Sinembargo: Dolia Estévez*
AMLO's “hugs, no bullets” narrative is more indefensible today than ever. A compelling strategy is urgently needed to address the worsening of the insecurity crisis and the violence. It is imperative that the National Guard resume the mission for which it was created and cease to serve as a police wall for Trump's anti-immigrant policies. Spanish original
Washington, D.C., Nov. 12, 2019
Trump's reaction to the brutal murder of [Mormon] women and children [because their ancestors migrated from the U.S., they were dual U.S. and Mexican citizens] was swift. At 8:25 am local time last Tuesday, he dispatched three consecutive tweets to offer "allegedly" military aid "to López Obrador to" clean the cartels from the face of the earth."
"This is the time for Mexico, with the help of the US, to release a WAR against drug cartels and eliminater them ... Sometimes an army is necessary to defeat another army. The United States is "quick, willing and able to get involved to do the job quickly and efficiently," he said.
Contrary to what may be believed in Mexico, the United States is not about to invade us. Trump is a charlatan. He likes to talk about wars and “eliminate from the face of the earth” real or invented enemies, but the facts show that they are boasts.
Trump has not launched a single invasion in his presidency and has even reduced the military presence in the war scenarios such as in Syria. He doesn't like wars. He says they cost a lot. The population has no appetite for more bloodshed in foreign settings. It's fed up. When war tensions were about to overflow with Iraq and North Korea, Trump retreated.
However, it was not overreacting for López Obrador to reject the offer.
“The worst thing that can be is war. War is synonymous with irrationality. ”
The bellicose tweets that stirred up the hornet's nest in Mexico were impulsive and amended by those with equanimous minds because they do not represent previously agreed-upon policies. In a statement to the press, the State Department clarified that the aid offered to Mexico would come from the FBI. Mexico accepted that the famous criminal investigation agency would collaborate in the investigations into the murder of the Mormons, Marcelo Ebrard [Secretary of Foreign Relations] reported Monday.
In Hermosillo, where he was surprised by the news of the massacre, U.S. Ambassador Landau, who seems to exert some influence of moderation in the relationship, stressed that the fight against organized crime "is a shared challenge" [This was the stated position during the Obama administration] so "it makes no sense " to blame each other. "The bad guys are delinquents and criminals." Landau did not respond to his president's tweets.
Blaming Mexico was exactly what some [Republican] legislators and media [in Washington] did. The sound of war drums began to reverberate in the Capitol. Emboldened by Trump's rhetoric and the bombardment of television images about the Mormon massacre, the volume increased. They demanded that the United States take matters into their own hands and counter bullets with more bullets. They asked to apply to the cartels the status of terrorists to justify unilateral military intervention (as in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan). They compared the drug traffickers with ISIS and Mexico with Iraq, and proposed imposing sanctions on Mexican officials who refuse to confront the cartels.
An outrageous editorialist from The New York Times recycled the outdated cliché of the "Failed State" - which was replaced from the academic lexicon with the "Fragile State" because the former was controversial and counterproductive. Mexico is rapidly moving towards a "failed state" like Iraq, he wrote. Taking recipes from the failed CIA manual, he proposed a military offensive "similar to the counter-insurgency campaign" that was applied in Iraq ... as if the invasion of Iraq was not the worst US military strategic disaster since Vietnam.
It was hypocritical arrogance in all its splendor. The United States is the victim of a bad Government, of the bloodthirsty cartels, inept Mexicans and of inescapable geography. It always sees the straw in the alien eye and not the beam in its own. [Luke 6:41 [Jesus said] "And why beholdest thou the speck that is in thy brother's eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye?"]
Not a word about the fact that it is the main manufacturer and supplier of the high-caliber weapons used by the cartels in their massacres and the #1 drug market that Americans compulsively ingest. Or about the all-powerful pharmaceutical cartels, creators and inducers of massive opioid addiction. Or about the untouchable banks that defend laws that encourage money laundering.
Beyond the responsibility of the United States, it is undeniable that the violence and the increasing number of homicides are testimony to the failure of the policy of beheading cartels [taking out their leaders] during the last two administrations [Presidents Felipe Calderón, 2006-20012, and Enrique Peña Nieto, 2012-2018]. That does not imply, however, embracing the other extreme. The State cannot renounce the use of force in defense of the population in the areas taken over by criminal groups. It is urgent to recover one-third of the national territory lost to the hands of criminals more than a decade ago.
Dolia Estévez is a freelance journalist in Washington, D.C. She began her professional career as a correspondent for the newspaper El Financiero, where she was a correspondent in the U.S. capital for 16 years. She was a commentator for Radio Monitor news, a contributor to the magazine Power and Business, a columnist for El Semanario [The Weekly] and a correspondent for MVS Radio News. She currently publishes a blog on Forbes.com (in English), and collaborates with Forbes México and Proyecto Puente [The Bridge Project]. She is the author of El Embajador (The Ambassador, Planeta, 2013). She is accredited as a correspondent at the U.S. Capitol and the Foreign Press Center in Washington. @DoliaEstevezv