Ask Mexico about Cuba not paying their debts

(My new American Thinker post)

We've warned countries about doing business with the Castro dictatorship.

Cuba has a way of borrowing money and not paying it back.  The latest is Mexico, as reported in Reuters:  

"The Mexican government is ready to waive 70 percent of a debt worth nearly $500 million Cuba owes it, Finance Minister Luis Videgaray said yesterday, as Mexico seeks to improve ties with thee communist island.     

Speaking on Mexican radio, Videgaray said a loan issued by Mexico's foreign trade development bank Bancomext to Cuba more than 15 years ago had become a debt worth $487 million.    

"Seventy percent of the debt is to be waived," Videgaray said, adding that a formal announcement would be made later.   The rest of the debt will be paid in 10 years, he added."     

So you improve relations with a country by writing off their debts?  I am anxious to hear how Mexicans will react to this "generosity toward Cuba."

I spoke to a couple of friends in Mexico on Sunday and they don't understand this move. 

One businessman said:  "I sell to Cuba and we are down to cash up front before we ship anything."

It makes no sense for Mexico to waive so much Cuban debt.  My guess is that President Pena Nieto is "throwing a big bone" to the left.  As we've reported before, President Pena Nieto has tackled a couple of the left's sacred cows, the teachers' unions and PEMEX, the oil monopoly.

He needs to distract the left and waiving Cuban debt is a good way to do it.

P. S. You can hear my chat with Allan Wall about Mexico here & follow me on Twitter @ scantojr.

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Mexico has an obesity problem too

(My new American Thinker post)

President Pena-Nieto of Mexico has a lot of problems:

a) out of control teachers unions who create traffic jams when anyone challenges their corrupt monopoly;

b) deadly explosions in Michoacan, the new ground zero of the cartel war;

c) importing gasoline from the US because PEMEX does not have enough refineries; and now a new one,

d) a very bad case of obesity in Mexico.

According to news reports, Mexico is fat:

"Seven in 10 adults are either overweight or obese in Mexico, while one-third of the country's children fall in that category, according to official figures.

Mexico now has a higher rate of overweight people than the United States, and it also has the highest prevalence of diabetes among the 34-nation Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development.

Presenting his national strategy to prevent obesity and diabetes, Mr Pena Nieto said the health ministry will open an "observatory" to monitor and respond to the problem."

So he wants Mexicans to walk more and eat less. He wants more exercises and less soda drinks!

My experience in Mexico City is that people spend an inordinate amount of time in their cars, i.e. commuting to and from work. It seems like everybody in the northern part of the city works in the southern areas. It's nothing unusual to spend an hour to go to work! They've added new avenues and toll roads but it's hard to commute in a city of almost 20 million people.

My Mexican friends tell me that they are eating too much "junk food" and canned products. No one seems to make anything fresh anymore. 

One friend told me that Mexicans have become "Americanized."   Frankly, he's got a point when you drive around the large cities and see the same chain restaurants that we have up here, from burgers to pizza to "hot dogs."  It's nothing unusual for Mexicans to "order a pizza" or pick up some burgers on the way home.

President Pena-Nieto is right in speaking this way to his countrymen. They 
consume 43 gallons of "sugary soft drinks" per capita, or the highest rate in the world.

That's a lot of "Coca Cola" with your delicious tacos!.

We wish our Mexican friends the best.  However, the holidays are coming up and "eating and drinking" goes in overdrive this time of the year.  In fact, I never ate more in my life than when I spent holidays in Mexico City!

P.S. You can my chat with Allan Wall here & follow me on Twitter @ scantojr.

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