Antonio Navalón
I do not know if President López Obrador was ever seduced to play the role of the David who would sink the modern Goliath in his dreams or childhood. I do not know if, in all his memories of his long university career and all the brushstrokes of his political thinking, anti-Americanism held an important place in his heart. I do not know how hard he tried to keep that feeling from being noticed until the time came when it would be difficult to hide or at least to value in its authentic dimension. On Friday, the Mexican President said something he has been saying for a long time: Mexico is nobody’s colony. So much so that the time has come to collect and rectify that claim, as he has already done with the Spaniards. When the President repeats that Mexico is nobody’s colony, one might – given that the question that motivated the statement was about the intervention of Russian espionage in Mexican territory – think that he was issuing a response to this assumption or, why not, to the commercial flirtations with China. However, the Mexican President himself clarified – dragging out the words – that in addition to not being a colony of either Russia or China, much less are we a colony of the United States of America.
Referring to the statement made by the U.S. Ambassador at the time of the installation of the US-Mexico Friendship Group – in the same venue where twenty-four hours before the Mexico-Russia Friendship Group had been installed – the Mexican President replied that he respected his opinion but that he, despite the ammunition – in public and in private – would go ahead with his particular vision on the energy reform. And he would do so regardless of what the U.S. representative in Mexico and the government led by Joe Biden might believe or think.
What part is it that the rest of us have not understood? How important is the fact that the United States is our principal investor and partner? That is something that belongs to the past. It belongs to the aftermath and consequences of the neoliberal disease and the high treason that, in the presidential vision, was made by those who preceded him sitting in the eagle’s chair. López Obrador, like other political colleagues of his who are now also heads of state – for example, Argentina’s, Cuba’s, Venezuela’s or, although he does not share the same intimacy, Nicaragua’s – has understood that the time has come to put an end to the hegemony of dependence that once existed with the partner to the North.
The Republic of the United States of America has many problems. But, above all, it has a new one, which is that in the Republics of the South – starting with its leading partner, client, and its weakest point in terms of internal security, that is, our country – it is no longer just that it was not what it is, but also that challenging it and standing up to it has become a question of political courage. An issue that only a few years ago was absolutely unthinkable.
The reality and the facts are clear: we will not condemn Russia. We, who are apostles of world peace and understanding between peoples, will look the other way in the face of the systematic destruction of the Ukrainian people. We – beyond the folklore of the declarations on the air in which we bet on peace, we ask for respect, and we swear to respect the independence and sovereignty of each one of the countries of the Earth – it seems that we are not going to reinforce in any way the positions that the government of the United States may take.
We do not want to and will not read the current world crisis as if it will affect us. And if we read it at all, it will be to see how we can separate ourselves, on the one hand, from who ruled us before this moment and, on the other hand, from who we consider being the beginning and end of all the evils of the current administration. An evil that is represented as the serpent’s nest and that, according to the government of the moment, is represented by neoliberals, capitalists, aspirationals, and, in the end, traitors.
As far as I know, the President of Mexico has not invited Putin. But he has allowed – bearing in mind that as he himself has said: there is nothing that happens in this country that the President of the Republic does not know about – the provocative act of installing the Mexico-Russia Friendship Group in San Lazaro. Hostilities have already begun. The statement by the Chief of the US Northern Command that Mexico is currently the largest base of operations for Russian espionage agencies is a crucial action to understand what can happen from here on.
First of all, put next to each of the facts who are our friends in the region and who deserves our respect. Who did we invite on such a sacred day as the day of the commemoration of independence – the point that marks the creation of the Republic of Mexico – to be seated next to our President and to speak during the military parade as happened with the presence of the President of Cuba. Note also whom we did not invite, and we do not intend to have any relations other than those strictly imposed by political and economic reality: the country of remittances, that is, the United States of America. Even if we had a president with whom we could get along, whom we could call a friend, or whom we could recognize the respect that he does not have by considering us a country and not a lackey, that is, the former President Trump, we would certainly invite him. To Biden, the one who captained the fight against Russia, who wants to rebrand the leadership of the so-called free world, it was unacceptable to extend the invitation.
In addition, and if that were not enough, we are moving ahead with the electricity and energy reform. And we do so because it is an act of national sovereignty that no one can deny or take away from us. Another thing is who will pay the bills, to begin with, for all the lawsuits that will unleash from this moment on. Will the President get the reform approved? It will depend on the PRI. And it is up to the PRI what it does from here on. And the PRI may give its votes in favor of the energy reform in exchange for the years in jail that could await some of its leaders. And once that is said, we will again ask them to trust us. But in whom will we trust? We have to define whether those we will trust will be those who think like us; those who say that challenging the power of the United States is precisely what the winds of history are blowing; those who respect Putin; or those who understand that a Ukrainian death is worth less than a death that any of the games within U.S. geopolitics can produce.
Who will trust us? Which side of the border do we stand on? Are we really the point – which also doesn’t take a genius to guess – of the most extensive Russian secret service penetration and real U.S. vulnerability? Are we creating a program to establish businesses hostile or dangerous to national security in the two Baja Californias?
What are we going to do from here? Because asking who we are is one question too many. The answer to this question depends on the moment in history when we ask the question. Today we are an angry country that does not need others, that claims its sovereignty and independence, and that is very careful, with every step it takes, to create a new point of tension not only internally or of national polarization, but even of international de-positioning.
President López Obrador must know that he is playing with fire. I have little doubt that he does not mind being burned on the altar of national interests if the script demands it. The problem is that it will take years to pay the costs of adopting this policy and way of acting. It will also take years to return to having an airport structure that will make our skies once again worthy and a point of reference for the world. However, the problem is that this corrupt world, so corrupted, so bought by the neoliberals, so at the service of Mexico’s enemies, does not realize our greatness and closes our skies, creating security problems for us.
That is the way things are and – just as the worst thing that could happen to Putin is already happening, which is the surprising Ukrainian resistance and the cost of lives and attrition that Russia is having in Ukraine – we are getting into a position where, one of two things, either Echeverría’s great dream finally comes true and the non-aligned and countries like ours, with a lot of personality, have a political representation that can confront the forces of evil – in this case, capitalism and the enemy of the North – or we are really standing in the middle of nowhere without knowing where to go. But, what is worse, we are waiting to see where those who no longer see us as friends want to take us.
