generated such mobilization. Mexico City, which is the capital and is generally the heart of almost all popular and Left mobilizations in the country, has not witnessed such massive marches.
However, in cities where large mobilizations are rarely seen, such as Mexicali, on the border with Calexico, California, the popular discontent erupted. There was a march of at least 40,000 workers as well as continuous protests at government buildings.
The great majority of the mobilizations has been driven by individuals unaffiliated with any party, union or any other type of organization. Those who did participate were from the various classes of workers, farm workers and street merchants. All the parties of the right, center and left have been overwhelmed. Nearly all of Mexican society rejects the increase.
Before the rise in the price of gasoline, approval of the government of President Enrique Peña Nieto was less than 30 percent, according to all the opinion surveys, but after this measure it is expected that the collapse of Peña and his party, the PRI, is such that he will inevitably lose the 2018 presidential election. But, before anything else, in 2017 will come state elections especially the State of Mexico.
The crisis in Mexico has been further aggravated with the triumph of Donald Trump. Various companies and foreign investments are leaving. Mexico is expecting not only a decrease in remittances from Mexican workers in the United States, but also the immediate expulsion of migrants under Trump’s presidency. Since the triumph of the Republican, The U.S. dollar has been drastically devalued by five pesos, or more than 25 percent, in just three or four months.
And if that wasn’t bad enough, the wars between the narcotics traffickers is intensifying from Ciudad Juárez, Tijuana and Reynosa to Villahermosa, passing through Chilpancingo, Acapulco and Cancún.
