butterfly effect

The relationship with our neighbors to the North, as we like to call them, has been complicated, especially after our Independence. As is known, having welcomed American immigrants in Texas and Upper California, in order to maintain the agreements to which Spain had committed itself with the incipient United States, led to the independence of Texas and its annexation to the Union in 1845. , first, and, later, led to the intervention of our country in 1846, with the consequent American occupation, until 1848, and signing of the Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty, with which the cession of Alta California (today California, Nevada, Arizona, western Colorado and southwestern Wyoming), New Mexico and the definitive recognition of the independence of Texas, which we still resisted. Several historians attribute both the beginning of the conflagration and the disastrous result to two key issues: the abolition of slavery in Mexico (1829), long before in the United States (1865), which affected the economic interests of Texans, who depended on slave labor, and the unfortunate overconfidence of Santa Annain the well-known “San Jacinto siesta”.

Seven quarters of a century later, the tensions continue: from the transgenic corn panels, labor conflicts and intrusive inspections of cargo transportation within the framework of the T-MEC, to massive immigration, this time to the United States (considered the most dangerous in the world by the UN International Organization for Migration, even before the cruel wall of buoys in the Rio Grande). But the issue that has been most politicized is fentanyl trafficking, for two reasons: first, because, like every 12 years, in Mexico and the US we will elect a new government in 2024 and, second, because this six-year term is already recognized as the most violent and insecure of modern Mexican history. Consequently, the US Senate has presented initiatives to designate Mexican drug cartels as narcoterrorist entities and has issued joint resolutions with the House of Representatives, such as the one that proposes authorizing the US Armed Forces to combat fentanyl trafficking in our territory. , in response to what they consider to be an omission by the Mexican authorities. This last proposal, by the way, is supported by half of the Republican Party candidates for President. As if that were not enough, we have just learned that, in open defiance of the imposed blockade, Pemex has been donating oil to Cuba, a country included since 2021 on the list of countries sponsoring international terrorism. Faced with this panorama, our President asked not to take American politicians seriously, because “they are very ridiculous” and only laugh. As if the last time we trusted each other we had not lost more than half of the territory. His posture is reminiscent of John Sedgwickthe Union general during the American Civil War, who asked his soldiers not to bend down to avoid the bullets of Confederate snipers, and whose last words are said to have been: “They couldn't hit an elephant at all.” this dist…”

TROPHY

When the University of Oregon and Oregon State University face each other in a football game, they call it “The Civil War.” The winning team is awarded the Platypus trophy, created specifically for this match, since the universities' mascots are a duck and a beaver, respectively.