Be neighborly, go to Mexico

There are several good reasons Americans should help out the Mexican economy with a trip south of the border.

By Andrés Martinez
June 9, 2009
Los Angeles Times

Your neighbor needs your help. Do you have it within you to lend a hand? Will you book yourself a week on the beach in Cabo or Puerto Vallarta, or explore Mexico City or one of the colonial cities in the heart of Mexico? You know, for the common good.

This has been a banner decade for empathy tourism — many Americans flocking to New York after 9/11 and to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina did so with a sense of public service. Mexico now needs a similar surge.

Our neighbor to the south is having an annus horribilis, as a British monarch might say. These were never going to be good times down there, with Mexico’s economy so intertwined with ours, but growing concern about war-on-drugs violence, the decline in oil prices and the advent of swine flu has further dented “brand Mexico.” Adding insult to injury, Washington earlier barred Mexican trucks from coming into the United States, a flagrant violation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, and, as of last week, Americans crossing over to Mexico were required to have a passport to reenter the country, a change expected to deepen the slump in border towns frequented by Americans.

The tourism sector is the largest employer in Mexico and the third-largest source of foreign currency for the trillion-dollar economy, after oil exports and remittances sent home by Mexicans working in the U.S. It is estimated that the swine flu alone will cost the country about $5 billion in tourist revenue (and bear in mind that travel to Mexico was already down significantly as a result of the U.S. recession). Hotel occupancy rates in Cancun in May didn’t even reach the 30% mark. The all-clear has been sounded on the virus, but no one knows for sure how long-lasting the impact on tourism will be. Mexico’s gross domestic product, meanwhile, is expected to contract about 12% in the second quarter of this year.

Why should Americans care? Well, for starters, there is the national security imperative. Say what you will about Mexico, and there is plenty negative to be said, our southern neighbor has been a fairly reliable, stable and friendly partner for more than half a century, and it is in our interest to keep it that way. Our nation’s political discourse may not always reflect our good geographic fortune, which we take for granted, but the United States is blessed to have Canada and Mexico as neighbors. Is there another developing nation of more than 100 million people we’d rather have on our southern flank? Put differently, how many other global powers in history have had the luxury of a long land border that doesn’t need to be protected by a large standing army?

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-martinez9-2009jun09,0,6056003.story