The weekly newsletter of the México Solidarity Project

November 4, 2020/ This week's issue/ Meizhu Lui, for the editorial team

 

The Pluses of Purgatory

 

Are Latinx-Americans who vote in the US shifting right or left? The direction they move will directly impact how much influence we have, as progressives on both sides of the border, on US/México relations and overall US policy toward Latin America.

 

In 2016, nearly one in three Latinx cast their ballots for Trump. Only one out of two voted at all. Some progressive groups sat out that election and focused instead on issue-based campaigns. Both Republicans and Democrats, these groups observed accurately, had pushed policies that forced Latinx from their homes on treks to el norte.

And if grassroots groups do a better job than right-wingers at getting people to the polls, suggests this week’s Reflections, the progressive policy agenda that over 125 diverse organizations put forward earlier this fall might not remain mere pie in the sky. We might even get to take the first steps up that stairway to heaven.

Patricia Mazzei: How has the “Latino vote” changed over the last few decades?

 

Jorge Ramos: There used to be three main groups: Mexican-American, Cuban-American, and Puerto Rican, Today, there are Venezuelans, Guatemalans, Salvadorans, Argentinians, and so on. Before 9/11, the Latino population grew from immigration. Today, it’s births in the US. Younger voters tend to be less conservative than their foreign-born parents.

 

The common wisdom sees immigration policy as the main Latino concern. Is that true?

 

JR: Young US-born Latinos are not as attached to that issue as the first generation. It’s not a lack of interest or a different point of view, but a difference in how important it is to them. For almost all Latinos, their main concerns are the same as for non-Latinos: COVID, jobs, healthcare, education. Immigration may rank number four or five. But a candidate’s view on immigration tells a Latino voter who you are.

 

Carlos Curbelo: Both parties have a Latino problem. Trump is the most anti-immigrant president we’ve had in 50 years, since Operation Wetback. Latinos recoil from his characterizations. But under Obama/Biden, three million undocumented people were deported, and the Democrats’ promise of immigration reform was not kept.

 

JR: Biden has made three important promises: to legalize undocumented people on day 1 of his administration, to protect Dreamers, and to give TPS status to Venezuelans.

 

The Republicans have painted Biden as a socialist. Is that strategy working to pull support away from him?

 

CC: Yes! Obama was hated for opening relations with Cuba. Because Cubans and Venezuelans fled socialist countries and Colombians fled the FARC insurgency, socialism is not an abstraction to them. Biden and Harris laughed at the label at first and were late to recognize that it was working.

 

Many Latinos left home to escape repressive regimes. Democrats have called Trump a “caudillo,” an authoritarian strongman. Doesn’t that scare Latino voters?

 

CC: You can’t compare the mentality of Latin Americans with others in the US. They are used to caudillos in power and have a greater tolerance for undemocratic regimes — as long as those leaders deliver on jobs and the economy.

 

What are the conservative values that appeal to some Latinos?

 

JR: One big issue is abortion. Women voters who may be angry at his disrespect for women will still vote for him because he delivered on an anti-abortion agenda.

 

CC: Trump’s “law and order” message after the Black Lives Matter protests at George Floyd murder also gave him a boost

 

JR: Even though they identify from suffering from the same racism from police.

 

CC: And while Democrats regularly appear in African American churches, it is Republicans who show up in Latino evangelical socially conservative mega-churches, where they find a receptive audience.

 

JR: But let’s not forget that 28 percent voted for Trump in 2016. Overall, it seems he has lost support.

 

What’s the importance now and in the future of the Latino vote?

 

JR: There is no White House without the Latino vote. It is what will determine the outcome in key states. Yet even with the huge numbers of Latino voters, both parties have exhibited the “Columbus syndrome”: discovering Latinos in election years, stumbling through a few words of Spanish, and then neglecting them once the election is over. Latinos first must vote, at far more than the 50 percent rate of eligible voters in 2016 — and then flex their electoral muscle!

In September 2020, over 100 US organizations that work on issues related to Latin America and the Caribbean sent letters to Joe Biden and Donald Trump asking that, if elected, they adopt a new Good Neighbor Policy toward the region based on the principles of non-intervention, cooperation, and mutual respect. The signatories ran the gamut from immigrant, solidarity, and religious groups to advocates for health, peace, and human and labor rights. We highlight here sections of the letter that went to then-candidate Joe Biden. The full text, with a complete list of organizations, appears online.

A Letter to Joe Biden

 

The Monroe Doctrine — asserting U.S. geopolitical control over the region — served as a pretext for over 100 years of military invasions, support for military dictatorships, the financing of security forces involved in mass human rights violations, economic blackmail, and support for coups against democratically elected governments, among other horrors that have caused many Latin Americans and Caribbeans to flee north in search of safety and opportunity.

 

We hope that your administration will adopt a New Good Neighbor Policy and commit to the following:

 

Ending broad economic sanctions

The embargo against Cuba has been a 60-year disaster that has caused countless deaths, cost the Cuban economy billions of dollars, shut U.S. businesses out of an important market, and contributed to deep antipathy towards the US throughout the region and much of the world. More recent sanctions regimes against Venezuela and Nicaragua are also causing widespread human suffering.

 

Militarization policy

There is no justification for U.S. security programs in the region. No national security threat exists and a “war on drugs” is a counterproductive way to deal with a US public health issue that is best addressed through decriminalization and equitable legal regulation. It is time to scale down US “security assistance” and arms sales and remove US military and law enforcement personnel from the region.

 

Ending political interference

Time and time again, the US has sought to shape the outcome of elections to favor its perceived interests. Here at home, we rightly condemn any sort of foreign interference in our own country’s domestic politics and elections, so how can we continue to engage in gross interference in the politics of our neighbors? It is time for the US to respect the political sovereignty of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.

 

Supporting the human rights of all peoples

The US has an important role to play in advocating for human rights, a role that can only be strengthened by ensuring that the US government does not violate human rights in its own territory, on its borders or overseas. Special attention should be paid at home and abroad to the rights of historically excluded communities, including indigenous and Afro-descendant communities, LGBTQ+ individuals, women, and migrants and refugees.

 

Immigration

The next administration must hear the demands for immigrant justice, and implement the following measures: enact a day-one moratorium on all deportations; end mass prosecutions of individuals who cross the border; re-establish asylum procedures at the border; provide an immediate path to citizenship for the Dreamers and for Temporary Protected Status holders; terminate the Muslim Ban; rescind funding for the border wall; rescind the myriad abusive Trump administration’s regulatory changes that have denied basic rights to immigrants; rescind the “zero-tolerance” (family separation) policy and other policies that prioritize migration-related prosecutions; reallocate resources away from immigration enforcement agencies and towards community-based alternatives to detention programs; and end private immigration detention.

 

Trade policy

To help the region develop, the US needs to allow countries to choose their own paths, instead of supporting external institutions that claim to support development while actually serving the interests of corporations and global finance.

 

The principles of non-intervention and non-interference, mutual respect, acceptance of our differences, and working together for the common good could form the foundation of a New Good Neighbor policy that would allow the U.S. to restore peace and make a positive contribution to the well-being of people throughout the hemisphere.

Recent news reports and commentaries, from progressive and mainstream media,
on life and struggles on both sides of the US-México border

 

Ernesto Londoño, Biden’s Plans for Latin America: End ‘Bully Dictating Policy,’ New York Times. No mention of México in this analysis, but salient on Central America.

 

Owen Dyer, Covid-19: México acknowledges 50,000 more deaths than official figures show, BMJ. México has now lost more than 1 in 1,000 citizens to the virus, a rate that so far only Peru and San Marino have officially topped.

 

David Bacon, Building a Culture of Solidarity, Foreign Policy in Focus. Cooperation between US and Mexican workers requires more than solidarity between unions facing the same employer. Also required: solidarity in resisting neoliberal reforms like privatization.

 

Vanda Felbab-Brown, Not Dried Up: US-Mexico Water Cooperation, La Reforma México Today. The myriad problems that stem from long-standing water overuse in the Rio Grande basin require major changes to preserve a vital ecosystem and prevent the systematic smuggling of water that plagues nations that range from Pakistan to Brazil.

 

Eli Rosenberg, Trump administration settles with Latino farm activists who said they were targeted over political work, Washington Post. The US Department of Homeland Security has agreed to distribute a memo about how the First Amendment protects undocumented workers from getting targeted for political speech.

 

Martha Pskowski, Mexico’s Fracking Impasse, NACLA. With oil and gas prices low, advocates push AMLO to follow through on his promise to ban fracking.

 

Mary Beth Sheridan, Violent criminal groups are eroding Mexico’s authority and claiming more territory, New York Times. This disturbing overview only hints at the ties between gangs and corrupt PRI and PAN party stalwarts.

 

Peter Davies, Embassy intervened to stop arrest of sexual predator, Milenio. Officials at the US Embassy intervened to stop the arrest of a former embassy employee.

 

ICE Sued for Records on Forced Sterilizations at Georgia Immigration Jail, Democracy Now. The immigrant rights organization Project South is suing Immigration and Customs Enforcement for failing to turn over records of nonconsensual medical procedures performed on immigrant prisoners.

 

Mexico expresses ‘profound discontent’ to US over Cienfuegos case, México News Daily. US officials kept México in the dark over plans to arrest the corrupt former defense chief.

 

¿Dónde están los padres de 545 niños inmigrantes separados en la frontera de EU hace tres años? La Jornada. Un abogado de la ACLU señaló que la separación de los niños de sus padres "es lo peor" que ha visto en tres décadas de lucha por los derechos humanos.

The Mexico Solidarity Project brings together activists from various socialist and left organizations and individuals committed to worker and global justice who see the 2018 election of Andrés Manuel López Obrador as president of México as a watershed moment. AMLO and his progressive Morena party aim to end generations of corruption, impoverishment, and subservience to US interests. Our Project supports not just Morena, but all Mexicans struggling for basic rights, and opposes US efforts to undermine organizing and México’s national sovereignty. 

 

Editorial committee: Meizhu Lui, Bruce Hobson, Bill Gallegos, Sam Pizzigati. We welcome your suggestions and feedback. Interested in getting involved? Drop us an email!

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