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What I most got out of this piece was his linking of The Intercept and later on, “the squad”, as joining in to promote a coup in Mexico. On what basis has he come to his opinions thereto?
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<div class="">—mkb</div>
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<div class="">On Dec 26, 2019, at 6:56 AM, David Johnson via Peace-discuss <<a href="mailto:peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net" class="">peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net</a>> wrote:</div>
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<b class=""><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;" class="">Mexico: Chronicle Of A Coup Foretold<o:p class=""></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;" class="">By Brian Mier,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/12/20/chronicle-of-a-coup-foretold-2/" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;" class=""><span style="color: blue;" class="">Counterpunch</span></a><o:p class=""></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;" class="">December 25, 2019<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><o:p class=""></o:p></span></div>
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<b class=""><i class=""><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;" class="">Will the US fake Left work to normalize the impending coup attempt in Mexico the way it did for Venezuela, Bolivia, Brazil and Nicaragua?</span></i></b><b class=""><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;" class="">Last July I gave a speech in the Left Forum in Brooklyn. When it was over, A young activist stood up and announced, in perfect English, that they were an anarchist from Mexico who
had traveled to the Left Forum to speak out against the human rights abuses being perpetrated by “neoliberal” Mexican president Lopes Obrador against protesters. Since the panel I participated in had nothing to do with Mexico, I imagined an entire battalion
of self-proclaimed Mexican vanguard leftists changing the subject in panel after panel at the left forum to damage AMLO’s image by exaggerating the connection between the Mexican president and local police forces under the control of opposition governments,
as had happened to Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff during the lead up to the World Cup. ‘So it begins’, I thought. As we say in Brazil, ‘I’ve seen this movie before’.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;" class="">Based on the fact that the Integral State – the government, media, corporations, academic institutions, political parties, think tanks and NGOS which support the imperialist project
– loves to recycle regime change tactics and strategies, I would like to predict how actors within the US left might, either overtly or inadvertently, strengthen support for the coup attempt which is obviously already kicking off against Mexico – a country
that has petroleum deposits and other natural resources coveted by US corporations; a country whose children are already being held in American cages. This article is meant to help identify warning signs and hopefully lower the number of American progressives
who fall for the same psyops techniques that were used against Honduras, Paraguay, Brazil, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Bolivia during recent US-supported coups and coup attempts in those countries. Although this article is satire, I have inserted links to similar
types of articles from progressive media outlets about Latin American countries that have suffered from <a href="https://therealnews.com/stories/the-role-the-us-played-in-reversing-latin-americas-pink-tide" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;" class=""><span style="color: blue;" class="">recent
US-backed regime change attempts</span></a>.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;" class="">Based on what has happened recently to other Pink Tide governments in Latin America, I believe that so-called left voices in the anglo media might pave the way for the normalization
of a coup attempt in Mexico as follows:<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div>
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<b class=""><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;" class="">Stage 1</span></b><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;" class="">An American leftist magazine begins a campaign of articles by <a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2019/07/06/dsa-jacobin-iso-socialism-conference-us-funded-regime-change/" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;" class=""><span style="color: blue;" class="">NED-funded
Trotskyist academics </span></a>about how AMLO is “betraying the left.” On the environmental front, AMLO is chastised for <a href="https://theintercept.com/2019/12/07/amazon-latin-america-extractivism/" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;" class=""><span style="color: blue;" class="">failing
to immediately ween the Mexican economy off of fossil fuels</span></a>.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;" class="">Meanwhile, liberal media companies such as <i class="">New York Times</i>, <i class="">Intercept</i> and the <i class="">Guardian</i>, some of which have already transferred their
top Latin America writers into Mexico City, run dozens of articles highlighting <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/04/12/world/americas/grand-visions-fizzle-in-brazil.html" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;" class=""><span style="color: blue;" class="">unfinished
mega construction projects</span></a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/dec/18/the-fallen-metropolis-the-collapse-of-caracas-the-jewel-of-latin-america" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;" class=""><span style="color: blue;" class="">crime</span></a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/24/opinion/bolivia-amazon-fires.html" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;" class=""><span style="color: blue;" class="">environmental
crises</span></a> and <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/06/nicaragua-ortega-protests/562094/" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;" class=""><span style="color: blue;" class="">corruption</span></a>,as if they are
not systematic structural problems caused by centuries of <a href="https://www.panoramas.pitt.edu/other/truth-behind-banana-republic" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;" class=""><span style="color: blue;" class="">parasitic capitalist exploitation</span></a> and <a href="https://www.zompist.com/latam.html" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;" class=""><span style="color: blue;" class="">coups
perpetrated by the US and its northern allies</span></a>. They will pretend it is entirely new phenomenon in Mexico, which according to the useful idiots, exists in a geopolitical vacuum.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div>
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<b class=""><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;" class="">Stage 2</span></b><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;" class="">As pressure mounts against Mexico, a US leftist media outlet runs an appeal for<a href="https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/07/venezuela-maduro-helicopter-attack-psuv-extractivism-oil" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;" class=""><span style="color: blue;" class=""> leftists
to be “honest” about AMLO</span></a>, written by, a respected Latin American studies professor,who has not lived in Latin America since his PhD research, 30 years ago. This piece will insist that AMLO is a capitalist, who does not deserve our solidarity.
This is followed by a flurry of smug articles by grad students desperate to escape from the future nightmare of adjuncting <a href="https://jacobinmag.com/2014/01/managing-bolivian-capitalism" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;" class=""><span style="color: blue;" class="">focusing
on AMLO’s “failures”</span></a>.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;" class="">None of them mention the US or imperialism. Every campaign promise that is not delivered, every policy initiative that doesn’t fulfill its purpose, is the <a href="https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/12/dilma-rousseff-brazil-cunha-temer-calheiros-impeachment-petrobras-lava-jato/" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;" class=""><span style="color: blue;" class="">fault
of the sell-outs in the Mexican left</span></a>. They all ignore the breathtaking obstructionism of the right-wing. Mexico needs a new left – one that makes a clean break from the past, from it’s unions and its social movements. The purpose of this flurry
of negative analysis, whether intentional or not, weaken solidarity with Mexico, which is already weak due to the constant barrage of subtle, brain-washing racism against Mexican-Americans in the hegemonic media and entertainment industry.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;" class="">Meanwhile, a new social movement springs up in<a href="https://nacla.org/news/2019/04/18/youth-leading-nicaragua%E2%80%99s-uprising-one-year-later" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;" class=""><span style="color: blue;" class=""> Mexico,
led by white, upper middle class university students</span></a>, under the slogan of “no flags, no political parties”.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div>
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<b class=""><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;" class="">Stage 3</span></b><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;" class="">As International NGOs like <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/09/24/addressing-human-rights-and-humanitarian-crisis-venezuela" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;" class=""><span style="color: blue;" class="">Human
Rights Watch</span></a> and <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/blog/its-own-citizens-suffer-venezuela-exports-corruption" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;" class=""><span style="color: blue;" class="">Transparency International</span></a>,
together with corporate-funded think tanks like<a href="https://www.as-coa.org/articles/cnn-brian-winter-venezuela%E2%80%94-was-really-election-name-only" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;" class=""><span style="color: blue;" class=""> AS/COA</span></a> feed
slanderous news-bytes into the hegemonic media, which is suddenly more interested in Mexico than it has ever been before. The protests begin expand.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;" class=""><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_hYmL0TCv8" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;" class=""><span style="color: blue;" class="">Conservative elites parade through
the streets</span></a> singing the US national anthem parroting the racist slogans against indigenous groups and cold war anti-communist rhetoric inundates the social media, thanks to a massive <a href="https://youtu.be/omc-5zj70M0" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;" class=""><span style="color: blue;" class="">Cambridge
Analytica-style US/UK funded psy-ops operation</span></a>.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;" class="">The most popular progressive radio program in the country brings one of the young protesters onto the show, to talk about the horrible human rights abuses committed by “AMLO’s police.” <a href="https://nacla.org/news/2018/07/03/deciphering-nicaraguan-student-uprising-descifrando-el-levantamiento-estudiantil" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;" class=""><span style="color: blue;" class="">A
major progressive Latin American studies organization</span></a> invites a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/SionSaintPeters/videos/1891011874264117/" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;" class=""><span style="color: blue;" class="">group of
protesters up to participate</span></a> in a panel discussion about authoritarianism. They wear masks, but later remove them to take selfies during a meeting with Mike Rubio and <a href="https://twitter.com/SenTedCruz/status/1004437789050658816?ref_src=twsrc%5etfw|twcamp%5etweetembed|twterm%5e1004437789050658816&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fthegrayzone.com%2F2019%2F07%2F06%2Fdsa-jacobin-iso-socialism-conference-us-funded-regime-change%2F" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;" class=""><span style="color: blue;" class="">Ted
Cruz</span></a>. The nuance that the Mexican president doesn’t have any more control over local police forces than Obama did over the Oklahoma City or Dallas police during his presidency, is lost in the translation.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;" class="">On Twitter, a prominent member of “The Squad” begins <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-trish-regan-venezuela-nicolas-maduro-juan-guaido-bob-1349117" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;" class=""><span style="color: blue;" class="">to
publicly worry about the growing “authoritarianism”</span></a> in Mexico. This is retweeted uncritically by tens of thousands of US progressives including most of the largest left-leaning media institutions, their journalists and editors.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div>
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<b class=""><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;" class="">Stage 4</span></b><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;" class="">Obrador falls. The neoliberal party originally supported by the US-backed coup mongers crashes and burns and a Trump/Bolsonaro/Boris Johnson style neofascist clown, backed by the
narcotraffickers and the military takes the lead in a hastily set up election campaign. During the month before the elections the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/profile/tomphillips?page=10" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;" class=""><span style="color: blue;" class="">Guardian
runs 22 articles explaining why the neofascist clown candidate isn’t really so bad</span></a>.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;" class="">As environmental protection agencies and labor laws are dismantled, pograms begin against indigenous peoples and slum dwellers. Assassinations and arbitrary arrests of labor and
social movement leaders begin.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;" class="">Left and liberal media organizations alike, begin running hand-wringing articles about what went wrong. Indigenous and union leaders -ignored during the coup process – suddenly
find themselves being invited to give interviews and write op-ed pieces for prominent American media outlets.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;" class="">Meanwhile, according to the same media groups, a specter hangs over Argentina. On the pages of the most popular socialist publication in America, a NED-funded Troskyist academic
asks, “are Fernandez and Kirchner opening the doors of neoliberalism?”<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;" class="">Brian Mier is a native Chicagoan who has lived in Brazil for 25 years. He is co-editor of Brasil Wire and Brazil correspondent for TeleSur English’s TV news program, From the South.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div>
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