The open subordination of the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador to the re-election strategy of Donald Trump is a political commitment unprecedented in Mexican history.
Hypocrite no doubt, but the formula of “revolutionary nationalism” worked quite well for most of the twentieth century. Faced with the worst imperialist displacements of the great powers, Mexico built a kind of ideological barrier that served to promote, at least within the country, an image of being a sovereign nation capable of rescuing the victims of the Spanish civil war and the South American dictatorships and of support to the great progressive causes of Latin America.
This happened after the humiliating signing of the Treaties of Bucareli, with the forced Mexican presence in World War II and much of the political game of the Cold War. Even during the 12 years in which PAN snatched the presidency from the PRI, when almost every national economy was already clearly oriented towards North America, the Mexican government tried to maintain the attitude of a foreign policy independent of the excited post 9/11 rhetoric and even keep its foreign policy distant from the second military invasion against Iraq.
The ideological pillar of the old regime, “revolutionary nationalism” was, above all, an efficient handling of the political symbols of the moment that served to hide the growing Americanization of wide-ranging segments of society itself, as well as the businesses that Mexican elites did with their counterparts. north of the Rio Grande.
The case of President Luis Echeverría is one of the clearest examples in this regard. At the same time that he tried to become leader in Third World wave and maintained some leftist positions inside the country, he paid millions to several lobbies in Washington D.C. and also maintained his old relations with the US intelligence agencies
It is true that the asymmetry between the two nations leaves very little room for naivety. Due to the size of their economies, the extension of their territories, the levels of development of their societies and, above all, because of the abysmal difference between the brute force of both states, it is difficult to assume a balanced relationship. Much less in the days of Donald Trump.
Before a character that puts his anger and ego before any reason or authentic national interest, it is not much what the Mexican government could do to stop the Lord of the poisoned twits. Much less when Trump has been encouraging hate against one of the most vulnerable groups in American society for years, immigrants of Mexican origin. They are the “bad men”, the “rapists” and “criminals” against whom he has built a huge wall of prejudice and racism that has been bought by the most primitive groups of his own society.
However, the pseudo-Christian doctrine of “love and peace” of the Mexican president and the complete subordination of Mexican immigration policy to the electoral logic of the White House seems too high a bet for any government. Even for the 4T movement and its peculiar world perspective.
