Mexico Deals in Death While the US Deals in Business

The closeness between the two nations should not be a foregone conclusion.

“Poor Mexico, so far from God and so close to the United States.” This is a quote attributed to Porfirio Diaz. Although the profile of the author is very well-known, many still believe it to be true, and for them this fact is the origin and cause of our disgrace.

The head archbishop of Mexico said on Dec. 26, “Jesus is among us to fix this social damaged fabric and to make it more human.”* It is true, and I say in the most respectful way, that a religious figure has to commit to Jesus. It is logical, and in a way obligatory. And even though it is not so obligatory for others, we see the presidential candidates of Mexico doing everything in their power to get closer to God. That is, they are trying to create the shortest distance between Him and Mexico.

One of the candidates considers the Bible as one of the main books; another one suggests “that we could try to be closer together, to be more human, to be more Christian”; and the other ones are part of a party whose doctrine has its origins in Catholicism, more recently serving as the foundations of Christian democracy.

In that sense, our “remoteness from God,” meaning: the first part of the ‘problem’ raised by Porfirio Diaz, is almost solved.

The second part – our closeness to America – is becoming more worrisome. It is true that a substantial part of out national problems, such as the violence in our territory, is closely linked to our relationship with our northern neighbors. This scourge worsens not just because of the erroneous strategy of Calderon but because the North American government does not assume its rightful responsibilities. It keeps consenting to the smuggling of arms to Mexico (something of great economic interest to the U.S.), and there is an impressive business consisting of drug trafficking and consumption in its own territory.

According to the World Health Organization, North Americans consume one third of the world’s cocaine. Authorities confiscate barely 1 percent of the drugs that are sold there. The traffic and the consumption of narcotics represents over $100 billion of business annually. On the other hand, in the case of marijuana, its legal production in the U.S. reaches 10,000 metric tons and its use is now even greater than that of soy or corn. This means that Mexico deals in death and the U.S. deals in business.

This perverse relationship has to change, and the candidates have to make their propositions about how to confront this common problem.

But there are other issues that need to be taken care of promptly with Obama or with whomever turns out to be president in November. Our commercial relationships are always subject to the interests of large corporations, U.S. labor unions or the fragile situation regarding the protection of the most basic rights of Mexican workers in the United States.

However, the closeness between both nations should not be be compromised, but that depends on the governments’ attitudes, especially ours. In other words, our next president could substantially improve our neighborhood, benefiting the U.S. and also creating better conditions for our own development.

It is true that we need to expand our horizons and our economic and political relationships with the rest of the world, but it is impossible to ignore the 3,000 km-long border that we share with the U.S. as well as our dependence on each other in terms of the economy, security, fighting against crime, etc.

It could be that some of our candidates look to providence to resolve some of our national problems, but it would be nice if they take into consideration the necessity of a new international policy, especially regarding the U.S.

*Editor’s Note: Quote could not be verified.