Foreign Affairs

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U.S.-Mexico Security Cooperation

10/28/2007 in Aztlán, Foreign Affairs by Julio Sueco

I don’t think many mexicans care much about the aid but rather care about were that aid will end up. Many mexicans in my generation have known for years about the crookedness in the upper echelons of our society so it is not surprising that we tend to resist any help from the US. This resistance tends to be misread by the media at large which still holds a sway on a narrative that belongs more to the better half of the latter 1800′s than the 2000′s.

We know, for example, that the leaders of our political elite will rather distribute the goods amongst themselves rather than see the needs of the nation. Those elites are like hungry beasts that require feeding to be appeased. The US happily provides the chow for them. In return, the US is content with exploiting a situation that benefits them although shortsightedly, ignore, at their own peril, the dangers it treads upon as if those dangers were more of a nuisance rather than a prevention plan in action. So the US pays a hefty sum of money for a return that consequently only creates more problems rather than offering a solution for the best buck.

Hence, pouring down money into mexico’s elite will only help the US gain incentives and create more resistance to US ideas in Mexico. While in the short run this would seem the ideal thing to do, history will repeat itself. Friedman’s Shock and Awe economics are coming to a halt and sooner or later the democratic system we all favor will have its day in Mexico. At this point in time, I suggest that the US await for more friendlier attitudes from the population in México for its help. As it is now, the US is going over the heads of the mexican population. Remember, Calderón is considered an illegitimate government, whether Americans like it or not and those are the rules of a democracy.

Hold tight to those purse strings Washington, the day when we really need you is yet to come. After all, it isn’t as if we don’t care for those territories we lost back in 1848.

Yucatán 2007

5/20/2007 in Foreign Affairs by Julio Sueco

Elections will be held today in the mexican state of Yucatán. I shall briefly discuss some issues of pertinence and what I believe are issues of significance to mexican politics as a whole.

Normally state elections in the highly centralized Tenochtitlán don’t get much attention but these elections are being used as a barometer for the credibility status of beleaguered president, Felipe Calderón. The current cynicism that prevails in the masses is already giving out the outcome to the duo of the PRI and PAN otherwise known as PRIAN since many don’t see any difference between the two latter political parties.

The Felipe Calderón camp is betting, of course, for a continuation of the PAN and current thinking is that the PAN has negotiated the favorable outcome in Yucatán in exchange for a less and minor victory in the next state elections of the aztec federation which are to be held in Baja California in August of the present year at hand.

The problems are not little because in Yucatán the forces there are controlled by the nefarious personality of Don Diego Fernández de Cevallos. This politician casts a very dark shadow steeped in the most conservative of mexican politics that it has to give. He is often portrayed in political cartoons as an old Conquistador because he likes a strange kind of power which dates back to master and servant relations in México. He seems to prefer a weak mexican state because his political trajectory has been one to favor big business and old rich mexican families which traditionally dislike all sorts of government interference in their daily affairs. Ever since the so called alternancia,, that is, the transition of powers in México, and before that in the Salinas government, he has been an important power broker in mexican politics and hence it would be most unlikely that he would let his native land fall to his bitter and staunchest enemies, the left. Having accumulated so much power over the years it almost seems impossible that he’d not use that power to influence the outcome of the elections and that to his favor. So the governorship of the most secessionist state of México, will most likely continue to be held in the hands of the PAN although it is going to be disputed to add a pinch of credibility to the elections.

Of course, the PAN is also not keen to be to seen as a continuation of the perfect dictatorship as the Peruvian writer Vargas Llosa once called the PRI so this year we also have the novelty that for the first time in México’s political history independent candidates are being allowed to partake in the kerfuffle of mexican politics. However, it is unlikely the PAN is ready to let go of Yucatán since they firmly believe most people still believe they are democratic and the huge oil interest that abound in the yucatan peninsula, which happen to be of interest to those who trickle down the Potomac, lie underneath the struggle for power in that state.

This puts the Calderón posse in a bind because it is also unlikely they will want to give up the cradle of their symbolic democracy movement which happens to be Baja California. But if anything is true of the PAN these days is that ideology means nothing to them. I say this not lightly because current criticism of the PAN is that they have forgotten their political roots in exchange for a status quo that endangers the very institutions of the mexican nation. They are in fact prolonging a politic ideology that prefers a weak state, one that easily subyugates to the whims of the West wing.

Yucatán then is a good barometer not just for democracy in México but also as a thermometer which can tell us how hot things are to get the next coming days. Remember, México is undergoing dramatic changes as we speak even though one wouldn’t hear it from the major media outlets of the world.

Mexican military loses

5/2/2007 in Foreign Affairs, Political thought by Julio Sueco

Ever since mexican President Felipe Calderón entered office in Los Pinos, the mexican equivalent of the White House, the mexican military has had more than its share of the limelight.

Before Calderón, the military was a topic of dubious temptation because many in mexican society decried the mexican military to be some kind of social panacea to the ills that ail the mexican nation. Mostly as a panacea to the ineptitudes of the judiciary system which has been, up to date, inefficient in combating all sorts of crime.

The military has now been in action since the inception of the Calderón presidency and as always, the military has had clashes with how society works. A cultural shock is in place as we speak. A deadly one might I add.

This after it finally had cleared itself from the 1968 Tlatelolco Massacre.

One would have to ask the mexican military with what kind of bedfellows it beds with.

Ever since Calderón came to office the military has had to endure ridicule at the hands of the President beginning with a portrayal of Felipe Calderón in military garment that barely fitted him making him look like a Charles Chaplin in a drunken haze to the accusations the military has not been able to shake off of violating an elderly autochtonous nahuátl inhabitant of Veracruz.

Add to that that today five military service men died at the hands of narco men then one begins to suspect that the panacea was less than the expected maná which was to quell the hunger for justice in the old Aztec nation.

In a nation with a tendency to undermine its democratic institutions like a Hong Kong under British rule one can scratch its head at will.

The military is in disarray and in need of direction.

This ultimately affects the US in one way or another. For in the long run the policy towards the South has been quite at odds with public discourse.

And this doesn’t bode well with the flow in the Potomac because there seems to be a flow against the current, and if a lowly citizen can detect that then the Powers to be have to explain a lot just exactly is it that is going on South of the Border.

Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa

4/18/2007 in Foreign Affairs, Political thought by Julio Sueco

First posted at the Agonist.

First and foremost I would like to point out that despite Sean Kelly’s bragging about his Spanish skills there’s still isn’t a México category in the topic section of the dairies. Though I guess one not ought to complain since the label Latin America ought to suffice for more than 22 countries that speak Spanish, including México in that lot.

Having let that grudge out of the chest we shall move forward with the business of extrapolating mexican politics in an very brief and concise manner. Though space is not an issue I must take into account for two factors in the exigency at hand, one, the short attention span of the blog reader who mostly out of happenstance clicks on the link and the other less likely these times, interest in the topic at hand.

Botched attempts at legitimatizing Calderón via the US media have resulted in awkward spells the sort that remind one of Macbeth. And at home the thing doesn’t get any better.

So beside the media blitzkrieg which has characterized the Calderón presidency thus far what is said beyond TV, and by it I mean the net, I am, after all, in Sweden, might I remind those not in the know, the Spanish written outlets paint a not so pretty picture for the current TV and Big Business sanctioned president of México.

First, allow us to remind ourselves that Calderón started his troubled presidency by trying to present an image of a tough man of the law. He brought out the army out of its barracks to fight lawlessness, created by none other than his predecessor, Vicente Fox. The idea was simple: since police enforcement was so corrupted that the federal government had to use its last credible institution to fight crime it had no choice but to enforce the law by means of military intervention.

It backfired.

By declaring war on crime many who entertained the idea that something was left of a powerful and centralized government received a shocking truth. They earnestly thought the government would quell bad boys and they praised the government for the initiative. Alas! the mexican army has not only exacerbated the situation in the 31 states that make a quasi highly centralized federation called México by staining the thin line between civil and military laws it has also exposed the men in green to the follies of a society which revolves around a corrupt spin in every event of its daily life. The military has put into question the very fabric of the federation and placed a thin rope on a Democles Sword above a fragile constituency. The Army is now stained with murder, corruption and above all, is acting as if they themselves are above the law.

Second, Calderón has made a series of blunders that inevitably will affect not only the nefarious NAFTA deal co-signed by the Salinas-Bush gang but the very fabric which has distinguished Canada, the USA and México in this lofty yet spurious accord. This no doubt in part with the USA’s aid. Now, I say the latter because the USA has a record of a Catholic priest on penance on Easter Sunday. Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa can be heard every day in the US media, at home but abroad, the story is different. Abroad, these Utilitarian and old Methodist evangelical sons and daughters would give two rats about the very land they so dearly want to save for the Lord they purport to serve. Indeed, one can even give a stretch of the imagination and argue that if it weren’t for all those pesky mexicans which insist in being in México things might just be a tad smoother for all concerned.

Those blunders start with the very presidency he purports to represent, which Fort Knox springs to mind since Calderón can’t be seen around the people that elected him to the chair he so comfortably sits in because repudiation will sprout like a stubborn weed that just keeps coming back.

And oh yeah, then there are those pesky budgets which of lately are spilling the beans like wild grass in early spring. Yes, discrepancies about Vicente Fox’s use of taxpayer’s money are flourishing like flowers on a green meadow. He has lots to explain but don’t expect him to get caught by the amputated arm of the law in México. Nope. Now that would be akin to a wanker’s wet dream coming through.

The list goes on and the fight even more so. To the point that even the Catholic church has stepped to defend its favorite candidate this despite the fact that the mexican constitution prohibits the clergy from partaking in politics, but does the Catholic church care? Go read mexican papers to find out.

Well, I suppose that what I want to say is that México is on the verge of something, may it be 2010 or a real democracy unfolding south of the border I know not. But something is afoot, and that’s for sure.

Cactus-eating moth threatens favorite Mexican food

2/18/2007 in Aztlán, Foreign Affairs by Julio Sueco

Híjole, we must be the only race in the world that is consumed by itself.

By Frank Jack Daniel

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – A moth with a big appetite that once chomped its way through huge swaths of cacti in Australia has landed in Mexico, where the spiky plant is a favorite food stuff and major agricultural product.

Officials said on Friday a moth trapped close to the beach resort of Cancun this week could be the same species that destroyed some 50 million acres of cacti in Australia, opening the possibility the moth will spread to Mexico’s cactus farming regions.

The Cactoblastis cactorum moth landed on Mexico’s Caribbean island Isla Mujeres last year, sparking a major government pest control operation.

Pest control agents have set up hundreds of traps along the coastline and are searching hotels and private homes for further signs of the moth.

“This is war,” said Enrique Sanchez, head of plant and animal health in Mexico. “If lots of them arrive we will try to destroy the largest number possible with pesticides.”

The edible cactus, or nopal, industry in Mexico is worth about $150 million each year. About 10,000 farmers cultivate the plant.

Frustado

12/6/2006 in Foreign Affairs, Political thought by Julio Sueco

Well, how does it feel to be latinamerican, Spanish speaking and mexican these days? That is the most common question in form of jest jeer I get since that fateful day in early december, I dare not recollect, to paraphrase Cervantes.

I honestly feel awful. We mexicans are at a crux in epic proportions.

Upon us are several mythological spells that have us spellbound.

The nearest one coming is 2010.

According to this myth México is to have a revolution every 100 years. 1810, 1910, and now 2010.

The next one has to do with the renovation Aztec mythology stamped its soul with: 2012, december of all dates are to conclude a period in México. Total nihilism is to be present on that date.

Besides that we have only ourselves to blame.

From the North even mild mannered anglos turn to the left and to the South all countries are regaining a sense of overcoming a history that has been unjust to them.

We mexicans?

We don’t even recognize ourselves in the shattered mirror Octavio Paz left behind to reflect ourselves upon. More and more it looks like a mirror from the ancient past: obsidian and ready material for sacrifice. Oaxaca anyone?

The opposition decries foul play accusing the PAN of being a party of the rich and obscure interests. They are accused of serving themselves the very best whilst the crumbs of the nation fall upon a mass that can’t even get a glimpse of it since the dissolution can’t reach all.

A wild capitalism that only serve to finance riches untold for every day that nation exists in its present condition.

Those in power accuse, in turn, the oppostion of sedition and of being a danger for the nation. The government even dares pin fault to the opposition for the very crimes they themselves committed during the swearing in of the said constitutional president of México. A president that rabidly accused the oppostion of tainting democratic institutions while they crookedly interpret laws to their hearts delight.

George W. Bush, México’s friend and the now Democrat held congress winking OK at the situation they have before themselves.

This in spite that the Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA) alarmingly stated a widely held belief in Spanish speaking América: With Calderón’s Deeply Troubled Inauguration Last Night, Amidst a Deteriorating Security Situation in Oaxaca, the Possibility of a New Mexican Revolution Cannot Be Ruled Out

The bad omen list goes on forever: there is no happy future and only a narrative that serves the purposes of the current capitalistic ideology see a future for their interests: reminds one of the first chapter of the Matrix.

The biggest irony lies in the Emperor’s new clothes: The PRI won big: the chameleon managed to infiltrate itself in the fabric of all parties. The PRI is de facto represented in all mexican parties.

John Chiang

11/23/2006 in Foreign Affairs, Political thought by Julio Sueco

Estados Unidos: El sorpresivo voto asiático
alejandro maciel

Los Ángeles, Cal., 20 de noviembre (apro).- En silencio, la comunidad asiática de California fue la gran sorpresa electoral del pasado 7 de noviembre. Logró, entre otras cosas, que 19 de los 20 candidatos que lanzaron para puestos de elección popular, triunfaran de manera arrolladora en el estado de California.

Con estos triunfos en posiciones estatales, la comunidad asiática logró aumentar a 20 los funcionarios electos de ese origen, obteniendo la mayor representación política en su historia.

La victoria de John Chiang como contralor estatal atrajo la atención de los medios de comunicación, ya que se convirtió en el primer asiático en ocupar ese puesto. Sin embargo, en otras áreas del gobierno estatal la presencia de esa comunidad es mayoritaria.

La oficina encargada de expedir el número de identificación para que los negocios declaren sus impuestos, llamada State Board of Equalization, está formada por cinco miembros. Después de las elecciones, cuatro de los cinco representantes, son asiáticos. El único puesto en poder de una persona no asiática, no estaba en disputa.

Read the rest of this entry »

one for the road

10/23/2006 in Ese moods, Foreign Affairs, Malinche by Julio Sueco

In the age of the blog, Stream of consciousness will revolutionize neurosis in ways only television can understand …

Yesterday, my closest friend ever said the unthinkable, he said, I hate Hitler.

I couldn’t believe my ears. He said, upon me asking why, that it was because of him, a state of Israel exists today.

I said, politically speaking, Israel lives in a perpetual state of doubt in the now.

I fail to understand his new gained insight in world affairs but a small inkling tracked me down all the way here.

I nearly got on my knees, I begged, for him to expound.

Had ony Hitler let be, Israelis would never had accepted a state for their physical selves.

Befuddled I implored for more.

Jews suffered their extermination in ways we fail to understand.

But had Hitler just let be, he insisted, maybe jews, the elite, would never ever had agreed to religious zealots dreams.

Instead, zealots, rule Israel.

with that he failed to utter more.

.

personal notes

9/19/2006 in Books, Foreign Affairs by Julio Sueco

I am miserable. Some bug decided to house itself in my body and alter the course of the daily affairs. I thought some whisky would kill it but it didn’t work. When it comes to colds I should just stick to my old ancestor’s household remedies, either tequila or mezcal. Some people would have a hard time swallowing the latter, specially in these Dr. Phil days but it’s true. Mezcal does the job.

I got a book from the Agonist team. Empire Workshop. I have just finished reading chapter one the preface, last night. And I already got some reservations about it. The front cover has a little Old Glory on it, albeit upside down. For those in the know the sight of such a flag implies and SOS. Then there is the Mary Shelley quote from her book Frankenstein. Frankenstein did not have a life of its own. This is contrarian to Manifest Destiny ideology.

This just might be a book about the Ugly American in the Good, the Bad and the Ugly American.

My ideas are starting to fly around, I want so earnestly to see if the author delves in the complex mechanism of language differences of Spanish and English and the power hierarquies between the more personal, one to one, we are all equal attitudes of gringos and more formal relations that characterize Latin American societies where, in essence, the Thou address is alive and thriving.

Like I said, I already have reservations. I have loads of history from México both at the book level and what my relatives have told me about gringos.

Greg Grandin doesn’t delve so much into it in the first chapter but the US prior to the Mexican Revolution owned huge swaths of land all over México. To mention just one guy we have the Hearst family which practically owned Chihuahua. Lore from my family used to tell that whenever the Hearst family wanted to over their domains they needed over two days in train to cover their land possesions.

***

Chapter One: it’s not for the layman. It is stricly an academic chapter which requieres heavy historical baggage and a lot of pity. It’s a me, me, me tale of US power. Lopsided if one wills.

The optics focus heavily on what the US foreign policy has caused in LA through its business proxies throughout the 19th century.

The enemy that has fought the US merits no more mention than the footnotes on top of diverse and selected words.

This chapter has a thin veil of approval of that sureriority that its is spoken of at the beginning of the chapter.

***

Several optics at looking at his: (1): you are an American and say: God, how can my government be capable of these atrocities (2) You are a Latino and say, Goddamnit! I knew these mutherfuckers had no heart and I hate them the more for so, (3) Grandind is building a case for himself, that is, trumping up credentials in the event the American government makes an about face in foreign policy (doubt it) and suddenly a Carter Like figure comes along (4) You admire Grandin’s narative and not think about the many religious references Grandin uses to make his case.

***

Chapter 2: Where in the hell is Belize in all of this? I have a hard time believing this narrative about American imperialism without America’s fave poodle in the court.

The Metrosex in me

7/19/2006 in Bilingual, Foreign Affairs, Pocho sentimientos by Julio Sueco

When I go the market I look for fresh produce be it vegetables, fruits or, je! beer.

Yet the brits somehow have a weird and twisted meaning to it that just baffles the living daylights out of my Xicano skull.

Israel in fresh Lebanon strikes

Fresh fighting on Lebanon border

Fresh Lebanon bombing kills three

Dozens die in fresh Lebanon raids

E-u.

From now on we just look for produce.

On other unrelated scenarios of the anima kind:

I got to thinking if the Generals ’round the planet didn’t wish the good ‘ol days before internet were back in vogue.

Jíjole, am sure more than one is whishing it could work in peace.

Después del todo, speculation hasn’t had brisky business since, well, newspapers came up with the idea that reporting on the elites was good business.

Generals ’round the world are set against a magnifying glass which scrutinizes their every move for, dios mio! profit.

Place your bets on the odds.

More and more businesses across the world speculate on conflicts and how generals will react.

Poor souls, can’t do their jobs in peace and quiet anymore.

Lieutenant Ehren Watada

7/15/2006 in Foreign Affairs by Julio Sueco

I haven’t seen much clamoring on the American blogsphere regards Lieutenant Ehren Watada. In fact technorati gives a graphic whereby we can see its reader cause and effect.

n

Some of the big honchos on the net and which tend to attract large crowds to their jangle are also somewhat mysteriosly quiescent on the issue. The Kos gang, for example, did a diary on the subject at hand yet for all the hurly-burly other posts create this one got a stingy 7 comments and I do not dare read what was said.

This has baffled me somewhat because as a frecuent reader of so-called progressive blogs I find the issue of conscientious objector oddly absent in the noise of the dem crowd.

This is perhaps due to the nature of the blogs a I frecuent, like The Agonist, Dalily Kos, Juan Cole and other of their ilk which tend to cover US foreign relations from a military perspective.

Their narrative often speaks well of the Military Industrial Complex of the US despite the fact that they question the leadership therein.

Which is near outré since that is precisely what Lieutenant Ehren Watada is doing, questioning the very war blogs in the US blogsphere aptly denounce as wrong.

This offers a rare glimpse into American behaviour as Lieutenant Ehren Watada position highlights a taboo in, what seems by now, a large segment of American society: infringement of civil society in military affairs is out of the question.

Wiki on Watada

Agonista me?

7/15/2006 in Foreign Affairs by Julio Sueco

Am rather amused at the fact that I can post stuff at the Agonist. It just tickles my belly to no end.

Off course, the fear that I might not do as expected haunts me like the Llorona does to every kid with mexican blood world over.

Do I expect to be censured? Of course, we are taliking gringo here. Wait, are you saying that Agonistas are incapable of understanding a Southwest/Norteño kid the likes of you when it comes to world afairs?

No, what am saying is that perhaps the editing dep has different ideas about what is stated in letters. It’s not precisely China but am sure many a linguistic Wall will arise now and then.

Are you going to be a prolific diary writer? By far, I think, and am grateful, that today was a beginning that I hope will bring a new morrow dawn with new vigour to do what I did today. Rather, I like to opine.

Ordinary people like you and me in Israel-Palestine

7/14/2006 in Foreign Affairs by Julio Sueco

Is
ra
el

Nothing but Is-ra-el.

Poor israeli citizens. They must have some kind of post traumatic disorder in full swing by now. They never rest. I don’t care how tough they are am telling you, keep it. I’d rather live in México or Sweden any day of the world than in Israel. That God ain’t worth it.

Poor souls. Can’t sleep, can’t walk and can’t stop hating each other not because the ordinary citizen doesn’t want to but because all kinds of politicians and world leaders insist in making life miserable for all parties involved.

You think that Israelis have it easier because they have electricity? Believe me, they suffer too because they know they can’t walk or be anywhere in the world without feeling hatred breath down their necks. Am sure their conscience is riddled as well with guilt by what their government does in their name.

Am sure they are in some kind of psychosis by this stage. The psychological barrier for Palestinians is also on the edge except that they have a goal in mind while the Israelis don’t. Israel just tries to keep a hold on what it has and pretty much its ambition of a greater Israel is reigned in by so-called world leaders.

No peace in the middle east, how can people live like that? Is their God that much worth? The curious thing about the bible is that it actually asks of its flock that they pray for world leaders. Praying for these war mongering, war hungry leaders is like asking the wolf to wolf down the flock in a sitting.

1 Timothy 2:1-4
Hebrews 13:17 Obey your leaders

Pray all day cause it ain’t gonna happen.

mumble mumble grumble …

6/30/2006 in Foreign Affairs by Julio Sueco

I said what I had to say on Israel long time ago. Israel is a bully, period. And the more I read about others thinking along the lines as I do, the more I think that am not too off in my own thinking regards Israel.

[...] the Israeli army, once the finest in the world, has been, as all armies are, coarsenened by the occupation. The Israeli state bemoans suicide bombers, then kills Palestinian opposition leaders with rockets – rockets they know will cause collateral damage (a phrase that means “will kill innocents”). They have complete access to the country and could easily assassinate people cleanly, without collateral casualties – they choose not to. They could arrest those same people, again easily. They chose not to.

Personally, I think that Israel has been hijacked by ideologists who have lost track of reality.

We here at the offices root for Israel as much as we root for Palestine. Israeli and Palestinians are subjects to extremists on both sides.

Problem is that the ones who can stop it don’t.

Other reading: Press furore over Gaza offensive

one for the money

6/30/2006 in Foreign Affairs by Julio Sueco

Has the Pentagon changed its mind?

Because it seems to me that more and more the MSM talks, walks and quacks like a liberal blog. What ever happened to respectable types the likes of 60 minutes ….

Is it just me?

Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell R’s backpeddling?

6/23/2006 in Foreign Affairs, Wetback by Julio Sueco

I was rather amused at the noise the progressive blogs made yesterday. They relished a vid snippet crooks and liars dished out on the net yesterday. Turns out the wingnuts are eating their own. O´leilly not only ridiculed Malkin, a special cucuy for the Xicano gente, he, some argued, made sense on immigration.

And lordi lordi lord, even the wsj did too as well a few days ago.

Are they re-trenching to their so-called old values to rescue the few and not-so awed anymore?

What is going on here? Have they seen something we haven’t yet? All this is making my speculation antena shoot up in the sky like a beanstalk on viagra.

Me thinks the wingnuts saw into the future and came around the real impact May 1st will have on the upcoming elections, in turn, they are softning their positions to appease the May 1st crowd? Ah, gawd knows. It sure smells like it though.

Mexican elections

6/20/2006 in Foreign Affairs, Xicano Commentary by Julio Sueco

Alright, alright already ese!

So I’ve been recycling news yet there are less folk out there concentrating on the mexican elections than there are concentrating on it. Erhm, did that make sense?

Either way, these elections matter. Lots. Beyond lots. Way beyond. (ok Julio, we get your drift.) I got the gut feeling that mexicans, some of us either way, are causing some kind of like dent somewhere and policy is being formed to mend the dent. Riddles. What am saying is that even though mexicans abroad seem not to be interested in mexican politicians my hunch tells me this is not entirely true. Those in the business of interpreting these kind of things tend to like huge numbers in order to make predictions and tend, as well, to be off the Southwest area making residency instead in seats of power. The Southwest has a life of its own that many suits fail to see.

I have argued that most mexicans who vote in the elections rather take the highway and use the oportunity to visit the motherland instead of going the IFE way. However, there are quite a proportionate number of mexicans who fear deportation the moment they come near a mexican embassy though most mexicans would not have an idea of the kind of services and embassy and its consulates offer the mexican citizen because said places are mostly seen as an establishment of the upper classes. This is very much ingrained in us. I remember how I felt the very first time I sat a foot on the premises of a mexican consulate. One has to understand that the mexican government is at times little interested on its subjects and when they show interest one does well in being cautious. Those who do know tend to be already familiar with the shenanigans of said institutions. These are the people that go and vote in places like Tijuana as they did back in 2000. They are known as emigrados. Amongst other things. Be that as it may, the politization of the mexican masses, illegal, legal, mexican-americans and other identity contraptions of our Gente is in full swing in the good’ol USA.

My question here pertains the Xicano community since the political leverage must balance somewhere and will either alienate or coalesce. The Tomás Rivera Center gave out a lofty little phamplet outlining some of its ideas in 1994 titled Latinos, Global Change, and American Foreign policy. In summary, it predicted that we were to start flexing muscle in our country of origins but since the Bush gang took over the White House they stopped listening to anyone outside their circle of realities. Nonetheless Xicanos who tend to be in positions of power understand the importance of México. Though we haven’t seen much evidence for the aforementioned for obvious reasons. The fear machinery that is intrinsic to American politics has the Latino community in a weird state of mind since most latinos have adherence to their homeland and this is not seen particularly well by the powers to be and is a strategic tool to keep that population at bay lest they begin flexing muscle as seen on May 1st. This in turn keeps many latino leaders off the ramp light as was evidenced by the L.A. Mayor who decided to take of to Texas on the most important day in American politics in many years.

I think that his fear mongering will soon stop having its effect on Latinos. The more they assert their americanness and start painting their own America instead of having others paint it for them. The sooner the better.

If Manuel López Obrador wins I think this idea will accelarate since many suspect that many mexicanamericans will lean towards the PRD. This in turn will fuel a more direct engagement with mexicanamericans and start building the necessary bridges to create a stronger Xicano community both economically and politically as well. Fox realized this only too late as evidenced by his flurry of trips to the USA where he met representatives of the mexicanamerican community. I believe gringo mentality will have a hard time swallowing this idea of a more present México in their midst. We have been in their midst for a long time. We have adapted. Its their turn to do the same in kind.

Related: What a wall can’t stop

La gringada speaks again

6/19/2006 in Foreign Affairs by Julio Sueco

Stratfor says …

Mexico: Why the Upcoming Election Matters

Summary

Sixteen days before Mexico’s presidential elections, the two leading candidates — leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and conservative Felipe Calderon — are still in a dead heat. Roberto Madrazo, the Institutional Revolutionary Party candidate, remains in third place but he is not so far behind that a Madrazo victory can be completely ruled out. Polls also indicate that no party will win a majority in Congress. This will restrict the next president’s ability to pursue any policy in the short term; but the candidates’ positions on policy issues are so different that the outcome of the upcoming presidential election will matter in the long run.

Wanna read more? Read it here or read over here.

Lo que dice la gringada sobre México y sus elecciones

6/15/2006 in Foreign Affairs by Julio Sueco

”As Elections Approach, Mexico Faces Internal Instability”

Weak governance and deteriorating social conditions have steadily increased political and social instability in Mexico during the past several years. Rather than soothing the country’s rocky political and social environments, the results of Mexico’s upcoming general elections will heighten this instability. More concerning, however, are tightening U.S. border security and immigration reforms. These measures may provoke economic instability in Mexico, further destabilizing the country’s political and social environments in the months ahead.

…

Vicente Fox’s Big Shadow

Washington Post/Mexico Votes – For those of you just dropping in on Mexico’s July 2 presidential election, I wouldn’t blame you if you thought Vicente Fox was seeking a second term. The man who ended 71 years of rule by the conservative Institutional Revolutionary Party, known as the PRI, continues to dominate the polls, headlines and even the airwaves

Should the Nobel committee reconsider Shimon Peres’ peace prize?

5/10/2006 in Foreign Affairs by Julio Sueco

Juan Cole says:

Shimon Peres says he wants to remind Iran that it, too, can be wiped off the face of the earth, implying that Israel is capable of obliterating it with its nuclear arsenal. Peres also had the gall to blame Iran for provoking a nuclear arms race in the area!

Is Peres really implying as much?

Regards the phrase: Israel to be wiped off the map

5/8/2006 in Foreign Affairs by Julio Sueco

Reading Reuters has become a painful act of recently. I just don’t know what pseudo reporters or their honchos do with language but they sure need more time to invest in language courses. One of those phrases that riles me a whole bunch is the following:

By Dean Yates and Allyn Fisher-Ilan

TEL AVIV (Reuters) – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has called for Israel to be wiped off the map, should bear in mind that his own country could also be destroyed, Israeli elder statesman Shimon Peres said on Monday.

I learned via the Agonist and Juan Cole that Ahmadinejad has said something very different:

The speech in Persian is here:

Sorry that I misremembered the exact phrase Ahmadinejad had used. He made an analogy to Khomeini’s determination and success in getting rid of the Shah’s government, which Khomeini had said “must go” (az bain bayad berad). Then Ahmadinejad defined Zionism not as an Arabi-Israeli national struggle but as a Western plot to divide the world of Islam with Israel as the pivot of this plan.

The phrase he then used as I read it is “The Imam said that this regime occupying Jerusalem (een rezhim-e ishghalgar-e qods) must [vanish from] from the page of time (bayad az safheh-ye ruzgar mahv shavad).”

Ahmadinejad was not making a threat, he was quoting a saying of Khomeini and urging that pro-Palestinian activists in Iran not give up hope– that the occupation of Jerusalem was no more a continued inevitability than had been the hegemony of the Shah’s government.

Whatever this quotation from a decades-old speech of Khomeini may have meant, Ahmadinejad did not say that “Israel must be wiped off the map” with the implication that phrase has of Nazi-style extermination of a people. He said that the occupation regime over Jerusalem must be erased from the page of time.

Translation are trycky but even more tryckier are the personal translations we do to serve our own purposes.

Daily Kos II

4/1/2006 in Foreign Affairs, blog by Julio Sueco

Apparently, all democrat things considered does not include what democrats are doing, in terms of immigration, at Daily Kos. Mexican newspaper El Universal is hailing John Kerry a heroe for presint’s Fox number one cause: immigration to keep low paying jobs at work in Mexico while syphoning skilled and dissenting voices to the US.

Fustiga senador John Kerry iniciativa migratoria
Señala el ex candidato presidencial demócrata que con la aprobación del proyecto enfrentaron a los republicanos que vieron la reforma de migración como una oportunidad para castigar a los inmigrantes

One just wonders why?

Yes, yes, I know that you are hopelessly monolingual and despite that Spanish is your next door neighbour, well, you haven’t really bothered to understand it, so here it is, a rather close approximation to it, that is, the news.

I hope that Mr Kos doesn’t complain about Kerry’s Spanish as he did Mr Bush, digo, don’t wanna causar too many malestares, dig’me?

thoughts

2/16/2006 in Foreign Affairs, Wetback by Julio Sueco

My fellow citizens in Tijuana are a wad unawares of world affairs.

This tends to irk me like a rash on my thighs. WTF? It totally escapes them that having one of the most powerful naval fleets in the world next to them is, least to say, important.

The security apparatus must be mind staggering. Yet no second thought on the issue is given at all in no discourse whatsoever or the secretive nature of mexican talk escapes me in an ineffable manner.

I put three articles by Stratfor, or rather snippets thereby, of security issues concerning the mexican border on my spanish blog. This helped me gauge the issue amongst the blogotees in the Tijuana sphere who tend to give me a read. They have no idea what am talking about.

Let alone deduct conclusions.

One is left but to wonder if they are just wary and hence silent on the matter or they are really not interested in world affairs.

Adj New Year

1/2/2006 in Ese moods, Foreign Affairs by Julio Sueco

Oh, this is just damn dandy, hilarious and outrages. Another year, as if. You know that saying about a hole and a head, you get the drift. Am on my second day of it and am already feeling old and tired of it. Where is my mojo? Who knows.

On the first of what we are made to believe is a new year, I woke up and looked outside my window, gaddamn, it looks just like the one before, I swear to God.

Abject New Year. It’s gonna be the same fucking shit as always in the english world.

The military industrial complex of the USA will keep shoving us lies up our ass like there is no tomorrow so they can kill more people and have more fun inventing more ways to anihilate the human race as fast as they can erstwhile calling it protection of our life style. They will still concoct ways to convince us that because other poeple of other thinking and other ways of seeing how the world runs is bad for us and good for them because that way their power hierarchy basically remains unscathed adn they get to make a pretty penny while at it.

Christians will still keep shoving their doomsday crap and cultural assasination in the name of God over and over again for 363 days. Christians will still not find it contradictory that God has chosen tribes for when He comes to our rescue and takes us to his Paradaise while millions upon millions still don’t believe in Jesus or God and hence making Christians nothing more than charter agents for a paradaise trip to heaven for the few selectee. Christians will still believe that other cultures are an afront to Jesus Christ God the Trinity and will stop at nothing to eradicate them in the name of Love and the Word while their churches and ministers smile and laugh all the way to the bank.

White people in the US will still be in denial saying they are not racist while they hoard the best they can for themselves calling whatever crumbs happen to fall down the ground good deeds. White people will still be unable to see that people of color are not a threat to no one. White people will still be unable to understand that they are more favored because the people that best resemble themselves tend to favor those they resemble most and since white people are the majority and never the problem they will never see the solution.

Rich people will still call poor people lazy.

Children all over the world will suffer hunger and die of starvation.

US citizens will still be in denial that they finally have a president that is honest, truthful, and open. They will be unabe to see that George W. Bush at the very least hasn’t tried very hard to hide from the rest of the world and them what the rest of the world knew already for decades before they did, namely, that the US engages in Big Brother activities all over the world, tortures people of all walks of life in the name of democracy and that they will stop at nothing to comply with the law even if that means breaking the law.

Race will stll be race and people of all walks of life will loose their life because they are either the wrong color of skin, they have a difference of opinion or because, worst yet, they adore a different God than yours.

The incessant hot spot Israel-Palestine will still keep the world holding their breath.

The citizens of Israel will still be pounding the living crap out of the palestinians with their superior military power. They will still prevent any democracy in Palestine because, in essence, that is not in the interest of Israel, no matter what you hear in the news, Israel is run by a conservative line of thinkers who actually are on record for hating palestinians and anything to do with palestinians. [and they will still act surprised whenever Iran says anything bad about them] The jews will still remember nazi Germany reminding us how awful the human race can be everyday of the year while other genocides by other people in the world will go largely unnoticed by the world leaders. The jews will cry out that what I am saying is unfair, antisemitic and call me, a mexican who writes english, antisemitic though am barely 37 and have nothing to do with Europe, Germany, Jews, Israel and basically, try and keep my opinion out of the great ideas of the world because I so happened to have an opinion on the jewish state of affairs of the year 2006 and that is bad enough for some ultra jews who will stop at nothing so that no one speaks ill of Israel because they do loath a good comment resembling anything to the truth. I will still not see a black or arab jew run for any government office in Isreal on television in 2006. Nor will I see Ariel Sharon brought to justice for the crimes against humanity like we saw Pinochet before a court of law.

The palestinians will still hate the jews and will stop at nothing to destroy the state of Israel though technically that is an imposibility due to Israel’s huge superior military power. Palestinians will not be able to run their lives normally because they too, like the jewish people who want to live in peace, are run by extremists though Israel’s extremists are more acceptable because they look and talk like its western counerparts do and the beown palestinians don’t.

Africa will continue to be raped, be sumerged in misery and suffer many epidemics because the pharmaceutical industry in the West just can’t see any profit in helping the human race there.

México will still continue to be corrupt and the hyper rich will get even more hyper rich. Unless there is a tectonic shift in the hierarchy of power in México no real change will occur this year. Drugs and money will still cause damage around México. Juárez will remain largely unsolved and the judicial system in México will become an extra pawn in the power struggles of the drug dealers and the misery in which the mexican government keeps its employees and its citizens.

The indigenous people of America will not get their due even though their presence is still resounding more and more in the news. They will not inherent this 2006 nor gain their world vision any great strides.

In other words, capitalism, money, wars, hate for each other, complete disregard for other human beings will still be the order of the day all around the world.

So another new year just means more of the same fucking crap over and over again.

The Woman by the Laguna de Chicabal

11/22/2005 in Foreign Affairs by Julio Sueco

Este gabacho gives the Maya Culture a new cultural twist

In fact, I liked the story so much that I hijacked the entire narrative and placed it here, where it might get a chance to stand on itself through your Xican@ eyes.
…

A young Mayan woman walks along the Laguna de Chicabal. The lake is in the crater of a volcano and is the home of one of the gods of the Mayan spiritual pantheon. It was May 3, 2001. On this day every year, the Mayan shamans journey to this holy place. It is a family event. There are a couple hundred Mayans picnicking, talking, playing, and worshiping. Above all, the lake is respected. No one is skipping rocks, swimming, or bathing.

The lake has an eerie life about it. The fog of the cloud forest swirls around the lake giving way to brilliant sun of the Guatemalan highlands. Bubbles of volcano gas disturb the lake’s surface and join the wind and the fog. It is never lost to me that these people think there is a god in that water. My western mind does not buy it. But if somebody offers me $1000 dollars to swim to the other side, I wouldn’t do it. “Dude, what happens if there is something really pissed off at me in that lake?”

The lake is ringed with bunches of lilies and small shrines made from branches. As we walk around the lake, we hear the chanting of the Mayan shamans back in the dense forest. Chicabal is habitat for the very rare Quetzal bird. We look, but it remains as hidden as the god in the Laguna.

The only person I see touch the water is the young woman. She walks slowly ankle deep; there is a kind of rhythm in her step. She seems to be lost in a conversation. Is it with the god in the water? There is a legend that a young woman from the village at the base of volcano swam out into the lake to which she gave her spirit. Is she talking with this spirit? She stops and turns to the center of the lake. The “conversation” seems to intensify. Her body seems like it is being pulled further out into the water; she takes another small step. I gasp. But she stops, but just barely. We continue on our walk.

Even now, this scene haunts me. I know I was an intruder. This was not my world. In fact, my world has treated the Mayans as enemies from the time of first contact. I have been obsessed with the number of questions: Why have indigenous people been so threatening to Europeans? Is it religious intolerance? Our stories are at least were about clearing a promised land of unrighteous and ungodly. Is this all that it is? How could we as Europeans even think of planting flags on the land of others and claim it in the name of God? Is this an anomaly, or does it proceed from the core of my spiritual ancestors–Abraham and Sarah being promised land by Yahweh which eventually require genocide via holy war?

Somehow the Columbus’s and the Pisarro’s believed that land not claimed by another European country was fair game. Land not lived on by Europeans was uninhabited. But now we do not believe that, and still indigenous peoples can still threaten the “civilized world.” Why would this be? There seems to be something very profound about this question?

The encounter with the woman of the Luguna de Chicabal acts as a window into my identity as white, Euro/American, male, and even further into the world that has created that identity. I have come to view Western modernity as a kind of beautiful galaxy. To use this analogy, the aspects of the West that are so admirable, the technology, the personal freedom, the economic opportunity, are the visible aspects of this galaxy. But it has only recently been discovered that most if not all large galaxies have black holes at their centers. These black holes are essential in some way to their formation possible continued organization. As you might remember, black holes are not visible because they are so massive as to prevent light from escaping.

The young Mayan woman was for me to gain a clue as to the nature of the black hole that is at the center of modernity. Although I do not consider black holes as an image of evil, you can reasonably expect that in this case I am speaking of a kind of heart of darkness which helps to organize the whole of Western civilization, is essential to its existence, and which assures its demise. But this dark post must give way to the beautiful sunshine that is shinging. Maybe I will write more later.

Machiavelian thoughts

10/1/2005 in Foreign Affairs by Julio Sueco | No comments

Everytime governments claim innocence and fairness my nose begins to smell rotten values and the reeking stench of dead morals. My nose tickles wanting to be itched. Read this: Police chief blocked Brazilian’s death probe.

Did the government of England have to an image that they would act ruthlessly after what happened to them in June of this year? Yes. Did they need to send a message to would-be copycats about how government would react and disseminate information about police rules and the like? Yes. Is it acomplished? Yes.

Am I saying that government in UK sought a target to acomplish this? No. But the actions surrounding the death of Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes and the handling of the case leaves much room to come to these kinds of conclusions.

off and away from chest … be off!

9/29/2005 in Foreign Affairs by Julio Sueco | No comments

I am so sick and tired of the Israel-Palestinian conflict that the more I hear it the more i want to puke. Blagh.

Worst yet I am sick and tired of the legion of supporters that Likud has for its ideology. You would think that all those people that see nothing but terror before their eyes speak for the lot of Israel.

But they don’t.

Likud ideology seems to be on the wane. One would certainly hope so.

Israel, as the superior power in that conflict, really ought to see more eye to eye with the palestinians, but the goons running the israeli government are not allowing any of that. Terror, and more terror, and more terror they cry while they bomb to the stoneage anything palestinian and worse yet, any young palestinian is a threat before their eyes. One can’t even breathe disent in proper palestinia because it brings on the kosher boots of the IDF.

Israel in fact, has much to gain with the current situation. They have the superior power. They can control via repression the entire population of palestinians and worse yet, their army of special interests in Washington have readily convinced the American congress that allowing for an economic flowering of the palestinian people is a dire detriment, watch this, to the jewish state. Not Israel, the jewish state. Whatever that is. There is no nifty talk here about globalization and the wonders of capitalism. There is no talk here how globalization will help the poor rise like Nazareth from the ruins it was. In fact, keeping the palestinian economy in dire straits is in Israels best interests because that way they can buy their way in to palestinia. They can divide that house too. They will pit family against family for a few Shekels. Do jews have qualms about this? Where is then their humanity. Come on, if a bloque like me can realize this am sure the very brightest minds that the people of Judea has can too relaize this. Do Israelis sleep at night well?

Having young palestinians throw stones at the army tanks of the IDF in fact legitimizes Israel possesion of territories. How else is one to explain the argument in Europe that fruits and vegetables coming from Israel must state their provenence? They exploit the ocuppied territories and whenever palestinians even dare complain Israel likudists see terror, harrasment by those that don’t want to see the Jweish state. The Jewish state has been a de facto state since 1948. Yet one would think those arguing for repression, oh, am sorry, did I say repression? I meant punishment of the palestinian people for even thinking of exterminating the Jewish state did not know this. As if the Jewish state was a weak entity that any suicide bomber can bring to its knees.

I don’t condone suicide bombers. For me they are equally as horrendous as helcopters hovering above the Gaza strip pointing their sophisticated weaponry at criminals surrounded by innocent people or the torture methods of the Mossad.

Israel is by far a weak state. In fact it seems to be a threat to world order. The main thinking around the world is that Israel has nukes and if they do have them am sure they are willing and are ready to use nukes if and when the need arises. Why else have nukes then if you are not going to use them? For decoration?

Having nukes is a threat. A threat to civilized order. It is a bargaining chip and it is a show of power. But I digress. The main point is that Israel really needs to stop being a bully and if they are so fucking smart as they fucking say perhaps they need to start showing it otherwise instead of creating more enemies in their house with the passing of every day, every generation.

The USA really needs to stop seeing the conflict in terms of religion and special interests groups. The USA needs to pressure Israel into doing the right thing. Otherwise, the carnage will continue and another generation of news readers like me will have to deal with hearing, seeing, reading every day how palestinians and jews hate their guts to death.

Why Likud philosophy sucks all the way

9/4/2005 in Foreign Affairs by Julio Sueco | No comments

This is exactly what is wrong with the preemptive mentality. In order to flush out bad elements it only produces more. It is like trying to kill a cell that when once cut in half in actually produces two of the same. Cut it again and then it produces four more.

Where not in Kansas anymore

6/17/2005 in Foreign Affairs, Political thought by Julio Sueco

According to Oppenheimer Rice committed a major faux paux. Well, least to say I missed yet nunca es tarde to delight in those little things that jar that ajarred door in relations between anglos and latinos in the USA.

Lo único que pasará a la historia de la reciente asamblea de la Organización de Estados Americanos en Florida no tiene nada que ver con lo que se discutió en la reunión, sino que será lo dicho por la secretaria de Estado de Estados Unidos, Condoleezza Rice, cuando se excusó por tener que irse antes de tiempo: “Tengo que regresarme a Estados Unidos”, explicó.

Condoleezza se aprestaba a viajar de Florida a Washington. Cuando se bajó del podio y algunos diplomáticos latinoamericanos le recordaron con sorna que Fort Lauderdale —la ciudad donde se estaba realizando la reunión— y la vecina Miami todavían están en Estados Unidos, Rice levantó las cejas y se rió con ellos, según me contaron más tarde dos diplomáticos latinoamericanos testigos de la escena.

If Condi did indeed say that it would be an oddly rare display of discomfort, like being at a house of relatives where you don’t really want to be at.

In essence and a quick translation, what the passage says is that Condoleezza Rice said during the OAS meeting in Fort Lauderdale that she was headed to the US, a quip that some diplomats didn’t let her slip so easy and sarcastically reminded her that she was already in the US. Hmmm, one wonders if this will be picked up elsewhere, this is hilarious.

Lincolns thoughts murdered, again.

6/15/2005 in Foreign Affairs by Julio Sueco | No comments

Could someone please tell me how did government of the people, by the people, for the people become against the people?

6/10/2003 in Foreign Affairs by Julio Sueco

We might go to Paris, I never been there, but Paris has certainly been inside of me for a long time. It all started with Pepe Le Pew , a Warner Bros cartoon character that enthralled us with his amorous stints and failed attempts to get a lover, he tried that French voice of his. For a while I thought that love was a French domain, way before I discovered that it really belongs to the Latin family which comprises of all that which has Latin roots. America’s infatuation with France is always a love affair. Lingerie, champagne, perfumes et cera …! When I think of Paris I inevitable think of the Eiffel tower. France is such a strange place, to the point that I never in the world might of thought that I be there, maybe ….

France … I have a luggage full of prejuicios as we say in Spanish. Cinco de Mayo, Maximilian and Carlota, Sinaloco et cera.

France also has the charm of being an old enemy. Well, inasmuch as English is my language I know the chisme between the English and the francophones …gosh, why is it so difficult to be americano these days ?