Using FDR as Model, Presidential Hopeful Out to Build New Deal for Mexico

[Rose Siding]

QUERETARO, Mexico -- Presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who is often compared with South American leftists, has found a model in an icon from the north: Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

López Obrador's economics team has developed a blueprint for what they call the "Mexican New Deal." Their modern version of Depression-era populism is an ambitious program to create millions of jobs and stem migration by undertaking huge public works projects, including a railroad network, vast housing developments, ports and timber replanting.
...
A López Obrador presidency would begin with a government-subsidized push to build between 600,000 and 1 million homes that would be sold or rented at low prices to the poor, his advisers say. José Maria Peréz Gay, a former Mexican diplomat who advises the campaign, predicted in an interview that the home-building effort would lessen migration to the United States -- now as many 1 million Mexicans per year -- by 10 to 15 percent.

The home-building projects would be followed by construction of major railroad lines to connect Mexico City with the U.S. border and speed transport of goods to shipping lines in the Pacific and the Yucatan Peninsula. The third step would be a gigantic timber planting operation to stimulate the lumber industry and encourage Mexicans not to leave. "He who plants a tree on his land stays on his land," Peréz Gay said. The workers for these projects would come from government labor stations strategically positioned to intercept migrants before they leave for the United States. The home construction project, in particular, would "kill two birds with one stone" by providing homes and jobs, Peréz Gay said.

"We can only do this if we launch a Roosevelt-style New Deal," he said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/22/AR2006062201550.html

[Massacure]

1. Will the U.S. bomb Cancun Harbor forcing Mexico to enter World War III?

[dweller]

2. plant those trees!

god knows the climate needs them.

dp

[ladjf]

3. Brilliant strategy because it's a great idea. It worked in America

and it could work in Mexico if Obrador is honest and courageous. Further, if it does work well for them, it could have some influence on the people in the U.S. who have been royally screwed by the Republican policies. We might realize that we need a New Deal II in the U.S. However, we have to bear in mind that WWII actually jump started our industrial output. That could work out the same under today's circumstances. The Iraq war is doing nothing but giving vast profits to a few firms including keeping oil prices up.

[sutz12]

4. Oh shit!

The coporate masters won't like this:

A López Obrador presidency would begin with a government-subsidized push to build between 600,000 and 1 million homes that would be sold or rented at low prices to the poor, his advisers say. José Maria Peréz Gay, a former Mexican diplomat who advises the campaign, predicted in an interview that the home-building effort would lessen migration to the United States -- now as many 1 million Mexicans per year -- by 10 to 15 percent.

Can't have a drop in cheap labor in our country just because some leftist upstart gets voted in down south. Look for big opposition from BushCo to support his buddy Fox.

I'm curious how the anti-immigration crowd will try to spin US opposition to this. ;)

[Javaman]

5. expect the Mexican election to be fixed. Fox the puppet will remain nt