Not until the next day did Johnson make a public statement, writing meekly, “I do not approve of the presence of the Armed Forces in the Assembly of El Salvador,” before praising Bukele’s appeals for “patience and prudence.” During a meeting on February 11 between Bukele’s cabinet and foreign diplomats, Johnson reportedly intervened to stop the recriminations about the invasion, declaring: “I do not want to talk about yesterday; I want to talk about tomorrow.”
In the months that followed, Bukele and Johnson made a point of posting photos of themselves dining and vacationing together. They also worked closely in sacrificing tens of thousands of Salvadorans to COVID-19 for the sake of re-opening the economy.
Bukele’s ties with Trump have only strengthened since San Salvador launched a state of exception in March 2022, deploying the military nationally, declaring martial law and arresting nearly 2 percent of the population as part of his “war on criminal gangs.” There are countless reports of people going missing or being tortured and killed in custody.
The ground for Trump’s threats against Mexico and for Johnson’s nomination was prepared by the Biden administration, which financed pro-opposition groups and carried out numerous other provocations against Mexico.
Even the right-wing Universal acknowledged: “At a moment in which the relationship between [US Ambassador] Ken Salazar and the government of Mexico had arrived at its worst moment with his open criticisms of the ‘abrazos no balazos’ [hugs not bullets] policy” of the government of Mexico, Trump signaled a major shift in nominating an ex-US military officer,” whom the paper described as a “Rambo.”
At the same time, López Obrador and Sheinbaum have conceded to US imperialism on every major question, with Trump declaring on the campaign trail that his “friend” AMLO had given him “everything he wanted.”
Sheinbaum hopes that collaborating by deploying Mexican troops to detain hundreds of thousands of migrants, while imposing tariffs on Chinese goods and blocking Chinese investments, will appease Trump. But these measures will only embolden US imperialism to assert even more direct control over its strategic interests in Mexico and the region.
US imperialism sees in Mexico’s military forces and shared 2,000-mile border a necessary military, industrial and mineral bastion against its geopolitical rivals, mainly China and Russia, as well as against any mass revolutionary challenge from the working class in Latin America. As the Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky wrote during his exile in Mexico in 1938, Latin America “for the United States is what Austria and the Sudeten were for Hitler.”
The World Socialist Web Site has explained that Trump’s claims that America is facing an “invasion” of migrants, whom he describes as composed largely of violent convicts and “terrorists,” is not mere rhetoric, “but a claim of legal and constitutional justification for any and all repressive actions undertaken by the new administration.”
The target of these repressive policies is the working class and youth, immigrant or native born, in the United States, Mexico, Canada and the Americas, who can only fight the threat of fascism and imperialist oppression by uniting politically against the capitalist ruling elites everywhere, and for socialist revolution.
The World Socialist Web Site is the voice of the working class and the leadership of the international socialist movement. We rely entirely on the support of our readers. Please donate today!
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Publish date : 2024-12-17 15:33:00
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