October 02, 2007
Memo From Mexico,
By
Allan Wall
Diversity Is Strength! It’s Also…Importing Mexican
Quarrels
In a recent Memo from Mexico column, I
reported that Mexico’s ruling PAN (National Action
Party) had scheduled a convention in Los Angeles,
California.
Not only was the convention held as scheduled last
Sunday, September 30th, but it was the scene
of confrontations between
PANistas and the party leadership, and between a
former Mexican president and
protestors.
In other words, not only is mass emigration bringing
Mexican politics to the U.S.A., it is also bringing
Mexican political quarrels.
The PAN get-together was called "Primer
Encuentro Nacional del PAN en Estados Unidos"—"the
First National Encounter of the PAN in the United
States".
"First National Encounter" means they plan to
have more.
The “encounter” was held at the conference
room of
La Huasteca restaurant at the
Plaza Mexico, in the LA suburb of Lynwood. (For the
demographic history of
that locale, read
here. It was a white working class town that
went black around 1970 and became
majority Hispanic because of immigration in the
1990s.)
According to La Opinión, nearly 300 delegates
attended. They were key activists and leaders of the
PAN, which began
operations north of the border two years ago.
Manuel Espino, the chairman of the PAN was there. So
was Juan Manuel Oliva, the governor of Guanajuato state.
But the real star of the show was none other than
Vicente Fox himself.
Vicente Fox, the former president of Mexico? Yes,
that Vicente Fox—the one who spent six years promoting
open borders,
illegal immigration and the
jurisdiction of the Mexican government over
Americans of Mexican ancestry.
Now that Fox is no longer president, he is even freer
to speak out on the subject. And that’s
exactly what he’s doing.
The former president was in classic form at the PAN
convention. He said that Mexican migrants in the U.S.
are like "little seeds distributed in all the U.S.,
with great leadership." Just as in
his presidential days, Fox bashed
U.S. immigration policy:
"This [the U.S.]
has always been a nation of migrants and therefore I
don’t understand the
construction of a wall. Why is
xenophobia guiding the decisions of this great
country? It lacks understanding and it lacks vision for
not being able to appreciate the value of every
migrant."[El
PAN busca el apoyo de los migrantes en EU,
By Eileen Truax, La Opinión, Oct.
1st, 2007]
In case there is anyone our there who hasn’t got the
message, this is utter hypocrisy—as I’ve pointed out
many times, Mexico’s own immigration policy is
highly selective,
ruthlessly and
arbitrarily enforced, and absolutely not open to
foreign meddling.
Still, not every Mexican in Los Angeles received
Vicente Fox with open arms. Far from it.
Over 50 Mexican protestors outside the building
attempted to crash the convention and express their
disapproval. These protestors included members of the
PAN’s Mexican rival—the PRD (Party
of the Democratic Revolution). The two parties have
brought their quarrel to the streets of LA.
"Ladron!"
[thief] shouted protestors, and "Traidor a la
democracia."
Mexican reporter Jaime Hernandez described the scene
thusly:
"…an army of immigrants
arrived to the doors of the Plaza Mexico in the city of
Lynwood (considered by some as the sanctuary of
mexicanidad) – to condemn the visit of former
president Vicente Fox…"[Alcanzan
a Fox reclamos en EU, By Jaime Hernandez, El
Universal, October 1st, 2007]
Now wait a second, is this the
same Vicente Fox who
called illegal aliens "heroes" and who based
his foreign policy around them? Yep. That same Vicente
Fox is being dissed by the same people he so publicly
embraced (or utilized).
One of the protestors, Amando Garcia, a PRD activist,
was quoted saying this:
"It’s what he deserves.
He promised so much to the immigrants and it was
precisely during his term when more people were expelled
from Mexico for economic reasons."
Outside there were
all sorts of protestors, not all on the same sheet of
music, and they included local American-born Hispanics
whose loyalty is not with the U.S.A. Defending the
American point of view though, were the Save our State
organization, kudos to them. You can read
their report on the protest here.
The policemen and
security guards present (whose nationality was not
always clear) did an effective job of keeping protestors
out or removing them if they entered.
Nevertheless, everything inside the Huasteca wasn’t
peace and happiness either.
Some of the
American-resident PANistas are not in agreement with
the chairmanship in the selection of the new leadership
slate which was announced at the convention. They felt
that Espino and the PAN bosses were imposing the U.S.
leadership of the PAN on them.
The discontent was so open that Jaime Hernandez wrote
that
"In an atmosphere of
chaos, rebellion and riot, the national leader of the
PAN, Manuel Espino, had to confront and convince those
who denounced ‘the imposition’ and ‘the dedazo’
of the new representatives of this political party in
the United States…" [Revuelta
en Reunipon del PAN en California, Jaime
Hernandez, Universal, Oct. 1st, 2007]
(The term dedazo, literally "the pointing
of the finger" referred to the manner in each
president of
the former Mexican ruling party (PRI) would select
his successor)
Espino of course defended the process of leadership
selection. But Ramon Mejia, a PAN leader in California
since 2005 did not agree and vowed that
"We are going to fight
because we believe that an injustice has been committed.
We were willing to participate in the selection process
and in the working out of a consensus in the heart of
the PAN in California and the United States. But today
we have confronted appointments that we didn’t know and
about whom we were not consulted… Espino is badly
informed and that’s why we wanted to tell him that we
were not in agreement. But he wouldn’t let us."
Mejia’s comments were not appreciated by the PAN
leadership. Security guards wrestled him to the ground
and handcuffed him (see
video here.)
This in turn sparked protests and Chairman Espino
himself came over and had Mejia released. But the damage
was done, as some PANistas likened the tactics to those
of the
previously-ruling PRI party in Mexico.
Yes, it sounds like it was quite an event all right.
Protest and repression, conflict between
Mexican political parties and conflict within
Mexican political parties—all
playing out upon U.S. soil.
The purpose here is not to take sides with the PAN or
the PRD or any other Mexican party. As a
gringo in Mexico I’m not allowed to get mixed up in
their politics. (I
could be expelled if I did so.
I just think Mexican political parties ought to carry
out their activities in Mexico.
Because the activities of organized Mexican political
parties in the U.S. have the potential to result in
serious meddling. Just listen to what PAN’s Chairman
Espino had to say to the delegates—and on this topic I
think they would all agree:
"We are here because the
PAN wants to update its position regarding the migratory
phenomenon. We have come to listen to our fellow
Mexicans to
learn from their experience and from there to launch
concrete proposals."
Espino even had a message for American political
parties:
"The Democratic Party
and the Republican Party don’t have to worry. Our task
will be to defend the rights of our countrymen and to
ensure that our people get involved in political action
in their segunda patria [“second fatherland”].
So, Chairman Espino, do
American citizens, living in their own homeland,
have
any say in the matter?
A Mexican party is encouraging the
growth of enclaves within the U.S. and openly
attempting to organize them—Mexican-style.
Is this what Americans want?
American citizen Allan Wall (email
him) resides in Mexico, with a
legal permit issued him by the Mexican government. Allan
recently returned from a tour of duty in Iraq with the
Texas Army National Guard. His VDARE.COM articles are
archived
here; his FRONTPAGEMAG.COM
articles are archived
here his "Dispatches from
Iraq" are archived
here his website is
here.
