Mexico's economy

Bringing NAFTA back home

Despite Chinese competition, Mexico’s exports are growing. But the country is still not taking full advantage of its trade agreement with the United States

Oct 28th 2010 | MONTERREY

Tuning up the engine of trade

AT THE moment it is just a thousand hectares of mud on the outskirts of Monterrey, a bustling industrial city in northern Mexico. Soon it should be the “Interpuerto”, a customs-clearing zone to speed goods on their way to the United States via two rail lines and the motorways to which it will be connected. The aim of the $2 billion project, backed by the state government of Nuevo León and private investors, is to allow cargoes to skip the long queues at customs posts on the border, 240km (150 miles) to the north.

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From the Johnson blog

Oh, you guys

Oct 27th 2010, 15:53 by T.W. | MEXICO CITY

TALKING to other people in English is easy: they are all “you”. No distinction between formal and informal, nor between singular and plural: a lone friend is “you”; a roomful of strangers is “you” too. Many other languages have four different personal pronouns where English makes do with one.

Or does it?

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From the Prospero blog

Treasure in the attic

Oct 25th 2010, 21:17 by T.W. | MEXICO

THE eighth annual Morelia International Film Festival, which came to an end yesterday in the Mexican state of Michoacán, featured a full programme of new releases, international premieres and sections curated by or dedicated to directors such as Quentin Tarantino and Terry Gilliam. But the most interesting screenings were not the latest releases but some of the oldest. Serge Bromberg, a French director and obsessive collector of vintage film reels, presented a collection of his best recent finds from second-hand shops and attics around the world, restored and filleted down to a fascinating hour.

Read the rest here: http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2010/10/morelia_international_film_festival

Obesity in Mexico

One taco too many

Time for a national diet

Oct 21st 2010 | MEXICO CITY

Buen provecho

SEVENTY metres (230 feet) long and slathered with cream and cheese, the world’s biggest enchilada was cooked up in a suburb of Mexico City on October 17th. The 1.4-tonne lunch was certified by Guinness World Records, then devoured.

Read the rest here: http://www.economist.com/node/17314636

From the Gulliver blog

Nor any drop to drink

Oct 19th 2010, 10:24 by T.W.

NEXT time you are delayed at Heathrow airport’s Terminal 5, here’s a fun game to help you while away the hours. It’s called “Find the drinking fountain”, and it’s guaranteed to keep you busy during the longest of delays.

Read the rest here: http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2010/10/heathrow_airport

Organised crime in Mexico

Under the volcano

The drugs trade has spread corruption and violence across Mexico. Can the police ever catch up with them?

Oct 14th 2010 | MONTERREY

THE drugs business, as Miguel tells it, used to offer a promising career for a young man. At 4am he would set out into the sierra of Sinaloa to pick up cannabis. Back in the city of Culiacán he would pack it for export, compressing it with a hydraulic pump, wrapping it in polythene and dunking it in wax to trick the sniffer dogs. The packets would go in trucks, cars, even on push-bikes. Once, in a friend’s Cessna, he skimmed the treetops south to Colombia, dropping packets of cocaine over the Mexican desert on the way back.

Read the rest here: http://www.economist.com/node/17249102