Mexico's PAN Party ponders Lopez Obrador's remark declaring himself "President" (Translation)

eluniversal.com.mx ^ | July 26, 2006 | Jorge Teherán ( translated by self )

[ichabod1]

political asylum

Yup, from now on every Mexican that gets dry feet in the US will be a political refurgee, entitled to the best this country can dole out to them.

[ichabod1]

I thought Tabasco was where they made "sauce."

[StJacques]

"I thought Tabasco was where they made "sauce.""

Tabasco is a state in Mexico on the Gulf Coast, located right about the point where the coastline has just made its "eastward curve" out towards the Yucatan Peninsula.



There is a small chili pepper that is native to the Tabasco area of Mexico that is produced in multiple colors which is known as the "Tabasco pepper," which is used as the basis for Tabasco sauce.

Tabasco Peppers

Tabasco Sauce is made in Avery Island, Louisiana, located about 30 to 35 miles South Southeast of Lafayette, Louisiana ( ahem! where I live ), or by way of general description using the map below, in the upper portion of Iberia Parish near its coastline on Vermillion Bay.



Now; as to your comments on the situation in Mexico potentially leading to a new influx of immigrants, this is precisely the danger we face and that is why we have been paying such close attention to the post-election controversy. If Lopez Obrador decides to tear Mexico apart it will be to the advantage of those areas of southern Mexico and to the disadvantage of the northern region of the country, just south of our border. It is my opinion that we could see another 10 million immigrants over the next five years if Lopez Obrador decides to rip his country apart because he lost -- and he really has lost -- the election. You should pray for a peaceful transition to a Calderon presidency because any other result bodes ill for us.

[ichabod1]

Kidding aside, I agree it's a serious problem. I've been expecting, not exactly wanting, an AMLO victory since about May. The advantage is a reality check on our relationship with them. This smile/stab business with Fox is untenable. I expect the same would happen with Calderon. And the influx would continue.

With Obrador they would hate us and oppose us, and maybe we'd finally get the stones to start defending against them. They are not a friendly country on our southern border. They are more of an enemy. But the refugee problem is daunting. I could never wish for that.

Still, que sera, sera. No matter what i think might be best.

[John Lenin]

Something fishy in the world nowadays. How many elections have been so close that the loser declares himself the winner ?

It's the politics of division, the thing that scares the powers the be the most is that we all come together and throw their asses out of office.

[No.6]

Sorry, no matter how people consider that worse is better than bad, I can't agree with them.

The new communist alliance is busy glomming onto every oil-producing nation they can grab power in. As each country goes on its anti-U.S. path our situation becomes more difficult. Not impossible, but difficult.

Now if one wishes to focus 100% of one's political attention on the sole issue of illegal immigration, it's possible to see a silver lining to a dark cloud; but there really *are* other things happening in the world, no matter how important immigration is.

[StJacques]

"How many elections have been so close that the loser declares himself the winner?"

I personally think this has something to do with the fact that the memory of the Cold War is fading from popular consciousness and too many people have forgotten how dangerous the Left can really be. Throw into the mix the fact that knowledge of campaign management is now developed into a fine art and both sides seem to maximize their turnout.

The really troubling thing is what you refer to as "the loser declaring himself the winner." Have you noticed that it is not the conservative candidate who threatens to take everything apart when these controversies surface? It's a repeat phenomenon, seen again and again. I truly do blame Al Gore for setting the standard here. The entire rest of the world watches the United States and once everyone else saw that seeing the election results is only the first stage in determining a winner, the process gets repeated again and again.

[John Lenin]

I'm a big picture type of person. What are the odds of so many elections being so close ?

The New World Order is going to be forced down our throats whether we like it or not.

[StJacques]

". . . They are not a friendly country on our southern border. They are more of an enemy. . . ."

I defintely disagree here. Immigration is a natural demographic process that follows clear lines of development and we should not be surprised to see it happening here with respect to Mexico. Migrants everywhere make "cost-benefit" choices and so long as economic opportunities in Mexico are so far removed from what we enjoy here in the U.S., the "benefits" of migrating are going to bring more. And there are no policy choices we can make to change that most basic rule of migration. Either Mexico develops and provides more opportunity or more and more Mexicans will come here. There's no way out of that reality.

And as for the official relationship and the way immigration figures into the mix, just put yourself in the shoes of the President of Mexico for a moment -- I mean, honestly stop thinking like an American trying to fix the immigration problem for a moment. Mexican citizens working in the U.S. pump billions of dollars into the Mexican economy every year. Do you really want to pursue a policy that will reduce that figure if you're the President of Mexico? Of course not. Now I still think that Mexico is going to have to come to the table and deal with us on a more cooperative basis on the problem of illegal immigration, because we have genuine national security interests at stake here. But I don't blame Vicente Fox or anyone else for pursuing policies that are in the economic interest of their country. I just think that forms the basis for informing our understanding of what we're dealing with as we approach the problem.

And before you or anyone else thinks that an AMLO victory might just bring our problems with Mexico into sharper focus, which might make the prospects for dealing with illegal immigration easier to address from an American policy standpoint, consider that Mexico is our number two supplier of foreign oil after Canada and that the American balance of trade with Mexico is decidedly to our advantage. Throw in the fact than an AMLO victory means more Mexicans come here than a Calderon victory, and that clearly will be the result, and you've got the worst possible scenario you can envision.

[StJacques]

First of all, my apologies for not proofreading my last post and stopping the italics.

You wrote:

"The New World Order is going to be forced down our throats whether we like it or not."

Yes; there's no running away from it. Facing up to reality such as it is in the world today means understanding that ideas seem less threatening to a lot of people than they used to and that's a shame, because ideas really do matter. I expect we will see more of the same in the future.

[John Lenin]

Western economies are going bankrupt. Socialism is a ponzi scheme. I hate to think what may be in store for us.

[livius]

Good analysis, StJ.

For a weird sidelight, did you happen to see the picture of Alvaro Garcia, Evo Morales' VP in Bolivia, standing next to Evo holding a freeze-dried llama fetus that Evo was planning on offering to the "Earth Mother" (under her indigenous peoples' name, of course) for a safe trip?

It was hysterical. Garcia is a raving radical lefty, but he's an educated man, and you could see that he was wondering how his life had brought him to the point that he was standing there holding a freeze-dried llama fetus for a 3-foot tall nutcase.

All mirth aside, though, the left is very retrograde, and I think Mexico is going to implode if AMLO pulls off his coup. And it won't be pretty for the rest of us.

[StJacques]

I still haven't seen the pic yet, but someone else mentioned it to me on another thread, though I cannot remember where. Sounds almost comical.

[livius]

I can't find the picture on the net anymore. But here's an AP account from July 23:

LA PAZ, Bolivia - Summoning President Evo Morales at dawn to the great hall of the presidential palace, two poncho-clad Indian shamans pour alcohol on coca leaves, candies and a dried llama fetus, and set them on fire. Eyes closed, Morales meditates as the offerings burn and asks Pachamama, the earth goddess of his ancestors, to aid Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera on his mission to Washington, where he's been trying to persuade the U.S. Congress this week to prolong a preferential trade pact.

I think it was only a fluke that the picture got published in my local paper, mostly because Garcia looked like he wanted to pitch the llama fetus across the room. And that was even before they set fire to it.

Chesterton said that people who believe in nothing will believe in anything, and I guess this is proof positive.

[StJacques]

"Chesterton said that people who believe in nothing will believe in anything, and I guess this is proof positive."

Proof positive indeed! My take on the quote is that Morales is depending upon integrating the hitherto uninvolved Bolivian Indian population within the national political framework.

What I expect will happen with Morales is that his fellow countrymen will let him nationalize all kinds of foreign-owned wealth and then he will be "replaced," so that "sensible" people can make better use of those resources. Bolivia has not been known for stability in its national political life.

[livius]

Bolivia has not been known for stability in its national political life.

Mostly because the left has been extremely active down there. I have translated documents that would make your mouth drop open - as soon as it looked like Bolivia was heading for a stable government and a decent economic policy, the left intervened, mostly by using the indigenas as their cat's paw. The leftists actually killed a lot of local neighborhood activist types (in indigenous people neighborhoods and towns) who were trying to start up coops, training and educational programs. The thing that the left uses is "miserification."

The tactic is to keep people from improving things so that the left can then ride in as the savior.

[StJacques]

I have seen first-hand the same thing you described done in Colombia. I visited the southern city of Popayan and went out to a small place to the east of it, which is at the edge of FARC country, and saw the burned-out ruins of coop cattle barns that the FARC had destroyed because they claimed that the government was "only exploiting the campesinos" by forcing them to pay off the loans that financed about half the cost of their construction. Can you guess the end result of the destruction? Probably, but just to clear it up, the local farmers could no longer graze their cattle over the "ganado publico" because they no longer had the infrastructure to manage their cattle. And this does not even mention the murders of agricultural agents of the Colombian government, who performed work similar to the "county agents" we have in this country, and more. It is exactly as you described. "Miserification" leads to impatience of expectations and the Left can then hold themselves up as the only viable alternative.

And don't be surprised if AMLO and company in Mexico decide to sabotage their economy in retaliation when things don't go their way either. They control the oil workers' unions and that alone is a powerful tool they can use to ruin everything.

[ichabod1]

Of course you guys are right -- it's bad enough that the communists have Venezuela and Bolivia, not to mention good old Cuba and the Panama Canal. It would be terrible if they get Mexico. But, that's kind of the point I was making. We have another gathering storm in Latin America, and I'm afraid it's going to be a problem possibly even worse than the Arabs before it's done. We have a lot of problems around the world, to say the least.

As an observer of history in the making though, it would certainly be interesting. Does that make sense? I don't WANT it to happen. But it's had a feel to me something like Hamas winning in the palestinian territories. It feels a little bit inevitable that they'll at least try. I sense that there is so much anger down there that something is bound to happen. And I sense that same anger among the millions of men of military age that have come here. It raises the stakes.

As far as the "worse is better than bad thing" well, I guess it's just difficult and frustrating to watch historic events slowly build and to know that it could be cut off so much more easily sooner rather than later. But political will doesn't develop until things get really bad. Winston Churchill talked about this -- waiting until your very survival is threatened before taking action. But living through it, I'm starting to see that politically there is no way to galvanize people sufficiently to stamp out gathering threats before they materialize.

THanks for you extraordinarily incisive postings.

[okie01]

Yes; Lafayette, Louisiana, right in the heart of Cajun Country. : O )

The best food in the world is served within a fifty mile radius of Lafayette...