A newspaper's front page shows the Mexican military marching in a Bastille Day parade next to a video still of one of the top cartel kingpins escaping from his maximum-security prison cell. The headline cites a top government official blaming deference to human rights - not high-level collusion - for his escape.
It was a great example of how Mexico often seems focused on the wrong thing.
For most Mexicans, the headlines are a tragic amusement. More important is the failure to improve public services, create better jobs or provide basic security in much of the country. Inadequate improvements are the problem.
I live in a rich neighborhood where the impunity of the well-heeled is everywhere. Cars line up in front of no-parking signs, blocking passage for everyone else. Trucks belch black smoke while individuals have to pay for emissions tests twice a year. In traffic the operative phrase is "you first, after me." Forget about safe sidewalks and neighborhood parks: everyone gets their own without concern for the commons.
My carpool partner, a Mexican nearing retirement, says she tells her university-educated kids to leave the country because there’s no future. She notes that the peso is at a record low and public confidence in the government at the lowest in a generation.
