Chronicle of a debt foretold

Abstract

In recent months, policymakers and the mainstream media have rediscovered Mexico’s tequila crisis (1994–95) and heralded purported similarities with the ongoing financial debacle in the United States. In principle, the rediscovery of the tequila crisis provides an opportunity to critically assess the causes, consequences and potential responses to the current predicament. In practice, however, vested political and economic interests have availed themselves of the tequila crisis to redefine its causes, elide responsibility for the collapse of the country’s financial system and portray Mexico’s FOBAPROA ( Fondo Bancario de Protección al Ahorro – Banking Fund to protect Savings) bailout as a model for the present circumstances. Mexico’s tequila crisis does, indeed, have much to teach us about the US financial crisis. However, the most valuable lessons are not found in revisionist histories. Rather, popular response in Mexico reveals the possibility of organising collectively to contest the government bailout of the financial system, resist efforts to shift liability for the crisis onto the working and the middle-class households and promote debt restructuring and forgiveness.