Jim Cason and David Brooks
correspondents
Newspaper La Jornada
Friday March 17, 2023, p. 5
Washington and New York. Criticism against Mexico from politicians, experts
and media in the United States continued this week, in part fueled by right-wing supporters of a military response to fentanyl traffickers and who also express anger at President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s call for Latinos to vote against those who do not respect sovereignty mexican.
The Joe Biden government, in statements before Congress and at press conferences, has sought to highlight positive cooperation with its neighbor to the south.
However, the negative narrative about Mexico persists, now fueled by the kidnapping of four Americans in Matamoros, two of them murdered, and by the fentanyl overdose epidemic, all attributed to Mexican cartels.
At the same time, there are media outlets that describe the electoral reform project (Plan B) as an attempt to undermine democracy in Mexico.
Most of the news headlines in the United States in recent days have focused on the banking crisis, the war in Ukraine and the TikTok network. However, various politicians, mostly conservative Republicans, along with analysts and think tanks (laboratories of ideas), managed to place the relationship with Mexico on the national political agenda.
not just republicans
Now, as at the beginning of this wave, it is not only Republicans who criticize Mexico.
The influential chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Democrat Bob Menéndez, rejected calls from some of his Republican colleagues to declare the Mexican cartels as terrorists
and thus consider the use of US military force against those gangs.
But on NBC News’ national Meet the Press, he commented that the reality throughout the border communities is that the cartels are in charge and not the government of Mexico
.
He added that Mexico has a first and supreme responsibility to its own citizens to establish security within their own territory, as well as to those who visit that country. That is why we have to increase, and dramatically, our interaction with Mexico. It can’t just be about economics anymore, it has to be about security too
.
Conservatives add voices
Conservative Republicans, pleased that they managed to impose their narrative on Mexico in the political debate in Washington – all, obviously, part of an electoral strategy – never tire of repeating it. After three of them promoted the idea of authorizing the use of military force against the cartels, other voices continue to join.
Right-wing lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Green, a fierce ally of Donald Trump, said Thursday that the border with Mexico It is one of the most dangerous places in the world
and? We are at war with the Mexican cartels, which is why I am cosponsoring legislation to authorize the use of full force by our military against these thugs and murderers.
.
On another front, the chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, Republican Jason Smith, condemned López Obrador’s comments about launching a campaign to discourage Latinos from voting for those who attack Mexico.
Recent comments about the US elections are completely unacceptable and undermine our shared goals of promoting security and peaceful trade between our nations.
Smith said last Monday, the same day that, at the head of a bipartisan legislative delegation, he met with the president in Mexico.
Columnist Mary Anastasia O’Grady of the Wall Street Journal, who is not known for defending Mexican governments, wrote that the Republican proposals to promote an armed reaction in Mexico It’s the best thing that’s ever happened
to López Obrador in his four years in office.
His policy of non-confrontation with the cartels has been a failure
said the commentator, but described as craziness
proposals for the use of US military force.
It’s not only crazy, it’s unlikely to change the availability of narcotics on America’s streets.
he stressed.
Other media joined the debate. A Chicago Tribune editorial this week chose to focus on the president’s statement that Mexico does not produce fentanyl. The great lie of President López Obrador: we do not produce fentanyl
was the headline.
The conservative newspaper The New York Post addressed electoral reform in its editorial under this heading: Mexico is killing democracy
.
In Congress
The congressional hearings, which almost never generate news, were fertile ground for increased criticism of Mexico.
This week, at a hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the relationship with Brazil, Republican Senator Bill Hagerty questioned the appearing Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Brian Nichols, about Mexico.
President López Obrador declared that Mexico does not produce fentanyl
the legislator began, citing the exact phrase and asking if that country does not produce the narcotic.
Nichols replied simply: Fentanyl is produced in Mexico
.
However, under intense questioning from Hagerty, the official refused to criticize the Mexican president on matters of public safety and his anti-narcotics effort, limiting himself to responding: We should all be doing more
.
The Biden government appears to be sticking to a script in which, in the face of especially conservative attacks, it emphasizes the positive aspects of cooperation with Mexico.
The head of Investigations of the Department of Homeland Security, Steve Cagen, in a hearing field
of the House of Representatives in McAllen, Texas, stressed that the government has great partners in Mexico
and highlighted a very effective unit with which the US side collaborates in some 60 criminal investigations.
As federal elections approach, including the 2024 presidential one, it seems that these attacks will intensify and Mexico will be left as a pinata
in the US electoral contest.
The first to propose that the United States declare the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations
and triggering the debate was the then president Donald Trump, in November 2019. The same one who is now seeking re-election.
