Thick as thieves?

I’m sure some are likely to reject this out of hand because it comes from the World Socialist Web Site, but Marc Wells is probably not wrong in arguing that the United States and the Obama Administration are not allies of the democratic and dissident movements in Mexico.

The massacre [in Iguala] has received a noticeably muted response within US ruling circles. Asked about the Obama administration’s attitude toward the killings, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf this week boasted about how administration officials “work very closely with Mexican authorities on a range of security-related issues,” while praising the Peña Nieto government’s handling of the affair.

Harf noted that the Obama administration had certified to Congress the Mexican government’s compliance with human rights standards required for military aid on September 19—one week before the Iguala massacre—and had no intention of “revisiting” the issue.

The reasons are obvious. Peña Nieto’s historic privatization of national oil company Petróleos Mexicano (PEMEX), which opened the floodgates to international speculation, and a slew of similar “reforms” affecting telecommunications, education and banking have been greeted with enthusiasm by Washington and Wall Street.

During a visit to Mexico last year, Obama declared: “I want to commend President Peña Nieto and the Mexican people for the ambitious reforms that you’ve embarked on to make your economy more competitive, to make your institutions more effective… But let me repeat what I told the President—as Mexico works to become more competitive, you’ve got a strong partner in the United States, because our success is shared.”

The partnership to which Obama refers amounts to over a century and a half of US domination and exploitation of Mexico, from the control of its railroad and mining industry since the second half of the 19th century to the infamous 1994 NAFTA agreement, which transformed Mexico into a giant cheap labor sweatshop for the principal benefit of US capital.

President Obama has been a consistent supporter of Peña Nieto from the moment the controversial 2012 Mexican election results were made public. They share common views on democratic and human rights…

 Read the whole piece here.