By: Professor Armando Vazquez-Ramos ~ April 30, 2020
The opinion piece by Roberto Velasco Álvarez, Washington Post in Spanish (April 20, 2020) contradicts the facts and denies the abandonment of the 40 million Mexicans residing in the United States by the government of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO).
Since its inception, the AMLO government has lacked policies and resources corresponding to what is more than 25% of the Mexican population living in the US, as a Mexican nation abroad that has generated almost $40 billion of remittances annually to Mexico.
Although this represents the highest source of revenue for the Mexican economy, the AMLO National Development Plan does not include policies and resources to support the compatriots who support the US and Mexican economies with the sweat of their brow and the sacrifice of living in a racist country.
In his cheerleading article for the AMLO government, Roberto Velasco Álvarez comments that “our compatriots, many undocumented, already resent the ravages of the coronavirus,” but Mexico does not take responsibility or have a collaboration plan on the pandemic with the US and California governments as it should exist, and that we have been promoting with Governor Gavin Newsom.
Without supporting policies and resources, how does Mr. Velasco Alvarez propose "to wage a battle with all our aplomb ... when it comes to reaping what the Mexican nation has sown for so long" through a consular network that has a reduced budget under the AMLO government and totally devoid of ties to the Mexican nation abroad ?
If the 40 million Mexicans in the United States are not part of AMLO's National Development Plan, it is outrageous to declare, in the style of Vicente Fox, that AMLO “has been emphatic in speaking of our primary obligation to Mexican migrants, heroes who They have left our country behind to seek better opportunities in the United States. We have an indisputable debt to all of them.”
It is a falsehood to say that “the Ministry of Foreign Relations gives an unambiguous answer: there is no other priority, no objective of our foreign policy is superior to the protection of our diaspora. This is Mexico's first responsibility abroad.”
The reality is that, under the administration of Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, the SRE decided to only provide services to Mexicans in the United States through the consular network, under a care plan of only 10 priorities that were established after superficial consultations in 10 cities, led by the director of the Institute for Mexicans Abroad (IME) Roberto Valdovinos of the SRE.
Mr. Velasco Alvarez, you are right, but you exaggerate with a Trumpist and naive tone when you declare that “Victory can only be achieved with the strength of our countrymen. The fraternity of our families, the extent of our bonds of solidarity, the helping hand that reiterates that "my house is your house" are our best arsenal. The essence of the Mexican character that overcomes adversity is the backbone of the victory that is to come.”
Mexico must invest resources and establish care policies in proportion to the size of the Mexican population living in the United States and its enormous support of remittances for the country's economy, and only in this way will it be possible to carry out the transformation to the decades of abandonment of the Mexican nation abroad.
Professor Armando Vazquez-Ramos is Co-Founder of the Department of Chicano Studies at California State University at Long Beach and President of the Center for California-Mexico Studies.
