[Peace-discuss] Will the US fake Left work to normalize the impending coup attempt in Mexico the way it did for Venezuela, Bolivia, Brazil and Nicaragua?

[David Johnson]

Mexico: Chronicle Of A Coup Foretold

By Brian Mier,
<https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/12/20/chronicle-of-a-coup-foretold-2/>
Counterpunch 

December 25, 2019 

Will the US fake Left work to normalize the impending coup attempt in Mexico
the way it did for Venezuela, Bolivia, Brazil and Nicaragua?

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'.

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
<https://therealnews.com/stories/the-role-the-us-played-in-reversing-latin-a
mericas-pink-tide> recent US-backed regime change attempts.

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:

Stage 1

An American leftist magazine begins a campaign of articles by
<https://thegrayzone.com/2019/07/06/dsa-jacobin-iso-socialism-conference-us-
funded-regime-change/> NED-funded Trotskyist academics about how AMLO is
"betraying the left." On the environmental front, AMLO is chastised for
<https://theintercept.com/2019/12/07/amazon-latin-america-extractivism/>
failing to immediately ween the Mexican economy off of fossil fuels.

Meanwhile, liberal media companies such as New York Times, Intercept and the
Guardian, some of which have already transferred their top Latin America
writers into Mexico City, run dozens of articles highlighting
<https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/04/12/world/americas/grand-visions
-fizzle-in-brazil.html> unfinished mega construction projects,
<https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/dec/18/the-fallen-metropolis-the-co
llapse-of-caracas-the-jewel-of-latin-america> crime,
<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/24/opinion/bolivia-amazon-fires.html>
environmental crises and
<https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/06/nicaragua-ortega-
protests/562094/> corruption,as if they are not systematic structural
problems caused by centuries of
<https://www.panoramas.pitt.edu/other/truth-behind-banana-republic>
parasitic capitalist exploitation and  <https://www.zompist.com/latam.html>
coups perpetrated by the US and its northern allies. They will pretend it is
entirely new phenomenon in Mexico, which according to the useful idiots,
exists in a geopolitical vacuum.

Stage 2

As pressure mounts against Mexico, a US leftist media outlet runs an appeal
for
<https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/07/venezuela-maduro-helicopter-attack-psuv-
extractivism-oil>  leftists to be "honest" about AMLO, 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
<https://jacobinmag.com/2014/01/managing-bolivian-capitalism> focusing on
AMLO's "failures".

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
<https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/12/dilma-rousseff-brazil-cunha-temer-calhei
ros-impeachment-petrobras-lava-jato/> fault of the sell-outs in the Mexican
left. 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.

Meanwhile, a new social movement springs up in
<https://nacla.org/news/2019/04/18/youth-leading-nicaragua%E2%80%99s-uprisin
g-one-year-later>  Mexico, led by white, upper middle class university
students, under the slogan of "no flags, no political parties".

Stage 3

As International NGOs like
<https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/09/24/addressing-human-rights-and-humanitaria
n-crisis-venezuela> Human Rights Watch and
<https://freedomhouse.org/blog/its-own-citizens-suffer-venezuela-exports-cor
ruption> Transparency International, together with corporate-funded think
tanks like
<https://www.as-coa.org/articles/cnn-brian-winter-venezuela%E2%80%94-was-rea
lly-election-name-only>  AS/COA 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.

 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_hYmL0TCv8> Conservative elites parade
through the streets 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
<https://youtu.be/omc-5zj70M0> Cambridge Analytica-style US/UK funded
psy-ops operation.

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."
<https://nacla.org/news/2018/07/03/deciphering-nicaraguan-student-uprising-d
escifrando-el-levantamiento-estudiantil> A major progressive Latin American
studies organization invites a
<https://www.facebook.com/SionSaintPeters/videos/1891011874264117/> group of
protesters up to participate in a panel discussion about authoritarianism.
They wear masks, but later remove them to take selfies during a meeting with
Mike Rubio and
<https://twitter.com/SenTedCruz/status/1004437789050658816?ref_src=twsrc%5et
fw|twcamp%5etweetembed|twterm%5e1004437789050658816&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fth
egrayzone.com%2F2019%2F07%2F06%2Fdsa-jacobin-iso-socialism-conference-us-fun
ded-regime-change%2F> Ted Cruz. 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.

On Twitter, a prominent member of "The Squad" begins
<https://www.newsweek.com/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-trish-regan-venezuela-nic
olas-maduro-juan-guaido-bob-1349117> to publicly worry about the growing
"authoritarianism" 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.

Stage 4

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  <https://www.theguardian.com/profile/tomphillips?page=10>
Guardian runs 22 articles explaining why the neofascist clown candidate
isn't really so bad.

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.

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.

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?"

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.

 

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