Issues of Migration and the Necessity to Renew Mexico's Political Arrangements
We are facing the current problems by envisioning the solutions that only an empowered people can fully apply so that they can live, work, be educated, receive medical care, develop their culture, enjoy the wealth they generate in their own country without having to flee to work in another country where they are criminalized.
Today 40 million Mexicans live in the United States and remit record-breaking amounts of money to Mexico -- U.S.$64 billion in 2023. This comes at the expense of their well-being and that of their families and the country, from being subjected to modern slavery in neighbouring countries.
Many of the migrants are fleeing violence in their homelands. And we are fighting for the self-determination of the people and their economic, political, social, and cultural sovereignty so that they are not subject to sanctions. These sanctions, mainly by the U.S., force people to leave their countries as they cause a lack of food, medicine, gasoline, transportation, and more. It is time for people to design a new world that favours them.
In recent weeks there is a lot of talk about migration because at times 10,000 people a day are crossing the border between the United States and Mexico and many thousands are detained due to policies that both main U.S. presidential candidates, Donald Trump and Joe Biden, have followed, policies that are anti-people to the extreme. Headed into the 2024 elections, both politicians are competing to show who is more anti-people.
On December 27, 2023, Secretary of State Antony Blinken met
with
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to
discuss
the issue. The President of Mexico has stated that the United States and
its policies south of the border, including sanctions imposed on
various countries which make life there very difficult, and the
so-called war on drugs, are actually causing migration. The temporary
closure of two border rail crossings in Texas on December 25 is a clear
message that the United States wants to force Mexico to do more to
prevent migrants from boarding freight trains, buses and trucks to reach
the border. At the same time, Mexican authorities in Matamoros began to
use heavy machinery December 27 to remove a camp that included families
with children and that the government described as abandoned tents.
This was to demonstrate to the United States government that the Mexican
government is taking action to stop the growing number of migrants
arriving at the southern border of the U.S. Meanwhile, a caravan of
about 6,000 migrants from Venezuela, Honduras, El Salvador, Cuba and
Haiti left Chiapas in southern Mexico on December 25, heading for the
United States border.
Today there are Congressional negotiations in the U.S. to finance the war in Ukraine and the genocide in Palestine as well as the militarization of the border with Mexico. The House and Senate bills also include plans and funds for more deportations, reducing humanitarian visas and denying asylum and due process to many more people.
The United States wants Mexico's cooperation to receive the
people
who it is rejecting. For his part, López Obrador points out
the
root problem and claims to respect human rights. However, events such as
the death in Mexico of 40 migrants on March 27, 2023 in an immigration
centre in Ciudad Juárez on the border with Texas and the maltreatment of
migrants from Central America continue.
President López Obrador is requesting another in-person meeting with Joe Biden. This indicates that the Mexican government did not concede everything the Blinken delegation from the United States demanded and Mexico wants to negotiate some issues, such as having its ban on genetically modified yellow corn respected. Given U.S. threats and blackmail are likely, Mexico may be forced to do the dirty work of the United States under this containment model.
The five main countries of origin of migrants to the U.S.-Mexico border are Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Cuba and Venezuela, which together represent 71 per cent of official migration figures at that border in 2022. [...]
On June 2, 2024, there will be elections in Mexico for the presidency and congress. The labour organization Mexteki is putting a people's agenda at the forefront and concentrating on developing autonomous social political movements, emphasizing the need for the people’s empowerment.
The year 2023 was very important for Mexteki, which took the initiative through the Congress of Sovereignty, to call onorganizations and individuals to take into our hands the solution to the problems of the people and nations of Mexico and set their own agenda for the solutions to the problems all Mexicans face in common.
On September 13, 2023, 52 organizations and groups participated in the People's Agenda Meeting in Mexico City. Ninety-two videos were proposed for dissemination were presented and many people participated by contributings texts, songs and poems in the spirit of the seizure of political power by the people. Problems of Indigenous Peoples, work, education and health, water, food sovereignty and in particular the need for a new constitution and the need for the people to take decision-making power into their own hands and affirm their sovereignty by implementing a new political system were discussed. It was of great importance. The question of breaking with the U.S. efforts to integrate Mexico into the United States not only economically, socially, culturally, but also militarily, was a crucial point that was presented.
In 2024 we continue to strengthen the work of organization to promote the people's agenda.
This article was published in
Volume 54 Number 14 - February 28, 2024
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/Articles/MS541414.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca