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During this exciting and unpredictable political season,
there is a political convention scheduled for September
30th, in Los Angeles, California.
It’s not the Democratic Party, nor the Republican Party. Nor is it the Libertarian Party, the Green Party or the Constitution Party. It’s not even the Labor Party,
the Marijuana Party or the Socialist Alternative Party.
No, the party holding its convention on that date is the
PAN—the Partido Acción Nacional, the
National Action Party of…Mexico. (It’s the party
of Felipe Calderon and Vicente Fox).
Now this is not an ordinary PAN convention, as they
would hold here in Mexico. No, this is a convention
specifically designed for Mexican PANistas living in the
U.S.A.—some of whom are American citizens!
What’s going on here?
Contributor
Allan
Wall
Allan Wall recently returned from a tour of duty in Iraq. He currently resides in Mexico, where he has lived since 1991. He can be reached via e-mail at allan39@prodigy.net.mx [go to Wall index] |
What’s going on is that the political worlds of the U.S.
and Mexico are becoming more and more intertwined.
Without debate, the U.S is marrying Mexico—or, perhaps more accurately,
Mexico is marrying us. With the growth of dual
citizenship, and our failure to plug our anchor baby
loophole, we can expect more and more of this.
This is a rather recent phenomenon. If I may quote
myself from a previous article:
"There was a time, not long ago, when the Mexican
government preferred not to mention nor even to
acknowledge the existence of American citizens of
Mexican ancestry. Was their existence not evidence that Mexican revolutionary nationalism had failed—the
fact that some Mexicans were voting with their feet for
the United States?
“However, in the waning years of the PRI, (the party
that controlled Mexico throughout most of the twentieth
century) this orientation began to change. The pochos or chicanos (slang terms for Mexican-Americans)
in the United States began to be viewed not as an
embarrassment or a sign of Mexico’s economic failure,
but as an opportunity –– an opportunity for the Mexican
government to gain influence in the United States over migration
policy, and thus keep the gates open for continued
emigration.
“This change in orientation coincided with the rise of multiculturalism and ethnic identity politics in the United States. A
number of links already exist between the Mexican government and U.S. Mexican-American and
Hispanic activist organizations such as LULAC, MALDEF,
and the National Council of La Raza. "[ Undue Influence -- the Government of Mexico and U.S.
Immigration Policies, The Social Contract Press,
Winter 2002]
Mexican meddling also goes hand in hand with the
democratization of Mexico, which was a gradual process. In just a few decades,
Mexico transformed itself from a one-party state to a
pluralistic political system. Now, there are three
political parties (the PAN, the PRI and the PRD—Party of
the Democratic Revolution), which have about equal
power.
But Mexican pluralism provides more reasons for friction
with the U.S. Nowadays, the Mexican parties compete with
each other as to who can stand up to the gringos, who
can defend Mexico’s sovereignty, and who can better
stick up for the poor mistreated migrants in
Gringolandia. That’s why neither the Mexican Congress nor the Mexican president can afford to ignore the Elvira
Arellano melodrama, and why Felipe Calderon felt the
need to bash U.S. immigration policy in his State of the Union address.
If he doesn’t, the opposition parties will call him a
gringo lackey.
In the 2000 Mexican election, candidates Vicente Fox (PAN) and Cuauhtemoc Cardenas (PRD) both traveled to
California to campaign among Mexicans there. There was
not a peep of protest from our government.
Back in 1996, Mexico legalized dual nationality to allow Mexicans to have
their cake and eat it too, and to better influence the U.S. political process. That
meant there was no legal impediment to Mexicans voting
in both countries.
There was a physical impediment, however. Mexico lacked
an absentee ballot system. The Mexican government was
dragging its feet on this one. Finally, in 2006,
Mexicans in the U.S. were allowed to vote in the Mexican
presidential election with absentee ballots, but the system was complicated and comparatively few registered, much less voted.
In the future, though, that could change, especially
with Mexican political parties recruiting voters.
The first party to really start moving in the U.S. was
the PRD under the party leadership of AMLO (Andres
Manuel Lopez Obrador (1996-1999). The PRD, by the way,
has proposed in the past that the entire U.S.A. be converted into Mexico’s 6th circunscripción (electoral
super-district). Under that plan, Mexicans residing in
the U.S. would directly elect Mexican senators and representatives to
specifically represent them.
The PAN saw how the PRD was organizing north of the
border, and in 2005 began its own organization
stateside.
In the ceremony held to set up a U.S. branch of the PAN,
then-party leader Luis Felipe Bravo stated that the
objective was not to meddle in U.S. politics:
"We are a party committed to the work for Mexico and in Mexico. In that sense, we neither
commit ourselves nor will we commit ourselves to any
political agenda abroad. Let it be clear, our only
agenda is a Mexican political agenda, and we will not
take action in U.S. politics." [PAN
Press Release, February 6, 2005]
That all sounds fine and dandy…maybe. However, given the
dynamics of the current situation, and the profile of
some of the PAN activists in the U.S. (more on that
later), that commitment might be taken with a grain of
salt.
In two years the PAN has done a lot of organizing, and
now has chapters in Chicago, Washington, D.C., Texas,
Colorado, Philadelphia, Arizona, New York, Georgia,
Delaware, Oregon , Minnesota, and Wisconsin.
Mexican political parties are more tightly-run than
American political parties. And within Mexico , the PAN
is better organized than the PRD. So it’s not surprising
that the PAN already has a network of 10 party
committees in the U.S. , ruled by a 9-man general
consultative council and a General Representative, who
is the party leader in the U.S. In addition, there are
officially-designated "state" and "county" representatives. Those "states" are American states, not Mexican states. And Mexico doesn’t even have counties, so you know
they’re talking about American counties. See list here,
The PAN convention is scheduled for September 30th,
at the Plaza Mexico, in the chambers of the Restaurant
Huasteca. The stated goal of the PAN is to increase
membership in the U.S.A. in the wake of the legalization
of Mexicans voting in the U.S. It’s possible that PAN
chairman Manuel Espino is going to attend.
[PAN
intenta posicionarse entre paisanos en EU mediante
congreso, Lilia Saúl, El Universal, Sept. 4th, 2007]
In theory, I wouldn’t object to foreigners meeting with
fellow party members inside the U.S., as long as their
meetings were all directed toward politicking in their
country.
After all, as an American Republican in Mexico I vote in
U.S. elections by absentee ballot and I appreciate that
right.
The GOP has its "Republicans Abroad" organization, and the Democrats
their "Democrats Abroad " organization . But these groups
exist to help American expatriates register and vote while living abroad,
and to support the party from afar.
I should also add, in the interests of full disclosure,
that my Mexican wife and my in-laws vote for the PAN. My mother-in-law is an
especially loyal PANista. So I’m not against the party
itself.
However, we must face the reality of the present
situation. We have millions of Mexicans, growing numbers
of dual citizens, an assertive Mexican identity which resists
assimilation and even fantasizes about reconquista, and a Mexican
government claiming these emigrants’ loyalty, agitating
in favor of illegal aliens, and meddling.
So it would behoove us to take note of any Mexican political activity on U.S. soil.
A look at a few of these PAN activists in the U.S. shows
you why.
One of the members of the U.S. PAN consultative council
is none other than Juan Hernandez, of Dallas , Texas .
You may recall Mr. Hernandez, of whom I’ve written before.
Hernandez is a dual citizen of the U.S. and Mexico. In
the 1990s, he set up the first meeting between the
future presidents George Bush and Vicente Fox.
When Fox became president of Mexico in 2000, Hernandez
became chief of the Presidential Office for Mexicans
Abroad, serving in that position until forced out in a
turf battle with Jorge Castaneda.
But while heading up the Mexicans Abroad office,
Hernandez tirelessly made the rounds in the U.S.,
agitating for illegal alien amnesty and for the
non-assimilation of Mexican immigrants and their continued loyalty to Mexico. In a 2001 Nightline interview Hernandez famously remarked that
"We are betting that the Mexican
American population in the United States … will think
Mexico first."[Nightline
With Ted Koppel, June 7, 2001]
Yes, that Juan Hernandez—Mexican agitator, dual
citizen, PAN activist. We need to continue to keep an
eye on this guy.
Another active PANISTA in the U.S. is Juvencio Rocha
Peralta. Rocha resides in North Carolina, where he has
managed to establish himself as a Mexican activist as
leader of the Mexican Association of North Carolina. Rocha
has naturalized as a U.S. citizen, but apparently didn’t
take the oath of citizenship seriously, as he is still acting
as a Mexican citizen active in Mexican politics.(This is
the sort of activity that at one time caused citizenship to be revoked.) And he’s a PAN activist
and "county representative" in North Carolina.
Here are a few Rocha quotes so you can see where he’s
coming from:
"We are talking about civil rights, and we feel like
it’s time for us newcomers across the U.S. to play a
civic role. Mexicans have been waiting for a long time
for immigration, and the debate has just gone on and on
and on."
And
"The work force in our state depends a lot on us,
especially in the farm, poultry and construction
industries. North Carolina has a lot of rural
communities and much of that work force are Latinos." [Quoted
at Thinkexist.com]
Yes sir, this fellow has really assimilated, hasn’t he?
Juvencio Rocha was even quoted in the New York Times last year, in a nauseating
pro-illegal alien agitprop piece by Julia Preston,
entitled "Rules
Collide with Reality in the Immigration Debate".
(May 29th, 2006)
Here’s what Julie said about Juvencio,
"Juvencio Rocha Peralta, the president of the Mexican
Association of North Carolina, an advocacy group, said
Mexicans felt trapped in a system that seemed
contradictory.
“‘You make us break the law because you don’t give us an opportunity to be legal,’ said Mr. Peralta, who came
here as an illegal farm worker years ago but was granted amnesty in 1986 and is now a naturalized American citizen. ‘You take my labor,
but you won’t give me documents.’ "
Yeah, that’s the attitude of Juvencio Rocha Peralta, dual Mexican-U.S. citizen. Do you have any doubt
what sort of causes he’ll be promoting as a PAN
activist? CRO
copyright
2007 Allan Wall
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