MEXICO CITY — For Mexico,
the United States has been a difficult neighbor, sometimes violent,
almost always arrogant, almost never respectful, rarely cooperative.
Mexico, on the other hand, has been a good neighbor to the United
States.
To
each offense, we have responded first with a gesture of noble
resignation and then by searching for a practical resolution through a
conciliatory openness of mind. Our positive attitude has allowed our two
nations to live for almost 200 years in a generally peaceful
atmosphere, though there have been tragic episodes and periods of
tension. It is a record of tranquillity that few countries sharing a
border can claim.
But this state of relative accord is now being menaced by President-elect Donald J. Trump,
who brandished a rabidly anti-Mexican agenda during his campaign and
once elected showed a disposition to act on the basis of his slanders.
At his news conference on Wednesday, he vowed again that Mexico would
pay for the wall he wants to build. It may well be time for Mexico to change its practice of using appeasement to cushion the damage of historical grievances.
The
first and most serious offense was of course the American invasion of
Mexico in 1846 and the subsequent Mexican-American War, which resulted
in Mexico losing more than half of its territory. It was so traumatic an
event that it became the theme of our national anthem.
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And
my reference to Vietnam is not accidental. According to ample testimony
in American newspapers and private letters, the American troops in
Mexico committed numerous massacres and other atrocities. Ulysses S.
Grant would write in his memoirs, “I do not think there was ever a more
wicked war than the one waged by the United States on Mexico.”
Nevertheless, Mexico accepted defeat and moved on. It supported the Union in the American Civil War
and, after 1876, opened its doors wide to American investment in
railroads, mining, agriculture, ranching, logging, manufacturing, public
services, banking and the oil industry.
In 1910, at the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution, American investment
in Mexico was greater than that of all other countries combined.
The
second grave offense took place in February 1913. Francisco I. Madero
had become president through the first truly democratic election in
Mexican history. He was an admirer of the United States. But the United
States ambassador, Henry Lane Wilson, worried that Mr. Madero’s policies
would hurt American business interests, and helped orchestrate a coup
that resulted in the assassination of Mr. Madero and his vice president.
Mexico immediately plunged into a ferocious civil war that killed
hundreds of thousands. The advent of Mexican democracy was postponed for
almost 90 years.
Still,
in 1917, when Germany proposed an alliance against the United States
with the promise of returning the territories lost in 1848, President
Venustiano Carranza disdained the offer.
The
third serious offense consisted of a period of prolonged hostility. In
1914, the United States Marines occupied Veracruz, and two years later
American troops entered northern Mexico in unsuccessful pursuit of
Pancho Villa, who had attacked the town of Columbus, N.M. Frequent “fake
news” reports in the 1920s by the Hearst newspapers, supported by
American oil interests, were published in the hopes of instigating war
against Mexico. Supporters of an invasion were almost at the point of
achieving it in 1927, when President Calvin Coolidge’s administration
called the country “Soviet Mexico.” Although congressional opposition
thwarted an invasion, relations remained tense. Right up to the end of World War II, an American invasion seemed at least a threat.
But
Mexico did not sever relations with the United States. On the contrary,
Mexico honored its debts and its agreements, attracted and inspired
American artists and writers, favored American business investment,
cooperated with Franklin D. Roosevelt on his Good Neighbor Policy and,
in 1942, declared war on the Axis powers and sent an aerial squadron to
fight in the Pacific War. In 1947, an age of cooperation began that the
New York Times reporter Alan Riding called the era of “distant
neighbors.”
By
1994 we had become close neighbors, partners and even friends. The two
countries have jointly achieved many things and bilateral trade has increased by 556 percent.
The governments of Mexico and the United States were hoping that
healthy progress would continue, strengthening the North American free
trade zone. Unfortunately, as on so many issues, the victory of Mr.
Trump has changed all the rules. With Mexico, a new period of
confrontation has arisen, not military but surely commercial,
diplomatic, strategic, social and ethnic. Mr. Trump is essentially
calling for a confrontation between the countries.
Mexico
must respond differently this time. The Mexican Congress should offer
the world an example of dignity by demanding that the next president of
the United States apologize for having called Mexicans rapists and
criminals. Such an apology is imperative, and would be the best signal
that any negotiations, difficult as they may be, could be conducted
within a framework of mutual respect and good faith.
Another
point that is not negotiable is the wall. The Mexican government must
make it clear that Mexico will never pay for Mr. Trump’s wall in any
way. Without meeting these two points, there are no grounds for a
negotiation.
A
priority for the government of President Enrique Peña Nieto has to be
preserving the objective advantages of our bilateral commerce. Mexico
must oppose Mr. Trump’s call for mass deportations of Mexicans. Such a
move would not only gravely damage both countries’ economies but further
inflame the racial hatred that has become resurgent because of the
Trump campaign.
Finally,
Mexico should make it clear that a severe economic crisis in our
country set off by Mr. Trump’s politics would lead to extraordinary
instability on the border and an inevitable wave of migration that no
wall could conceivably stem.
The
friendship between our modern countries is a state of mutually
beneficial harmony that surely deserves to be preserved. A confrontation
should be avoided. But Mexico is not the defenseless country it was in
1846. It has legal means of response to assaults, whether in commerce or
migration, diplomacy or security. And it will not stand alone but will
find support among key political and economic figures and forces in the
United States and in much of the rest of the world. It would be a battle
of great ethical significance.
Correction: January 18, 2017
An earlier version of a picture caption with this article misstated when and where a photograph of Pancho Villa was taken. Villa was photographed with Gen. John J. Pershing in El Paso, Tex., in 1914, not in Nogales, Ariz., in 1916.
An earlier version of a picture caption with this article misstated when and where a photograph of Pancho Villa was taken. Villa was photographed with Gen. John J. Pershing in El Paso, Tex., in 1914, not in Nogales, Ariz., in 1916.
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