Bilateral Context: Mexico and the United States

Published in La Jornada
(Mexico) on 26 August 2010
by John Saxe-Fernández (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Anna Ruby Waxham Blackwell. Edited by Jessica Boesl.
The sociopolitical and security impacts of the economic policies put in place since the 1970s to ease the effects of the capitalist crisis (a class war led by Reagan, Thatcher and their successors to halt a fall in profits) are being felt strongly in Mexico and the United States in the first decade of the 21st century. Calderón's war against narcotrafficking and the leadership of Bush and Obama in the great financial crisis that erupted in 2008 are examples of this. They have resulted in a greater concentration of wealth and privilege among the ruling groups in the banking and financial sectors, in addition to huge subsidies for the military industrial complex, as well as public and private security entities.

Social conflict has increased: The war with drug traffickers alone has resulted in 28,000 casualties, with no prospect for change in the PRIAN (the collaboration between the Partido Revolucionario Institucional and Partido Acción Nacional political parties), nor the persistent exploitation of campesinos, workers and the middle class in Mexico. Meanwhile, in the United States, as productivity has collapsed, employment and quality of life for the general population has suffered a prolonged drop and the economy has been plundered.

Here, the White House has introduced a class war with its endorsement of Los Pinos (the seat of the Mexican presidency) and of a predatory oligarchy, using the Department of the Treasury and its surrogates like the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. This has been carried out with loans that carry conditions favoring external investments, dismantling manufacturing processes (some emerging, some advanced) such as petrochemical manufacturing, where shifting important activities of Pemex to foreign contractors caused a collapse in the production of crude oil because of the maximum extraction policy imposed by the United States: a compliance measure derived from subordination to the juicy commissions given to the managers of World Bank loans.

The conditions of these loans continue to determine, in spite of the consequences, the actions of the branch secretaries that have dismantled the agricultural sector, the capital goods industry, the shipyards of the country and much more. They have attacked the unions and collective agreements, endangering jobs and preparing the base for, under management modernization, the dismemberment and auctioning off of the National Railway of Mexico, and they are looking to do the same with Pemex. The Federal Electricity Commission and its provider, Luz y Fuerzo Central, have already been liquidated.

To sustain the anti-popular and anti-national structure, loans and programs were implemented in the areas of justice and security administration. These changes were put in place to change the function of national defense and the police force with programs that facilitate the adoption of the types of intervention and occupation used by the United States in Colombia. The basis of the Mérida Initiative is the bi-nationalization of internal security. Foreign policy is being taken over by the United States as Calderón's war is wearing out the logistical resources of the armed forces. And national defense, will it be assumed by the Northern Command? Will we become a de facto protectorate? In addition to the economic and judicial capitulation, are they not preparing to slowly bring into line the administration of justice through oral trials?

Since the '90s, the pressure on northern states has increased: NAFTA sharpened the silent integration of economic, social, cultural and industrial links created over the years as part of the normal interactions of the southern United States with societies in northern Mexico. It is a very special fusion that is explosive, with walls, border militarization, anti-Mexican racism and processes that tend to separate northern Mexico from the rest of the country with regard to the economy and public administration, such as the processes sponsored by the World Bank in the 37 Mexican municipalities that border with the United States. This is a restructuring of the Mexican administration of cities, following the pattern of operation typical in the U.S.


Los impactos socio-políticos y de seguridad, acumulados por las políticas económicas en vigor desde los años 70 para amainar los efectos de la crisis capitalista (una guerra de clase encabezada por Reagan/Thatcher y sus sucesores, para frenar la caída de la tasa de ganancias) se hacen sentir en México y Estados Unidos con fuerza en la primera década del siglo XXI, por la guerrade Calderón al narco y el manejo de Bush-Obama de la gran crisis financiera que estalló en 2008, resultando en mayor concentración de privilegios y riqueza a favor de ambas clases gobernantes; de los sectores bancario, financiero, agregándose, en Estados Unidos, un magno subsidio a la industria bélico-industrial y a entes públicos y privados de seguridad.
La conflictividad social se acentuó: sólo por la guerra al narco se registran 28 mil bajas, sin perspectivas de cambio con el Prian y tampoco en la persistencia de la explotación de campesinos, trabajadores y sectores medios en México, mientras en Estados Unidos se desploma el aparato productivo, el empleo y las condiciones de vida de una población que sufre un prolongado colapso y despojo económico.
Aquí la ofensiva de clase la desplegó la Casa Blanca, con aval de Los Pinos y de una depredadora oligarquía, utilizando al Departamento del Tesoro y sus unidades subrogadas (FMI, Banco Mundial –BM– y BID). Esto se realiza con préstamos cuyas condiciones son a favor de la inversión externa, desmantelando procesos de transformación, a veces incipientes y otros avanzados, como en la petroquímica, traspasando actividades sustantivas de Pemex a contratistas extranjeros, registrándose un desplome en la producción de crudo por el sometimiento a la política de máxima extracción impuesta por Estados Unidos: un acatamiento derivado del papel de sobornización de las jugosas comisiones por el manejo de los préstamos del BM, cuya condicionalidad sigue definiendo, a pesar de las consecuencias, el accionar de las secretarías del ramo que así han desmontado agricultura, la industria de bienes de capital, los astilleros del país y un largo etcétera, agrediendo a sindicatos y contratos colectivos, precarizando al trabajo y preparando los fundamentos, bajo la modernización gerencial, del desmembramiento y subasta de Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México, con mira a lo mismo en Pemex, CFE y LFC, ya liquidada.
Para sostener el esquema anti-popular y anti-nacional se aplicaron préstamos y programas en áreas de administración de justicia y seguridad, los últimos para mutar la función de defensa nacional en policial, con programas que facilitarían la adopción de esquemas de intervención y ocupación del tipo ensayado por Estados Unidos en Colombia: en la base de la Iniciativa Mérida está la binacionalización de la seguridad interna. Se somete la política exterior a Estados Unidos y la guerra de Calderón desgasta las bases logísticas de las Fuerzas Armadas. Y la defensa nacional, ¿la asume el Comando Norte? ¿Transitamos al protectorado de facto? Además de la capitulación económica y jurisdiccional, ¿no se preparan procesos de absorción paulatina separatistas, como con la homologación de la administración de justicia (juicios orales)?
Desde los años 90 aumenta la presión sobre los estados norteño: con el TLCAN se agudiza la integración silenciosa, es decir de vínculos económicos, sociales, culturales e industriales creados a través de los años como parte de la interacción normal de intereses de los estados del sur de Estados Unidos con la economía y la sociedad norteñas de México. Es una fusión sui géneris, explosiva, con muros, militarización fronteriza y racismo anti-mexicano y procesos que tienden a desvincular el norte de México del resto del país en lo económico y en la administración pública, tales como los patrocinados por el BM en 37 municipalidades mexicanas que lindan con Estados Unidos. Se trata de la restructuración de la administración municipal mexicana, siguiendo el patrón de funcionamiento de los condados típicos de Estados Unidos.
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