Mexico in Crisis: A call to its North American partners
Is this a turning point for Mexico? And if so, where are its continental partners? A panel discussion with David Agren, Marina Jimenez, and Luis Horacio Nájera.
The September disappearance of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa teacher’s college in Guerrero, Mexico, has sparked a wave of outrage across the country, and protests in solidarity around the world. It has arguably been the largest mobilization during Mexico’s militarized drug war — which began in 2006 and has resulted in the deaths and disappearances of tens of thousands — and possibly the largest mass protest in its history.
Last week, on the anniversary of the start of the 1910 Revolution, thousands took to the streets, and an effigy of President Enrique Peña Nieto was burned in Mexico City.
Is this a turning point in the crisis of crime and narcocultura in the country? If so, where are Mexico’s continental partners?
“If there is so much pain and passion in Mexico, our neighbor, a country with which we share a 2,000-mile-long border as well as profound economic and cultural ties, why such American indifference?” professor and author Rubén Martínez asked in the LA Times earlier this month.
Canada may not share a physical border with Mexico, but is it not a neighbour and close ally?
As the final addition to our Border Check series, OpenCanada invites you to take part in an online, moderated discussion on current events in Mexico, the state of Canadian-Mexican relations, and on Canadian indifference.
Join our panelists right here this Friday, Nov. 28, at 12 p.m. ET. Send questions and comments in advance or while watching live, citing #CICMexico.
Our panelists
David Agren covers Mexico as a freelance correspondent for USA TODAY, Maclean’s, Catholic News Service, Christian Science Monitor and Fox News Latino. He also works as country correspondent for the Committee to Protect Journalists. Past assignments have included Mexico’s crackdown on crime and drug cartels, vigilantes in Guerrero and Michoacán states, the outflow of child migrants from Central America, two federal elections, two papal tours, the end of the Mayan calendar and a stint covering Congress and politics full-time. A native of Chilliwack, B.C., he has lived in Mexico for the past 10 years.
Marina Jimenez is an award-winning writer and journalist who has covered Latin America for the Globe and Mail and the National Post, including the elections of former Presidents Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderon and of current President Enrique Peña Nieto. She served as the President of the Canadian Council for the Americas from 2013-2014, and was invited to participate as a delegate on the state visit of Prime Minister Stephen Harper to Mexico in 2014. She has a Master’s degree in the economic history of Latin America from the University of London.
Luis Horacio Nájera is an experienced journalist from Mexico, specialized in reporting on transnational organized crime at the US-Mexico border. Luis lives in Canada as a refugee after receiving death threats because of his publications in Mexico’s most influential newspaper about official corruption, and drug traffic. He is a recipient of the 2010 CJFE International Press Freedom Award, and of the 2011 Human Rights Watch Hellmat/Hammet award. He is also a member of Massey College, PEN Canada, a visiting Fellow at the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto and has a master’s degree in global affairs from the University of Toronto.
