Occasionally I see one of George Friedman's reports from Stratfor in San Antonio, Texas. George has made the point several times that the always large Russian Embassy staff in Mexico City is reactivating or beefing up covert activities within Mexico. This not so much to harm Mexico as a priority but to create background difficulties for the U.S. which they see us doing to them in the former Baltic and Slavic soviet states. The cozier Russian relations with Venezuela and Cuba, which may actually have toned down a bit now again due to the crude oil collapse, are also for the same reason, and both Mexican and Venezuelan/Cuban plans are likely tied together in ways I won't go into at this time.
As you all may know, there is a steady and fairly heavy exodus of middle and upper class Mexicans into south Texas and elsewhere in the US due to the Kidnapping War in Mexico. South Texas is favored by middle class Mexican commercial people because of nearness to home and low real estate prices. A lot of both residential and commercial property has been bought up by these refugees, and they are putting down roots. The refugees are heartily welcomed by Texas.
I remember in earlier domestic crises that wealthier Mexicans flocked to San Diego and bought up huge swaths of high rise condos in Coronado and elsewhere. I'm not sure where they are going now. But a very high profile refugee may be making his own exit plans. Carlos Slim, said to be the second wealthiest man in the world, has been buying New York Times stock in the past year and is reportedly negotiating a very big deal for preferred stock and warrants (or convertibles) which could on eventual conversion give him up to one- third ownership of the Times which is in financial distress. The Ochs and Sulzberger families own the Times through various special voting rights shares, but would probably not mind having Slim on board as they share some common interests and he has the money.
I bring this up because it is very reminiscent of Rupert Murdoch's pre-exodus planning when he was leaving Australia to re-locate in the US. Murdoch bought and/or put together what is now the Fox Network and other media outlets. It's a brilliant strategy to buy some influential media for several reasons. Self-promoting public relations, of course, is a major reason to own media no matter who or where you are. But it also gives the wealthy and powerful immigrant some leverage in his new environment for all sorts of endeavors. Slim already has other assets here including Southern Copper which is headquartered in Arizona, and he would like to get back Asarco which he lost in bankruptcy court in El Paso, Texas after putatively having run it into the ground, keeping its best assets for Grupo Mexico, another Slim treasure. This might be another reason to have good friends at the New York Times.
In any event, if Slim is coming to America, and I am only guessing at this point that he is, this is not a good sign for Mexico. It would mean that the game is up, and that the Mexican Kidnapping War is growing ever more dangerous and possibly reaching end stage. If the world's second richest man is wary, we'd all better be wary of Mexico's on-going war. It might put a crimp in NAFTA, and the famous Ross Perot "sucking sound" might be reversed from southbound to northbound.
Also the persistent sinking of the Mexican peso versus the US dollar even during the prime tourist season suggest that something is not quite normal south of the border.
(The Russian attempts to discredit Ukraine and intimidate Western Europe over gas supplies may have failed this week, but they do not normally go away quietly or gently.)
