The truth is that foreign aid is always and everywhere a curse. It shifts resources from market uses to government misuses. It forces good resources to chase bad projects. And it taxes Americans for the benefit of foreign governments, helping further lower U.S. median income. That the foreign governments bailed out are inevitably corrupt, profligate, and oppressive only compounds the error.
Governments have an inherent tendency to squander resources.
When their currency crashes as the peso did, it's a sign that its policies are seriously off. If such governments are bailed out, they will never learn that there's a price to pay for bad policy. But the Mexican oligarchy was dealing in more than bad policies. Every day brings new revelations about the drug payoffs, murders, and widespread graft linked to ex-president Salinas, his family, and his successor. Even Salinas's allies in this country may be entangled.