Mexico: COVID-19 – a lethal virus for the Aztec economy or a possibility of generating antibodies to underdevelopment?

Abstract

The present article is devoted to the analysis of the effects o the COVID-19 pandemic on Mexico’s international relations and the feasible consequences that may be tracked in the short and medium term of Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s presidency. The current president’s rise to power in 2018 meant a paradigm shift in Mexican domestic policy and was perceived by the countries of the region as a possibility for Mexico to resume its multilateral ties with the rest of the Latin American continent. Mexico is immersed in the COVID-19 pandemic after the storm of the migration crisis that unleashed the Central American caravan between 2017 and 2018. Devaluation of Mexican peso and the drop of oil prices are also pre-existing problems that have been undermining development possibilities that Lopez Obrador set forth in his campaign. Despite discouraging forecasts of socioeconomic indicators in the region, the article highlights the possibilities open for Mexico as one of the largest economies on the continent: it may find the way out of the storm, which could become a genesis of modifications towards development. In order to explain Mexican performance in the face of the containment measures of 2020 four axes were chosen: migration; international trade; regional cooperation; foreign policy and Latin American integration. In addressing the aforementioned items, the author conducts an interdisciplinary analysis of the factors that converge harming the economic and social indicators due to the fragility exposed by the global Coronavirus situation. The author also suggests some tools that the country could apply to strengthen its regional positioning.

Keywords

• latin america
• integration
• mexico
• regionalism
• migration processes
• development
• covid-19