How badly do Latin Americans want President Obama to understand the history of the United States in Latin America? In this ‘Open Letter’ to President Obama, Mexican columnist Gilberto Lopez y Rivas outlines the events that have created a well of angst and resentment toward our nation in many parts of the continent.
For Mexico’s La Jornada, Lopez warns President Obama that despite his change in tone, he is going down the same path as his predecessors who, believing in ‘Manifest Destiny’, annihilated native peoples, took the land of others, and that right now – Obama doing the same in Iraq and Afghanistan.
After offering an overview of U.S.-Mexico and U.S.-Latin American history, Lopez writes in part:
“You might wonder what the connection is, between all this history and the present time. The answer lies in the actions you have taken as commander-in-chief of occupation forces in Iraq and Afghanistan during the first 100 days of your presidency. It seems that in those countries, “manifest destiny” authorizes soldiers under your command to violate the right of self-determination of the local people, resulting in millions of dead, wounded, orphaned, widowed and exiled, and the installation of collaborationist governments that open their doors to your corporations, just as Wilson did in the Dominican Republic.”
Lopez then writes that the people who now control Mexico would like to allow the United States to ‘expropriate’ the country to preserve their own wealth – and he warns:
“But you should also know, sir, that, as in 1847 and 1914, there are Mexicans who will defend their homeland, its natural and strategic resources, its social achievements and its sovereignty – and who will fight for an equitable relationship with the United States. … I pray that you not follow the example of your predecessors.”
By Gilberto López y Rivas
Translated By Halszka Czarnocka
April 17, 2009
Mexico – La Jornada – Original Article (Spanish)
On April 21, just days after you will have left our country, comes the anniversary of the attack and occupation of the port of Veracruz in 1914, which was carried out by the U.S. Marines, an expeditionary force with a long tradition of intervention. The Marines anthem alludes to the aggressive war of conquest carried out by your country between 1846 and 1848, in which Mexico lost half of its territory (“From the Halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli …”).
Thus, Veracruz was bombarded twice by your navy – in 1847 and 1914 – with great loss of life among the civilian population who on both occasions, to be sure, heroically confronted the invading Marines in spite of their clear military superiority.
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