{"id":131608,"date":"2016-02-28T19:19:57","date_gmt":"2016-02-29T02:19:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=131608"},"modified":"2016-10-12T13:11:50","modified_gmt":"2016-10-12T19:11:50","slug":"mexico-is-talking-a-lot-about-trump-and-sanders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/02\/mexico-is-talking-a-lot-about-trump-and-sanders\/","title":{"rendered":"Mexico is talking a lot about Trump and Sanders"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_114577\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/ivangm\/8569585702\/in\/photolist-e4gngC-4PHKxs-fSNgoV-eUPiz-4QbSjo-4nCMJn-4nH3fW-qBz9wJ-nxwdA-rvvoND-qVhv7k-4PHHGG-5hBVkQ-qz72fT-Aad1eD-bZo8D-Ak1FM1-5jnUK1-tQyD6L-4YchjH-4Yc9Hx-5hBRME-s7ainq-4bKyaz-pkCWXF-qzmPVW-4nCy6X-4nD4wB-4nH8W3-opJtA5-83YtHS-p56nbj-4nCAQH-4nCWSz-4Yd6FB-5jiLGH-pEDkMy-7xKtZQ-4S4NY4-iKXasM-dazxs3-5hFAWg-pkCWEr-4PDuc8-7xKtV5-5hFBqP-5hKYno-q5YhqX-4Ycuhk-4YjpCj\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-114577 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Mexican-flag-771x490.jpg\" alt=\"Mexican flag\" width=\"771\" height=\"490\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Mexican-flag-771x490.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Mexican-flag-336x214.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Mexican-flag-768x488.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Mexican-flag-1170x744.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Mexican-flag.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">iivangm \/ flickr<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mexico is talking a lot about two U.S. presidential candidates &#8212; Donald Trump, who is mostly viewed negatively, and Bernie Sanders, who is getting lots of positive press. (<a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/2.0\/\" target=\"_blank\">photo cc info<\/a>)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The U.S. presidential election is getting close scrutiny in Mexico. Given the nature of the dependent relationship of Mexico with the United States, Mexicans tend to pay far more attention to U.S. politics than U.S. citizens do the Mexican political world.<\/p>\n<p>And in 2016 the interest south of the border is running at a fever pitch.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This story was produced by\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/frontera.nmsu.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\">Frontera NorteSur<\/a>,\u00a0a U.S.-Mexico border news service run by the Center for Latin American and Border Studies at New Mexico State University.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>The big reason, of course, is Donald Trump. The Republican contender\u2019s continued vows to expand the wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and make the United States&#8217; southern neighbor pay for it, as well as his comments that Mexico was exporting rapists and other criminals to the United States, have earned him almost universal condemnation in the Aztec Republic.<\/p>\n<p>Former Mexican President Vicente Fox\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=x4OwJOVi0ec\" target=\"_blank\">viral comment<\/a> last week to newsman Jorge Ramos &#8212; \u201cI am not going to pay for this f\u2026 wall!\u201d &#8212; only upped the ante for Trump, who in the thick of the most recent Republican debate promised to build the wall higher.<\/p>\n<p>Felipe Calderon, Fox\u2019s successor from 2006 to 2012 and also an ex-president from the conservative side of Mexican politics, then entered the ring with a condemnation of his own, not only repeating Fox\u2019s likening of Trump to Hitler, but labeling the Republican contender a racist who poses a danger to U.S. society as well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy? Because Trump is sowing anti-American hatred in the whole world and that seed could grow in the future into difficult conditions for Americans worldwide,\u201d Calderon said.<\/p>\n<p>Mexican Congressman Alejandro Ojeda, representative of the center-left PRD party and vice-president of the lower chamber of Congress, joined in the fray, denouncing Trump\u2019s rhetoric as \u201cneo-Nazi and authoritarian.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ojeda urged stronger stands against Trump from President Enrique Pe\u00f1a Nieto and other senior Mexican officials.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Stepping up to a boiling plate, Mexican Foreign Minister Claudia Ruiz Massieu blasted Trump\u2019s border wall and other postures. \u201c(Trump) sounds racist and ignorant because he is that way,\u201d Ruiz Massieu was quoted in a Feb.\u00a028 article in Proceso newsweekly that was based on statements she made to the Washington Post.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are absolutely sure that this is not the way in which people from the United States think. The U.S. is a country founded on tolerance, openness and the acceptance of people from other countries,&#8221; Massieu said.<\/p>\n<p>From left to right on the Mexican political spectrum, it\u2019s hard to find anyone with positive comments about Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p>Trump\u2019s run for the White House has made its mark on U.S.-Mexico diplomatic relations. During a Feb.\u00a025 visit to Mexico City, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, while not naming Trump, apologized about comments made about Mexico during the primary campaigns.<\/p>\n<p>The billionaire\u2019s campaign is even stirring up the expat community in Mexico; messages in English against Trump were recently visible on the streets of Puerto Vallarta. In the view of Mexican analyst Luis Linares Zapata, initial dismissals of Trump\u2019s prospects have been turned on their head by the businessman\u2019s string of primary victories.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFew now wager on his failure, despite the different reasons their negative predictions were based on,\u201d Linares wrote this past week. \u201c(Trump\u2019s) slogan of remaking the greatness of the United States sounds appetizing to adherents filled with revenge and arrogance, who are among the many that feel attacked by multiple rivals and enemies. The lack of trust in and the rejection of politicians in the traditional mold (Washington elite) is an additional characteristic of his supporters.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Linares considers Trump\u2019s stump for the White House an outcome of more than three decades of the neo-liberal (free market, trickle down) economic model that left \u201csharp wounds to the body and the spirit of extensive layers of the population,\u201d resulting in a generalized discontent that is dually manifested on the right and on the left. \u201cBoth (political tendencies) seem for now if not to dominate the election environment, then at least to catalyze it,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Another U.S. presidential hopeful is also making a growing splash in the Mexican media, but in stark contrast to Trump\u2019s bid, delivering messages that resonate south of the border. Virtually unknown in Mexico until now, he is U.S. Sen.\u00a0Bernie Sanders from Vermont.<\/p>\n<p>Sanders\u2019 movement for a \u201cpolitical revolution\u201d has inspired a slew of commentaries in the Mexican press. For pundit Carlos Aguirre, Trump and Sanders personify \u201ctwo worlds in confrontation,\u201d with the former representing a conservative, economically unfair society based on an ideology of \u201cexaggerated nationalism\u201d and international aggressiveness.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s why Trump\u2019s discourse has been racist and discriminatory,\u201d Aguirre contended in La Jornada.<\/p>\n<p>Trump\u2019s political model, Aguirre continued, means \u201ceconomic inequality as the basis of the world economic system, removing the environment from the center of the agenda, (not) complying with human rights, and (not supporting) popular and other struggles that, with weakness, Barack Obama and other international actors defended.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Self-described democratic socialist Sanders is the flip side of the political coin, constituting a \u201cfresh option\u201d and the best choice for liberal and egalitarian tendencies developing in the modern world, according to Aguirre.<\/p>\n<p>Guillermo Almeyra, leftist intellectual and veteran La Jornada columnist, compared Sanders\u2019 grassroots campaign to the \u201cbest traditions of the U.S. people,\u201d recalling the labor, Marxist and anarchist movements of the early 20th century (many of which emerged in immigrant communities) and the memories of Wobbly leader Big Bill Haywood, activist Mother Jones and historic Socialist Party presidential candidate Eugene Debs.<\/p>\n<p>A once-vibrant U.S. left was suppressed by war-fanned \u201csuper-patriotism,\u201d the Red Scare after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution and the repression of the McCarthy era in the 1950s,\u00a0 Almeyra wrote, arguing that subsequent developments in both the global political and economic spheres, including the disappearance of the Soviet Union and the economic downturn in this country, eventually opened a new political space in the United States for the revival of left &#8212; or at least New Deal-style &#8212; politics that carry implications far beyond U.S. borders.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs in the 1930s, the prolonged crisis is impelling a new radicalization of broad sectors of youth, especially among women who are very discriminated against,\u201d Almeyra wrote.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSupport for Bernie Sanders, who is a permanent adversary of the wars, invasions and coups organized by Washington, and a constant critic of the control of society, culture and information by big capital as well as the corruption of the establishment, only\u00a0 partially expresses this cultural evolution and change in politics at the roots,\u201d Almeyra wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Sanders\u2019 advance, Almeyra wrote, is worrisome to the right-wing in the United States and abroad because \u201cit shows that an important part of the youth of the nation are breaking with the dominant ideology and don\u2019t regard socialist ideas as so abhorrent and anti-patriotic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sanders\u2019 critiques of financial oligarchies, wealth inequality and political corruption are familiar themes in Mexican politics. And feedback from Sanders\u2019 platform seems to be drifting back into Mexico, where voters will elect new leaders this year in a number of states and municipalities.<\/p>\n<p>Almost sounding like a Mexican Bernie Sanders, Chihuahua gubernatorial hopeful Javier Corral said in Casas Grandes last week that a living wage was among the profound economic, political and social changes needed. Corral took a jab at wealth concentration, asserting that 92 percent of the wealth in Chihuahua was controlled by only 20 percent of the population.<\/p>\n<p>Corral is running for governor under the banner of the historically conservative National Action Party, but his bid for office is supported by individuals long active on the left. More and more, the burning issues of Mexico and the U.S.-rigged economies, skewed income distribution, decent wages and access to education and health care are converging.<\/p>\n<p>In a commentary for Cambio de Michoacan entitled \u201cBernie Sanders: The Hope of the Impossible,\u201d Hugo Rangel Vargas tagged Sanders\u2019 candidacy a watershed for the United States.<\/p>\n<p>The Sanders campaign, he affirmed, is renewing debate about the \u201ctrue content of North American democracy,\u201d while spotlighting proposed labor, education, health-care, environmental and political reforms that would benefit not only the United States but the entire world.<\/p>\n<p>Similar to Almeyra, Rangel noted Sanders\u2019 popularity with a significant sector of U.S. youth, as well as the grassroots fundraising strategy underpinning the 74-year-old senator\u2019s run. Like Aguirre, however, Rangel cautioned about Sanders\u2019 ability to govern as president in a political environment riddled with contrary congressmen and governors.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNonetheless, the enormous energy that has popped open the door of utopia through which have passed thousands of young volunteers and citizens with their individual donations has rendered Bernie\u2019s campaign structure a powerful political organization,\u201d Rangel wrote.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey could be the social reinforcement in the streets of North America that push hope to reality. \u2018Feel the Bern\u2019 is not only an intelligent publicity slogan; it also represents the yearnings of a society that seemed destined to be thrown out onto the street,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<p><em>Sources: Proceso, <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_279775675\"><span class=\"aQJ\">February 28, 2016<\/span><\/span>. Article by J. Jesus Esquivel. El Universal\/EFE, February 27, 2016. El Diario de Juarez,\u00a0 February 25, 2016. Arrobajuarez.com, February 25, 2016.\u00a0 La Jornada, February 14 and 24, 2016. Articles by Guillermo Almeyra and Luis Linares Zapata. La Jornada (Aguascalientes edition), February 14, 2016.\u00a0 Article by Carlos Aguirre.\u00a0 Cambio de Michoacan, February 12, 2016. Article by Hugo Rangel Vargas.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Donald Trump is mostly viewed negatively, while Bernie Sanders is getting lots of positive press.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2732,"featured_media":114577,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[708,3307,236,226],"class_list":["post-131608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2016-election","tag-donald-trump","tag-mexico","tag-presidential-race"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2732"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}