MEXICO: Big Wind

A cyclone struck Mexico’s west coast. Another roared up the rainy Gulf, obliterating tropical Tuxtepec, near Vera Cruz. Thousands of refugees took refuge in treetops. Over hundreds of bodies flocks of buzzards wheeled. Banana and corn crops were destroyed.

In Mexico City, it was announced that the storm had broken the oil pipeline from Tampico in four places. That meant further gasoline restriction. As people queued up to use Mexico City’s crippled bus service (there were already block-long queues for kerosene, charcoal, corn), nervous politicos held their breath, wondered if the storm had dealt the country’s groggy economic system a knockout punch.

Mexicans are a durable people. But their living costs have risen 150% in four years. They blamed their rulers. When the government persuaded them to cook with kerosene instead of charcoal, they quipped: “If we cooked with electricity they would find a way of having us queue up for current.” In recent weeks there had been riots.

Hinting at one root of the trouble. Senator Vidal Diaz Muñoz last week shouted to the Mexican Senate: “Speculators must be given the death penalty!”