Why Mexico Was Ignored During the US Presidential Campaign
Throughout the almost two-year presidential campaign process in the United States, Mexico and the issues related to the Mexican community were hardly discussed.
Except for the occasional mention of Mitt Romney’s Mormon cousins living in Chihuahua, Mexico was ignored.
In the presidential debate focused on foreign policy, president Obama and governor Romney discussed Libya, Pakistan, Iran, Israel, China, but no mention of Mexico. Not one word. And immigration reform was only discussed in brief during one of the two other presidential debates.
The United States has a lot to account for with a drug war raging in Mexico thanks to American consumers and those at the Pentagon funding this unwinnable war. But neither Obama nor Romney ever touched the matter.
The message is clear: The United States doesn’t want to talk about it.
It doesn’t want to talk about its role in a war that has seen more victims than Iraq and Afghanistan combined. It doesn’t want to talk about how activists fighting this US-backed drug war have been forced into exile and even killed in record numbers.
And, of course, it doesn’t want to talk about how its citizens consume more drugs than any other country in the world.
It doesn’t want to talk about how ATF agents allowed guns to be “walked” into the hands of Mexico’s drug cartels.
It doesn’t want to talk about how CIA and DEA agents are operating in Mexico, in violation of the Mexican Constitution.
And it doesn’t want to talk about how its border patrol agents have shot and killed 6 Mexican citizens, some of them minors.
It doesn’t want to talk about how millions of Mexican workers living in the United States have been criminalized.
Nor does it want to talk about how reports of abuse in US immigration detention centers, including rape and sexual assault, have skyrocketed in recent years.
It doesn’t want to talk about how it’s trade policies, specifically NAFTA, have devastated the Mexican countryside. Nor does it want to talk about how American company WalMart was caught bribing Mexican officials.
Ultimately, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are on the same page when it comes to these and almost every other issue related to Mexico and the Mexican community of the United States.
Both support this bloody drug war.
Both are in favor of a militarized border.
Both back trade policies exploiting workers, displacing farmers in Mexico.
And both are for the criminalization of Mexican workers and their families. The only difference on this issue is that Romney has said he’s for “self-deportation,” while Obama actually deported more than 1.5 million in his first term in office, more than other US president.
Regardless of party, the United States is exactly that, united when it comes maintaining the status quo, which means: Prolong the drug war, maintain a militarized border, keep criminalizing Mexican workers, and continue exploiting Mexico and its natural resources.
It’s time to hold the United States accountable.