Monday, April 11, 2005

 

Mexican presidential hopeful attacks the U.S.A.

 

By Barnard R. Thompson

 

Following the March 23 meetings between the heads of government of Canada, Mexico and the U.S.A., Mexican Secretary of Government Santiago Creel Miranda held a press conference.  Creel had accompanied President Vicente Fox to Waco and Crawford, Texas, where he participated in ancillary meetings of his own, and during the press conference he tooted his own horn for having admonished U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff during their time together.

 

“I expressed Mexico’s dissatisfaction to Chertoff regarding disproportionate and contemptuous declarations (made by U.S. officials), like (the CIA calling it) the backyard, and he answered that they were aware of the displeasure, and he made a commitment to get to the bottom of those reports,” Creel said.

 

Creel also said that he told Chertoff not only did the Mexican government take exception to the recent series of U.S. reports and declarations that question Mexico’s safety and human rights records, but too the people of Mexico resent their tone and the language used.

At least this is what Creel claimed he told Chertoff during a stroll around the Bush ranch.  Questioned herein only because well before March 23 Creel had avowed, that while in Crawford he would vigorously complain about despicable reports coming out of Washington to his U.S. counterparts.  However just prior to the trip an announcement was made that the subjects were not on the agenda, and then Creel said they were discussed.  So were they, or was he simply trying not to eat crow?

Santiago Creel Miranda [50] was born in Mexico City, and after receiving his law degree from the National Autonomous University of Mexico he completed postgraduate studies at the University of Michigan in the U.S.  For years a practicing attorney, he also taught at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico.

In the early 1990s Creel joined Mexico’s election watch movement, and from 1994 to 1996 he was a council member on the Federal Electoral Institute.  He was elected to the federal Chamber of Deputies in 1997, running on the National Action Party (PAN) ticket.  In 1999 he formally joined the PAN, and later that year became its coalition candidate for the 2000 Mexico City mayoral race.  In the July 2000 elections Andrés Manuel López Obrador defeated Creel.

When Fox took office as President in December of 2000, he named Creel to be Secretary of Government.  In Mexico this is a superpower political position, with the minister being in charge of internal and domestic affairs in a comparable manner to the KGB national apparatus of the former USSR.

 

Currently, most opinion polls have Creel leading the field to become the PAN presidential candidate for 2006, with many observers believing he has ascended to this level thanks to the backing of Fox and the president’s political family.  As well, the newly elected hierarchy of the PAN seems to be stacked in Creel’s favor.

Yet today, as the Mexican government’s chief political spokesman after the president, Creel seems to have also become the Fox administration’s lead commentator and jingoist whenever something Mexico does not like is said in the U.S.

Regarding recent U.S. reports that probe Mexican matters such as human rights abuses, border area violence, the potential for political instability and foot dragging in the war against drug cartels, among others things, Creel has spoken out.

In response to a U.S. Homeland Security report on border area concerns, Creel called the expressions of apprehension “offensive.”  As to potential social unrest, he said that “the Central Intelligence Agency is ill-informed, its analysis is wrong and … I chastise the meddling in the internal affairs of Mexicans….” 

Prior to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visiting Mexico, Creel made a point to denounce U.S. “interference” in Mexican affairs.  At another time he lectured: “What we want is a good neighbor … not someone who judges us.”  And the list goes on.

Making all of this especially intriguing, it seems like a throwback to doctrinal times when Mexico’s ruling politicians did everything possible to overtly distance themselves from the U.S.  Yet more often than not they would send personal messages to their foreign brethren like you know I have to say this publicly, however privately we will be able to work together.

But just what messages are Creel — or his boss — trying to convey?  And why is the man favored to be the PAN presidential candidate the messenger?  Those concerned should know that the U.S. too can recognize affronts, and all this could lead to a counterattack against the messenger.

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Barnard Thompson is Editor of MexiData.info. He can be reached via e-mail at mexidata@ix.netcom.com.