Photo: Alfredo Estrella Agence France-Presse Claudia Sheinbaum and Xochitl Galvez are the favorites for the Mexican presidential election.
Yussel Gonzalez – Agence France-Presse in Paraïso
Published at 10:38 a.m.
- Americas
Blanca Lopez runs a company that makes precision parts for Boeing in northern Mexico. Sandra Sanchez waits for customers in her small restaurant in the south of the country.
The two women are called to the polls on Sunday, but seem to live in two different countries in the same territory called Mexico, covering an area of almost two million km2.
Facing Texas and the United States, with its industrial capital Monterrey, the north is Mexico's industrial and export engine.
Historically underdeveloped, the south — Yucatan Peninsula, Chiapas, Oaxaca — benefited from large investments under the mandate of outgoing nationalist left-wing president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to catch up.
In Monterrey , Blanca Lopez, 41, receives AFP in front of machines that mold steel components for the aeronautics industry.
“The parts can be used for seats or even inside the turbines or the engine of the plane,” says the executive director of Mimsa Maquinados, whose factory is located in Santa Catarina, in the metropolitan area of Monterrey.
Photo: Alfredo Estrella Agence France-Presse Blanca Lopez runs a company that makes precision parts for Boeing in northern Mexico.
The factory, whose history began in Blanca's father's small workshop, also works for the chemical and food industry.
“Knowing that we work well, and that our staff is qualified, all of this fills us with pride,” smiles Blanca.
Two hours from the Texas border, the Monterrey aerospace cluster is home to other companies that make parts for General Electric.
Monterrey is the capital of Nuevo Leon, which represents 8% of Mexico's GDP, for barely six million inhabitants out of 129 million in total.
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“Raise the country”
Some 1400 km to the southeast, Sandra Sánchez waits for the client in her restaurant in Chiltepec, a picturesque village in the state of Tabasco.
Chiltepec is 20 minutes from the Olmeca refinery in Dos Bocas, one of the major projects of outgoing president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, originally from Tabasco.
The young woman of 34 years old speaks with tenderness of “the little cotton head”, in reference to the white hair of the outgoing president, 70 years old.
“The economy has changed a lot since that the grandfather's mandate began (in December 2018 Editor's note),” continues Sandra. “We see the difference with previous mandates. »
Photo: Yuri Cortez Agence France-Presse Sandra Sanchez has a small restaurant in Paraiso, in southern Mexico.
Sandra took advantage of it. When the refinery was under construction, the restaurant welcomed hundreds of workers and revenues increased. The end of the work led to a drop in attendance.
In addition to the refinery, the outgoing president launched two other mega-projects to compensate for delays in the south.
With a total distance of 1500 km, the Maya train is supposed to distribute tourism dividends throughout the Yucatan Peninsula, and not just in Cancun or the archaeological site of Chichen Itza .
The project cost an estimated $30 billion, far more than the original budget. The train was officially inaugurated by Lopez Obrador in December 2023.
The president also launched an “interoceanic corridor” between the Pacific and the Atlantic, with passenger and freight trains between the ports of Salina Cruz (Oaxaca) and Coatzacoalcos on the Gulf of Mexico, in the state of Veracruz.
The government announced an investment of $2.85 billion for this project, which complements or rivals the Panama Canal.
Sustainable growth ?
With these major works, the southeast of Mexico “needs will never be forgotten again,” declared the president, whose Morena party should win the presidential election on Sunday with its candidate Claudia Sheinbaum.
The state of Oaxaca also benefited from the construction of a highway to connect its capital Oaxaca to Puerto Escondido, on the Pacific, and its beaches well known to foreign tourists.
What will be the effects of long-term investments ? Tabasco experienced the largest drop in job creation in March (-1.4%), according to a report from the Spanish bank BBVA, leader in the Mexican market.
“We have seen that the employment indices are no longer as dynamic as at the height of the work (on the refinery)”, affirms Jesús Carrillo, of the Mexican Competitiveness Institute (IMCO).
The end of work on the refinery is also being felt in Paraiso, near Chiltepec. “People will start complaining that there is no more work,” sighs Juan Gabriel Córdova, a 49-year-old fisherman.