December 16, 2003
Memo From Mexico, By
Allan Wall
Mexican Governors Gang Up On The Terminator
Puebla, a beautiful colonial
city in central Mexico, was the scene last week of a
gathering of CONAGO, the
Conferencia Nacional de Gobernadores
(Mexican National Governors’ Conference).
CONAGO is composed of Mexican state
governors belonging to opposition parties (i.e. not to
Vicente Fox’s
PAN party).
But the assembled Mexican governors
used the occasion to attack, not Fox, but an American
governor—Arnold Schwarzenegger of California.
Schwarzenegger, as I’ve
reported before, is persona non grata in
Mexico. The Terminator’s latest offense was terminating
SB60, the California law granting
driver's licenses to illegal aliens.
THE CONAGO gang condemned this evil
action and called on Governor Schwarzenegger to reverse
it.
They’re also planning to send a
delegation to the United States next month, to interview
Mexicans in California and, if possible, Governor
Schwarzenegger himself.
Do you believe, as many Americans
do, that Vicente Fox
meddles in
U.S. internal affairs too much?
Well, guess what? Governor Ricardo
Monreal, of Zacatecas, thinks Vicente Fox hasn’t meddled
enough, and needs to do
more meddling to protect Mexican illegal aliens in
the United States.
According to Monreal, the
revocation of SB60 is bad because “it could bode a
greater xenophobia and persecution against Mexicans and
Latinos...Now, under a right-wing (sic) government
[undocumented migrants] could lose civil victories.”
[Governors
stand up for migrants’ rights, Jorge Ramos and
Blanca Patricia Galindo, El Universal, December 8th,
2003]
It's good that California's new
governor has revoked a really bad piece of legislation.
But many of
Schwarzenegger's statements indicate that he would
countenance driver's licenses for illegal aliens under
different circumstances, and that he supports amnesty.
The vigilant folks at
American Patrol have so little confidence in
Arnold's immigration policies that they have a
regular feature called
“Arnold Watch” just to keep an eye on him.
Monreal’s statements clearly
demonstrate how Mexican officials think on this issue.
They will attack ANYTHING, no matter how small, which
abridges or even threatens the “rights” of illegal
aliens in the United States. They will continue to
demand the U.S. keep its borders open and do everything
possible to accommodate illegal aliens. But it will
never be enough.
Monreal also voiced support for
the big strike that was planned for California on
December 12th. It appears the protest was
pretty much a flop, but you can see that Monreal has no
qualms about intervening in U.S. politics.
Nearly all prominent Mexican
politicians spout about emigration and how bad Mexicans
have it in Gringolandia. But Ricardo Monreal seems to
have made a career of it. He’s the same governor who
made the outrageous
declaration that 70% of the U.S. military was Black
and Hispanic, with 40% being of Mexican origin.
Governor Monreal has a vested
interest in keeping the
northern border open. His state, Zacatecas, is the
number one source of Mexican emigrants to the U.S.A.
Zacatecas has recently changed its
election laws to allow Mexican emigrants in the US
to
run for office in Mexico.
What does Monreal think would
happen if all those Zacatecans were to return from the
U.S. and live in Zacatecas? Would they all have jobs?
Would they be making as much money as they were in the
U.S.? Would they be happy with their living conditions?
Would they be satisfied with his
administration?
Ricardo Monreal, like most
prominent Mexican politicians, does not care to face
such issues. Like most prominent Mexican politicians,
Monreal prefers that emigrants stay in the United
States, that more Mexicans go to join them, and that
Mexican emigrants
send back as much money as possible.
Do the remittances sent by Mexican
emigrants to Zacatecas and other states really help?
Well, they’ve become a major source of Mexican income,
earning more than manufacturing, tourism or agriculture.
Remittance money does benefit a lot
of grocery stores, since nationwide, 95% of it is spent
on groceries and day-to-day supplies. But little of it
is being invested in economic development and job
creation. Emigration is
not a long-term solution to Mexico’s economic
problems.
I’ve been to Zacatecas. It has
beautiful scenery, great tourist attractions and plenty
of economic potential. So what’s being done to develop
that potential?
As Mario Garcia, mayor of a small
community in the state put it, "People have one thing in
mind, and that is to go to the United States.”
Pedro Chavez, a Zacatecas farmer,
pointed out the obvious: "The people here can make
more money by staying at home and waiting for a check
from the United States, so many of them do not work. At
least they do not want to work in Mexico."
(Jobs Mexicans won't do?)
And here’s a real zinger. Zacatecas
is Mexico’s number one producer of beans and chili, both
of which are staples of Mexican cuisine. Yet the state
of Zacatecas does not have one processing plant for
processing beans and chili!
Why not? Are they so busy
encouraging emigration that nobody thinks it’s worth the
time?
It seems to me that processing
plants for beans and chili would be a great way to
develop the economy of Zacatecas, and provide jobs for
Zacatecans.
But I guess it's a lot more fun to
bash the governor of California, isn’t it?
It’s time American elected
officials started bashing back.
American citizen Allan Wall lives and works legally in
Mexico, where he holds an FM-2 residency and work
permit, but serves six weeks a year with the Texas Army
National Guard, in a unit composed almost entirely of
Americans of Mexican ancestry. His VDARE.COM articles
are archived
here; his
FRONTPAGEMAG.COM articles are archived
here; his
website is
here. Readers
can contact Allan Wall at
allan39@prodigy.net.mx.
