AMLO and Trump in the White House—An Ugly Celebration of the Imperialist Domination of Mexico and the World
| revcom.us
Editors’ note: The following are excerpts translated by revcom.us, from Aurora Roja, the blog of the Revolutionary Communist Organization, Mexico.
The words of [Mexican president] López Obrador [AMLO] and [U.S. president] Trump before the media, and the very brief “joint statement” they signed on July 8, highlight the domination of Mexico by U.S. imperialism.
López Obrador praised Trump and his government, a fascist regime based on white supremacy, male supremacy, and American xenophobia that continues to attack Mexicans, immigrants (and Blacks, Latinos, and indigenous people in the U.S.), with these phony words: ... “During my term as President of Mexico, instead of grievances towards me and, what I consider to be most important, towards my country, we have received from you understanding and respect.” He thanked “the people of the United States, your government, and you, President Trump, for being increasingly respectful of our Mexican compatriots.” And he ended his compliments for Trump with this: “But what I appreciate most is that you have never sought to impose on us anything that might infringe or violate our sovereignty... You have not sought to treat us as a colony, but have instead honored our status as an independent nation. That is why I am here, to express to the people of the United States that their President has behaved towards us with kindness and respect, he has treated us for what we are: a dignified, free, democratic, and sovereign country and people.”
AMLO oozed submission, flattering Trump and covering up Trump’s vile attacks on the peoples of Mexico and Central America... Sixteen days before his meeting with López Obrador, Trump “autographed” a piece of his wall in Arizona and proclaimed that if it were not for that wall, the coronavirus would have “flooded” the United States. Two days before the meeting, he again branded migrants in New York and Chicago as criminals. In June 2019, under the threat of crippling tariffs, the Trump government dictated that the Mexican Army and National Guard would hunt down, repress, and deport Central American immigrants, acting as “border patrol” for the United States, crimes that they continue to commit today....
In 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, migrants sick from COVID-19 were deported by the U.S. to Mexico and Guatemala. The U.S. demanded that the “supply chains” of the automotive and aerospace industries be resumed, and the Mexican government complied, reclassifying them as “essential,” with the imperialist sweatshops in Mexico forcing people to continue working in these and other branches of industry dominated by firms from the United States, which concentrate the profits from the superexploitation of millions of workers in Mexico (and in many other oppressed countries).1
Why does the President of Mexico silence all this and praise the treatment of the United States and the current fascist regime in relation to Mexico and Mexicans in the United States? Fundamentally because, AMLO, as president of a country so completely dominated by imperialism, depends on the approval of the big capitalists in the United States and its government. As they constantly explain to us, “we [Mexico] need” foreign investments, that is, the investments of the big capitalists from the United States and other imperialist countries. The current capitalist economy does require constant imperialist investments, but we, the people, do not need them....
Those who do need these investments are the big capitalists and their state, as well as the world imperialist capitalist system, in which large monopolies and financial institutions dominate economic activity throughout the world, compete with each other to maximize their profits and to control territories, markets, natural resources, and human lives. Thus, the duty of the head of state of Mexico (and of every oppressed country) is to serve the operation of this system, attract more imperialist investments and keep at bay the majority of the people, who do not possess any capital, and especially the exploited and dispossessed, supplying big capital with the cheap labor it needs to be profitable and competitive....
But months before he was elected president, AMLO ... told the former U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Roberta Jacobson, that, as president, “his number one priority would be to have a positive relationship with the United States.”2 He has done so, becoming a loyal “junior partner” of the capitalist-imperialist system and a conscious collaborator of the fascist Trump regime....
This meeting between the presidents of the two countries was, in truth, an ugly celebration of the imperialist domination of Mexico and the world.
Read the full text of the article here.
1. See: “Maquilas: tumba de trabajadores, sustento esencial del capitalismo mundial” [Sweatshops: Tombs for the Workers, Essential to Sustain World Capitalism]. [back]
2. Jon Lee Anderson, “Why Andrés Manuel López Obrador Went to Dinner with Donald Trump”, The New Yorker, July 9, 2020. [back]
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