This Week in the Americas

Mexico’s Critical Moment
By Laura Carlsen

Since the start of Mexico´s presidential campaigns, the race has opened up latent but profound fissures in Mexican society. The present post-electoral conflict not only hinges on legal issues of how the elections were run. It brings to the fore deep concerns about transparency, social justice, and the future course of a nation at a critical juncture in its fledgling transition to democracy.

The post-electoral conflict reached a higher pitch this week as round-the-clock encampments were installed in Mexico City’s central square and surrounding streets. Supporters of center-left presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador have vowed to remain in the camps until the Federal Electoral Court rules for a full recount of the votes.

Laura Carlsen directs the Americas Program of the International Relations Center, online at www.irc-online.org.

The Return
By Brian Concannon Jr.

Say “the return” when discussing Haiti, and people who follow events in the country know you are talking about the return of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from his exile in South Africa. Mr. Aristide was ousted in a coup d’etat in February 2004, and flown, against his will, in a U.S. government plane to the Central African Republic. He has since settled in South Africa, at the government’s invitation, but has always said he will return to Haiti when the conditions are right.

The conditions are getting closer to right, although President Aristide would now return as a private citizen. President René Preval was elected on February 7 and inaugurated on May 14, 2006. His Ministers were ratified by Parliament on June 7, replacing the brutal and unconstitutional Interim Government that had ruled since the coup. The prospect of President Aristide’s return generates passionate reactions for and against, in Haiti, but also in Washington and other world capitals.

Human Rights Lawyer Brian Concannon Jr. directs the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti, www.ijdh.org.

The Debacle of Doha
By Walden Bello

At the very outset of the Doha negotiations in November 2001, developed countries pushed for greater market openings from the developing countries while making minimal concessions of their own. The richer countries invoked "development" as Doha's goal as a cynical ploy to make the process less unpalatable. These tactics backfired. The collapse of the Doha Round will be good for the poor. With the unraveling of the WTO talks, the task should shift to creating institutions other than the neoliberal WTO, alternative mechanisms that would make trade truly beneficial for the poor.

Walden Bello, a contributor to Foreign Policy In Focus, is executive director of Focus on the Global South and professor of sociology at the University of the Philippines.

Immigration Debate Splits Conservatives
By Tom Barry

What are conservatives saying about immigration? All say that immigration is a national security issue, but they don't agree on much else. Immigration is splitting the main right-wing think tanks into two factions, reflecting a widening divide nationally between those who support immigration and those who vehemently oppose it. Some say that immigration represents part of a new threat to the "free world."

A version of this article was published by Inter Press Service. Tom Barry, who writes frequently in immigration issues, is policy director of the International Relations Center, online at www.irc-online.org.

Letters from Our Readers

Re: Reframing the Immigration Debate: The Actors and the Issues

I have grown so weary of those in support of the legitimization of illegal immigration recasting the vocabulary, deployed when rendering the aspects of this social issue, in order to attempt to obfuscate what is ostensible for those of us: The continuous tide of border crimes and black-market employment practices are exacerbating the hardships of the most vulnerable citizens of this country. Despite the lack of intellectual honesty when coming to terms with the realities of this social phenomenon by the pro-illegal-immigration chorus of neoliberal apologists, those of us who have the ability to analyze this issue are coming to consensus that the influx of illegal, unskilled labor into this economy is negatively impacting segments of the American working classes, such as the African American Urban Underclass and other social enclaves that are already disadvantaged. Every economist—even those in support of illegal immigration—concede that the net cost to the American welfare state is a considerable loss with respect to taxation and the partial redistribution of wealth through the social apparatuses of service-providing institutions serving as extensions of government.

Furthermore, there is an undeniable diminution of wage-levels for those competing in the unskilled labor-markets. You can continue to shout that “immigrants are American;” however, the fact of the matter is this country has a long history of regulating levels of immigration, which have traditionally entered into this nation state through legitimate, inspected processes. I have no cultural, including linguistic, concerns about this stream of illegal alien, unskilled laborers. Nevertheless, although it does not affect me personally, I, at least, have the decency to consider the welfare of those who are already economically and socially marginalized in this country, and I care not to support a social movement stemming from other countries, with even more of a degree of corruption and inequality, from adding to the misery of those who are here legally as citizens or as lawful immigrants, aspiring to become citizens in manner that does not insult the tradition of the rule of law in this country.

—Russell Cole

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