The Mexico Incident — Norman Kelley

In 1992, Mexico was undergoing a radical inflationary spiral that resulted in the devaluation of the peso. Americans in Mexico profited from this situation with their uninflated dollars. The resulting situation made products and homes cheap for Americans but impossible for Mexicans, causing lawlessness that approached anarchy in some resort cities. The Mexico Incident chronicles the human fallout from the financial crisis. Air Travel is halted in Puerto Vallarta, remedied initially by U.S. Air Force assistance, and then by the U.S. Navy. While largely successful, a naval confrontation, the US vs.Mexico, halts all evacuations, creates an international incident and abandons a small group of Americans. Two of these Americans, Tony Ward and Mike Genard attempt a treacherous overland trip to Guadalajara. Meanwhile, the Mexican government makes plans with American authorities to apprehend the radical group creating most of the problems. However, the escape by these radicals is coincidentally identical to the route of Ward and Genard as they make their trek to freedom. That accidental route ends in a military response to atrocities in the small colonial town of San Sebastian, high in the Sierra Madre Mountains. The U.S. President and his cabinet begin negotiations with Mexico, shifting a small action turning into an international fiasco. The novel brings into play ordinary Americans caught in the grip of chaos, the disenfranchised Mexicans, an international wire service news organization, the U.S. Navy, the U.S Marines and Mexican special forces, and controversial meetings in the oval office. This is a fast moving and complex integration of these many forces.