Paying Tribute

ByMexico Solidarity

Well, here we are again: exchanging Mexican prisoners in exchange for Trump’s favors. As if it were legal to expel Mexican citizens from the country, even the worst criminals, without extradition proceedings. The government can find loopholes to justify this measure, such as portraying the prisoners as “generators of violence” from prison, but it is still a surrender of sovereignty, and, from an ethical standpoint, exchanging Mexican citizens for favors from other countries does not seem a very dignified measure and, of course, it does not seem constitutional.

And while many people may consider expelling the worst criminals a good measure, I find it aberrant and scandalous if we consider that we live in a state governed by the rule of law, not at the whim of arbitrary measures by a foreign power. Of course, the “batches” of criminals that the Sheinbaum administration has sent to the United States to curry favor with President Trump have been responsible for multiple bloody crimes. No one, I believe, could defend them, but it’s not a question of whether they are innocent or guilty; rather, they are Mexican citizens.

Precisely, they should be tried in our country and made to pay for their crimes here, if justice were to work at all, and if it weren’t for the fact that the President of Mexico is being cornered by threats from the United States government, which has taken consistent steps, for months, to carry out a military incursion into our country. In order to use us as propaganda currency for his government’s domestic consumption, the US President has systematically used the issue of fentanyl and drug cartels to carry out a show of force. The Mexican government should no longer have any doubt about what is coming; clearly, these are not Trump’s boasts, but a carefully executed plan to legitimize military measures that could gain him significant support from his base. We already know that his government needs enemies, antagonists through which to expand its power. The humiliation of various countries and presidents speaks eloquently of his political strategies, but his fixation on Mexico is totally scandalous. 

Since it declared the Mexican cartels terrorist groups, the US government has assumed the right to eliminate or annihilate these groups. The US government has already accused the Mexican government of colluding with drug traffickers, and all that’s left is for it to choose a convenient moment within US domestic politics to launch some kind of attack that, rest assured, will violate national sovereignty. It doesn’t need to invade us by land, as it did in the past; it’s enough to launch missiles, bring in drones, or bring in US agents to attack any “target” within our country.

What will the Mexican government do now that it has already given in on everything? Will it have the strength to confront the US government, or will it accept the violation of our sovereignty? Because it’s even possible that the Mexican government will present any attack as a form of “cooperation” to hide its aggression. Don’t think I’m exaggerating; the surrender of drug lords and criminals that has been carried out, in a completely illegal manner, is already a form of surrender, of capitulation to the United States, something we have never seen before.

Some will think it’s a clever move to ward off danger; the truth is that the Mexican government’s subservience is becoming increasingly apparent, and Trump won’t take the armed aggression card off the table.

That is, by all accounts, the threat our country faces, and every time it gives in to pressure, it weakens further. Because soon, President Claudia Sheinbaum will run out of high-profile prisoners, and she will have no choice but to begin yielding to other types of pressure: tariffs, in the trade agreement negotiations, or even the arrest of politicians targeted by the Americans. And of course, the President’s government should combat alliances between organized crime and politicians wherever they exist, but not cater to foreign pressures aimed at turning Mexico into a role model.

The worst part of all, dear reader, is that in the end, Trump will do what suits him best; he won’t respect any agreement, because he’s Trump. Thus, he illegally bombed Iran, violating all international laws; more of a demonstration, a show for the world, than a war between the two countries. He could do the same in Mexico; a targeted attack on a drug lab or some drug lord, which will do nothing to change fentanyl trafficking or the death toll in the United States, but which would inflame American nationalism by making it clear that the United States has the power to attack any country it wants, with impunity, to “defend itself against its enemies,” making it clear that it has managed to make America great again. Mexico as the icing on the MAGA cake.

Hopefully, the Mexican government already has a plan A, B, and C for this scenario that doesn’t consist of singing the national anthem while allowing Mexico to be humiliated by a U.S. invasion, yet again. I don’t know what that might be, dear reader, but handing over Mexican citizens as if they were Mexican tributes revives our darkest past. And there’s no need to remind you, but no, it didn’t go well at all.

María Rivera is a poet, essayist, cook, and polemicist. She was born in Mexico City in the 1970s, still under the dictatorship of Mexico City. She champions feminist causes, peacemaking, and freedom. She is also a poetry promoter and teacher. She is the author of the poetry collections Traslación de dominio (Translation of Domain, FETA, 2000), Hay batallas (Hay batallas, Joaquín Mortiz, 2005), Los muertos (Los muertos, Calygramma, 2011), and Casa de los Heridos (Parentalia, 2017). In 2005, she won the Aguascalientes National Poetry Prize.

This editorial by María Rivera appeared in the August 14, 2025 edition of Sin Embargo.