Soc Paper

Soc

The first reported case of AIDS was found in Los Angeles and became more prevalent amongst the gay community and drug users in urban areas. However, this virus has rapidly gone beyond the United States and has spread to places all over the world, including Mexico. According to the Global Report of 2010, it is estimated that Mexico has somewhere between 8,800 and 21,000 newly infected adults and children. A neoliberal government and economy has been imposed on Mexico and has left many citizens impoverished and jobless. As a result, Mexico has been invaded with a lot of violence, including drug wars and femicides. Due to poverty and unemployment in Mexico, many females usually turn to sex work while many men get involved with drug cartels in order to make a living. Female sex workers and women in Mexico are constantly facing violence from men, which increases the risk of getting HIV. Migration between Mexico and the United States is also a factor that contributes to the spread of HIV, especially because in the border there seems to be a network of drug use and paid sex. In this paper, I will examine the political and economic dimensions of Mexico, the traditional gender relations, as well as how Mexico has responded to the epidemic in order to illustrate how AIDS has been framed in Mexico.

Throughout the past decades, a neoliberal structured government has flourished in Mexico. Neoliberalism can be defined as the practice of ruling people that intersects with the aspirations of individuals with market demands (Hofmann, 2013), so the government puts the needs of production business before the needs of the people. The neoliberal structure of the government and economy has resulted in poverty, leaving many of the citizens impoverished and unemployed (Wright, 2011). The governmental structures imposed on Mexico play a significant role in AIDS as well as violence against women that is very prevalent in Mexico. As a result of neoliberal policies and...