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IN THAT there may have been a bit of misunderstanding concerning the El Gringo Viejo's attitude concerning the Mexican Central Government in a recent and previous blog entry, we would like to make our sentiments known with greater clarity. Fault lies with the writer, not the reader.
While demonstrating that Donald Trump may be a billionaire, there is one thing that he is not. He is not an expert of any kind concerning the infinite complexity, strengths, weaknesses, history, present composition, nor overall cultural projective ability of the central government of the United States of Mexico.
To start, the Mexican central government, nor the 31 State governments, do not "send" the Mexican criminal class to the United States. In the various offices of the Secretariat of Government, and the Secretariat of Exterior Relations, Mexicans and Central Americans are exhorted, in fact, to avoid going to the United States of America and/or Canada in any illegal manner. They are admonished not to use the services of "unauthorised" border-crossing assistants. They are admonished not to go to the USA or Canada for the purpose of any illegal activity.
There are radio and television advertisements that say the same thing, on different levels of comprehension. The Mexican military flushes out people who are essentially being held hostage in safe houses in Reynosa, Laredo, and all along the border. They clean the people up, and most frequently bus them down to Tapachula and dismiss them to the Guatemala entrance into Central America.
The idea that the Mexican Government "sends" people with criminal intent and backgrounds to the United States is ludicrous. What can be pointed out is that during the last fifteen years, requests for extraditions filed with the Mexican legal system have been met with increasing compliance. This began in earnest during the term of Zedillo Ponce de Leon (PRI), continued through the regimens of Vincente Fox Quesada and Felipe Calderon Hinojosa (both PAN), and is still the rule de rigueur under the present administration of Ernesto Pena Nieto (PRI).
What can also be pointed out is that Mexico during the past fifteen years, especially, has moved to the Right in terms of privatisation and de-nationalisation of industry and commerce steadily, while the United States, especially in the past five years has jumped into the boiling cauldron of acidic vomit of socialism with seeming abandon.
THESE THINGS BEING SAID, during this present administration of Pena Nieto, things started well enough. But, in keeping with the normal nervousness that seemed to pervade the victory of the candidate of the old "Ruling Party" of Mexico and its 70 years stranglehold on the Los Pinos Presidential Estate, the government of Pena Nieto has steadily lost popularity.
The Old Partido de la Revolucion Institucional (PRI) seems to have left an inescapable imprint on the chromosomes and DNA of the New, Improved PRI. It was my nervous belief, and the nervous belief of every literate, half-sober or more, Mexican.
There is a parallel inertia going on while people run around in the confines of Los Pinos, apparently lobotomised, and make one stumble after another. The very slight cut-back from aggressive action by the Naval Infantry and the Mexican Army sent a bad signal. The "Cartels" have been and continue to be in disorder. There are scores of "cartelitos" now, all badly led, composed of gaggles of drunken post-teenage illiterate thugs who are little more than street-corner ruffians with no souls. They have continued to do a good job of killing themselves and setting themselves up to assault larger elements of better fighter (the Naval and the the Mexican Army), always with disasterous results. The slightest lessening by the President of Mexico's pressure on the accelerator....turning away of interest and/or attention....failing to approve new initiatives for search and destroy and confrontation by the military seems to have co-incided with the building of the tunnel that will quite possibly lead to the castration of the Pena Nieto relevance as Presidente de la Republica.
While business booms, the new labour unions prosper with freer negotiating authority and business at all levels steadily expands....perhaps it is well that a central, authoritarian, strong presidential presence is neither wanted, nor needed. But it leaves the state of the War. Once again, the forces of good are in the position of watching victory be squandered by people who have long been associated with being at times in collusion and at time tolerant of the "Cartel" activity. I do not believe that the "new" Mexico, a two-trillion dollar economy Mexico wants to "share the stage" with a permanent class of extortionists and transporters of death poison.
The populace wants the War continued to the furthest end that can be reached by human design and effort. Elimination of all criminality anywhere is impossible, but to destroy the highly organized and massively lucrative activity can be done by delivering repeated blows to ever diminishing cells and clics of thugs.
That is the failure of the Pena Nieto Regime. And, it is the opinion of this writer that the blow of the escape of El Chapo Guzman may have destroyed this administration....totally. As I listened to the overnight radio in Texas and in Mexico during my last stay down at our little place on the side of the Sierra Madre Oriental, it became apparent that reasonably intellectually enabled Mexicans were disposed to be willing to accept or even demand the retirement of the present administration.
There are two alternatives. One would be a military junta holding power, leaving Congress and the Supreme Court intact and functioning and holding elections on the regular schedule, with the presidentials coming in a little less than three years; and two, allowing the President to step down and installing, as the Constitution prescribes, the President of the Supreme Court as President of Mexico pro-tempore. These things are being talked about in the better saloons and restaurants, beauty parlours, family barbecues, and so forth even as I am writing these words. That is the damage done by losing the greatest victory that could have been obtained.....the incarceration of a scumbag such as El Chapo Guzman. The Army and Naval Infantry had wanted to keep the....individual....under military custody. The OROGs can imagine the attitude of the military at this time.
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Trump knows nothing of any of this. He says the Mexican Government sends criminals to the USA. He says Mexicans take American jobs. The fact is that American labour unions and the unwillingness of American automakers to stand up to American labour unions is the engine driving the loss of American jobs.
But even that is too much of a convenient explanation about jobs, commerce, and economic vitality. The fact is that Texas and Mexico at this time have taken cross border economic/industrial activity from less than one hundred million USD in 1980 to what is now well in excess of one billion dollars per day, both ways, to-day.
We deal with the Mexicans on a daily basis, and they deal with us. During my time with our little property on the side of the Sierra Madre Oriental mountains I have had no corrupt dealings by the State or Central governments. During a quarter of a century, while my wife and I operated a very nice deluxe excursion company throughout Mexico we had little or no issues with any level of Mexican government. We have had adventures, even served as counsel in criminal and civil legal proceedings, with effectiveness and no bribes.
We have dealt with the realities and there are many, many American operations, small and large in Mexico who derive profit for both Mexican and American interests due to their presence. We have dealt with the silly Mexican posturing about hurt feelings and "concerns about the immigrants" in the United States, and we have dealt with certain ridiculous posturing by politicians from the United States....as well as reporters....who pretend to be experts.
I will assure one and all that Donald Trump does not know how bad the criminal illegal alien problem is in Texas. It is far worse than he could understand. He also does not know, less does he understand, how huge the economic activity between the Republic of Texas and the Republic of Mexico is during these days. Were it not for the existence of Barrack Hussein Obama, our situation would be even better. And yes, Governor Perry did act, and he did act effectively during the days of the Obama Invasion of the Unqualified of the Summer of 2014. Mr. Trump did and said nothing about any of it until he could misconstrue and demagogue the issue and ridicule that which he chooses to not understand.
El Gringo Viejo.
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