Among
the many lies that he has constructed, none is more ridiculous than his
attempt to contradict history by presenting the United States as a
victim of Mexico, a country that supposedly steals jobs, imposes onerous
treaties and sends its “bad hombres” across the border.
To
confront this fake history, some Mexicans are proposing to remind Mr.
Trump exactly what country was the first victim of American imperialism.
They are calling for a lawsuit that would aim to nullify the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
(signed on Feb. 2, 1848), in which Mexico — invaded by American
soldiers, its capital occupied, its ports and customs stations seized —
was forced to accept the American annexation of Texas and concede more
than half the rest of Mexican territory, now including most of the
states of Arizona, New Mexico and California.
This effort is being led by Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, the elder statesman of
the Mexican left. Mr. Cárdenas is convinced that the Mexican government —
especially given the need to confront Mr. Trump’s aggression — has a
solid legal case. In his opinion, the 1848 treaty violates essential
international legal norms and a case can be brought before the
International Court of Justice, proposing reparations and
indemnification. And even if one admits the legal validity of much of
the treaty, there are a number of crucial articles — such as those
dealing with citizenship, property and the security of 100,000 Mexicans
who remained on what became American territory — that have been ignored
from the beginning.
...Beyond
the validity of the suit, something of much larger impact is at play:
the need to nourish a debate on the true history of a war the United
States has conveniently forgotten or camouflaged and which now, more
than ever, should be honestly remembered as it was. It’s a matter of an
enormous crime, which leads to a question: How much of the historic
prosperity of the United States of America stems from the development of
territories originally inhabited by Mexicans and ripped away from
Mexico through an invasion and a war of territorial conquest?
Because
it was exactly that. Many American soldiers were aware of it, reading
William Prescott’s “History of the Conquest of Mexico” — a recounting of
Hernán Cortés’s expedition to conquer the Aztec Empire — as they
advanced across Mexican territory. Many important figures of the epoch,
with shame and regret, recognized its nature. That “most outrageous war”
(John Quincy Adams wrote) had been “actuated by a spirit of rapacity
and an inordinate desire for territorial aggrandizement” (Henry Clay),
and began with a premeditated attack by President James Polk, thanks to
which “a band of murderers and demons from hell” were “permitted to kill
men, women and children” (Abraham Lincoln).
After the naval bombardment of the civilian population of Veracruz,
Robert E. Lee wrote to his wife, “My heart bleeds for the inhabitants.”
In his memoirs, Ulysses S. Grant lamented that he had not had “the moral
courage to resign” from what, as a young officer, he had described as
“the most wicked war.” For a number of other politicians and thinkers,
including Henry David Thoreau, the war contradicted the democratic and
republican values on which the country had been founded and was opposed
to basic Christian ethics.
1 comment:
For the record, Texas received its Independence from the Tyrannical Government of Mexico when Sam Houston defeated Santa Anna at Buffalo Bayou.
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