Click here for an index of Latin American Outlook . Exactly how and when this crisis is supposed to transpire, or what the United States should do to prevent it, the Times did not deign to inform its readers. The paper as well might have added that a catastrophic turn of events in Mexico would have an equally deleterious effect on the economic integration with Latin America, a project already put on hold because of the peso crisis nearly two years ago. In broad terms, the Mexican economy has hit bottom and is edging its way back up. Unfortunately, employment and popular consumption show no evidence of improvement, or at least there is no public perception thereof.
Many indicators suggest a deepening social crisis fueled by generalized economic want.
There is nothing new about poverty in Mexico. But, in recent months, there has been a quantitative and qualitative increase in ordinary criminality, as well as increasing abuse of women and children by male heads of households, a rising divorce rate, and an increase in juvenile delinquency. The EPR is not large, enjoys no real popular base, and poses no serious threat to the existence of the national or provincial governments. But it does have the capacity to give Mexico a black eye internationally and, at least marginally, to affect its econ-omy by frightening off foreign investors who lack a firm grasp of the facts of the country's political geography. Perhaps most troubling, the EPR is in a position to humiliate local law enforcement authorities.