As part of a class that I teach on the "Political Economy of
International Crisis" I have gathered together a series of articles
posted on Chiapas95 since December 1994 that describe, analyse and
illuminate the Mexican Peso Crisis.
During 1994 ex-president Salinas kept the peso overvalued and
gradually drew down Mexico's foreign exchange reserves to the point
where devaluation was necessary. The reasons for this economic
missmanagement were, of course, political. This set of articles
interweaves Chiapas95 postings that deal with the devaluation, the
reactions in the foreign exchange markets, the political pressures
(especially the EZLN and related struggles), Clinton's $50billion
bailout, Zedillo's new austerity attack on Mexican standard's of living,
the Wall Street/Chase Manhatten intervention, Zedillo's February 9, 1995
military assault on the Zapatistas, the counterattack by grassroots
groups around the world and a number of other interrelated issues.
This collection of articles by no means exhausts the material available
in the Chiapas95 archives but it does provide a very nice collection
for studying the interdependence between international money markets
and indigenous and campesino struggles. It also illustrates the
spreading conflicts between elite policy makers and grassroots
movements which demand voices and roles in determining the direction
of social change.
This collection can be accessed via the Chiapas95 homepage at
URL: http://www.eco.utexas.edu:80/Homepages/Faculty/Cleaver/chiapas95.html
or via gopher at:
gopher eco.utexas.edu mailinglists/Chiapas95/Peso Crisis
Harry Cleaver
Department of Economics
University of Texas at Austin
Austin, Texas 78712-1173 USA
Phone Numbers: (hm) (512) 442-5036
(off) (512) 475-8535 Fax:(512) 471-3510
E-mail: hmcleave@eco.utexas.edu
Home Page: http://www.eco.utexas.edu:80/Homepages/Faculty/Cleaver/index.html