NYT – To confront Trump’s fake history, some Mexicans are calling for a lawsuit that would aim to nullify the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (signed on Feb. 2, 1848), in which Mexico — invaded by American soldiers, its capital occupied, its ports and customs stations seized — was forced to accept the American annexation of Texas and concede more than half the rest of Mexican territory, now including most of the states of Arizona, New Mexico and California.
Washington Post – Arturo Sarukhan was Mexico’s ambassador to the U.S. from 2007 to 2013: Dangerously and sadly — particularly for someone such as myself who has spent a lifetime seeking to deepen and widen U.S.-Mexico ties — the relationship is today on a knife’s edge.
Peña Nieto’s first actions since Trump´s election have been conciliatory—some might say servile.
By John M. Ackerman / Politico
On Barack Obama’s first visit to Mexico as president in 2009, thousands of people spontaneously swarmed onto Mexico City’s grand Reforma Avenue to see whether they could get a peek at the 44th president of the United States as he passed by. Despite a long history of conflict between the two countries, the Mexican people were highly optimistic about the future of binational relations and believed in Obama’s message of hope and renovation.
In contrast, after the events of this past week, it will be difficult for Donald Trump to ever set foot on Mexican soil. Mexicans are a proud and dignified people and do not take well to being humiliated in public. Indeed, in response to the constant insults and lack of respect coming out of the new U.S. administration, Mexican citizen groups already have started to plan boycotts of Citibank, Walmart and other U.S. corporations. The newspapers and TV shows are full of biting commentary about Trump’s intolerant and aggressive behavior. At a rally a couple of weeks ago, one of the protesters even burned an American flag, something entirely unprecedented for more than a century in Mexico.
Fortune – Congress has long been tougher on international trade than U.S. presidents, but that likely won’t be the case under Donald Trump’s administration. During the campaign and following his election, Trump has threatened he would impose high tariffs against imports from Mexico and China.
NYT – Mexico doesn’t have to appease U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. It can fight back. It will not win every battle, but it may achieve more through obstruction, and making life miserable for the new president by increasing the cost of his anti-Mexican policies, than it will achieve by appeasement.
ESPN fc – Cries of “Fuera Osorio” calling for Mexico national team manager Juan Carlos Osorio to be sacked from his role are nothing new at Estadio Azteca. From shouts of “Bora (Milutinovic) out” in the 1990s to “Chepo (de la Torre) out” in the 2000s, it’s something the historic venue has come to know in recent years. The fans have a right to express themselves. On some occasions, they can also be wrong.
Daily Beast – “Any war that requires the suspension of reason as a necessity for support is a bad war,” wrote Norman Mailer in Armies of the Night. That phrase, applied to Vietnam almost 50 years ago, has come back into my head any number of times during the eight months of the last year I’ve spent covering the Mexican drug war.
For most of that time I’ve been on the front lines of the conflict—often in and around the sun-scorched and cartel-dominated valley called Tierra Caliente—where the daily suspension of one’s reasoning faculties can be a useful coping mechanism.
Even so, at times I’ve found it very hard to support the Mexican government’s increasingly surreal approach to drug war tactics and strategy.
Foreign Policy – Authoritarian leadership, stifled dissent, limited freedom of assembly, and endless violence, are the hallmarks of Mexico under Pena Nieto. It’s time for Washington to pull the plug.
Al Jazeera – While Francis has been known as a poignant political messenger, he largely failed in Mexico. The Mexican government seems to have created the necessary conditions to avoid embarrassment during the papal visit.
Fusion – The notorious drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman might be locked up (again), but it would be naive to assume that his recapture will significantly improve the well-being of more than 120 million Mexicans.
