What the hell is going on in Mexico???

via BBC

Cities across Mexico have seen days of rioting after the government announced a hike in the price of petrol.
Hundreds of shops were looted and the government says 1,500 people have been arrested.
Soldiers and police officers were sent in to deal with the riots, and some groups of people have armed themselves.
At least six people have died in the unrest.

Ok this is two days old and since I was occupied this weekend I had no visibility on this.  A gas hike got this type of response?  Check this out from CNN.

A hefty government gas price hike is fueling protests, looting and road blockades in Mexico.
Authorities arrested more than 250 people for robbery and acts of vandalism around the country this week, officials said.
Some protests have been peaceful.

The pics from this are ... wild ... correction they're typical rioting nonsense...

 What is my take?  I don't have one.  I note that they pay a metric (literally) shit ton for a litre of gas...it went from 12 to 14 pesos. I'm not gonna look up the exchange rate to see what that is in dollars but doesn't it matter...average folks are being paid in pesos so it gonna hurt I imagine.

What does have me spinning is the thought that Mexico is this fragile.  I know they have an ongoing Narco-terrorism problem but I didn't think that a 20% hike in gas prices would spark this type of reaction.

I WAS ONCE a doubter in the need for a Southern Command but not anymore.  S. America is a tinder box waiting to go off.  Unfortunately the solution isn't a military one...not even when it comes to terrorism/insurgents/drug traffickers...the problem is economic!

American NGOs need to quickly pivot from the Middle East nonsense that is more a European concern to S. America which will affect the homeland directly.

Mexico is the tip of the iceberg and if they go the way of Venezuela then we're gonna need to deploy a couple of divisions on the border...if Mexico goes under then that means a whole lot of other S. American countries have already sunk.