Ricardo Pascoe Pierce
Nicaragua today lives a family dictatorship similar to that of Anastasio Somoza. It is a country that has gone from one dictatorship to another. It is a cursed inheritance, no doubt.
The tragedy today is that it has all the political and, now, material support of Mexico, a country whose foreign policy has always been opposed to dictatorships. How can it be explained that Mexico has lost its dignity and honesty, falling so low as to become a supporter of a violent dictatorship that represses its people and governs with a gun in its hand?
Recent events speak of an accommodating, opportunistic, and dangerous relationship between the two nations, which theoretically have nothing in common. And yet, López Obrador and the Daniel Ortega/Rosario Murillo combo have built a great communion.
Nicaragua was the first country to express unrestricted support for Mexico after the recent political-diplomatic conflict between Ecuador and Mexico. Managua offered to withdraw its embassy from Quito in solidarity with López Obrador. The Venezuelan government followed suit, also withdrawing its embassy. What a consolation for Mexico! This support from the Bolivarian wing of Latin America illustrates where López Obrador has taken Mexico with his foreign policy. The extremism and fanaticism of governments that use their resources to oppress their people are not examples of governance in Mexico. But they have evidently enchanted López Obrador.
From that “solidarity support among brothers”, Mexico has taken advantage of the juncture to extend support to the impoverished country of Nicaragua. April 18, 2018, began the most significant social outburst against the Ortega dictatorship in Nicaragua. The government’s repression against its people was brutal. There are parallels between that outburst and repression with what happened with the social outburst in Cuba on July 11, 2021, which also faced equally violent repression by the Cuban government.
On that date, but this year, the Mexican ambassador in Managua consolidated the fraternal embrace between a dictator (Ortega) and an aspiring dictator (López Obrador). Two miseries merged in an embrace. Mexico has helped Nicaragua to evade the censures of international organizations such as the OAS and the United Nations for its crimes against humanity, imprisoning opponents and sending them into exile, even withdrawing their nationality.
Solidarity between the two leaders recently materialized with the signing of collaboration and solidarity agreements. They agreed on plans financed by Mexico that offer environmental, agricultural, and risk management assistance. These can range from issues caused by nature to the strengthening of the State’s security organs. Of course, topics such as the strengthening of democratic institutions or respect for human rights are not mentioned, even by mistake.
By signing collaboration agreements between governments without mentioning issues such as human rights, respect for freedoms, and the strengthening of democratic institutions, Mexico ignores the multiple commitments it has made as a country before international organizations. In the same act, Mexico becomes an accomplice of a government that imposes a regime of terror in its country.
What leads López Obrador to throw Mexico’s traditional foreign policy into the dustbin of history, ignoring the axes of defense of the democratic rights of peoples and non-intervention in their affairs? The easiest and most obvious answer is that there is an ideological identity between the “Bolivarian brothers.” That fraternity exists with Latin American dictatorships Cuba and Venezuela. It persists in López Obrador’s support for the opposition in Ecuador to former President Correa, which is the underlying reason for the recent conflict between the two nations.
But something deeper and more worrisome is going on. A new form of complicity is created between actors, with Mexico as the main driver. The alliance is between Bolivarianism and drug trafficking as a source of financing in the promotion of a new arms race in Latin America. This arms race has a lot to do with the support that the Bolivarian movement has given to the latest boom in drug trafficking throughout Latin America. It has to do, for example, with the recent assassination of a Venezuelan military officer recently exiled in Chile.
Mexican troops will soon be marching in a parade in Nicaragua to culminate the new arms solidarity. This marks the beginning of a new stage in the military and arms relationship between the nations.
Thus, the Bolivarian movement, with the addition of Mexico, acts as a transnational mafia linked to drug trafficking interests and those of the dictatorships. It is a new explosive and dangerous relationship that threatens peace and stability throughout Latin America.
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