U.S. Visa: Indignity and Submission
Published in La Jornada
(Mexico) on 19 April 2010
by Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas (link to original)
We respond with shame and rage to our government’s announcement — accompanied by much fanfare — that everyone issued a visa by the United States government will be able to enter Mexican territory. A U.S. visa grants the right to visit American territory, with no consideration from the Mexican government as to whom the visa is offered; therefore, it should entail entry only to the U.S. and to no other country.
It is within the power and duty of the Mexican government to authorize or prevent the entry of foreigners to our country; that the decision should be based on documentation and on the government’s discretion is appropriate. To relinquish to a foreign government the responsibility of deciding who enters or does not enter Mexican territory — essentially, what is so applauded by the official media, without any effort made toward consensus — is to renounce the exercise of a sovereign right. And that is, to say the least, unworthy of those empowered to make decisions on behalf of the nation.
If the current administration believes that the neighboring government will turn over records of individuals who have been granted U.S. visas in order to know who can visit Mexico, our politicians are blind to the reality of this world and its hegemons.
If the new visa policy is in favor of expanding human rights, the way it should be, then measures should be taken to promote freedom of transit throughout the world so that people can travel where they wish to.
If the desire is to promote tourism in Mexico, it should not be achieved through the U.S. visa (Let’s allow our neighbor do whatever he wants; it’s his business and not ours ...). Instead, the focus should be on improving conditions in our country in every possible way, and in this case — small, when compared to everything else — removing the process of requiring a Mexican visa to allow foreigners to visit our country. The process of granting a visa, an already anachronistic document, results only in unnecessary bureaucratic setbacks for tourists.
In giving unconditional validity to the U.S. visa to enter our country, the Mexican government surrenders its sovereign right to another government, so that government can exercise power over our country, according to its needs and decisions and not ours. Do the officials in the highest of positions in our administration realize what they are doing? Are they aware or unaware of the inappropriateness and the consequences of their decision?
It is serious, very serious, that those who govern our country do not realize that by offering nonrestrictive validity to a foreign document (just because) to acquire a right in our country (to enter and remain in national territory), they are surrendering to a foreign government (the U.S.) a responsibility — for deciding who is allowed and who is denied entry to our country — that should be impossible to relinquish for those who have accepted governing roles in a country that claims to maintain a sovereign status.
It would be even more serious if this relinquishing of sovereignty were a conscious act of treason to our country.
It is within the power and duty of the Mexican government to authorize or prevent the entry of foreigners to our country; that the decision should be based on documentation and on the government’s discretion is appropriate. To relinquish to a foreign government the responsibility of deciding who enters or does not enter Mexican territory — essentially, what is so applauded by the official media, without any effort made toward consensus — is to renounce the exercise of a sovereign right. And that is, to say the least, unworthy of those empowered to make decisions on behalf of the nation.
If the current administration believes that the neighboring government will turn over records of individuals who have been granted U.S. visas in order to know who can visit Mexico, our politicians are blind to the reality of this world and its hegemons.
If the new visa policy is in favor of expanding human rights, the way it should be, then measures should be taken to promote freedom of transit throughout the world so that people can travel where they wish to.
If the desire is to promote tourism in Mexico, it should not be achieved through the U.S. visa (Let’s allow our neighbor do whatever he wants; it’s his business and not ours ...). Instead, the focus should be on improving conditions in our country in every possible way, and in this case — small, when compared to everything else — removing the process of requiring a Mexican visa to allow foreigners to visit our country. The process of granting a visa, an already anachronistic document, results only in unnecessary bureaucratic setbacks for tourists.
In giving unconditional validity to the U.S. visa to enter our country, the Mexican government surrenders its sovereign right to another government, so that government can exercise power over our country, according to its needs and decisions and not ours. Do the officials in the highest of positions in our administration realize what they are doing? Are they aware or unaware of the inappropriateness and the consequences of their decision?
It is serious, very serious, that those who govern our country do not realize that by offering nonrestrictive validity to a foreign document (just because) to acquire a right in our country (to enter and remain in national territory), they are surrendering to a foreign government (the U.S.) a responsibility — for deciding who is allowed and who is denied entry to our country — that should be impossible to relinquish for those who have accepted governing roles in a country that claims to maintain a sovereign status.
It would be even more serious if this relinquishing of sovereignty were a conscious act of treason to our country.