The weekly newsletter of the México Solidarity Project

Online at mexicosolidarityproject.org

September 27, 2023/ This week's issue/ Meizhu Lui, for the editorial team

Who Can Be the

Who Can Be the Most Macho Bully on the Block?

Robert Harbison/The Christian Science Monitor/File

The spectacle of the Republican competition for their party’s presidential nomination has begun. One thing the candidates agree on: Mexican cartels are to blame for the fentanyl epidemic in the US, the Mexican government is a wuss, and therefore it falls to the US military, led by the most macho guy in the pack, to get the job done. The US, as always, asserts the divine right to take its big sticks and beat up anyone for its own benefit.

The only question is, how big of a stick? Drones? Special forces? Cyber attack? At the moment, Ron DeSantis is winning the contest — he says he wouldn’t rule out firing missiles across the border. We’ve got a bunch of locker room boys talking tough. But these guys don’t have muscles, just mouths. The soft-bellies will send in the sons and daughters of ordinary working people to risk their lives for the sake of the machismo of whoever is US president.

For México, as Javier Bravo and Bruce Hobson recount, invasions from the north have happened many times before. Will it happen again? Right now, the threats alone are already influencing public opinion: according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, 52% of Americans support military intervention, with 29% in favor even without the consent of the Mexican government.

México refuses to be intimidated by the big bully with the big stick. US progressives must back them up. The surest way to take a bully down is for the little guys to stand up to him together.

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

Republican Threats to Invade México: A Familiar Tune

DeSantis, Trump and other Republican presidential hopefuls are promising to invade México to take out the drug cartels. Is this a different approach from past US policies toward México?

Javier Bravo: NO! This is the same colonialist way that the US has always understood politics: the US founding fathers themselves state these aggressive principles.  This does not surprise us Mexicans since we’ve seen US imperialist invasions, by land and by sea, in both the 19th and 20th centuries. We constantly feel under threat. We don’t forget history.

We also know this kind of tough talk happens during election seasons, so our President, AMLO, is not alarmed. In his his morning talks to the public, his mañaneras, he assures us there’s no need to panic. 

What has been the history of US military action in México?

The most significant invasion was the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848. What rationale did the US have for invading — and then annexing nearly half of México?

The rationale for war was so obviously manufactured and the treatment of the Mexican people so cruel, that a group of Irish American soldiers tore off their uniforms and joined the Mexican side. They gave their lives — executed in mass — and are celebrated to this day in México as the San Patricios. Once, when I was riding a bus in México City, I struck up a conversation with an older man, and somehow the San Patricios came up. Learning that I also revered the San Patricios, he started to cry — amazed and happy to meet a gringo who knew this history and shared his sentiments.

Annexation catapulted the US forward on its trajectory to becoming the world’s biggest and baddest superpower. The rich mineral wealth, the vital Pacific ports, the wresting of land from Mexican owners, the exploitation of Mexican-American labor — without all that, the US would be a second-rate power today.

The Republicans blame México for the fentanyl crisis. Are they right?

Javier:  Fentanyl gets into the US in many ways. Through the Canada border, directly from China, and yes, through México. But it is not migrants seeking a better life who carry the drugs. In many cases, US citizens bring it across. And in the famous case of the 43 murdered students at Ayotzinapa in 2014, the students borrowed the wrong bus — one that was carrying drugs to Chicago for delivery to US members of the same gang. A man in Chicago was arrested in relationship to this case. The cartels operate seamlessly across the border.

Drugs are a big business, and cartels are capitalist enterprises. Drugs couldn’t move across borders without collusion by corrupt officials on both sides. This has been verified: recently Garcia Luna, the Secretary of Public Security under Presidents Fox and Calderon, was convicted in the US of taking bribes to protect the cartels. Various DEA officials have also been convicted of enriching themselves with drug money.

Will México be a major issue in the US presidential campaign?

Javier:  México foreign policy is also an issue for the US. Both parties are unhappy about México’s growing influence in Latin America and the Caribbean. AMLO is trying to create an economic bloc not based on the needs of the US economy; he has suggested disbanding the Organization of American States because it caters to US interests.

The Democrats? Republicans and Democrats are like Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola. The Dems have a smile on their lips — but they are aggressively pursuing economic sanctions when México asserts its right to nationalize its energy sector, or to ban the import of US GMO corn.

How important is it to mobilize opposition to military intervention and the México blame game?

Bruce:  US progressives need to set the record straight about what is happening in México; it’s not just about drugs and violence as the mainstream press would have us believe. We have to uphold the right of nations to self-determination.

Javier:  México is far too valuable to the US as its biggest trading partner for an actual invasion to make sense. And Mexicans in the US are also valuable. It’s impossible to imagine the US without the huge wealth that Mexican workers create. The well-being of many Americans depends on Mexican labor on farms and fields, in hospitals and hotels. Imagine a Leviathan without arms and legs — Mexican workers are those arms and legs.

Military intervention? For Mexicans, you don’t have to be a socialist to understand exploitation and imperialism. Under AMLO and Morena, we’re gaining the confidence to assert our right to control our own future. And of course, we welcome the solidarity of our US-based friends.  

THE PIECE
On September 16, the New Left Review published The Mexican Question, a response by Ramón I. Centeno to an article by fellow Mexican sociologist Edwin Ackerman, the AMLO Project. The pieces express their authors’ opposite opinions of President López Obrador’s administration as he approaches his sixth and final year in office. 

THE CLAIM
A leftwing critic of the president, Centeno rejects Ackerman’s view of AMLO as trying to steer Mexico away from neoliberalism through pro-worker reforms, expanding the social safety net, and strengthening the public sector. Rather, Centeno writes, evidence of progress under AMLO is “threadbare” while his “reforms merely begin to reverse neoliberal excess.” 

THE BACKSTORY
Centeno seeks to disprove Ackerman’s view that the AMLO government has moved México to the left. He fails, however, largely because he shies away from discussing the evidence Ackerman cites to support his points. For instance, Centeno disagrees that AMLO’s minimum-wage hike — 82% in five years — is meaningful, asserting that “since not all workers earn the minimum wage, raising it has not resulted in” overall working-class benefits. He ignores data that show that half of Mexican workers earn the minimum wage. 

Moreover, Centeno refuses to recognize the significance of Ackerman’s account about the tens of thousands of maquiladora workers in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, inspired by the minimum-wage hike to make their own demands for additional benefits. The workers launched “the largest wild-cat strikes in the sector’s history.”

Nor does Centeno seem aware of reported decreases in working poverty — partly because of AMLO’s crackdown on outsourcing, thus providing workers full employment and social-security rights — or of the five million Mexicans who ceased to be poor between 2018 and 2022. 

In fact, Centeno’s discomfort with numbers shows in his poor grasp of even his own data, suggesting that Brazil’s 50% minimum-wage increase during Lula’s first two presidential terms — 2003 to 2010, an eight-year period — was more impressive than México’s 82% hike within five years. 

THE BOTTOM LINE
Centeno’s goal of discrediting the AMLO administration resorts to time-honored tactics of cherry-picking facts, performing charades of misleading analyses that leave out key information, and topping it all off with classic sloganeering. In his case, Centeno lambasts populism, implying that AMLO’s rhetoric is designed to fool Mexicans while he works against their interests — essentially echoing the rightwing punditry’s perennial accusations.

The Prevailing Winds Blow Leftward

Marcelo Ebrard, México’s foreign affairs minister in the AMLO government, is convinced he should be president of Mexico. He was similarly convinced he would secure the nomination for president from the Morena party. He was wrong.

To be clear, Ebrard has been a faithful public servant and an excellent deputy to the Mexican president. As foreign affairs minister, he was tasked with handling complicated issues — namely the U.S.-Mexico relationship — and did so competently. So, it’s not surprising that Ebrard, having occupied this highly visible post, would expect to succeed AMLO, as in 2006 when he followed López Obrador’s term as governor of México City with his own term as governor.

However, the political scenario in México drastically changed with the López Obrador presidency, and Ebrard seems unable to understand the political moment. There was no need to pivot to the center, as Ebrard has done by appealing to the professional classes rather than maintaining AMLO’s focus on “first, the poor.”

By numerous metrics, the Morena-led administration has governed the country well, leading to repeated electoral victories by Morena candidates in various contests since 2018. Polls now indicate the party is poised to secure a decisive victory in 2024. Therefore, Morena’s leadership and its supporters don’t need to make “political calculations” to ensure their victory. The public has opted to back the candidate best positioned to not only continue the “Fourth Transformation” of México, but to deepen it.

In other words, the prevailing winds in the country blow leftward. Claudia Sheinbaum, the former governor of México City, has always been viewed as the left candidate in the race. That’s why Sheinbaum won the nomination to succeed López Obrador.

But Ebrard insists he lost because of chicanery, alleging that the race was tilted in Sheinbaum’s favor. However, his argument falls apart under scrutiny. The former foreign minister has charged that the nomination process had serious irregularities, but as details of his team’s conduct have come to light, it is clear the process was technically sound. Instead, it seems likely that Ebrard knew he’d lose and instructed his team to create an appearance of malfeasance in order to later question the results.

Moreover, Ebrard was not undercut by Morena. It was he who demanded that candidates should have to step down from their posts in order to compete for the nomination, and he got what he wanted. It was the president himself who conceded to Ebrard’s demands, and thus Sheinbaum stepped down as governor of México City.

Ebrard has now started his own “political movement,” but appears to have no real plan. It’s too late to register as an independent candidate, and neither the opposition nor the Movimiento Ciudadano party, a Morena ally, seem interested in running him as their candidate. Even if he finds a willing party, the Mexican population is making up its mind about Ebrard. They’re coming around to the notion that he’s a sore loser, betraying his former comrades.

If Ebrard hasn’t been expelled from Morena yet, it’s because Sheinbaum, now firmly in control of the party, thinks it possible he could return to the fold. However, Ebrard seems uninterested in any office but the presidency — thus a divorce is likely. Has Ebrard overestimated his relevance? His behavior following his loss in the succession race appears to have left him in the political wilderness.

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

Maria Elena Vizcaino, Nearshoring Must Fuel Mexico Development, Sheinbaum Ally Says, Bloomberg. “There was a ‘free trade’ mentality from the government, ‘The market forces will work their magic,’” said Diana Alarcon, chief adviser and head of international affairs of the Mexico City government. “Turns out that’s not the case. Market forces don’t work like magic. It’s public policy that gives direction to processes.”

Étienne von Bertrab, La candidata y la crisis ambiental Pie de Página. von Bertrab, miembro del México Solidarity Project, considera la importante conciencia ambiental y el potencial de la candidata presidencial de Morena para 2024, Claudia Sheinbaum.

Charlie Saperstein and Dan DiMaggio, Mexican Auto Parts Workers Face Blacklist After Union Campaign LaborNotes. Workers say the local business elite, in conjunction with the CTM (a powerful company-friendly union), has instituted a de facto citywide blacklist against all former VU workers, regardless of their union affiliation.

Silvia Arellano, Citlalli Hernández dice que es urgente una reforma al Poder Judicial El Milenio. La morenista acusó que “la justicia en México no existe” y el Poder Judicial está al servicio de grupos de interés.

Jacob Kessler and Gabe Friedman, Mexico on track to have its first Jewish, female president Jerusalem Post. Former President and ultra-right winger Vicente Fox called Sheinbaum a “Bulgarian Jew” in an apparent attempt to minimize her candidacy. “The only Mexican is Xóchitl,” Fox added, referring to Sheinbaum’s opponent.

Viri Ríos, Mentiras imperdonables de los medios, El Milenio. Los periódicos locales ampliamente leídos por la élite empresarial mexicana han comenzado a distorsionar la realidad.

Tanya Wadhwa, Parents of disappeared Ayotzinapa students begin indefinite sit-in protest outside military camp in Mexico City People’s Dispatch. President AMLO invited the parents to meet him at the National Palace on Monday, September 24th “so that there is no misinformation, no manipulation and no differences between the families and the federal government.”

Eder Suárez, Por cuarta ocasión, el Poder Judicial libera al fiscal de Morelos, Uriel Carmona, acusado de tortura De Raíz. El Presidente de México reiteró su convicción sobre la necesidad de una reforma al Poder Judicial para que “se elijan a los jueces, a los magistrados, a los ministros, que sea el pueblo el que los elija.”

Mexican president to skip U.S.-hosted summit, floats Washington meeting with Biden Reuters. Mexico does not recognize the coup government in Peru which ousted President Pedro Castillo and last year Lopez Obrador snubbed the U.S. hosted Americas summit in Los Angeles because of Washington's exclusion of the governments of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.

Consejo Mundial de la Paz condena bloqueo a Cuba y bases de EEUU Resumen Latinamericano. El CMP se reunió en Pachuca, capital del estado mexicano de Hidalgo. Además, se hizo la denuncia sobre las bases militares de Estados Unidos y la OTAN, el bloqueo económico, financiero y comercial impuesto a Cuba, así como la guerra híbrida y multiforme que Estados Unidos lleva a cabo contra Venezuela y Nicaragua.

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, Courtney Childs, Victoria Hamlin, Agatha Hinman, Peter Shapiro. To give feedback or get involved yourself, please email us!

Subscribe! Get the México Solidarity Bulletin in your email box every week.

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.