Cancun is not my cup of tea, but boy is it an incredible success story of engineering: the Mexican government engineered a tourist hotspot custom-built to attract American dollars, from a place that had nothing in 5 short years.
In the late 60s, Mexico ran a huge trade deficit with the US. They were industrializing rapidly, importing machinery and materials that had to be paid for in dollars. Tourism offered a solution, a way to earn foreign currency using assets Mexico already had: beaches, climate, and ancient ruins.
They actually spent months building a computer model, feeding data to an IBM 360 to analyze Mexico’s entire coastline, evaluating climate, beach quality, accessibility, and development costs. The computer selected Cancun #1, a remote sandbar that had a population of 3 people during the 1970 census. The 2nd option was Ixtapa.
Cancuns location was perfect: turquoise water, white sand, ideal weather, and proximate to all of the eastern seaboard, the largest concentration of Americans enduring brutal winters and seeking affordable beach escapes.
Hawaii was already popular for folks on the west coast but Cancun offered what Hawaii couldn’t: a winter getaway without the 12+ hour flight, and a much cheaper experience.
The Caribbean location and dry season from November to April aligned perfectly with when East Coasters most desperately wanted sun.
The government invested over $100 million in infrastructure, building an international airport, roads, utilities, and dredging lagoons. They built the hotel zone for foreigners and downtown Cancun for workers, all in 5 years
They marketed Cancun aggressively to Americans, positioning it as a safe, convenient Caribbean alternative with better prices than anywhere else. Hotels catered explicitly to American tastes with English-speaking staff, American brands (Hyatt, Hilton etc) familiar food options, and all-inclusive packages.
The genius was creating a place where Americans could feel like they’d “been to Mexico” without experiencing much of Mexico at all - you could go to a Hilton, speak English, eat burgers and hot dogs, pay in dollars, but get to say you went abroad.
At the time, “going abroad" was often seen as something for the wealthy or the adventurous. For many Americans, especially those from the interior who don’t travel internationally often (as you see on the map) a Cancun vacation counts as cultural exploration, a stamp in the passport that feels adventurous while remaining completely comfortable and affordable. You didn’t need a passport to go there until 2007, which was helpful too.
The whole thing worked brilliantly, beyond their expectations. They started the project in 1970 and welcomed the first guest in 1975. By 1980, Cancun had grown to a half million tourists and a population of 34,000 supporting tourism.
Cancun is EXACTLY what Mexico designed it to be: a dollar-extraction machine that turns American desire for easy, safe “foreign” travel into billions of dollars flowing to Mexico.
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This story from the New York Times in 1972 was a good read: Mexico had a young Harvard-trained head of INFRATUR spearheading the program
https://t.co/YbcQroXxTP
I’m being called a National Socialist because I want an immigration moratorium and more efficient public services.
I just want the populist Right and Left to work together to put America First instead of the center Right and Left working together for the oligarchy.
Sudan has been mentioned at literally every Palestinian protest I’ve been to. We stand in solidarity with everyone facing genocide.
It was also the first genocide I ever donated money to fighting against, back in 2007.
The reason I don’t talk about it as often as I talk about Palestine, is because it’s not being paid for by politicians I voted for, with my tax dollars, in the name of my family’s religion.
When my country is committing a genocide, I believe I have a moral obligation to speak out against it.
You need leverage to make a difference. And we have leverage with our vote and collective direct action locally. I have no leverage for Sudan.
3 days ago Trump said, “I appreciate that Israel has temporarily stopped the bombing in order to give the Hostage release and Peace Deal a chance to be completed.“
Since then, Israel has done 230 air strikes, killing at least 118 Palestinians.
Trump's 20 point plan: "3. If both sides agree to this proposal, the war will immediately end. Israeli forces will withdraw"
Netanyahu: "No way, that's not happening"
Israel has violated every ceasefire agreement for decades. Netanyahu is literally saying in advance that he will not honor the deal.
https://t.co/3dFbEc99XE
Tucker Carlson said that Charlie Kirk told him at a TPUSA Student Action Summit last July to highlight Epstein’s connections to Mossad.
Distinguishing between Netanyahu and the State of Israel, Carlson claimed that Kirk hated Netanyahu and his war against Gaza despite loving Israel, and that Kirk was “tormented” until the day he died by Zionist donors for platforming Carlson at his event.
Two days before Kirk’s death, Carlson revealed that Kirk lost a $2 million donation for pledging to platform him at TPUSA’s December AmericaFest conference.
Follow: @AFpost
After 47 years, Jerry has made the difficult decision to step down from the company we built together. I’m sharing his words as he resigns from Ben & Jerry’s. His legacy deserves to be true to our values, not silenced by @MagnumGlobal#FreeBenAndJerrys
I was that guy. For the record, I’m the grandson of Holocaust survivors. 56 members of my family were exterminated. Today, Israel is killing women and children in my name. So yeah, Free Palestine from Israel’s genocide and apartheid. Also, @GadSaad is a massive snowflake, wow!
For years, I have been pestered by Patrick Bet-David to be on his show & declined (more or less politely).
My fraud detector has rarely any false negative, in other words determining someone is a fraud when he is not (though I have made the opposite mistake of missing a fraud).
@harris_actual @avidseries Cuomo is lying. His apartment isn’t rent controlled, it’s rent stabilized. And $2,300 is for a one bedroom is barely below market price in Astoria lmao.
Global Sumud Flotilla is sending boats w/ aid to Gaza
Decentralized, lots of small boats, supported by independent groups across the globe
Legal under int. maritime law
Illegal for Israel to interfere
I just gave $500. Please consider donating 🙏
https://t.co/N2AYnxnR9Y
Yesterday I spoke to a Christian pastor from Gaza.
There are children starving.
And Christians have been killed and injured, as well as many innocent people.
If you are an American Christian, this should be absolutely unacceptable to you.
Just as we said that Hamas killing and kidnapping innocent people on Oct 7th is absolutely unacceptable.
Are innocent Israeli lives more valuable than innocent Palestinian and Christian lives?
And why should America continue funding this?
The secular government of nuclear armed Israel has proven that they are beyond capable of dealing with their enemies and are capable of and are in the process of systematically cleansing them from the land.
Most Americans that I know don’t hate Israel and we are not antisemitic at all.
We are beyond fed up with being told that we have to fix the world’s problems, pay for the world’s problems, and fight all the world’s wars while Americans are struggling to survive even though they work everyday.
And many of us, even though we are Christians, no longer want to fund and fight nuclear armed secular Israel’s wars especially when it leads to starving children and killing innocent people including Christians.
Of course we are against radical Islamic terrorism, but we are also against genocide.
You see..
When you have worked your entire life, and will only receive a $1,000 Social Security check, but noncitizens were given $3,500 and more, you are pissed off.
When you have worked your entire life, and all your elected federal officials have recklessly spent and sent your hard earned money to every foreign country and every foreign war and NGO to the point we are almost $40 TRILLION in debt and inflation has caused life to be unaffordable, you are pissed off.
When you have worked your entire life, and your elected federal government officials refuse to fix the absurd problems that makes all insurance unaffordable, you are pissed off.
And for the younger generations, who are trying their hardest to make it in this ridiculous system, they feel hopeless!
And that makes me burn with anger.
None of this is antisemitic and I, along with millions of Americans, refuse that manipulative label.
It’s the consequences of decades of America LAST policies, nonstop foreign intervention, and the American people clearly seeing the truth and suffering.
Here is where I stand.
No American should face persecution of any kind because of their identity.
Not Jewish American.
Not Muslim American.
Not Christian American.
Not White, Black, Asian, Hispanic, mixed American.
And on and on.
We already have hate crime laws against that and that’s not who we are in America and we have and should continue to work hard to not allow ourselves to become that.
My position is this.
As a U.S. Representative, I represent the American people.
My full focus is on fixing America’s problems.
And right now, the problems in America are threatening my children’s future.
I consider that a war against my children.
Every single person, no matter who they are that continues to enslave my children in debt, continues policies that make their lives unaffordable, and prioritizes foreign countries and foreign wars above my children’s lives and livelihoods, I see as the enemy waging the war against my children and their generation.
I will continue to push for world peace because that is the type of world I want for my children and all the world’s children.
I want America to put American companies and American jobs first and to protect American land and American homes from foreign consumption.
Most importantly, I demand the federal government serve the American people, who pay your salaries.
September 30th brings another annual government funding deadline.
I sincerely hope Republicans, out on August recess right now, will return in September with a renewed focus to stop funding foreign wars and stop waging the fiscal war against my children and their entire generation.
Gen Z was pushed into tech. They were told that if they went that path, they would be set. That dream was stolen by imported labor and outsourcing. This is going to boil over. They aren't going to allow their future to be stolen quietly.