Geopolitics and the Merida Initiative: LaVerdadJustifiera
Nov 28th, 2009 by Rebecca Siguenza-Samuels
Translation:
Intro: The truth is out there, out where? The truth is in here! The Justifying Truth.
“Hello friends who find themselves on the other side of the screen, I am the Justifying Truth. Today I will inform you about the famous Merida Initiative that is taking part between Mexico and the United States. This year Mexico has received four thousand dollars from this plan that is no more than the sale of the oil found in the Gulf of Mexico. Enough of them trying to make us think that that money is going to serve help combat drugs. What should worry us as Mexicans is that Felipillo won’t have to give accounts of what is happening to that money and that is why he has not announced to the public where exactly this money has gone, money that is much needed in our country at this moment. But that is not all friends, the 29th of August and the 9thof September Fellipillo Calderón received a total of four million dollars. Do you understand how much money that is?! Should we as Mexicans not ask where all this money has gone? It is our constitutional right for them to explain where all these millions of dollars are going. For H1N1 vaccines? That influenza farce, I think not. Because Mr. President, yes that tiny character that represents all Mexicans bought these vaccines under the condition that they would pacify his whim to raise taxes in Mexico, doing this in order to “help the lower class in Mexico”. But I ask myself again, where is that more than five thousand million pesos. That money could well be used to create jobs and to better our much needed medical services. And so I tell you, Felipillo Calderón does not need to account for that money. Funny no? But our senators and government officials should demand that he account for every cent! Why then eradicate the Secretariat of Tourism, the Secretariat of Agricultural Reform, and suspiciously the Secretariat of Public Function? Did you know that in the Secretariat of Public Function they manage programs of transparency by which all Mexicans can ask for an explanation of where exactly the government is spending their money? How weird that, in between others, this secretariat is disappearing. They are taking away our power to know and question our governors. Do you find this just? I do not. That is why I speak my mind and tell the truth. It is not fair that they misinform all Mexicans and make us think only of what benefits the government. Or don’t tell me that you believe in the sequestering of planes or in the subway assassinations of a couple of days ago. I feel sorry for the families who were affected. But don’t let yourself be fooled, it is only one of the strategies of our tiny president to make us think that our government responds with actions and the people who believe this are people who need to for the benefit of their families or people who are threatened to listen. Enough Mr. President, enough of your deceits and your taking advantage of people’s ignorance. Televisa and Television Azteca [two major television networks in Mexico] are confessions of the government, if they do not transmit what the government asks for, they simply take away their confession. They are puppets of the government. If you can, watch other forms of news like that of CNN and Telemundo. Watch here on Youtube, the videos that have been censored by the government and did not make it on air. This is the only way to open your eyes. The American company who owns the patent for the influenza vaccine curiously has financed Feilipillo Calderón’s campaign. Do you understand that farce? And curiously, the American oil companies to which Felipillo wants to sell the right to drill in Mexico are the ones who paid for Vicente Fox’s campaign. How weird, no? Anyway friends, my message is: Don’t listen to what the government tells you, analyze what is said to you, inform yourself and investigate to the extent where you can form your own opinions. Thank you to all for your attention, my cordial greetings.”
Commentary:
LaVerdadJustifiera hopes to expose the “truth” about the now active Merida Initiative or as critics call it “Plan Mexico” alluding to Plan Colombia. By exposing the truth, she hopes to educate the public and offer an alternative view to that they have been receiving from national television news networks. In offering an alternative view and presenting other facts, this voice hopes to help others form their own opinion and become more concerned citizens of the country.
In the video LaVerdadJustifiera uses a very blunt and forceful tone which shows her anger and frustration with the current governmental situation and the Merida Initiative. She refers to President Felipe Calderón as “Felipillo”. [The ending –illo is almost like the ending –y in English, for example Joe vs. Joey] By adding –illo to the president’s name she is attributing the president with a childlike character, this can also be seen in the use of the word “diminuto” or tiny to describe the president. In listening to this description of the president I created an image in my mind that depicted the Mexican President as a child and the USA as its parent, offering an allowance that will most likely be ill-spent. This image, although silly, is an interpretation of the voice of LaVerdadJustifiera. The voice is sarcastic and bitter while still maintaining a hint of cynic humor.
This voice is begging to be heard, begging to share their point of view with a vast audience and I believe that they are being successful. The video was only posted onto Youtube on September 25thand already has almost two hundred views. Which, I feel is quite a bit. Those people who have viewed the video, have been exposed to a new way of thinking and viewing the current situation in Mexico even if they do not agree. The video is not only critical of the government; it also offers a partial solution. LaVerdadJustifiera calls the Mexican audience to inform themselves and create their own opinions. She calls for a more proactive and less ignorant Mexican public. In sparking a new more quizzical and critical citizen approach to government policies, a fire of involvement will hopefully be set ablaze.
What I found most interesting about the video is the anonymity of the speaker. It brought me back to Rebekah’s post on the Zapatista movement and their use of masks. By keeping their identity a secret, the voice in the video is distancing itself from their persona and establishing that they could be anyone, anywhere. The voice is unrecognizable and almost robotic; it cannot be gendered or pinned to a specific individual identity. Almost in a contradictory fashion, the speaker becomes a representative voice for the public while still exposing his or her own ideals and thoughts very loudly and clearly. I find this a very powerful way to spread a message. Referring back to Spivak’s “Strategic Essentialism” by which we pretend that we are more alike than different for a political purpose, we can understand more fully the reasoning behind the anonymity of the speaker. By detaching oneself from individual identity and focusing on a unifying characteristic, in this case “Mexican”, the speaker can engage with an audience without being cast off for their individual background.
I now shift focus to the controversial Merida Initiative since it closely relates to our discussions on development. This plan hopes to develop Mexico out of their corrupt drug dealing ways in order to increase security. As Ambassador Antonio O. Garza, on the Embassy of the United States: Mexico webpage puts it …
The Merida Initiative represents a new era of cooperation which will amplify and strengthen existing law enforcement cooperation, intelligence sharing, and training programs. It will also provide new equipment for Mexican forces to use to better confront the common threat of drug trafficking and other transnational organized crime.
By strengthening the already corrupt law enforcement system in Mexico with “intelligence sharing and training programs”, rather than eradicating narcotrafficking, they are giving the military the power to do as they please. This in the end has lead to many human rights violations just as in the case of Plan Colombia. Going back to the article by Philippe Le Billon on geopolitics, we can understand this plan as a strategic way to secure resources. The Gulf of Mexico is known to possess a large supply of oil and by investing so much money in the “war on drugs” in Mexico, the United States are guaranteeing influence over the Mexican government and their political decisions.
Geopolitical perspectives often assert to provide a ‘big picture’ of future of international tensions over ‘strategic’ resources, thereby informing and reflecting dominant geostrategic policies and worldviews. (Le Billon)
The Merida Initiative may at first glance be a good intentioned helping hand in the efforts to end corruption and drug trafficking in Mexico, but in seeing the larger picture it is easy to see the possible ulterior motives the US may have. The video by LaVerdadJustifiera sheds light on these ulterior motives.
Note: I refer to the speaker as she even though their gender is not specified because the speaker goes by the name LaVerdadJustifiera “the justified truth” and in Spanish truth is feminine.
For further information on the Merida Initiative, the Wikipedia entry is very helpful: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A9rida_Initiative.
Also visit the US Embassy: Mexico website: http://www.usembassy-mexico.gov/eng/eborders_Merida_Initiative.html.
3 Responses to “Geopolitics and the Merida Initiative: LaVerdadJustifiera”
I think the Merida Initiative is a good example of development for the sake of security. The problem I see with these kind of initiatives is that they are most concerned with security in the donor country and less concerned with the security of the citizens of the recipient country.
The Merida Initiative is trying to shut down drug trafficking in Mexico by providing more money, technology and training from the U.S. The plan will use technology and law enforcement to get rid of existing drug traffickers as well as stop the flow of illegal firearms into Mexico. What this plan fails to do is address the reasons why drug trafficking has become so rampant in Mexico. What are the social and economic factors that have driven people to turn to illegal forms of work? A plan that addresses these issues would, in my opinion, be much more effective.
LaVerdadJustifiera comments on the corruptness and lack of transparency in the Mexican government’s spending of Merida Initiative funds. She calls on her fellow citizens to inform themselves by using online sources. This video shows the potential power of the internet as a place to critique government and main stream media and get out what would otherwise be silenced information and view points.
It is striking that it is so dangerous to tell these truths that they used a bizarre mechanized voice – which has an accent from Spain! Yet this is clearly a Mexican speaking to other Mexicans – though with a mechanical Spanish accent. How strange.
The video tackles a lot of interesting connections. Like Coral mentioned, I believe this initiative has a lot to do with security, or at least the illusion of it, and primarily for appeasing american voters’ xenophobia. The initiative is a bit scary though because of the recent diminishment of government transparency within Mexico which leaves the door open for expanded military operations to protect the interests of the Mexican government and its immediate supporters (similar to the human rights abuses occurring among the marginalized or poor within Colombia).
However to me the video seems to be a bit too marked by paranoia and sarcasm and throws any hopes of being taken really seriously by myself. The speaker makes common connections between U.S. economic/political involvement and the exploitation of Latin America which has been going on since the late 1800s but then elaborates on campaign backings by american companies in a way that makes it sound like a big conspiracy between governments and companies. Frankly, any large company that does business in another country will give donations to all political parties if the system allows for it (Pluralism is common in North America). So pointing this out doesn’t really mean anything special without backing up its importance just distorts and creates and environment of fear. This sort of rhetoric just throws me a bit, sorry just a pet peeve of mine, not that it doesn’t have an influence but I think it’s often overblown or misconstrued.
I also picked up on the spanish accent (although I can’t tell how fluent they sound). The whole production of the video is a bit weird (90s synthetic orchestra hits and the x-files theme) Maybe the person is just a bit paranoid rather than actually reflecting a real risk of persecution. Either way it shows that the internet is still a relatively unknown medium when it comes to how seriously individual governments/people take it as a potential threat to their attempts at censorship and a good medium for spreading multiple views, information and opinions.