This editorial by the sociologist Raúl Romero first appeared in the Monday, February 26th, 2024 issue of La Jornada newspaper and was translated by the Mexico Solidarity Project.
Like Mexico, the United States of America is in an electoral process for the presidency. Joe Biden, the current president, intends to be re-elected, and his main competitor is former President Donald Trump. Both elections, the one in Mexico and the US, will occur at a time marked by Russia’s war against Ukraine, and by the genocide that Israel is undertaking against the Palestinian people. In both conflicts the US has openly intervened in favor of Ukraine and the criminal Benjamin Netanyahu. Added to this scenario is the configuration of a multipolar world in which Russia and China are competitors.
Faced with this panorama of global reconfiguration, the US responds in Latin America with significant changes. Defeated in their attempts to impose Juan Guaidó as president of Venezuela, or to support the coup leader Jeanine Áñez, in Bolivia, the US combines the strategy of a strong hand and negotiation against a region with greater influence from China. Of special interest is the recent appointment of Daniel P. Erikson, who was deputy assistant secretary of Defense for the Western Hemisphere of the US State Department, and who will be the director of the National Security Council for Latin American Affairs starting in March. Erikson knows Mexico well, knows its importance in the upcoming elections and will seek to influence the US, in general, and Biden, in particular.
Although they have different narratives, agendas and voters, neither Biden nor Trump represent a substantial change in their foreign policy: Biden has been assuming part of the anti-immigrant discourse with which Trump attracts thousands of followers, while both respond to the lords of money and of war, that is, to the military-industrial complex and its interests on the planet.
In the fight between Biden and Trump, there are also media allies
. The New York Times newspaper, for example, is a favorite among followers of the Democratic Party, while Republicans feel greater sympathy for media such as Fox News. It is important to identify the message and the messenger, but above all the higher interest that the owners serve.
The constant and increasing attack by the New York Times against the President of Mexico, with reports
that leave much to be desired, is a fact that must be condemned and also reviewed with caution: who really is the transmitter? What are the effects? How do those competing in the electoral process in Mexico use the message and its effects for and against? Two hypotheses should be considered: the transmitter seeks 1) to influence the Mexican electoral process and reorient regional negotiations, and 2) to pressure the Mexican government to also take sides with one of the political forces in the US. Trump, for example, is already openly adding the support of his allies in Argentina and El Salvador, support openly expressed at the recent Conservative Political Action Conference.
In the current six-year term, under the argument of cooperation
, the militarist agenda that the US has been promoting for decades was not only resumed, but reinforced. In economic matters, dependence has also been accentuated: Economic integration, with respect for our sovereignties, is the best instrument to face the competition derived from the growth of other regions of the world, in particular, the productive and commercial expansion of China. Let us not forget that while Canada, the US and Mexico represent 13 percent of the world market, China dominates 14.4 percent
, President López Obrador said in November 2021 during the ninth North American Leaders Summit. Two years later, by November 2023, Mexico had already established itself as the main trading partner and supplier of the United States, achieving a trade exchange of 738.4 billion dollars, which represented 15.8 percent of the main trade. economic power in the world
, according to data published on these same pages.
To the above we must add the numerous infrastructure projects that the Mexican government has promoted and that are fundamental for US capital, such as the Interoceanic Corridor – desired by the northern neighbor since the 19th century – or the Mayan Train, projects visited by Ken Salazar, US ambassador to Mexico. The support
that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) gives to different agencies of the federal government is also a fact worth highlighting.
Rejecting imperialist interventionism means denouncing the interests behind media outlets like The New York Times, without violating the safety of its journalists, but it also means building alternatives to economic dependence on the US, rejecting the militarist and anti-immigrant agenda and not putting the national territory and natural resources at the service of their companies and interests. Being anti-imperialist today is also fighting to stop the genocide in Palestine.