The news yesterday afternoon was the bomb that the new United States ambassador to Mexico means. Clearly, Ron Johnson has a completely different profile than the current and already outgoing Ken Salazar. Ken became a sort of “Mr. Friend” in favor of the previous government and in particular of former President López Obrador. And with that connection of supposed friendship, in the end, Salazar still became a very harsh critic of judicial reform in Mexico. That’s how undesirable and flawed the project must be.
Through a radio program, last night I learned about the training and service record of the new Ambassador Johnson. Regarding his preparation, he graduated from the National Intelligence University with a postgraduate degree in Strategic Intelligence. He went on to have a distinguished career in the military and later served in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). And the icing on the cake was his performance as United States ambassador to El Salvador.
Is this how Trump sees Mexico: as if we were similar to his turbulent little Central American brother? Not quite. But it does judge us as a neighboring country with similar problems of strengthened criminal gangs, rising drug trafficking, widespread corruption and a favorable environment for inducing emigration. Can Johnson’s appointment as ambassador be considered a mistake? With all the pain in my heart, I have to lean towards the negative. Implicitly, the designation is a blunt denunciation against the infamous “hugs, not bullets” policy.
I believe that the above is not a mere personal opinion. It is strongly supported by very robust facts. For example, I refer to the results published just yesterday about the survey by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography regarding Business Victimization (Enve) for 2024. The data from that survey are unequivocal and very alarming. According to such a reliable source, during the year that is about to end, 1.3 million establishments throughout the country were victims of crime. And the worst thing, in relative terms, there was an increase from 24.6% of respondents in 2021 to 27.2% in this year’s survey.
You can’t cover the sun with one finger. On the one hand, great plans are announced to boost the economic development of the country. On the other hand, they have been tolerating (turning a blind eye) to the rise and consolidation of criminal gangs. It must be reiterated once again: insecurity and economic development are totally opposite things!
