Ricardo Pascoe Pierce
Ultra-nationalism raised its head in the relations between Mexico and the United States. In June 2024 for Mexico and a few months later, in November in the United States, elections will be held to elect new Presidents in both nations. Trumpism and Obradorism are positioning themselves to confront each other with ultra-nationalist narratives to gain an advantage in their respective internal electoral processes for the Presidency.
We are beginning to hear from the throats of Trump and AMLO a barrage of furious disqualifications towards one side and the other. And one thing seems to be a certainty: the ultra-nationalist vitriol will grow from both sides as the elections come closer.
On the U.S. side, that ultra-nationalist narrative has already been present, aside from Trump, in the form of speeches by former U.S. government officials and legislative proposals by lawmakers in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. For starters, Trump’s former attorney general, William Barr, proposed using U.S. military force to destroy Mexican cartels, claiming that López Obrador is an unconditional ally of drug trafficking.
At the same time, two Republicans, Michael Waltz, and Dan Crenshaw, presented a bill in the House of Representatives that would allow the U.S. government to declare Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations, similar to Al Qaeda. It would empower the U.S. Army to use U.S. weapons against them if approved. And, not to be outdone, Senator Lindsey Graham proposed a bill in similar terms to the U.S. Senate, alleging, among other things, AMLO’s “proven” closeness to Mexican organized crime.
This ultra-nationalist line of attack intends to bring Trump back to the U.S. Presidency next year.
It should be noted that the White House clearly opposed the declaration of the cartels as “terrorists”. It pointed out that such a declaration would offer the United States no additional practical tools than it currently has and would complicate relations with the Mexican government. Nor did it comment on AMLO’s closeness to organized crime.
One hears fury on the side of the Trumpists and caution on the part of the Democrats.
In Mexico, the Presidency of the Republic is warming up its engines to promote a virulent ultra-nationalist narrative among its followers. Its argument, taking advantage of the ultra-nationalist threats of the Trumpist Republicans, will revolve around the defense of national sovereignty, against armed interventionism in the country and promoting a passionate defense of the Mexican Army, especially in its use of all the necessary instruments (especially the Pegasus system) to gather “intelligence on the enemies of the nation”.
Along with the above, the President added new allegations. He called for a “mega-mobilization” on March 18 in Mexico City to commemorate the oil expropriation, financed with public money. The original idea was to counteract the mobilization of the opponents of Plan B, held on February 26. But with the attacks of the radical Republicans, the direction of the march changed. Now a new line of attack is inaugurated by AMLO on the threats to the nation in the face of attacks from abroad, the confirmation of energy sovereignty as the “soul” of the nation, and the decisive confrontation between the defenders of the country and the traitors in the form of opponents of the 4T. The intention is that this rhetorical ultra-nationalism will allow Morena to retain the Presidency in 2024 since evaluating its performance does not guarantee it.
Moving towards a hallucinatory stage, AMLO warned the Republicans that he would “order” Mexicans in the United States not to vote for that party if they did not correct their wrong steps. As fanciful as it may seem, he believes he has that power.
Republican and Morenista ultra-nationalism know they are lying since the United States will not send its Marines to Mexico. But the threat serves their narratives to win elections by creating a false debate about “foreign enemies” to provoke a wave of votes in their favor.
It is, at the bottom, the coincidence of methods between right-wing and left-wing populists which allows them to confront each other without affecting in the least their deep identities and alliances.
In the face of them, prudence, calmness, and firmness in rejecting populist opportunism are urgently needed.
[email protected]
@rpascoep
Further Reading: