Federico Reyes Heroles
For Rabindranath Tagore, history is, in essence, the evolution of human beings. Its foundation is an ethical framework that defines its course, a human creation. National histories are pieces of the overall map. They speak volumes. The world is characterized by great diversity, but this forces us to adhere to certain untouchable conceptual principles. Francis took his faith to Jordan, Palestine, Israel, East Timor, and Indonesia. He sought tolerance. Leo XIV sends the first signals: migration, peaceful coexistence, and defense of medicine. Without saying so, he looks at Trump. Beyond religious faith, churches can be sources of civilization, but also of war. In times of turmoil and confusion, ethics is a mighty weapon, perhaps the most powerful. Hitler or Stalin?
Sanae Takaichi, the first woman to lead a country with many customs that run counter to gender equality, appears before the world. Her simple appointment shakes up age-old customs. Encouraging. Machado is a Nobel laureate. But at the same time, confrontations with ICE are multiplying, whether in Chicago, the famous “Little Village,” New York, or North Carolina. Mothers and young people are subjugated by the policies of a demagogue who once again rules the world’s leading power. He deceives by denying the United States’ enormous dependence on migration flows: agriculture, construction, and services, between 40 and 50%. Racial impulses take hold of the minds of millions. Educational advances in the United States are in free fall. Zero support for research. “America for Americans,” but not for all.
While China is building the imperial displacement of the US with education and technology, our neighbor celebrates ignorance and appoints an individual who does not believe in vaccines to head the health department. Suicidal. He is the same guy who orders the destruction of boats that were surely carrying drugs into his country, yet the facts mock all the conventions that human beings have achieved to, paradoxically, regulate wars. Trump, who hates everything multilateral, is withdrawing funds for the treatment of children exposed to HIV. Tagore says that history read by nations gives signs, but we must see the whole picture. The nuclear tensions between India and Pakistan, the threats from the loquacious leader of North Korea, are normal. It is a return to barbarism. The European Union continues to be a source of civilized thought. It lacks conceptual strength.
And what role should Mexico play? The regime is drowning in incongruence, its significant weakness. There are exceptions. The stigmatization of Mexico for the drug crisis—fentanyl in particular—is achieving shared responsibility. If there is demand, there will be production and trafficking. Figures: In 2021, more than 500,000 people misused the chemical. Illegally manufactured fentanyl is 50 times more potent than heroin. An estimated 200 deaths per day, more than 70,000 per year. Human evolution? There are glimmers of hope. Honesty, an ethical value that has fallen into disrepute, showed its caliber. AMLO denied the existence of laboratories, but the Armed Forces showed evidence of their destruction—masks off. As in Mexico, hundreds of thousands of people are involved in the United States. Getting them to admit their shared responsibility is a huge battle. Hence, the relevance of the proposal promoted in Mexico by Eduardo Guerrero: a security treaty for North America. The outdated concept of sovereignty has followers, even within the government; it is heresy. But the course is the right one: first, save lives. A real loss of sovereignty? Let’s look at Michoacán. Cooperation is civilizing.
Churchill did not organize a single public march. But his words and actions made history. An end to the parade of corrupt officials, an end to official lies, an end to submission to the caudillo, to the cynicism of surrounding oneself with accomplices. Concepts will not fill the Zócalo, but they would show a government with a compass—celebration in the Zócalo and a car bomb.
Ethics as power.
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