Cisco
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Interesting overview of many facets of U.S./Mexico co-operation politically
Mexico-Missing-Students-Protests-2
The Mexican state is gripped by a deepening political crisis amidst mass protests over the disappearance and likely massacre of 43 student teachers.
The military has threatened to intervene as popular anger mounts against the government and the entire political apparatus.
On Thursday, hundreds of thousands of workers and youth converged on Mexico City’s Zocalo Square. Many of the parents of the normalistas from the
Ayotzinapa Rural Normal School took part in the rally, which was held just under two months after the disappearance of their children in late
September. Participants denounced the government of President Enrique Peña Nieto, which is complicit in the disappearance of the students and is
widely hated for its right-wing, pro-business policies.
The military has responded with ominous warnings about the danger of social “instability.” At a military graduation ceremony Thursday, General
Salvador Cienfuegos, Peña Nieto’s defense secretary, alluded to the demonstrations by citing “insecurity” as one of “the great challenges we
confront.”
The Army, Cienfuegos declared, “acts with strength and determination when it becomes necessary.” He added, “In times of disunity is when the country
has suffered its major fractures.” This is the standard language of a military clique prepared to intervene with force in political life, and the
Mexican ruling class has a long history of ordering military attacks on demonstrations.
At the same ceremony, Peña Nieto proclaimed, “Under no circumstances can the loyalty and noble service that the armed forces have lent to the nation
be put in doubt.”
Thursday’s demonstrations took place in 30 cities across the country and were the largest since the normalistas disappeared after calling for
improvements to rural education. José Luis Abarca, the mayor of Iguala, located in the state of Guerrero, responded to their initial protests by
ordering local police to violently attack the student teachers, killing six and abducting 43.
The 43 were subsequently turned over to the notorious and state-connected drug gang, the Guerreros Unidos. Reports have emerged that the normalistas
were tortured and then burned alive by members of the cartel.
Demonstrators called for the resignation of Peña Nieto, whose effigy was burned as thousands of onlookers cheered. The main speakers were the parents
of the disappeared normalistas, who had traveled over 80 miles from Guerrero to make a national appeal.
“Today, the 20th of November, we celebrate the 104th anniversary of the beginning of the Mexican Revolution,” said Felipe de la Cruz, a father of one
of the disappeared. “If we are halted here, it is because the governing class has mutilated our Constitution for their benefit and to justify their
acts.”
The government had earlier announced the cancellation of its own Revolution Day parade on account of the expected demonstrations—an act that is itself
a significant indication of growing political crisis.
Not only Peña Nieto and his Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), but all the major political parties are in one way or another implicated in the
massacre. Both the mayor of Iguala (Abarca) and the governor of Guerrero are members of the oppositional PRD, with close ties to drug gangs. The party
of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (known as MORENA) backed Abarca and has other ties to officials implicated in the massacre.
All the major parties have also backed Peña Nieto’s “Pact for Mexico,” aimed at introducing free market “reforms” and restructuring the economy to
benefit the ruling class and foreign capital.
As the Mexican ruling class prepares to suppress social opposition domestically, it can count on the full support of its counterparts in the United
States.
In a February 2014 press conference with President Peña Nieto held in Toluca, Mexico, US President Barack Obama touted “our shared commitment to
democratic values and human rights” and praised the “enormous sacrifices” made by the Mexican security forces in the fight against drug cartels.
While the US has remained largely silent about the normalistas, US State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki addressed the Ayotzinapa massacre earlier
this month, urging “all parties to remain calm throughout the process,” as though peaceful demonstrators and those responsible for the murder of the
normalistas stood on equal ground. Noting that the US government is “concerned about the tensions on the ground,” Psaki added the US was “engaged,
also, closely with officials there.” This, no doubt, includes top officials in the Mexican military.
Meanwhile, the United States military and intelligence agencies continue to deepen their already close ties with their Mexican counterparts, under the
cover of the “war on drugs.” A report yesterday in the Wall Street Journal noted that officials from the Department of Justice were donning the
uniforms of the Mexican Marines and taking part in armed raids in Mexican territory. The US has supplied the Mexican state with some $2 billion in
arms aid under the pretext of fighting crime.
Representatives of international finance capital have also responded with concern over the demonstrations. Alfredo Coutiño, the Latin American
director of the investment-rating firm Moody’s, said on Friday that, “the political and social events of the last months have begun to generate
questions with respect to the promising economic perspectives which were generated with the beginning of the new administration. The markets, above
all the international markets, are beginning to be disillusioned…”
The “promising economic perspectives” cited by Moody’s refers above all to the historic privatization of the Mexican oil industry, a move that
international finance capital—and the American ruling class in particular—views as a prime money-making opportunity.
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PlanB
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Excellent insight to a shared distrust of the "ruling elites" on both sides of the border. Much to their chagrin, those elitists are now learning
the bitter lesson that political power flows from economic power, not the other way around.
The politicos have caused serious social unrest in Mexico by removing necessary subsidies causing an erosion of the very fabric of an emerging
standard of living amongst the workers. Why was this mandated?, only to make a more favorable investment climate for the US investment community.
Same issue north as Obama promised the demise of the coal industry and is making it happen, at the very existence of the coal miners and the
surrounding economies; then to carry in on with his promise to tragically increase energy costs for the U.S. consumer households - all in the name of
alternate energy and his (their) global climate change initiatives; while all along knowing beyond any doubt that their initiatives are a resounding
failure - i.e. Mojave desert massive solar fiasco that is now blaming the sun for not delivering as planned when those folks received massive taxpayer
donations and now demanding more.
In Mexico, the wages remain stagnant but inflation is rampant plus gasoline and electricity are at record highs - all to make the US banking
investment community comfortable in funding the national debt of Mexico while ignoring the US debt crisis.
BUT, this is but a page in the continuing saga of US-Mexican political-economic relations. Most interesting treatise is "Empire and Revolution, The
American in Mexico since the Civil War", by John Mason Hart. A comprehensive chronology of the checkered past on both sides of the border - the US to
foment an economic takeover of the Mexican economy and the political response of the Mexican politicos to hold onto their power - all at the expense
of the Mexican people.
And now to hear that the US agencies are sending their elitist warriors into Mexico dressed in Mexican Government uniforms is a tragic step in a
continuing downward spiral toward social unrest. This time led by the economically oppressed in Mexico and followed sheepishly in the US by the
results of the ballot; then of course, ignored by the elitists; who, in their ultimate wisdom seek to increase their stranglehold of absolute power;
or maybe not.
Que bueno es descansar despues de no hacer nada
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mtgoat666
Select Nomad
Posts: 18377
Registered: 9-16-2006
Location: San Diego
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Mood: Hot n spicy
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Cisco
The military has responded with ominous warnings about the danger of social “instability.” At a military graduation ceremony Thursday, General
Salvador Cienfuegos, Peña Nieto’s defense secretary, alluded to the demonstrations by citing “insecurity” as one of “the great challenges we
confront.”
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high poverty rates, inequality, lack of opportunity, income inequality,... are root of instability and insecurity.
if people are hungry and have little or no economic opportunity and no social safety net (neither family nor govt), they do what they think necessary
to survive
nieto and that wife of his are clueless, they are tone deaf, they are examples of the elite that is out of touch and has been the problem for decades.
revolution now!
the revolution should eliminate the elite political class, the corrupt business class and and the drug lords and corrupted military and police -- need
to clean house of all the bad guys
[Edited on 11-23-2014 by mtgoat666]
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chuckie
Elite Nomad
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Mood: Weary
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YEAH! Blood and Death...Destruction...POWER TO THE PEOPLE! You'll be right in the thick of it, Right Goat....?????
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MrBillM
Platinum Nomad
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Mood: It's a Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah Day
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You say you want a Revolution ?
OK, But Goat ...................
You're Delusional if you think it's going to Happen. Successfully.
At worst, it would get ugly and a lot of Leftist bodies would pile up, but that's about it.
Come to think of it, Dead Leftists would be an Upside.
Lefties Left Dead is Always GOOD.
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nobodylikesyouanyway
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reflect
Read "The Law" by Frederic Bastiat for deep political/economic inisights.
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MrBillM
Platinum Nomad
Posts: 21656
Registered: 8-20-2003
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Mood: It's a Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah Day
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Excellent Book
I "doubt" that many [dissident] Mexican Peasants have read it, though.
Those that have would likely dismiss it.
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