'There goes Obama and
his entire security team ... Mexico
City and Polanco
will again be protected by the banking police
and those who blocked the
door of News Divine.'
[News Divine was a nightclub where, in 2008, 12 people were
killed
in
a stampede as police blocked the door. The artist sarcastically
expresses
more faith in Obama's security team than Mexico's police].
[La Jornada,
Mexico]
La Jornada, Mexico
An Open Letter to
Obama: Learn Your History, Sir!
"Now
with your visit to Mexico, you intend to close the circle of Santa Anna-like
defeatism which characterizes the government that welcomes you. … But you
should also know, sir, that, as in 1847 and 1914, there are Mexicans who will
defend their homeland, its natural and strategic resources, its social
achievements and its sovereignty - and who will fight for an equitable
relationship with the United States."
By Gilberto López y Rivas
Translated By Halszka
Czarnocka
April 17, 2009
Mexico - La Jornada
- Original Article (Spanish)
On April 21, just days after
you will have left our country, comes the anniversary of the attack and occupation
of the port of Veracruz
in 1914, which was carried out by the U.S. Marines, an expeditionary force
with a long tradition of intervention. The Marines anthem alludes to the
aggressive war of conquest carried out by your country between 1846 and 1848,
in which Mexico lost half of its territory ("From the Halls of Montezuma
to the shores of Tripoli …").
Thus, Veracruz was bombarded
twice by your navy - in 1847 and 1914 - with great loss of life among the
civilian population who on both occasions, to be sure, heroically confronted
the invading Marines in spite of their clear military superiority.
On that April 21 [in 1914], the cadets of Naval Military School, men
and women of different social backgrounds and some members of Spanish
expatriate community fought an unequal battle against the occupation forces
while the regular Mexican army beat an ignoble retreat, withdrawing to Tejeria. Similar events took place during the occupation of
the Republic's capital by the forces of General Scott [photo,
left], who on the 14th and 15th of September, 1847, was compelled to confront
hundreds of civilians. These were people who decided - at the cost of their
lives - to give value to the nation's dignity, left undefended by the army of
Antonio López de Santa Anna [the Mexican-American War].
It wouldn't be the last armed invasion of Mexican territory by our
"good neighbor." From March 14, 1916 to February 7 of the following
year occurred the so called "punitive expedition"
led by General
John J. Pershing [photo, right], who chased our General Francisco Villa
throughout the state of Chihuahua without managing to capture him. We aren't
counting the over 100 incursions by the Filibusters and
armed sorties along the Northern border, so masterfully recounted by our
historian Gastón García Cantú in his book American Interventions in Mexico
(1971) - a must read.
In the three above-mentioned
invasions of Mexico, the commanders-in-chief of the armed forces, i.e. the U.S.
presidents of those times, James Knox Polk and Woodrow Wilson, belonged
to your party - the Democrats. Surely you remember that your predecessor Polk
was a lifelong slave owner and an enthusiastic proponent of your nation's territorial
expansion at the expense of decimated and weakened indigenous people by
the "decadent" Spanish Empire and the nascent Republic of Mexico - an
expansionist process based on and justified by the idea of "Manifest Destiny,"
or the mission, "allotted by Providence" for the U.S. to extend its
borders across the entire continent. Your Founding Fathers even thought of
establishing the U.S. capital on the Isthmus of Panama.
Painting by John Gast
(circa 1872) called American Progress is an
allegorical representation of Manifest Destiny. In the scene, an
angelic woman
(Columbia, a 19th century personification of the
U.S.) carries the light
of "Civilization" westward. American settlers,
stringing telegraph
wire, follow her. American Indians and wild
animals flee
into the darkness of the 'uncivilized' West.
The presidency of another of
your predecessors, Woodrow Wilson [photo below, left], was also marked by
interventionism in Latin America: in 1914 it was Mexico; in 1915 the invasion
of Haiti; in 1916 his troops again invaded Mexico - and the Dominican Republic,
which they occupied until 1924, leaving behind a government favorable to U.S.
investment.
Posted
by WORLDMEETS.US
Wilson, the alleged author of the right to self-determination and who was
thereby rewarded with the Nobel Peace prize in 1919, had, in reality, himself violated
this right, which we Mexicans can confirm by personal experience. Wilson was
also, as you surely know best, an ironclad supporter of racial segregation. He
prevented Afro-American students from enrolling in Princeton University when he
served as its president, and acted in the same fashion when he was president of
the republic, refusing to appoint Blacks to his administration.
You might wonder what the
connection is, between all this history and the present time. The answer lies
in the actions you have taken as commander-in-chief of occupation forces in
Iraq and Afghanistan during the first hundred days of your presidency. It seems that in
those countries, "manifest destiny" authorizes soldiers under your
command to violate the right of self-determination of the local people,
resulting in millions of dead, wounded, orphaned, widowed and exiled, and the
installation of collaborationist governments that open their doors to your
corporations, just as Wilson did in the Dominican Republic.
While it's true you've
spoken out against the way in which your predecessor brought about these wars,
never once have you condemned the wars themselves for their neocolonial
character. You supported the recent crimes against humanity perpetrated in the
Gaza Strip by Israel against the Palestinian people. You have made slanderous
statements about President Chávez and you have not
distanced yourself from the coup-plotting Venezuelan oligarchy.
Posted
by WORLDMEETS.US
Now with your visit to Mexico, you intend to close the circle of Santa
Anna-like defeatism which characterizes the government that welcomes you. You
should know that millions of Mexicans believe that President Felipe Calderón came to power through electoral fraud, with
support from the military and with the complicity of the Institutional
Revolutionary Party [PRI] leaders - who now admit to his face that they backed
him for electoral reasons [Calderon is a member of the National Action Party,
or PAN]. That ruling group [the PRI] seeks to
consummate a silent annexation by the United States. They are the heirs of
those who, to protect their class interests, allied themselves with the
invaders in the war of 1847 [Mexican-American War], and who enabled the French
intervention and the enthronement of Maximilian [photo right]. But you
should also know, sir, that, as in 1847 and 1914, there are Mexicans who will
defend their homeland, its natural and strategic resources, its social
achievements and its sovereignty - and who will fight for an equitable
relationship with the United States.
I pray that you not follow
the example of your predecessors. Have a good trip.
SEE ALSO ON THIS:
La Prensa, Nicaragua:
Sham American President 'Stains' Nicaraguan History
BolPress, Bolivia:
America's Dark Past Intrudes on Bolivian Elections
Gazeta, Russia:
Castro and Chavez Split Over Obama
Al Wehda, Syria:
America's 'Destiny' of Invasion and Expansionism
Granma, Cuba:
Castro: Easing of Cuba Restrictions 'Positive', But Not Nearly Enough
El Espectador, Colombia:
Cuba in Obama's Sights
Merco Press, Uruguay:
Lula Vows Not to Embarrass Obama Over Cuba Embargo
CLICK HERE FOR SPANISH VERSION
[Posted
by WORLDMEETS.US April 19, 9:19pm]
