The weekly newsletter of the México Solidarity Project

Every issue archived online at mexicosolidarityproject.org

February 14, 2024/ This week’s issue/ Meizhu Lui, for the editorial team

Bury 200 Years of the Monroe Doctrine!

Crowds backing exiled president Aristide pursued US marines, March 8, 2004, shouting “You kidnapped our president!” 

Deposed Haitian president and priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide states in his book, In the Parish of the Poor, that the story behind Haiti's dire situation “begins with guns.” In 1990, similarly to Mexico’s Lopez Obrador in 2018, the people elected Aristide president in Haiti’s first honest election, winning 67% of the popular vote. After several twists and turns, he returned to the presidency in 2000. But in 2004, he was ousted in a coup, probably orchestrated by the US.

The history of Latin American countries is liberally peppered with US interventions in their internal affairs. The Monroe Doctrine, first articulated in 1823, laid the foundation for the exploitative relationship between the US and the rest of the Americas for 200 years. And it’s not over.

When president Lopez Obrador asserted that Mexico has a right to control its energy sector — oil, gas, and lithium — to benefit the people, and pronounced a ban on imported GMO corn in the interest of public health, corporations howled in protest. The US government has contested Mexico’s sovereignty, filing legal challenges under the USMCA.

Like Lopez Obrador, Aristide knew it was necessary to focus on the poor. And such was the terrible legacy of the Monroe Doctrine that Haiti’s people were not just living in poverty — they were living in misery. He avowed that the first advance necessary would simply be to lift his people “from misery to poverty with dignity.” 

Human rights activist Teri Mattson argues that it’s high time for the US to bury the Monroe Doctrine and to replace it with a good neighbor policy. Can the US put its guns away and approach its neighbors with open hands?

Announcing the New Mexico Solidarity Media!

Watch brief testimonials from international supporters of the latest Mexico Solidarity Project effort!

Don’t miss an issue! Sign up for a free México Solidarity Bulletin subscription.

The Expanding US Monroe Doctrine

Spain first defeated and colonized the Indigenous civilizations of Latin America in the 1500s. When the US became a nation in 1776, what was their stance toward Latin America?

From the beginning, the US plotted to acquire the vast areas south and west of its borders. In 1786 Thomas Jefferson was asked why the US shouldn’t help the Spanish colonies gain their own independence. He replied by letter that he saw Spain’s rule as a holding action until the day the US was big and powerful enough to populate it and “gain it from (Spain) piece by piece.”

After roughly 50 years, the US saw its chance. Mexico freed itself from Spanish rule in 1821 — and the US quickly established its political and economic dominance over the new nation. Two years later President James Monroe announced the Monroe Doctrine. 

Monroe said the US would safeguard newly independent Latin American countries from foreign meddling. They would halt the Spanish coming up from the south and Russian expansion coming down from the north along what was then Mexico’s Pacific Coast. Russia owned Alaska, and it had already expanded its fur trade all the way down to what today is Sonoma County. 

So, allegedly, the intent of the Monroe Doctrine was to keep foreign powers out of this hemisphere, not about the right of the US to intervene in Latin American affairs?

In 1885 the Olney Corollary stated that the US could intervene in any dispute between a Latin American country and a foreign power. The British owned Guyana which neighbored Venezuela, and both countries laid claim to territory between them. The US stepped in and forced Britain to agree to the US as arbiter.

The US resolved the dispute in the name of Venezuela, but not for Venezuela — all US decisions were about what was best for US capitalists. The recent conflict between Venezuela and Guyana over the oil-rich Essequibo region has roots in that US-designed Treaty.

In 1902 the Roosevelt Corollary said that the US has the right to intervene in the internal affairs of a Latin American country if it failed to pay its debts. And in 1912, the Lodge Corollary proclaimed that the US had a right to intervene even in matters involving private interests, not just national governments. Mexico was planning to sell Magdalena Bay to private Japanese interests; the US stepped in and stopped the sale. 

In the 20th century, the US intervened repeatedly. Between 1962 and 1968 alone, it played a role in 14 coup d’états in Latin America. When military interventions become less acceptable after Vietnam and Chile, the tool of economic sanctions was invented. NGO’s also play a role — under the guise of “humanitarian” aid, many dollars have been channeled to pro-US organizations and against democratically elected governments. This is happening in Mexico today.

In opposition to the Monroe Doctrine, Simón Bolívar had a different vision for the hemisphere, right?

Venezuelan Simón Bolívar’s original mission was to liberate Latin America from Spanish rule. Between 1810 and 1825 he led the revolutions that established Venezuela, Panama, New Granada, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia as independent countries. No wonder he is revered across Latin America. There are more statues of Bolívar than of anyone else in the world! 

The Army of Simón Bolívar in battle

After liberation from Spain, the Bolivarian vision proposed a united bloc of independent Latin America nations against US dominance. The goal was to establish equilibrium between equal sovereign nations to achieve sustainable peace. Haiti was the first nation in Latin America to gain independence in 1804, and it financed Bolívar’s armies — there would be no slavery in the new Latin American republics.

Did Mexico’s presidents support the Bolivarian vision?

Many of the PRI governments did the bidding of the US and allowed the exploitation of Mexican natural and labor resources in exchange for the personal gain of the presidents and top officials.

Under his leadership, the September 2021 CELAC Summit laid out some fundamentals: abolish the OAS and create a new institution, without the inclusion of the US. The new alliance would accept the differences among themselves in regard to domestic politics — the goal was to align with one another and function internationally as their own united economic bloc, without having to choose between US or China.

Can the Monroe Doctrine finally be buried? 

If we review the many Presidential and legislative elections in Latin America from October 2020 (Bolivia) through November 2023 (Argentina), the people of most nations voted for national sovereignty, natural resource sovereignty, and governments that proposed economic plans benefitting the majority of citizens. As an election observer in Bolivia, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Venezuela, Chile, and Mexico, I’ve witnessed the people reject the Monroe Doctrine.

But while the Mexican people and their president want sovereignty, they also share a 1900-mile border with the US. They are the US’s biggest trading partner. The Monroe Doctrine won’t be buried until the people of the US demand a change in foreign policy. 

This is a key task for the US left. If we want sustainable peace across the hemisphere, the Bolivarian principles of equality and respect must replace dominance and disdain.

Stories about AMLO — Readers Beware

The piece/A February 1 piece by The Hill reporter Rafael Bernal — "Reports of drug money in Mexican politics shake up relations with US” — summarizes other outlets’ reporting of unproven, 13-year-old allegations that AMLO’s 2006 presidential campaign took drug traffickers’ money, promising them protection once in office.

The claim/According to Bernal, Drug Enforcement Agency officials closed the 2011 inquiry — months before the 2012 presidential election, and AMLO’s second bid — because the likely winner, the PRI’s Enrique Peña Nieto, seemed ambivalent about the DEA’s activities in Mexico. They were concerned that a criminal investigation targeting AMLO might jeopardize US-Mexico security cooperation. The piece mentions no other factor behind the decision to close the case.

The back story/Bernal’s article cites reporting by ProPublica, InSight Crime and Deutsche Welle (DW) — "three distinct reports” that tell “essentially the same story.” All three outlets mention the DEA’s political considerations that factored into the decision to close the case. 

But their stories do differ on one fundamental point.

Bernal’s piece omits the fact that both ProPublica and InSight Crime make clear that DEA investigators believed that their informants’ allegations and the agency’s follow-up detective work had failed to produce solid evidence criminally implicating key figures in AMLO’s 2006 campaign.

Bernal, on the other hand, takes the thesis forwarded in the (Spanish-language) DW piece by Mexican journalist Anabel Hernández, in which she writes that the DEA had indeed established “solid evidence” of criminal wrongdoing. Without evidence backing her own claims, she goes as far as describing a phone call allegedly made by AMLO in 2006 thanking a Sinaloa Cartel operative for the funds.

The bottom line/Notwithstanding her longtime reputation as a muckraking journalist and author of well-researched books on organized crime, Hernández’s DW columns in recent years have taken on a sensationalistic quality that puts shock and awe over analysis and, most importantly, the citation of sources. (In an interview to discuss her piece, Hernández said she would name her sources at a later date.)

While the DW piece has been ridiculed for becoming the latest example of yellow journalism, Bernal decided to use its unsubstantiated assertions and to cherry-pick from the three outlets’ reporting. This is a reminder (along with Hernández’s latest career twist) to news consumers to remain vigilant and to hold media outlets accountable, no matter their past work or established reputations.

Trump Promises Ethnic Cleansing

OHN MOORE/GETTY IMAGES (Barbed wire along the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass, Texas)

The agenda of Donald Trump and the Republican Right isn’t hidden. Their neo-fascist theocratic social movement openly controls the Republican Party. Last week, Trump released a comprehensive political program, a wish list of of ethnic cleansing policies aimed mostly at brown people, meant to secure and institutionalize white minority rule. 

First, he would deport en masse the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, the great majority of whom are Mexican, but who also include Central Americans, Cubans, Venezuelans, Haitians, Chinese, Muslims, and others.

The New York Times on November 11th gave us a chilling description of the plan: “To help speed mass deportations, Mr. Trump is preparing an enormous expansion of a form of removal that does not require due process hearings, and by building massive deportation camps to house the millions of immigrants and refugees they plan to remove from the U.S.” 

To help Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) carry out sweeping raids, he will reassign other federal agents and deputize local police officers and National Guard soldiers voluntarily contributed by Republican-run states. 

His agenda includes ending the DACA/Dreamers program, and dismantling the Temporary Protected Status Program, which provides refuge for hundreds of thousands of people fleeing systemic violence or natural disasters. 

Moreover, Trump promises to end the Constitutionally protected birthright citizenship for babies born in the US to undocumented parents and will stop issuing Social Security cards and passports to these citizens. Freedom of speech? He has also promised to cancel the visas of international students who participated in pro-Palestinian activities.

Trump’s plan assumes broad judicial support from the reactionary Supreme Court majority and the hundreds of federal judges he appointed during his first administration.

And all this is but one example of the chilling dystopic program of the MAGA/New Confederacy, represented primarily by the Republican Party.

What Is To Be Done?

Who — besides we Chicanos whose families and communities will reel from the impact — should be sounding the alarm? Those who oppose US support for genocide in Palestine should also worry about the real possibility of ethnic cleansing right here in the USA. 

Labor can lead, to protect the many brown undocumented workers within labor’s ranks. The Black movement knows what white supremacist rule means and can turn up the volume on their solidarity with their brown brothers and sisters. The women’s movement can step up, since the vast majority of those who will feel the impact of Trump’s massive deportation campaign will be women and their children.

Progressives in US social movements must join together to demand a response to Trump’s threats from the Biden Administration. We must ask for immediate denunciation of the Trump program, and a commitment to create residency and work options for refugees and asylum seekers while the authorities process their cases, maintenance of DACA, and an accessible path to citizenship for undocumented residents.

Left unity in the US is more important than ever for developing a strategy to stop the New Confederacy from implementing ethnic cleansing. For those confused leftists and progressives (are you listening, Cornel West and Jill Stein?), it should be clear that this neo-fascist right-wing movement represents the greatest threat to any semblance of democracy, equity, and social justice and must be defeated for our survival.

It has also never been more important to build cross-border solidarity between the Mexican and US social movements. Trump's policies would produce disastrous effects on the peoples of both countries.

Basta! Enough! No to whitening our nation!

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

Isabella Cota and Macarena Vidal Liy, Mexico surpasses China as main exporter to the US for first time since 2002 El País. “The current opinion among companies in Mexico is that they can indeed grow and they will. There is a definite change in sentiment within Mexico in terms of what they can and will do. This sentiment is a significant change and the country is taking the momentum to fill the void and lead in this space.”

Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, El imperialismo de la “guerra contra el narco” Sin Embargo. “La retórica estadounidense del ‘narcoestado’ y la declaración de guerra contra los cárteles mexicanos -que se reviven con fuerza en tiempos electorales en la Unión Americana- resultan muy perjudiciales para México y los mexicanos, al tiempo que alimentan la idea de la intervención estadounidense, incluso militar, en territorio mexicano”.

Mexico Goodyear workers win $4.2 million back pay in US labor rights challenge Reuters. A remediation plan for Goodyear's San Luis Potosi factory, which employs about 1,150 workers making vehicle tires, was agreed in July by Goodyear, and the U.S. and Mexican governments, including providing back pay to eligible workers for "failure to apply" the sector-wide labor contract.

ProPublica: Reescribimos nuestros reportajes para responder a una petición de la DEA Sin Embargo. El sitio confirmó que se coordinó con otros medios para publicar la información, que cada uno investigo por su cuenta, y confirmó que reescribió el reportaje ante una petición de la Agencia Antinarcóticos estadounidense, la DEA.

Mexico president expects Audi and its union to reach contract deal soon Reuters. In January, Audi said the union declined its offer for a 6.5% salary raise and countered by asking for a 15.5% increase.

Álvaro Delgado Gómez, “El globo no levantará” AMLO, sobre Xóchitl: “Es ladina, igual de clasista y racista que los conservadores” Sin Embargo. La candidata presidencial Xóchitl Gálvez “no ha levantado ni levantará, porque en estos tiempos de transformación el pueblo no permite que alcen el vuelo los falsarios, oportunistas y los corruptos”, afirma el Presidente López Obrador en su libro Gracias.

Unifor in solidarity with striking Mexican auto workers at Audi Unifor. “The company must show its workers the respect they deserve and return to the bargaining table with an offer of decent wages and benefits that will ensure workers can improve their quality of life and standard of living.”

Pedro Miguel, Oposición perdida La Jornada. Durante cinco años, la derecha oligárquica ha puesto todo su empeño en no entender que lo que hay en México no es un gobierno exótico y anómalo, sino un cambio de régimen y la construcción de un nuevo pacto social.

Fabiola Sánchez, Heirloom corn in a rainbow of colors makes a comeback in Mexico, where white corn has long been king AP. Amid President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s move to ban the importation of genetically modified corn and his imposition of a 50% tariff on imported white corn, some scientists, chefs and others are advocating for the value of the old varieties in an increasingly drought-stricken world.

Emir Olivares y Alonso Urrutia AMLO: injerencia descarada de la DEA, porque Calderón lo permitió La Jornada. La DEA se topó con pared en mi gobierno, dice Lopez Obrador. Con Felipe Calderon, su injerencia fue "descarada". Exige a EU evitar las prácticas inmorales de su agencia de control de drogas. Calumnia, ligarme con el 'narco', ratifica el Presidente.

The Mexico Solidarity Project brings together activists from various socialist and left organizations and individuals committed to worker and global justice. We 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, Agatha Hinman, Victoria Hamlin, Courtney Childs, Susan Weiss.  To give feedback or get involved yourself, please email us!

Web page and application support for the México Solidarity Project from NOVA Web Development, a democratically run, worker-owned and operated cooperative focused on developing free software tools for progressive organizations.