Protests over missing students could impact private investment in Mexico

Global Business

Mexico’s sputtering economy is facing more challenges following recent demonstrations over to the fate of 43 college students missing and presumed killed in a September mass abduction in Guerreo state, in the southern part of the country. CCTV America’s Franc Contreras reported this story from Mexico City.

Protests over the missing students are spreading across southern Mexico. The latest target of their fury was the Oaxaca state offices of the Institutional Revolutionary Party.

In Guerrero, protestors recently seized the airport in one of the region’s top tourism hot-spots, Acapulco.

As the case of the missing students dragged on, their anger grew and so did the harm being done to the local economy.

“Acapulco has collapsed, without tourism, without people,” said a local business owner.

In Acapulco, ten local discos, which account for 25 percent of that city’s annual tourism income, has seen a drop in customer traffic.

Mexico’s treasury minister, who is the president’s top economic advisor, recently said on national radio, that investment and hiring decisions could be affected by the unrest.

“It would be naive to say the protests will not affect the economy,” he said.

However, leading analysts said that Mexico’s economy was struggling long before these protests erupted, largely because taxes have been rising as consumer spending has fallen.

None of this has helped Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto’s strategy to promote economic reforms in the energy and telecommunications sectors, aiming at convincing foreign corporations that Mexico is a good place to invest.

“If you have ongoing security issues and protests and all these different things, well, private investment isn’t gonna be as happy to really go and venture and have new projects,” said a economist Jonathan Heath.

Mexico’s leading retail association said sales targets were far off the mark. On Friday, the federal government is set to release Mexico’s third quarter GDP figures, which economists and leading banks expect to be relatively weak.

For more about the economic impact of the protests, CCTV America’s Michelle Makori interviewed Viridiana Rios, who is the chief executive of a Mexican think tank, México ¿Cómo Vamos?, and a fellow at The Wilson Center.