Bruce Hobson has lived and worked for decades in México. He bears the distinction of being a “deportado” —deported from México! After the Zapatista uprising in 1994, the Mexican government charged that his health work with Guatemalan refugees was “a front for gathering international support” for the Zapatista Army. Bruce is a founder and co-coordinator of the México Solidarity Project, living in Guanajuato,Mexico. He's a member of Liberation Road.
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Javier Bravo is a left-wing Mexican activist, who began organizing with Morena even before it became a political party. A historian, teacher, and union activist at the University of Guanajuato, he believes political education is the main activity that will enable Morena to stay on the path to transformation. To that end, he coordinates the local education program for rank-and-file Morena members.
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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?
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Javier: Just last week, on September 15, México commemorated the “Seis Niños Héroes” of the Mexican-American War. At the battle of Chapultepec Castle in México City in 1847, when US troops were ready to take the Castle, the young miitary cadets refused to retreat and leapt to their deaths instead. It may be a myth, but hearing this story every year keeps the danger of the US fresh in our minds.
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April 20, 1914. Harrisburg Telegraph (Harrisburg, PA) Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers.
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Bruce Hobson: The US has invaded México 14 times. One example: in 1914 US warships sailed into Veracruz harbor intending to depose President Huerta who was not adequately protecting US interests. It occupied the city, but the people resisted, and there were many civilian casualties. The fort was shelled — you can see the scars on the building today. The incursion was also meant to be a lesson to Germany to stay clear of México. The Monroe Doctrine asserted that the US and the US alone could dominate Latin America.
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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?
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Bruce: Southern politicians wanted to expand the slave system into Texas, which was largely home to Mexicans. The invasion was also a result of the idea of “manifest destiny,” which asserted that the US was an exceptional country, a blessed country, with the God-given right to invade, occupy, and take over anywhere. The US instigated a fight by moving troops into a territory claimed by México. Badly outgunned, the Mexicans surrendered in 1848 and the US annexed nearly half of México. That territory became what is now the US Southwest.
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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?
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during the Republican primary presidential debate on Aug. 23, 2023, CNN News Al Drago/Bloomberg/Getty Images
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Bruce: It already is! The Republicans are falling over themselves to see who can talk the toughest about military action against the Mexican cartels — de Santis said he’d be open to using missiles! Top that, Trump; anyone for small nukes?! So as not to look weak on border security, an issue that resonates with many Republican voters, Biden proposes beefing up the border security budget in 2024 by $800 million over the 2023 budget. Both parties point the finger at México for problems that are actually made in the USA.
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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.
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