Bordering on Chaos

Written as a fast-paced narrative, with exclusive interviews from key players - including President Zedillo, former president Salinas, and Subcommander Marcos, the Zapatista guerrilla leader - Bordering on Chaos gives us the inside story of the dramatic events that have shaken Mexico in recent years. From the behind-the-scenes maneuvering on NAFTA to why Clinton fought for a $50 billion Mexican bailout, Bordering on Chaos delivers revelation after revelation: the Mexican government's secret payments to the media and opposition parties; how, when he was a child, Salinas accidentally killed a twelve-year-old maid, and how the story was suppressed; and how President Zedillo may have obscured key parts of his own history. Oppenheimer tells the real story of how Zedillo won the elections, and details a never-disclosed meeting between Salinas and Zedillo in 1995, at which they established the terms of Salinas's voluntary exile. Beyond insights into Mexico's most recent crises, Bordering on Chaos takes a broader look into the country's past and future. Based on secret polls from Mexico's three largest political parties and in-depth interviews with intellectuals such as Nobel laureate Octavio Paz, Oppenheimer shows that Mexico is much more pro-American than generally believed, and suggests that the ruling elite has long used a warped version of Mexico's nationalism to negotiate with Washington. But Oppenheimer sees amid the decay the seeds of a modern democracy in little-noticed phenomena, such as the growing political and economic influence of Mexico's northern states and the emergence of an increasingly vocal civic society.