We have nothing to fear but fear itself?

I’ve recently heard from a few foreign residents who are panicky over the prospects of a change in government… and not the usual panic over everything types either. One long term resident (like 25 years or so) was asking me if I thought she should start looking for property in Florida should the left win. While I can see “border jumpers” and the like being concerned that Mexico might retaliate against US anti-immigration policy by cracking down on people using “loopholes*” to stay here (something that might happen no matter who controls the incoming government), what accounts for the fear?

Yes, I expect AMLO to win the presidency in July.  I can understand the fears of those who expect a violent reaction from the right (and scenarios a la Dallas 1963) although I wonder if the fears are not more of those who, as outsiders, are looking at this from the outside.  That is, people depending on foreign information sources, which tend to parrot the “lens” of the source culture.  In a British publication, I recently saw AMLO compared to Jeremy Corbin, and in US media, I’ve seen him compared to either Donald Trump or Bernie Sanders (or both, simultanously)… along with the usual comparisons to Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, and Lula da Silva.  The latter are easiest to understand… the “all Latin Americans are the same” meme that has colored thinking in the English-language media forever.  Mexico is not Venezuela, nor Cuba, nor Brazil.  We have not had a military officer in the Presidency since World War II, and… despite a history of foreign hegemony in the economy, our nationalist revolution was a century ago, and, if anything, the Soviets borrowed from us, not the other way around.  And Lula did pretty well by Brazil.  So, what accounts for the fear of a social worker/union organizer/bible-reader in Los Pinos?

* “J”, in a comment below, asked what “loopholes” were meant. While a foreign visitor is, in the usual course of things, given a stay up to 180 days when entering, there is no guarantee they will be allowed to stay that long, or will even be admitted into the country. Several people (quite a few I know) assume they will always be admitted for 180 days, and take advantage of that by living here full time but leaving the country for a day or two to go shopping north of the border. I would not at all be surprised to see a change in immigration policy that scrutinized these “border jumpers” more closely. Most of those hurt by such a change would be those who are living here as retirees, on incomes that don’t meet the threshold for a “retiree visa” (not it’s official name, but one criteria for issuing a termporary residency permit is to have sufficient income… a multiple of the Mexican salario minimo (I believe it’s 150 x the salario) in monthly income.

There are also those “border jumpers” who are working under the table… English teachers and resort workers for the most part… who might be affected were the IMN (Mexican immigration service) to crack down.