The year 2009 was arguably the worst year of economic downturn in Mexico since the onset of the Great Depression of the 1930s. Mexico's GDP fell by an estimated 6.5% last year, an economic collapse that was consistently downplayed by the country's political and economic elite. When Mexican President Felipe Calderón asserts, as he often does, that this crisis was caused by “external” forces and factors, he is dead wrong: As the great recession of 2009 showed so clearly, Mexico has become an appendage of the U.S. economy.

This article originally appeared in the July/August 2010 edition of NACLA Report on the Americas.