LUC MICHEL (ЛЮК МИШЕЛЬ) & EODE/
Luc MICHEL pour EODE/
Quotidien géopolitique – Geopolitical Daily/
2018 02 09/
« Russia Quadruples its investments in Mexico
at a time when the U.S. are planning to raise walls »
– Univision (January 27, 2018).
We are going to Mexico today. Country that is generally mentioned for its violence, its narcotics traffickers, its wild immigration to the US, and now its difficult relationship with the Trump Administration. Not all of this will be the case, but relations between Mexico City and Moscow and Russia’s irruption into the US-Mexico relationship.
* Résumé français :
La relation Moscou – Mexico s’approfondit. Ou comment la Russie s’invite dans le contentieux entre le Mexique et les USA de Trump …
Nous allons aujourd’hui au Mexique. Pays que l’on évoque généralement pour sa violence, ses narco-traficants, son immigration sauvage vers les USA, et maintenant ses rapports difficiles avec l’Administration Trump. Ce n’est pas de tout ceci qu’il s’agira, mais des relations entre Mexico et Moscou et de l’irruption de la Russie dans la relation américano-mexicaine.
Retour sur une vieille tentation géopolitique :
Détacher le Mexique et le retourner comme un adversaire géopolitique contre les USA est un vieux rêve des adversaires de l’impérialisme américain (né dès la « Déclaration de Monroe » en 1823). Ceci d’autant plus que le contentieux géopolitique entre Washington et Mexico est lourd : vol et annexion du Texas, de la Californie, de l’Utah, du Nebraska, de la partie ouest du Colorado, du Nouveau Mexique …
Déjà Napoléon III avait visé avec l’Empire du Mexique de Maximilien, création géopolitique française, à barrer la route à l’impérialisme de Washington qui s’accomplissait dans la Guerre de Sécession et l’écrasement du Sud rival. Loin du « Napoléon le petit » caricaturé par le grand Victor Hugo, l’empereur des Français était un visionnaire avec une pensée géopolitique européenne et Mondiale. Plus près de nous, pendant la Guerre 1914-18, Berlin avait esquissé la même politique, avec le fameux « Mémorandum Zimmerman » (qui pesa lourd dans l’entrée en guerre des USA en 1917.
Le géopoliticien Jean Thiriart (1922-1992), père du concept de la « Grande-Europe » (ou Grande-Eurasie), dans son livre « L’empire euro-soviétique de Vladivostok à Reykjavik » (dont ne furent publiées que quelques bonnes pages et dont je suis le légataire du Manuscrit, dont j’avais établi la dernière version corrigée en 1988), évoque lui aussi « le basculement du Mexique, un Cuba de grande dimension aux frontières des USA » …
La politique de Bush II et d’Obama, celle qui visait à créer un Bloc continental nord-américain avec le Traité ALENA, était en train de désamorcer ce contentieux. Les Bush sont des hispanophones, dont la base électorale est le Texas, avec un électorat latino (Le petit frère Jeb Bush étant marié à une espagnole, ce qui lui a coûté la candidature républicaine en 2016). Alors vint Trump, choix d’une autre fraction de l’oligarchie américaine. Celle qui, dans la ligne de Samuel Huntington, croit à la « Théorie du remplacement », celui des américains WASP (White anglo saxon protestants) par les latinos d’origine mexicaine. Dans le livre de Georges Friedman (alors patron du Think-Tank Stratfor, proche des généraux du Pentagone), « The next hundred years » (qui vise à un « nouveau XXIe Siècle américain »), un chapitre est consacré à ce « danger vital qui menace les USA » …
Voilà l’idée qui s’inscrit dans la « nouvelle grande géopolitique mondiale » du Kremlin !
I /
USA – MEXICO: A CONFLICTUAL RELATIONSHIP
Detaching Mexico and turning it over as a geopolitical opponent against the US is an old dream of the opponents of US imperialism (born as early as the « Monroe Declaration” of 1823) (1). This is all the more because the geopolitical litigation between Washington and Mexico City is heavy: theft and annexation of Texas, California, Utah, Nebraska, Western Colorado, New Mexico …
BACK ON AN OLD GEOPOLITICAL TEMPTATION:
DETACHING MEXICO AND TURNING IT OVER AS A GEOPOLITICAL OPPONENT AGAINST THE US IS AN OLD DREAM OF THE OPPONENTS OF US IMPERIALISM
Already Napoleon III had aimed with Maximilian’s Empire of Mexico (2), a French geopolitical creation, to block the road to the imperialism of Washington which was fulfilled in the American Civil War and the crushing of the rival South. Far from the « Napoleon the little » caricatured by the great Victor Hugo, the French Emperor was a visionary with a European and World geopolitical view. Closer to us, during the 1914-18 War, Berlin had outlined the same policy, with the famous « Zimmerman Memorandum » (3) (which weighed heavily in the US entry into the war in 1917.
The geopolitician Jean Thiriart (1922-1992) (4), father of the concept of « Greater Europe » (or Great-Eurasia), in his book « The Euro-Soviet Empire of Vladivostok in Reykjavik » (of which only a few good pages were issued and of which I am the legatee of the Manuscript, of which I had established the last version corrected in 1988), also evokes « the tipping of Mexico, a Cuba of big dimension to the borders of the USA » …
This is now the idea of the Kremlin’s « great new world geopolitics »!
WHEN TRUMP SCUTTLES THE NAFTA TREATY …
The policies of Bush II and Obama, which aimed at creating a North American Continental bloc with NAFTA (5), were defusing this dispute. The Bush are Spanish speakers, whose electoral base is Texas, with a Latin electorate (The little brother Jeb Bush being married to a Spanish, which cost him the republican candidacy in 2016).
Then came Trump, the choice of another fraction of the American oligarchy. That which, in the line of Samuel Huntington, believes in the « Replacement Theory », that of American WASP (White Anglo Saxon Protestant) by Latinos of Mexican origin. In the book of George Friedman (then boss of the Think-Tank Stratfor, close to the Pentagon generals), « The next hundred years » (targeting a « new 21st century American »), a chapter is devoted to this « vital danger who threatens the US « …
During his first week in the job, Trump managed to cancel the trade agreement with the Pacific countries including Mexico), promised renegotiaton of the Norwth Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), threatened to impose a 20 percent tariff on all Mexican goods, ordered the start in the work to build a border wall and in effect forced the Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto to cancel the planned meeting with Trump after he tweeeted he could just forget to come if Mexico would not pay for the wall. He then tweeted that Mexico had exploited the US long enough. But what are actually the reality of the history of US-Mexico relations …
II /
RUSSIA’S IRRUPTION INTO THE US-MEXICO RELATIONSHIP
The American Spanish-language media outlet ‘Univision’ published on January 27, 2018 an article, titled « Russia Quadruples its investments in Mexico at a time when the U.S. are planning to raise walls » noting that Russian investment in Mexico grew by more than 400% during the Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto’s government.
MASSIVE RUSSIAN INVESTMENTS IN MEXICO
‘Unionvision’ reported that during the government of Enrique Peña Nieto (EPN), “the Russians allocated 14.4 million dollars to Mexico, a small amount compared to the capitals invested by other nations; however, these transactions marked an unprecedented rapprochement between the Kremlin and Los Pinos” (the president’s official residence).
Prior to EPN, “Russian investments to Mexico were almost nonexistent and they passed unnoticed in the media. However, the Russia-Mexico relations gained particular relevance since the U.S. is threatening to exit the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) pushing the Mexican government to look for new trade partners worldwide”.
These new investments “do not begin to compare with the more than 10,000 million dollars that the U.S. annually invests in Mexico, but, undoubtedly, they broke a record in the relations between Los Pinos and the Kremlin”. According to official figures under former president Felipe Calderón (2006-2012), “the Russians invested only 2.8 million dollars in Mexico and under former chief of state, Vicente Fox (2000-2006), a mere 800,000 dollars, although Fox had signed a trade promotion agreement with the Russian chief of state Vladimir Putin.”
“In spite of tensions with the U.S. Mexico-Russia trade relations matured, and bilateral trade rose from 579 million dollars in 2006, to 1,481 million dollars in 2016.” “In 2012, Mexico had 52 enterprises with Russian investment capital; by the end of 2017 there were 79 such companies in diverse sectors such as aviation, energy, hotels, telecommunications, information technologies, according to Promexico, the governmental agency that promotes Mexican commerce abroad and which has an office in Moscow”. Also present is the Russian state owned defense exporter Rosoboronexport, “which supplied helicopters, airplanes and armored vehicles to the Mexican Armed Forces.”
In summer 2016, when Trump strengthened his bid for the republican nomination, “Russia invested 1.7 million dollars to buy pipes for the transport and storage of natural gas in 12 Mexican states, according to the Secretary of Economy. In 2017, Russian investments in pipelines grew fivefold, up to 9.8 million dollars.”
“By mid-2017, two contracts for oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico were secured by the Russian oil company Lukoil, which announced an investment of 50 million dollars during the following months.” Last November, officials of Lukoil and the Mexican state owned petroleum company, Pemex “drafted an alliance for future business”. “Moscow stressed that its presence in the Mexican oil sector is unaffected by U.S. sanctions. The U.S. forbade its citizens to do business with Russian oil companies.”
WASHINGTON WARNED OF “POSSIBLE SIGNS OF MOSCOW’S INTERFERENCE IN THE MEXICAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS”
It should be also mentioned that, last December, “Washington warned of possible signs of Moscow’s interference in the Mexican presidential elections! A refrain that has become commonplace in US and NATO media propaganda …
Last December, Washington also warned “that there were signs of Russian interference in Mexican presidential elections.” « We can already see signs [of Russian intervention] in the Mexican presidential campaign » declared Herbert Raymond McMaster, Trump’s national security adviser. However, the Mexican government rejected these warnings and insisted that « there is no evidence to support this hypothesis. »
Nevertheless, “the declarations by the US official raised some speculations” in the direction of the leftist presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who, in past elections and during a dirty campaign, had been associated with the Venezuelan Hugo Chavez and his successor Nicolas Maduro (both of whom expanded ties with Russia). The Reuters agency, citing analysts, suggested that “López Obrador is Russia’s favorite, given the positive coverage that he received from Russian mouthpieces such as Sputnik and Russia Today”.
The Mexican journalist León Krauze, in a column published in the daily “El Universal”, stressed that “a U.S. Senate report analyzed Russia’s strategy of influencing elections throughout the world, mainly in vulnerable countries ». « The electoral authorities and other players of Mexican public life, must henceforth keep their eyes wide open in order to detect traces of the methods described in detail, by the US Senate report » commented the journalist. The Washington Post published an article, signed by Frida Ghitis, predicting that « if López Obrador wins, Putin will have a reason to smile with satisfaction. This is due to the fact that López Obrador would not be good news for the U.S. » « All of a sudden, Mexico is being pressed both by the US of president Trump and by Vladimir Putin’s Russia, who have diverging interests but who, ironically, are both contributing to the same electoral result », stated Ghitis’ article.
Following these remarks, López Obrador, the presidential candidate of the ‘Morena party’, made light of them and said that from now on he should be called « Andresmanuelovich »…
NOTES :
(1) The Monroe Doctrine was a United States policy of opposing European colonialism in the Americas beginning in 1823. It stated that further efforts by European nations to take control of any independent state in North or South America would be viewed as « the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States. » At the same time, the doctrine noted that the U.S. would recognize and not interfere with existing European colonies nor meddle in the internal concerns of European countries. The Doctrine was issued on December 2, 1823 at a time when nearly all Latin American colonies of Spain and Portugal had achieved, or were at the point of gaining, independence from the Portuguese and Spanish Empires.
The slogan “Americato the Americans” really means “America to the North-American yankees”!
(2) Maximilian I (prince of Habsbourg) was the only monarch of the Second Mexican Empire. He was a younger brother of the Austrian emperor Francis Joseph I. After a distinguished career in the Austrian Navy, he accepted an offer by Napoleon III of France to rule Mexico. France (along with the United Kingdom and Spain, who both withdrew the following year after negotiating agreements with Mexico’s democratic government) had invaded the Mexican Republic in the winter of 1861, as part of the War of the French Intervention. Seeking to legitimize French rule in the Americas, Napoleon III invited Maximilian to establish a new Mexican monarchy for him. With the support of the French army, and a group of conservative Mexican monarchists hostile to the liberal administration of new Mexican President Benito Juárez, Maximilian traveled to Mexico. Once there, he declared himself Emperor of Mexico on 10 April 1864. The Empire managed to gain recognition by major European powers including Britain, Austria, and Prussia, france andthe new Belgium. The United States however, continued to recognize Juárez as the legal president of Mexico. Maximilian never completely defeated the Mexican Republic; Republican forces led by President Benito Juárez continued to be active during Maximilian’s rule. With the end of the American Civil War in 1865, the United States (which had been too distracted by its own civil war to confront the Europeans’ 1861 invasion of what it considered to be its sphere of influence) began more explicit aid of President Juárez’s forces. Matters worsened for Maximilian after the French armies withdrew from Mexico in 1866. His self-declared empire collapsed, and he was captured and executed by the Mexican government in 1867.
(3) The Zimmermann Telegram (or Zimmermann Note or Zimmerman Cable) was a secret diplomatic communication issued from the German Foreign Office in January 1917 that proposed a military alliance between Germany and Mexico in the prior event of the United States entering World War I against Germany. Mexico would recover Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico. The proposal was intercepted and decoded by British intelligence. Revelation of the contents enraged American public opinion, especially after the German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann publicly admitted the telegram was genuine on March 3, and helped generate support for the United States declaration of war on Germany in April.
(4) In the early 80’s, THIRIART founded with José QUADRADO COSTA and myself the “Euro-Soviet School of geopolitics » where we advocated a continental unification from Vladivostok to Reykjavik on the theme of « the Euro-Soviet Empire » and based on geopolitical criteria. Theorist of unitarian Europe, THIRIART has been extensively studied in the United States, where academic institutions such as the Hoover Institute or the Ambassador College (Pasadena) have archival funds relating to it. It is his « returned » anti-American theses that BRZEZINSKI largely takes up, defining for the benefit of the US what THIRIART conceived for continental Eurasian unity.
On the Euro-Soviet School of Geopolitics, cf. :
* José CUADRADO COSTA, Luc MICHEL and Jean THIRIART, EURO-SOVIET TEXTS, Ed. MACHIAVEL, 2 vols. Charleroi, 1984;
* Russian version: Жозе КУАДРАДО КОСТА, Люк МИШЕЛЬ и Жан ТИРИАР, ЕВРО-СОВЕТСКИЕ ТЕКСТЫ, Ed. MACHIAVEL, 2 vols., Charleroi, 1984.
This collection of texts was published in French, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, English and Russian.
* And: Жан ТИРИАР, «Евро-советская империя от Владивостока до Дублина», in ЗАВТРА ЛИ ТРЕТЬЯ МИРОВАЯ ВОЙНА? КТО УГРОЖАЕТ МИРУ?, Special issue in Russian language of the review CONSCIENCE EUROPEENNE, Charleroi, special issue, December 1984.
(5) The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA; French: Accord de libre-échange nord-américain, ALÉNA) is an agreement signed by Canada, Mexico, and the United States, creating a trilateral trade bloc in North America. The agreement came into force on January 1, 1994. It superseded the Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement between the U.S. and Canada. NAFTA has two supplements: the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC) and the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC). Most economic analyses indicate that “NAFTA has been beneficial to the North American economies and the average citizen, but harmed a small minority of workers in industries exposed to trade competition.” Economists hold that “withdrawing from NAFTA or renegotiating NAFTA in a way that reestablishes trade barriers will adversely affect the U.S. economy and cost jobs.” Though Mexico “would be much more affected severely by job loss and reduction of economic growth over both the short and long term.”
U.S. President Donald Trump warned on August 2017 he might terminate the NAFTA trade treaty with Mexico and Canada after three-way talks failed to bridge deep differences. The United States, Canada and Mexico wrapped then up their first round of talks revamp the trade pact with little sign of a breakthrough coming. Trump reopened negotiations of the 1994 treaty “out of concern U.S. economic interests were suffering.”
(Sources: Univision.com – El Universal – Reuters – The Washington Post – EODE Think-Tank)
LUC MICHEL (ЛЮК МИШЕЛЬ) & EODE
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