Mexico

Although the Mexican state is itself not threatened, some analysts view the “Colombianization” of the nation place a risk to many of the democratic advances that have been made since the “apertura” of the country in the 1990s. [...] Indeed, the militarization of the war against the narcotics cartels since the PAN government of Felipe Calderón took office in 2006 has led to serious concern about the stability of the Mexican state. [...] That was as applicable in the case of the Zapatista uprising in the state of Chiapas in the 1990s as it was in the need to suppress Yucatan in the nineteenth century during the Caste War. [...] At the state and local levels for the past several years the increased power of the narcotics cartels, the corruption they have brought and the efforts of the federal government to contain the cartels has further undermined the trend toward the maintenance of a stable democracy. [...] As the PRI’s dominance waned in the wake of growing calls for real democracy and an opening of the nation to the world in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, there was a true awakening of democratic forces in the country.