¡COMO MEXICO NO HAY DOS! Mexico's hsitory and culture, the Real, and the surreal, Mexico. Politics, economic, news sometimes here, but regularly posted at mexfiles.substack.com. Copy and quote freely, but be respectful, and acknowlege the source. And, of course, monetary donations help keep the site going.
The executive board of the Interamerican Development Bank (what’s that?) have united in a call to dismiss their president… for, according to media reports (here and here from the conservative Infobae site… as well as AP, EFE and others) an undisclosed romantic relationship with a subordinate.
As if. The bank… set up in 1959 under the auspices of the United States… is another of those financial institutions — like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund — that may have been designed to “develop” nations, but generally end up racking up huge public debts, that are then repaid through “restructing” the economy… i.e., debt bondage and being held hostage to global northern business interests.
That’s slightly (only slightly) unfair… while the United States, a basket of European nations, and Canada provide most of the funds, the borrowing nations hold the majority of shares, and … by tradition, the bank’s president is always from one of the borrowing nations.
However, in 2019, under the leadership of the then US president (figure it out) pushed thru a “Latin”… of sorts. Mauricio Claver-Carone, a recent “Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Director of Western Hemisphere Affairs” on the National Security Council, until 2019, when he moved up to “Deputy Assistant to the President”.
As Wikipedia notes, “In this role, Claver-Carone is credited for creating the U.S. government’s maximum-pressure campaign against the Maduro regime in Venezuela and for conceptualizing the “América Crece” economic growth strategy and frameworks.” The latter is “… a framework for supporting economic development in Latin America and the Caribbean by catalyzing private sector investment in energy and other infrastructure projects.”… in other words, assisting US companies in penetrating the Latin American energy markets.
Apparently, this was nothing new… Claver-Carone’s first career was pushing “Democracy” for Cuba, from his home base in… you guessed it… Miami. And, by the way, “democracy” in this context means “capitalism”.
Nothing against Capitalism (well… a lot, but bankers gotta bank) and very little interest in the guy’s private affairs (descibed in media reports only as “salacious”), but it certainly sounds, given his whining that his “constitutional rights” to due process are being violated, and even the (sitting) US President’s call for his resignation, indicates he hasn’t exactly won friends and whatever he’s trying to influence in the way of “development” (his big signature project was getting Latin governments to borrow money to BUY COVID-19 vaccines… as opposed to every country’s call for open patents or reducted prices) … at market rates.
In other words… the same old same old US policy at a time when the global south is exploring new possibilities (hey, China has wazoos of cash, and some pretty nifty technology too), rejecting the “debt trap” and… just… not… liking the guy… he should go.
It’s perhaps an oversight, but the federal program that buys essential food products (like corn and beans) from small producers at a subsidezed price, does not include “beverages”… one of which probably IS an essential food item.
And… so… PRI Deputy Refugio Camarena, a sponsor of a bill that would include certain “essential” beverages, brought a guest with her… a small producer named Lola. Talk about milking the publicity for all its worth…
According to Credit Suisse, the world’s “one percenters” increased their control of the planet’s wealth from 43.9% in 2019, to 45.6 % in 2021. At the same time, the poorest 40% lost even more ground, from controlling 1.8% to… well… nothing: NEGATIVE 0.2%
Mexico is no exception, or… is a slight exception. Yes, the rich are getting richer and there are more millionaires (in dollar value) than ever before (258,000 of them), but they control less of the national wealth, their percentage of control falling from 42 % in 2000 to “merely” 30% now.
That the middle class is gaining ground (or at least a slightly less obscenely small portion of the national weath) probably is a good thing, although Mexico ranks #2 in wealth inequality in Latin America (behind Brazil).
What it all means, can’t say… the pandemic upset the whole system (the super-rich saw their wealth accumulate last year by something like 21 % !!!!!) and supposedly, the middle class (or the Mexican middle class) has a bit more in their pockets… though with inflation a peso just doesn’t go as far as it did.
Dora Villanueva, “Baja de 42 a 30% la riqueza nacional en poden de los más acaudalados“, Jornada 21 Sept 2022.
In the series of “VIVA!” at the grito, AMLO gave a shoutout to “universal brotherhood”… something proposed in foreign policy (to be presented to the United Nations General Assembly this week). Specifically, a halt to the Russian invasion (ok, “special military operation”… a military/legal term two steps below a declarion of war and one below a “anti-terrorist campaign”) in Ukraine, while the conflicting claims of the two sides (not Ukraine, but it’s NATO/Western financiers) and Russia are worked up, under the auspices of the UN (the Secretary General, Antonio Guterrez), Pope Francis, and Indian Prime Minister, Narenda Modi, broker an agreement.
Yes, it’s more than a bit idealistic, and perhaps naive, to expect anything to come out of such a proposal (with the old post WWII powers still having veto power and permanent seats in the Security Council, no way those countries — with their massive financial dependence on wars and military investments — will sign off), and it would be perfectly understandable for Ukraine to object to one or more of the proposed negotiators (India has tradionally been the big dog in the non-aligned nations movement, but it has had better relations with the old Soviet Union, and still has with Russia, to possibly be acceptable to the Ukrainians. OK, maybe Mexico’s next president, or some ofther global southern worthy), but to dismiss it out of hand…
It was a good faith offer, and for Mykhailo Podoliak, a “special advisor” to Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenski, to “tweet” that the plan is “Russian” (uh… no, it’s Mexican, from a country with enough oil, fertilizer and grain to weather the sanctions, and a modest arms industry, most foreign purchases being from NATO nations), and… more insultingly, the AMLO’s good faith suggestion is for his own political benefit.
What benefit? Reluctance to “get along” with the NATO/Western powers has been a constant irritation for Ukraine’s #1 financial backers… the big country on their northern border that’s invaded them before, and holds financial sway over Mexico’s ability to manouver in any direction in foreign policy. The United States has been “negotiating” (i.e., trying to twist the arms, or at least dampen support) for this government over less any number of issues affecting the two countries… electrical power, lithium, oil exports, not to mention its apparent unwillingness to even consider (or let mention) of Mexico’s open support for Julian Assange and free speech that contradicts the western narratives.
My suspicion is that the Ukrainian and NATO politicans are the ones who are using this war (or invasion, or “special military operation”) for political gain.
Ok, Myhailo… do you have a counter-proposal? Otherwise, STFU.
With most of the world’s (or at least the global north’s) media obsessed with the rituals surrounding the not unforseeing death of a nonagenarian European monarch, Mexfiles would like to present another ritual… pompous to be sure, and a bit absurd like all rituals tend to be… but one that celebrates not the power and weath of an imperialist state… but the modest aspirations of a Republic. AND… more importanly… one specifically calling for the death of the very things that underpin the “legitimacy” of monarchs.
One thing notable, and something I don’t think has been done before is that besides the usual “Vivas!” … for Liberty, Equality, Justice, Democracy, Soverignty, Universal Brotherhood, and Peace (Universal Brotherhood not being one generally acknowledged in all Republics… especially those with imperial ambitions of their own) there were the “MUERAS!” … Death to the evils of our society: Death to corruption! Death to racism! Death to classism!
Death to the very foundations of monarchy, and imperialism!
Although this monument in Orizaba, Veracruz bears the name “Catarina de Erauso”, it is actually a monument to Antonio de Erauso… the first legally recognized transgender.
Born afout 1585, Catarina Erauso was a recalcatrant child, packed off to a convent at the age of four, where she proved too much for the kindy “day care” nuns to handle, who sent her off to the Convent of San Sebastian, known for his high standards and disciplined mode of life. Which did not appeal at all to Catarina, especially once she reached puberty and … uh…. acted out her teenage rebellion, starting fist fight with the other nuns, eventually breaking a habit (so to speak), robbing the convent treasury, and going over the wall.
Hitting the road as “Francisco de Loyala” she surfaced in 1602 when she beat up a boy for insulting her, and served a month in prison, again under the name of Francisco. Sometime around 1605 she emigrated to the Americas, next popping up in Peru in 1612, where she joined the army as Francisco in its war against the Mapuche people of Chile, serving until 1617, earning the rank of Lieutenant. It’s said that at some point she had met with ther brother, then an aide to the Viceroy, earning the rank of Lieutenant. It’s said that at some point she had met with ther brother, then an aide to the Viceroy, who did not recognize her, nor was she disposed to give away her forner identity.
Either before, or during, her military career, she’d become a professional gambler, whcih led to at least two murder warrants in Lima. She fled to Cusco, and… likely to be hanged… thowing the dice (so to speak), she threw herself on the mercy of the local bishop, pleading she was a repentant nun and a virgin who didn’t deserve to be hanged.
The Bishop could believe she was a nun, and had what passed for credible testimony that she was a virgin, but was a bit dubious about the repentent part. Not comfortable with the idea of turning a nun over to be hanged, but not wanting to have a nun of such dubious reputation on his hands either, he had her shipped back to the motherland, where the sensational story of the nun turned soldier had already reached the court of Felipe IV.
Felipe might have been as ridiculously formal and reactionary as any of his inbred Hapsburg relations, but he did have the saving grace of a sense of irony, and seemed to find joy in the less conventional of his loyal subjects. Famously, when he commissioned Diego Velaquez’ to portray the royal daughers, he specifically wanted his favorite jester, the dwarf Maria Babaso, included (she’ standing on the far right) mostly just to annoy the Queen, who Felipe richly rewarded for Maria’s practical jokes on his humorless spouse.
Whether out of that sense of irony, or a genuine tolerance for human differences (we’d like to think the latter), Felipe came to a suprisingly modern conclusion. The former Caterina Erauso was a member of the Erauso family (which included some aristocratic pretentions and priviliges), BUT as a SON… Antonio Erauso. In fact, Felipe was so charmed by the adventures of “Franciso de Loyala” … which were soon written up by an anonyous author as “The Lieutenant Nun”… that he sent (at his expense) now famous Antonio to Rome to meet with Pope Urban VIII, who also decreed that the person he met was Antonio Erauso. And you can’t get more official that that.
Antonio returned to the Americas… to New Spain, in 1630, living a somewhat less adventurous, but also less public, life, spending the next 20 years as a mule driver (a good job in colonial Mexico) on the Vercruz to Mexico City route. He’s buried in Cotlaxtla, having died in 1650 on the trail.
An opinion piece in yesterday’s Jornada (“Hoy, los toros… ¿Mañana qué?“) questioned whether the courts have a right to intervene in 25 year old regulations on Mexico City’s bullfights on the argument that bullfights violates “·human rights” under the recent Mexico City constitution.
While the author, Javier Jiménez Gutiérrez, is using the legal case to question whether or not judges are “legislating from the bench” it raises another somewhat overlooked constitutiona.l issue. Mexico City’s constitution includes rights for animals, to live as nature intended (not quite the right wording, but close enough). Certainly, a bull in the ring is not going to live as long as one put out to stud, and I suppose there are some environmental concers with disposing of dead bulls and all that bullshit you can smell around the ring in Noche Buena, but then, what’s the nature of fighhting bulls? And given that cattle are raised for slaughter in the first place (and, I’d argue, bullfighting is environmentally sound… fighting bulls needing to be raised in open prairie, preserving the environment that would otherwise be used for feedlots) can the judge “legislate from the bench” as to what is, or isn’t a “natural” life for an animal?
I don’t know.
And cocks… practicioners of Santaria sacrifice animals (mostly chickens) during their rituals, something not many of us are particularly fond of (nor bullfighting, for that matter), but whether they have the right to do so has also come up… leading to a demonstration and a march on the Mexico City Congress over alleged restrictions on their religious rights… something also constitutionally protected (as presumably so are the sacrificial chickens).
Como México, no hay dos… even in courtrooms and the halls of Congress!
The American taco is a kind of weirdly concocted tostada, folded in half, with a space in the middle for ingredients that are nothing like a Mexican taco, like lettuce and grated cheese.
According to “Taste Atlas”, the “American” taco is one of the 50 worst foods on the planet. Proceso explains the strange north of the border concoction for Mexicans in this week’s issue:
Mexican Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection, Rosa Icela Rodríguez, speaking during the gave aexplained that the spiral of violence generated in Mexico, is due two things: wolld-wide demand for drugs, and illegal arms trafficking.
She asked an answered three questions: While deploring the death toll and violence in her country, she added, “Do we manufacture weapons ourselves?, no; Do we consume synthetic drugs? No; Do we provide the dead? Unfortunately, yes”.
Spotted in some of the more popular “expat” neighborhoods, both in Mexico City, and elsehwhere.
Is there anywhere on the planet that migrants are universally welcomed? While usually it’s less-privilidged economic migrants who bear the brunt of this sort of rejection, the bourgie “expats”seem shocked that they are seem for what the term “expat” really is… a nice way of saying “economic migrant with more money”.
Where I lived before (Texas) it wasn’t uncommon to hear or see unkindness towards migrants by those who saw outsiders as a threat to the status quo. Why is anyone shocked that there are people here with the same kind of attitude, seeing migrants from foreign cultures as a unwanted intervention in their lives?
Nothing’s been posted in quite a while… and apologies for that. I’ll be back shortly… For now, here’s a guy you usually don’t think of, who had a major role in Mexican history. Today’s birthday boy, John Quincey Adams.
John Quincey Adams… what did he have to do with Mexico?
He was the Adams in the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819, which (besides sticking the US with Florida) defined the borders between “New Spain” and the new United States.
The “Monroe Doctrine” (1823) wasn’t known by that name until at least the 1850s, having been drawn up by Adams (as Secretary of State), something that certainly (especially after some fancy re-interpretation by Teddy Roosevelt to the effect nobody… BUT the US… could interfere in Latin American affairs. Adam’s original intent was only to give the US an edge when it came to exports, and… more importantly… to prevent the then-superpowers of attempting to regain control of American resources.
And.. at the end of his life, after one term as President (after a controversial election in which, as the third place finisher, he was selected by Congress to serve as President), as a representative from Massachusetts, along with NY representative (and future president, Millard Fillmore… later joined by Illinois representative, Abraham Lincoln), he led opposition to the US was against Mexico.
So… a happy 255th to one of the more forgotten foreign “influencers” of Mexican-US relations.
Over the last few months, English language media (i.e. US and it’s satellite states) has been carping on Mexico’s alleged sins of omission when it comes to dealing with climate change. And… claiming some sort of dictatorship in the making, evidenced by such horrors as reviewing contracts with some Spanish and US “clean energy” providers that did little or nothing when it came to providing promised low cost energy, and much to do with evading taxation and maximizing profits. Even generally pro-Mexican (or, left-leaning) media mentioned the Mexican state as less than ideal when it came to environmental issues. Which is true… but…
… while the biggest US “concern” has been that under new energy regulations here, the US companies complained it was unfair they couldn’t get into the market (basically meaning they couldn’t … as the Spanish firms were doing… producing energy at lower cost, but not paying or underpaying transmission costs (transmission lines being property of the state electrical company, CFE) that lowered the energy costs for their alleged “partners” but inflated their profits.
The complicated scam was based on a “loophole” in the previous energy regulations that allowed for private energy cooperatives, something more like a small solar farm serving a rural community. Instead, what you had were massive wind farms — which did produce power at a lower cost than other sources — adding their load to the CFE transmission lines, but charging their “partners” (including the country’s largest chain of convenience stores) their rates, as if the electricity in each of the several thousands of shops around the country were all getting their electrical power from that specific wind farm.
That, and plants along the border, were not producing electricity, as promised, for the country, but to supply needs, mostly in California.
Both of which were, in the US view (pushed, most amusingly, by Ted Cruz, the Senator from the state known for mismanaged electrical power systems) unfair, and… somehow (I don’t get it)… a violation of the “new NAFTA” USMCA treaty.
All making AMLO some sort of anti-green guy. Add in that he wouldn’t go to the recent Summit of (some of) the Americas, in part in protest against Venezuela’s exclusion, fueling fears that Mexico was going in the “wrong” direction (i.e. out of the US orbit) and two things that we should have noticed were overlooked. The first was that US had dispatched John Kerry to lobby AMLO to attend. A former Secretary of State made some sense on the face of it, but Kerry’s present position is ” United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate”. And… with gasoline prices rising and consumer/voter worries about shortages looming, the Biden administration appeared to be bowing to the inevitable and at least offering to loosen some sanctions on the Venezuelan government, if… please, please, please, it would start selling its oil that the US itself had done everything in its power to prevent the Venezuelans from selling anywhere.
Could it be that… while AMLO wasn’t going to budge when it came to attending that Summit… Kerry wasn’t really shuttling back and forth to Mexico City to talk about that? Or. that the outreach to the Venezuelans is just about sanctioning Russian oil?
The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, announced this Friday a series of agreements that guarantee US investment in the energy sector. After months of discreet diplomatic work, meeting were held two weeks ago between the Government and 17 U.S. solar and wind power companies.
The deal was kept under wraps until the “Major World Economies” virtual forum met Friday, which … in addition to opening the Mexican energy market to those 17 companies (one of which has already announced a solar farm in Sonora which will be providing electricity to California as well as locally), Additionally, the Mexican president announced that PEMEX, the state oil company was investing two billion (thousand million) US dollars in reducing methane emissions by 98% in the oil and gas production industry; upgrading 16 hydroelectric plants; and speeding up the time table for converting to renewable energy sources, to 35% by 2024.
Earlier this week, Lopez Obrador had crowed that by next year, Mexico would be self-sufficient in producing gasoline and oil products. Although previous administrations had promised to build new refineries but never did, this one bought out one in Texas, and has another (Dos Bocas, in Tabasco) nearing completion, and a couple more in progress. This means by next year, oil exports will be being cut back, which would affect the US supply (depending on the month, Mexico is the third or fourth largest foreign source for US oil) and, although it had only been seen as something happening in the theoretical future, maybe Mexico will simply stop exporting oil altogether, sooner rather than later. Which, as much as any European war, would make the sudden (so far feeble) attempt to play nice with Venezuela make sense.
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The background of Mexican anti-clericalism and the "atheist" general who led the Catholic counter-revolution of the 1920s
128 pp., Editorial Mazatlán, 2012.
An oral history of the World War II experiences of Gilberto Bosques (1894 – 1997), Mexico 's Consul General in Marseilles, France, who saved tens of thousands from the Nazis.
36 pp. Editorial Mazatlán, 2007 $35 MXP (click the image)
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