While you were voting — Murder in the desert

David Sirota recently said the election was between a watered down FDR and a paler version of Ronald Reagan, though when it comes to Latin American policy, I’d think of it more in terms of an up-to-date Woodrow WIlson on the Democratic Party ticket, and for the Republicans, another William Howard Taft.  No matter who wins, the Monroe Doctrine, and the Southern Command is not going to disappear… nor is Homeland Security.

While the  willingness to negotiate held out by an Obama Administration are preferable to the 21st century Dollar Diplomacy of McCain, my inner historian remembers that Woodrow Wilson was — for Latin America — responsible more than anyone else for unleashing more violence in Latin America than any other U.S. president, including Ronald Reagan.

While there is every reason to hope an Obama Administration will NOT use force to back up their professed interest in working in partnership with the hemisphere, the United States is the only superpower around, and — given its continued dependence on Latin American commodities (nothing at all has been said by either candidate about agricultural policy, something of vital importance to Mexico), the only temporarily quiescent xenophobia which is bound to re-emerge as the country goes through the painful process of readjustment and Obama’s apparent acquiescence in the belief that any nationalist leader in Latin America on the left is a “dictator” or anti-American — AND, the laughable assertion that the U.S. Southern Command is NOT a military threat to Latin America (and, as someone once said, “what’s the good of having an army if you don’t use it), I can very well see calls for intervention in Latin American affairs being accepted by Obama as the right decision — and packaged as “assistance” down this way.  Wilson, let us remember, said when elected that it would be ironic, indeed, if foreign policy was an issue in his presidency. Foreign policy — and intervention — is what we remember about the guy.

I don’t see an Obama adminstration likely to immediately de-fund the anti-narcotics war, nor is it likely to show any more interest in stopping the illegal weapons trade than the present adminstration.  None of which means I prefer McCain — who models himself on Theodore Roosevelt — at least in foreign policy.

Among the things not likely to change are the bureaucratic structure of the Border Patrol.  One reason so many south of the border are indifferent to the U.S. election is that whomever wins,  the bureaucratic structure set up by the Bush Regime (Homeland Security) has taken on a life of its own, and isn’t going to disappear.  Bureaucrats protect their own, and live by the rules of their own culture.  That has been very clear in the on-going circus surrounding the retrial of U.S. Border Patrol agent Nicholas Corbett in Tucson.

The fact that Corbett, 41, fired a single fatal bullet into 22-year-old Francisco Dominguez-Rivera in January 2007 is not in dispute. The issue is whether the shooting was self-defense. (Mmm, a man on the ground, trying to surrender, shot in the back of the head? ) Corbett, who remains on duty, is charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and negligent homicide. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. In March, a jury deadlocked in the case.

A website for truck drivers doesn’t sound like it would be the likeliest source for courtroom coverage, but then, both the “mainstream” and alternative media — even the pro-immigration sites — have been so bound up with the election, and speculation on what may or may not be the long-term results, that they are missing what is happening in the here and now.  Mexico Trucker — if it were a U.S. based website — might be in line for some kind of award for excellent reporting.

Go vote — for Obama — but then, be prepared to keep fighting for immigrant rights, a better NAFTA deal and an end to U.S. agricultural subsidies that force Mexicans to emigrate — and create a culture that fosters people like Nicholas Corbett.

As a start, read the entire “Murder in the Desert” series.