Posted on 09/22/2002 11:34:27 AM PDT by Tancredo Fan
Mexico is a contrast with Canada in dealing with powerful neighbor
By Jerry Kammer
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE
September 22, 2002
WASHINGTON As a native of Mexico and a citizen of Canada, Armand Peschard-Sverdrup, director of the Mexico project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, knows firsthand about the undercurrent of anti-Americanism in both countries.
Despite long-standing economic, political and cultural ties to the United States, there's a nationalist sentiment in Mexico and Canada particularly among intellectuals portraying a bully that routinely tramples its neighbors' sovereignty.
Yet, as Peschard-Sverdrup watched C-SPAN's telecast of Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien leading an emotional ceremony commemorating the anniversary of the terrorist attacks in September 2001, he concluded that the Canadians have learned to mask those sentiments with diplomacy that is sadly lacking in Mexico.
The same morning, one of Mexico's largest newspapers reported on the activities of President Vicente Fox, whose hesitant, tepid expressions of support for the United States immediately after the attacks had stirred resentment in Washington.
The paper said Fox planned to hold a minute of silence "for the Mexicans who died in the attacks and the victims born in other countries, in that order."
Peschard-Sverdrup said Fox downplayed Sept. 11 to placate the anti-American political left in Mexico, but he warned that Washington could interpret the behavior as proof that Mexico can't be trusted at a difficult time.
"The Mexicans don't seem to understand that you can have policy differences and still reach out to your friends," Peschard-Sverdrup said. "The Canadians know . . . much better than the Mexicans . . . that sometimes it's right to argue for their sovereignty and sometimes it's right to express their solidarity."
Mexico's muted show of sympathy and support is widely viewed in diplomatic and academic circles here as the latest manifestation of an increasingly sharp-edged and resentful frustration with the United States.
Feelings told
Mexican leaders are feeling neglected. They are upset at Washington's unwillingness born of preoccupation with terrorism to move forward on immigration reforms Fox pledged to deliver.
"Things are chillier than they have been for some time," said Delal Baer, another Mexico expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Despite Fox's back-slapping friendship with President Bush and the ever-deepening economic integration that has made Mexico the United States' second-ranking trading partner, an influential segment of Mexico's left nurtures the same mistrust of the United States that Mexican author Octavio Paz described half a century ago.
Paz wrote of "the old relationship between the strong and the weak, oscillating between indifference and abuse, lies and cynicism." "The majority of Mexicans have the justified conviction that the treatment our country receives is unjust."
Rafael Fernández de Castro, a leading Mexican scholar of the binational relationship, noted that the left has taunted Fox f or failing to win protections for the estimated 4 million Mexicans living illegally in the United States.
"They say, 'You got very close to Washington, and you're not getting anything in return,' " Fernandez said.
Peschard-Sverdrup said practitioners of this old-style, reflexive anti-Americanism do not understand it is in Mexico's interest to cooperate with the United States on security.
"I don't think it has dawned on many Mexicans how closely integrated the two nations are, and how Mexican national security can't be isolated from U.S. national security," he said.
He noted that Mexico lost hundreds of thousands of export-related jobs because of the U.S. economic downturn after the terrorist attacks.
Surprising shift
Fox has said an immigration deal that would remove the stigma of "illegal" from several million Mexicans should be a keystone of the maturing economic relationship. On Sept. 6, 2001, in a dramatic ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House, Fox boldly told President Bush "we must and we can" quickly hammer out the deal.
Then came Sept. 11 and a surprisingly quick disenchantment between Mexico City and Washington.
In the aftermath of the attacks, as nations around the world held ceremonies of condolence and support, Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda made an abortive attempt to stir support for the United States. However, he stirred more nationalistic outrage than cross-border solidarity when he declared Mexico should not "haggle" about the terms for its support.
In Mexico's court of public opinion, Castañeda was promptly convicted of treason. Deep-seated historical grievances suddenly erupted. Castañeda was pounded as a sellout to the United States, a submissive lackey to the treacherous neighbor who in 1848 "snatched" half of Mexico's territory in an action that is still taught to schoolchildren as "the war of North American intervention."
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Santiago Creel was celebrated for defending national honor when he insisted any Mexican reaction to the attacks be based "on Mexico's own interests and sovereignty."
Some leading Mexican intellectuals were outraged at the hostility directed at a wounded neighbor. Lorenzo Meyer lamented the display of "puerile anti-Americanism." Enrique Krauze warned, "Historical grievances do not justify abandonment of moral solidarity" and called on Fox to make "a clear gesture of sympathy for the American people."
Yet Fox, who surged to prominence as a straight-talking, no-nonsense rancher, reacted with uncharacteristic timidity.
Arguments flow
"Fox went to the other extreme," the Monterrey newspaper El Norte reported, "and (his reaction) has been characterized by silence and caution."
Revered Mexican author Carlos Fuentes encouraged Fox to be circumspect.
"We are partners of the Americans, not their lackeys," Fuentes said, prompting a sharp response from Baer of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"Yes, we are partners, but our countries are more than partners," Baer wrote. "We are also united by family and cultural ties, by fundamental values, by strategic interests and by a large border of twin cities. The United States doesn't seek lackeys or the submission of anyone. We want worthy allies, strong in their confidence of their own sovereignty."
Robert Leiken, a U.S.-Mexico specialist at the Nixon Center in Washington, said the Mexicans' current insistence on pressing their immigration agenda shows a misreading of Washington's mood and a misunderstanding of how Washington works at a time of crisis.
"I don't think the Mexicans understand how much this country has been shaken and redirected by Sept. 11," said Leiken. "They keep coming back, trying to redirect the agenda. They don't understand how difficult it is for a U.S. administration to take on more than one important issue at one time. I think they just don't get it."
In a column last week in the Mexico City daily Reforma , political analyst Juan Enríquez warned that Mexico's treatment of the United States in recent weeks has been so antagonistic that it "could cost our country for decades."
Although Castañeda backed the United States immediately after Sept. 11, he was behind Mexico's recent withdrawal from a hemispheric security treaty. The move angered U.S. officials. Castañeda appears to have become embittered by the lack of progress on immigration issues.
Accusing Castañeda of "enormous clumsiness" in managing the U.S. relationship, Enríquez wrote, "We are rejecting, angering and losing the confidence of our principal partner."
Bluntly, he added, "Watch out."
We should fortify our border with Mexico, allowing in documented people and goods, but preventing all illegal cross-border traffic.
Mexico isn't a sovereign nation? We trample on this sovereignty exactly how?
Mexico is our enemy.....almost on par with the nations of "The Axis." And if the present sentiments and actions of our neighbor to the south continue along their present course, I would advocate cutting off all diplomatic and trade relations with them.
Round up, deport, and seal the borders.
Sweetie, if the US was such a bully you would not have national sovereignty at all. You would be part of the US.
Frankly, you would be better off.
a.cricket
Before they demand to be treated like Canadians they should start acting like Canadians.
I just read in the Chicago Tribune that the Mexican government messing with U.S. affairs on U.S. soil again. Get this:
Preparing for a surge in immigration by Mexican women after an earlier wave of men who came to the Chicago area alone, the Mexican government and university researchers have launched an initiative to assess their unique needs.
[...]
"This is a very difficult task for the government," said Alberto Athie, a consultant to the Department of Social Development in Mexico. "We need to understand what happens to women when they settle here."
Hopefully they are caught and deported, but even after 9/11 we aren't seeing that happening because of our own weak, ineffective, and failed government. The Mexican government should have been tossed off U.S. soil long ago. Read the rest of the pathetic story.
I thought that both Canada and Mexico purged the "intellectual" class long ago.
Canada and Mexico each save many billions of dollars a year in military costs because they know that their rich and powerful neighbor, the United States, is there to protect them if they should ever come under attack by a foreign army. Then Canada and Mexico have the nerve to refer to us as a bully and complain that we trample on their sovereignty. Sheesh, talk about gratitude.
The nerve of US legislators, not immediately codifying Mexico's colonization effort.
I'd be interested to know just what do the American people recieve in return for 8 million illegal immigrants... besides cheap yardwork.
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