The Gas-Price Protests Gripping Mexico

Alexis Okeowo wrote for the New Yorker about the gas protests in Mexico:

In the days leading to President Trump’s Inauguration, most eyes in the United States were directed toward the spectacle of his transition, the confirmation process of his dubious appointments, and the drama of his incendiary rhetoric. The same was true for many residents below the southern border, where Mexicans were curious about what the new Administration would mean for their own country. But there was an even more immediate, and important, concern occupying Mexicans’ attention: the mass outcry over the dramatic rise in gas prices, called the gasolinazo, that accompanied the recent privatization of the oil industry. The government of President Enrique Peña Nieto, confronting a weakening currency and rising inflation, removed fuel subsidies in order to conserve funds and attract investment. Prices leaped up twenty per cent, and the country revolted.