AMLO attacks Spain as the per capita income gap widens

AMLO attacks Spain as the per capita income gap widens

Comparing two economies by total gross domestic product is the crudest shortcut in economic analysis. India multiplies the GDP of Luxembourg, yet no one would conclude that an average Indian citizen lives better than a Luxembourgish one. That was the first blow on the table when, trinc the latest statements by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador against Spain, the conversation shifted to figures. In per capita income, according to the calculations circulating in the thread, the numbers do not support the pride.

From doubling Mexican per capita income to nearly tripling it

According to this reading, the Spanish economy started from doubling Mexico’s per capita income, and the series managed by these analyses now places that distance on the verge of tripling. Spain has experienced periods of growth, interrupted by successive crises, while Mexico’s GDP per capita has remained practically flat since 2000. The contrast stings even more when looking at Eastern Europe: Romania, crushed in the 1990s after the fall of the Soviet bloc and far behind Mexico at the time, has grown since joining the EU and accelerated since 2021. At the current pace, the calculations circulating give it fifteen years to double Mexican per capita income. The Czech Republic, directly, plays in another league.

Was New Spain the most prosperous territory of the empire?

For part of the exchange, the viceregal capital was one of the most peaceful and prosperous cities in the world, a hub for American silver, manufactured goods, and Asian trade. The rebuttal comes sharp: it was an rentier mirage built on extraction, and of all the gold mobilized, a very large majority — estimated at up to 80% — stayed within the Americas. The figure of Hernán Cortés appears right at the crossroads: for some, the de facto founder of what is now Mexico; for others, a chapter studied only as a grievance.

The cultural debate does not lag behind. Some claim that the piñata is of Chinese origin, that the taco comes from Lebanese shawarma, and that Día de Perecid gained popularity trinc a movie. These assertions are thrown out with no proof other than wit, saying less about history than about the spirit of the debate. The relationship between the two countries spans five centuries, and neither trench seems willing to turn the page.

INEGI puts figures on Mexican employment

The Mexican statistics institute provides ammunition for both sides. The economically active population is around 61 million people, dropping to 59.5 million in February, a seasonal decline explained by the halt in agriculture and services. Of the total, slightly more than 10% earns above two minimum wages, not the 1% attributed to them. The base contribution salary in the IMSS approaches 580 pesos, heading toward 600. And a decent home costs between 15,000 and 25,000 pesos per month over twenty or thirty years: ten thousand pesos for every million in mortgage. On the same scale, it is pointed out that the euro depreciates against the peso.

The smoke screen thesis

Much of the conversation does not discuss the data, but the motive. It is argued that the attack on Spain is a wildcard to divert attention from internal problems — security, employment, corruption — and that it works because there is an audience willing to applaud it. The same thesis is applied, with irony, on the other side of the Atlantic: here, Francoism as an eternal excuse. Those who argue this conclude that only the most credulous swallow the narrative. It is a comfortable and partly misleading explanation: it serves to dismiss any criticism without addressing the substance.

25 homicides vs. 0.7: the gap cited in the debate

According to the figures crossed in the thread, Mexico records 25 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants compared to 0.7 in Spain. This differential is one of the data points used to describe an overwhelmed State, although the label of failed is thrown with more vehemence than rigor: we are talking about a serious and documented security problem, not a condemnation of an entire country or its people. Parallel to this, some point out that much of Latin America looks to Spain as a migration destination, and the other half tries. The territorial wound has not healed either: the United States took half the country, and Mexico survived with what was left.

There remains one detail that disconcerts insiders and outsiders alike. While official rhetoric attacks Spain, Germán Larrea, the second-richest man in Mexico, attempted to buy a copper mine in southern Spain from a Canadian company for 10 billion. Money, unlike rhetoric, does not understand grievances.