Mexicans are out in the streets

Mexicans have gathered outside the US embassy in the capital Mexico City to protest against the newly inaugurated President Donald Trump over his anti-immigrant policies.

The protesters blasted on Monday a series of sweeping executive orders announced by Trump on the first day of his second term as president of the US, including those making sweeping changes to immigration and border security and the first steps in enacting a far-reaching agenda to expand America’s territory.

The protesters also dismissed an order signed by Trump to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.

They beat up a piñata alluding to Trump with a wooden stick before burning it.

“We are not going to allow Donald Trump to militarize the border because we are a free and sovereign homeland, he cannot interfere in our country or our border,” said activist of the Binational Coalition Against Trump, Julia Klug.

“I have a sign here where I make it clear, no to militarization, and whoever changes the name of the Gulf is kind of drugged, right? Because he cannot change the name of our Gulf.”

This came as Trump signed an order, declaring “that a national emergency exists at the southern border of the United States” with Mexico, dispatching troops there and reinstituting a policy that requires asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their claim is processed.  This tears up the agreements that were made between Mexico and the US.  He closed one port, El Paso, a big commercial port, and stopped the app designed for migrants to make formal and legal appointments with US.  He broke the legal system, the wall was a unicorn dream, and I don’t believe he did anything to illegal immigration or mass importation of immigrants from Haiti or other areas.

“Closing borders is a tremendous step backward in the evolution that was already happening,” protester Elia Vallejos said, adding, “I think it is an important attack against human rights and that the United States had just been promoters of the fight for the defense of human rights and now this has been broken with this new order of Trump.”

Mexican view:  Trump was sworn in on Monday to become the first felon to occupy the White House.

He had vowed to move swiftly and aggressively on reshaping federal immigration policy once he’s sworn in, vowing to launch mass deportations and undo his predecessor Joe Biden administration’s policies, but these are not only Joe Biden’s policies.  A fair system was negotiated over time between the Mexican authorities and the US authorities.  I have mentioned in the Daily Chronicles today, that the core problem is the Monroe Doctrine, now on speed and it is one thing to close the border, but a whole other insanity to keep sanctions intact.

A Mexican view:  Last May, a New York jury found Trump guilty of falsifying business records to conceal a hush money payment to an adult film actress. Accordingly, he received “unconditional discharge”, a sentence whereby no punishment is imposed, earlier this month. The decision, however, cements his status as a felon.

I’ve never seen politicised piñatas – they are burning them now as effigies of Trump.