Mexico's gasoline protests are a symptom of a bigger crisis plaguing the country

REUTERS/Edgard Garrido In the past few weeks Mexico haswitnessedan unprecedented spike in social violence caused by gasoline shortages and a 14 to 24-percent rise in prices. This increase, officially justified with the phasing-out of government subsidies, is a hard blow on Mexico's poor, who constitute 50 percent of the population. The fuel shortages come as Mexicans have been facing gradual decreases in purchasing power owing to price inflation of the most basic basket of goods and services nee...