Ricardo Pascoe Pierce
With his aspiration to be the leader of the Latin America left dead, AMLO resigns himself to being the godfather of dictatorships: Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. Today he parades with the Cuban President, exalting a non-existent “revolution”, and is silent in the face of the repression against opponents in Nicaragua and Venezuela. He only has sweet and encouraging words for Díaz Canel, Ortega, and Maduro.
The three dictatorships represent the countries with the most expelled people in the American hemisphere. That is the size of their economic failure. The number of Cubans fleeing the island reached a historic record in 2022. The “marielazo” pales in comparison to the avalanche of Cubans fleeing from that dictatorship that remains in power by blood and fire.
But numerically, Mexico is the country in the region with the most undocumented immigrants expelled while trying to reach the cradle of neoliberalism. In 2022 alone, one million Mexicans were expelled from the United States for being undocumented. It is difficult for the three dictatorships and their godfather to explain this apparent historical aberration. If they hate neoliberalism so much and offer an earthly paradise to their people in exchange, how can they justify that millions of their compatriots yearn to reach precisely those lands of neoliberal savagery? Something in the versions does not match reality.
The three dictatorships think, and they have the godfather as a cheerleader to confirm their hypothesis, that authoritarian and military control over their peoples is the road to freedom for all. In other words, they firmly believe in the meritorious and empathetic dictator who loves his people. The brotherhood of three dictators and their godfather are reminiscent of the Sergio Leone movie Duck You Sucker where the dictator-thief has filled the town with signs of his picture with the caption “The Governor Loves The People, The People Love The Governor”. Of that caliber and with those methods are ruling this combo of four gunmen loose in the old West.
Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela are failures all along the line in economic management. We have already expressed our opinion on their authoritarian political management. The problem for those governments that cannot explain is why their people flee from the misery in which they live. Those who do not flee are because they cannot, for one reason or another. And if that is true in those three countries, how much more reason will our compatriots have to flee from economic misery, present and future, and from the communal violence caused by organized crime and drug trafficking. Entire towns in Oaxaca, Guerrero, Michoacán, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosí, Jalisco, Coahuila, Durango, Chihuahua, and Sonora are running in panic toward the northern border to escape a sure death.
Apologists for the godfather’s policies loudly extol neoliberal achievements such as the stability of the currency exchange rate and various macroeconomic factors such as interest rate hikes, the arrival of new investments resulting from the relocation of global industries due to the pandemic (which is not import substitution) and income from remittances and tourism. But all this is a smokescreen because, as true neoliberal thinkers who deny neoliberalism, they do not explain the massification of poverty in Mexico and much less the deterioration of public services, including health and public education, as an important component in the brutal decomposition of the standard of living of 70% of Mexicans, during the administration of this “popular” government.
Ideology is the great instrumental smokescreen that tries to save this government. For that reason, the mañanera (daily morning press conference) is the only public policy of this country. The President summed it up very well at the beginning of his administration: “If I don’t do the mañanera every day, I will be knocked down”. He himself recognizes that it is better to talk than to do; it is preferable to rant against opponents than to govern effectively.
This is a President who believes that cutting the ribbon on the AIFA airport, the Dos Bocas refinery, and the Mayan train will be enough to save his legacy and that of his government. But what about the millions of new poor that his policies have created? What about the promise of prosperity for all? This cannot be solved because the government is beginning to pack its bags, and after four years of government, the King is already walking naked through the corridors of his palace. Both, friends and strangers, already know that the best thing that can happen to the country is for him to leave as soon as possible.
The leaders of the many Latin American leftists have perceived the same thing: Mexico is governed by an unpresentable, incompetent, and terribly ignorant subject, although he is very astute, like rats.
That is precisely why the Mexican President is deflated in his aspiration to be the new Simon Bolivar of Latin America. There are serious rulers, such as Lula, who know that the fatuous in a ruler ends up deflating quickly. And López Obrador is deflating. López Obrador ends up as the leader of a brotherhood of foolish and incompetent rulers like him (Díaz Canel, Ortega, and Maduro) who look to Mexico not because of the wisdom of the Mexican ruler, but because he has access to a generous public budget which, they think, will serve to save themselves and their dictatorial and corrupt regimes.
By the way, that is why Diaz Canel came to Mexico: to take his saddlebags full of Mexican gold. And this in exchange for Mexico’s willingness to bring Cuban medical slaves to work in our salt and gold mines. And to do some military intelligence.
And the rest of the Latin American left looks the other way, in open contempt for the anti-democratic behavior and lack of a culture of the Mexican leader. “Let him stay with his dictators,” they seem to say of Mexico. “Let him take care of the Caribbean, and we will go to more serious things” is his message, for those who want to understand it.
This is the only way to understand the evolution of Mexico’s foreign policy at this moment. And we still do not know the opinion of our neighbors to the north, being the CUSMA/USMCA/T-MEC the only guarantee we have to overcome the critical national economic and social situation. This government, like the previous ones, depends on a good relationship with our neoliberal partners, while the dictatorial foxes seek to keep enough resources and support from the Mexican president to prolong their stay in power.
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