Economic reform in Mexico did spark an early revival of growth, but the short-term gains are coming at the cost of the dismantling of the economy and disintegration of the society. Competing imports have displaced entire segments of industry oriented towards the internal market; producers often transform themselves into importers. The plight of rural producers is even more dire; the onslaught against the peasantry has intensified. The apparent beneficiaries of an internationalised economy, such as the assembly operations, the auto and computer industries, the financial intermediaries and tourism, are certainly generating attractive profits for their owners and sizeable volumes of 'non-traditional' exports, but they do not create sufficient employment opportunities to meet the needs of the labour force, nor will they redistribute income since they are tightly controlled by a small financial elite.
