SAYULA DE ALEMAN, Mexico — From the roadside stand in this muggy stretch of southern Mexico where Carmelo Morrugares sells coconuts for a living, the 45-year-old father of three says he can see his country changing for the better.
There's his pay, which has doubled from $5 to $10 daily thanks to a series of minimum-wage hikes. And there are the hefty welfare payments that his elderly father and student daughter now receive from the government.
Then there's the highway itself, repaved amid a boom of fresh investment across the impoverished south.
