Saturday, June 1, 2019

Mexico's president meets reality, and doesn't like it


Mexican President Lopez Obrador is apparently peeved with US President Trump over the latter's economic retaliation against Mexico for not stemming the tide of illegal alien border-jumpers.

In a pointed letter released Thursday, López Obrador lashed out at Trump for what he described as the U.S. president's "turning the United States, overnight, from a country of brotherly love for immigrants from around the world, to a bolted space, where there's stigmatizing, mistreatment, abuse, persecution, and a denial of the right to justice to those who seek -- with sacrifice and hard work -- to live free from misery."

López Obrador said that “social problems are not solved with duties or coercive measures,” and alluded to the United States’ history as a nation of immigrants: “The Statue of Liberty is not an empty symbol.”

He added in the letter, which he provided a link to on his Twitter account, that in contrast to Trump's approach, Mexico is doing its part to avoid migration through its territory as much as possible, without violating human rights.

“People don’t leave their homelands for pleasure but out of necessity," the Mexican leader said.

There's more at the link.

That's a fine note of righteous indignation, to be sure.  Unfortunately, it doesn't square with Lopez Obrador's far-left-wing credentials and previous pronouncements.  For example:
  • “Soon, very soon, after the victory of our movement, we will defend migrants all over the American continent and the migrants of the world who, by necessity, must abandon their towns to find life in the United States,” Lopez Obrador said during a rally in the Mexican city of Culiacán ... “It’s a human right we will defend,” he added.
  • Lopez Obrador said on Thursday tackling illegal immigration is an issue chiefly for the United States and Central America to address ... Mexico would help to check the flow of migrants heading north, but that his country was no longer the main driver of the phenomenon ... "That is, this is a problem of the United States, or it's a problem of the Central American countries. It's not up to us Mexicans, no ... I just emphasize that migration flows of Mexicans to the United States are very low, a lot lower," he said. "The Mexican is no longer seeking work in the United States. The majority are inhabitants of our fellow Central American countries."
That doesn't sound like a man seriously trying to address the issue, does it?

American Thinker pointed out last year:

To be sure, AMLO is only saying out loud what every other Mexican president believed in his heart: that America is Mexico's "social safety net" and that it's up to the U.S. taxpayer to take care of Mexico's unemployable, destitute millions.

Unsaid by AMLO is the implication of a mass migration of Mexicans to the U.S.  The not so secret dream of every Mexican government is that illegals flooding into America will eventually allow for a "return" of California and much of the American southwest to Mexico.

What makes this socialist different, however, is his novel argument that entering the U.S. illegally is actually a "human right."  That's an opinion we could have a lot of fun with.  One would assume that if it were a "human right" to illegally enter the U.S., it would then be a human right to enter Mexico – or any other country, for that matter.

Again, more at the link.

If the United States allowed unfettered, unrestricted access to aliens intent on crossing Canada's southern border, Canada would rightly protest as strongly as possible, and probably take the US to international courts, the United Nations, and any other avenue of action it could think of, to stem the tide.  If the US were to do the same to Mexico (assuming sufficient numbers of the insane could be found that are willing to enter that criminal-violence-plagued nation), Mexico would protest equally strongly.  Why, then is Lopez Obrador surprised to find a similar reaction from the US?

The stability of Mexico is dependent on one single thing:  its access to the US market.  That includes both production in Mexico that's exported north, and money sent home by its citizens in America (most of them here illegally), which amounts to a staggering $25-billion-plus (yes, that's "Billion" with a "B") every year.  Without that access and that cash flow, the Mexican economy would collapse.  That's the plain and simple truth - and that's what President Trump is now using as leverage.

If tariffs on Mexican imports don't work, President Trump can turn to the remittances sent to that country by people in the USA.  That would hurt even more than tariffs. He can't tax them without a new law passed by Congress, which isn't going to happen while Democrats control the House.  However, he can stop the flow altogether on national security grounds (for which, I submit, a mass invasion by illegal aliens, such as is now going on, could be more than sufficient grounds).  That would mess up Mexico's economy almost overnight.

I hope, for the sake of his country, that Lopez Obrador gets the picture, straightens up and flies right.  If he doesn't, Mexico is about to get squeezed . . . and I don't see any reason why it shouldn't.  If our positions were reversed, I'm sure it would try to do the same thing.

Peter

12 comments:

C. S. P. Schofield said...

Were I President of the United States (which God forbid!) I would be telling the President of Mexico (behind closed doors at first) "Look, if we're going to have unfettered movement from your country into mine, because you can't pay for the safety net for these people, we're going to come on over and take over the administration of your failed State. Making you a protectorate would solve a LOT of problems for us. We'd have easier access to your drug gangs. We could set a couple of Boy Scouts with lemonade-stand experience to run your oil industry and get better results. We would have a MUCH shorter southern border. And our Progressive Lefties would drop dead from rage.. Think it over. If running your own country in a way that doesn't depend on sucking our blood is too much trouble, we could invade next Tuesday and retire you with a nice pension."

paladin3001 said...

"If the United States allowed unfettered, unrestricted access to aliens intent on crossing Canada's southern border, Canada would rightly protest as strongly as possible, and probably take the US to international courts, the United Nations, and any other avenue of action it could think of, to stem the tide."

Ummm, it depends on who's in power. Currently our present leader tweeted after the election of DJT that we were open. The amount of illegal "refugee" seekers crossing the southern border jumped and the PTB smiled and welcomed them. Any arguments from the opposition has been shouted down as racist.

Ray - SoCal said...
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Ray - SoCal said...

Trump wants Mexico to sign a safe third country agreement.

Articles about this in the Washington Post, NY Times, etc.

One from Yahoo:
https://news.yahoo.com/president-trump-reportedly-wants-asylum-215331325.html

If an asylum seeker to the us transits Mexico, they can be sent back to Mexico

Canada just signed such an agreement with the US.

HMS Defiant said...

As I understand it, asylum seekers stop in the first country out of danger. Mexico qualifies for everybody south of their border. They have no right or duty to forward them on to us. Let Mexico enjoy the melange of diversity from their southern neighbors until they choke on it.

WhatIfWeAllCared? said...

And so, ai am thinking, we really need, Yes NEED, to conquer Mexico. Then we, the US who is supporting more and more of the Mexican population, would have unfettered access to all their resources!!
Imagine it . .

LL said...

We don't want to conquer Mexico unless we plan to use neutron warheads to do it. (Kill all the people, leave everything else intact and radiation free) With Mexico, you broke it, you bought it.

Moving on from there, the illegal immigration program was always understood by both the US and Mexico as a pressure relief valve for Mexico. All of the people who would cause revolution ended up in the US, working and distancing themselves from the rot and corruption down south. And it was allowed. Not much of a wall, etc. USGOV turned a largely blind eye to it all.

Now with illegal aliens receiving preference over citizens, voting in our elections, etc., the metric has changed. And we need a big beautiful wall and the Congressionally approved methods of removing undesirable aliens quickly and efficiently.

Let Mexico suck lemons.

Jim22 said...

AMLO is a Marxist. Don't expect any reasonable reaction from him.

Judy said...

As LL has pointed out We do not want to conquer Mexico and I hold up Puerto Rico as a prime example of why not. The countries that are a success are the ones overrun with folks of UK extraction. Only when the native population is a minority has the country prospered in the western sense.

Glen said...

The problem that no one talks about is that the Mexican government does not control the country. They collect some taxes, and distribute money, but do not have effective control in any state.

Government official are suborned or executed. There is no effective reporting of events, as press and media folks are routinely killed.

Talking with the Mexican government is nonproductive.

The only tool left that may cause changes is to cancel all money transfers to and from Mexico. That *might* cause social problems that are beyond the financial capacity of the regional crime powers to deal with.

It is not a good situation.

The Lab Manager said...

Also consider that the Marxist in the Congress refuse to pass any legislation ending this asinine 'asylum' BS. Simply pass a law making it null and void and give them 30 days to self deport or turn themselves into any ICE facility for ASAP deportation. But no, because Trump is in office nothing will be done.

It annoys me I have to get a TWIC to get on a private company's premises, but these alleged 'asylym' seekers are released into the public and we have no idea about their background.

2ABill said...

If someone is legitimately seeking asylum in the US, we have an embassy and NINE consulates scattered around Mexico:

https://mx.usembassy.gov/embassy-consulates/

Appearing directly on the border and entering illegally to claim asylum status should be a non-starter.