Mexico in danger of collapse

[BrilloPad]

If America keeps getting credit cruched then Mexico might have to close its borders to American immigrants.

[threaded]

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable.

[OwlHoot]

A week or two ago I aired my theory here that the current credit crunch was originally caused in large part by mass immigration into the US (20 million plus) over the last few years, leading to unstoppable political pressure for loans and mortgages to sub-prime borrowers.

Most of those immigrants over recent years have been from Mexico, and now it appears there may soon be a load more on the way:

From the Telegraph Mexico in danger of collapse, says US army

America may be forced to intervene in Mexico to prevent the country's "rapid and sudden collapse" at the hands of organised crime and drug cartels, according to the US army.

A report on the "Joint Operating Environment", compiled by the army's high command, places Mexico alongside Pakistan as a possible failed state of the future. America, which shares a 2,000 mile border with Mexico, would be the obvious destination for massive refugee flows if its neighbour descended into civil war.

President Felipe Calderon has deployed Mexico's army in a new offensive against organised crime. This battle against four major drug cartels, along with a myriad of local syndicates, claimed the lives of 5,367 members of the security forces or suspected criminals last year alone.

"Two large and important states bear consideration for rapid and sudden collapse: Pakistan and Mexico," reads the US army's report.

"The Mexican possibility may seem less likely, but the government, its politicians, police and judicial infrastructure are all under sustained assault and pressure by criminal gangs and drug cartels. How that internal conflict turns out over the next several years will have a major impact on the stability of the Mexican state."

Mexico, with a population of 110 million, provides America with more migrants than any other country. It also lies astride the crucial smuggling routes linking the US with the drug-growing areas of South America, notably Colombia, which remains the world's biggest source of cocaine.

If Mexico became a failed state, millions would flee across the northern border and organised crime gangs would have a secure base from which to penetrate America. This could leave Washington with little choice but to intervene, possibly by military means.

...

Oh dear, talk about living in interesting times ...