heady atmosphere, the symbolic importance of Mexico's oil wealth took on a new immediacy. It was widely believed, not only by the general public but even by highly trained experts, that oil would be central to the future development of Mexico's economy, and would even be the fuel which would propel Mexico into economic "takeoff" and the momentous shift from "developing" status to "newly industrialized" status among the world's economies.
But the oil boom faded almost as quickly as it arrived. In the aftermath of boom and bust, Mexico found that it had lost more than it gained from its 1970s era adventures with oil. The frantic pace of oil field development had led to excessive dependence on imports of oil technology, and on the excessive use of debt to fund further development.
Nor was the cost of Mexico's breakneck oil development of the 1970s and early 1980s purely financial. A great though uncertain ecological price was also exacted. A further, also uncertain price was paid in the unbalanced development of Mexico's
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