AMLO for President in Mexico

Andrés Manuel López Obrador,
candidato de una coalición de izquierda
Este viernes arranca campaña electoral presidencial en México

Mexico, Maximilian and the International Committee of the Fourth International

Maximilian I (Spanish: Maximiliano I; 6 July 1832 – 19 June 1867) was the only monarch of the Second Mexican Empire.

After a distinguished career in the Austrian Navy, he was proclaimed Emperor of Mexico on 10 April 1864, with the backing of Napoleon III of France and a group of Mexican monarchists who sought to revive the Mexican monarchy. Many foreign governments, including that of the United States, refused to recognize his administration. This helped to ensure the success of republican forces led by Benito Juárez, and Maximilian was captured and executed in 1867.

World Socialist Web Site
Published by the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI)

The Pope’s visit to Mexico deepens assault on the secular state

By Rafael Azul

21 March 2012

Pope Benedict XVI is scheduled to visit Mexico on March 23. His visit coincides with the run-up to the Mexican presidential elections, which will take place on July 1. The visit takes place as the Mexican Senate prepares to vote on constitutional changes that will severely weaken the principle of separation of church and state and the secular character of the Mexican government.

The draft legislation proposes changes in the language of Articles 24 and 40 of the Mexican Constitution, guaranteeing religious instruction in Mexican schools, and allowing the church greater access to mass means of communication, among other things.

Benedict, the former Joseph Ratzinger, is to follow his visit to Mexico with a trip to Cuba.

The Vatican dubiously insists that these travels are purely pastoral and non-political. However, Christopher Pierre, who represents the Vatican in Mexico, confirmed in an interview with Mexico’s Proceso magazine that the Pope favors constitutional language that would weaken Mexico’s secular state institutions and the principle of separation of church and state. Notwithstanding Mexican President Felipe Calderón’s insistence that that the Pope’s visit has nothing to do with Mexico’s presidential elections, the visit has a clear political purpose.

The aging Pope’s itinerary is significant. On March 24 he meets with President Calderón in the city of León, in the state of Guanajuato, northwest of the Mexican capital. The city is politically dominated by Calderón’s conservative, pro-clerical ruling party, the PAN (National Action Party). He will be bypassing México City—ruled by the bourgeois-nationalist PRD (Party of the Democratic Revolution). In addition to the constitutional reform, Vatican spokesperson Héctor Federico Ling, said that the discussions with Calderón would include non-negotiable themes, such as abortion, stem cell research and euthanasia.

Following his stay in Guanajuato, Pope Benedict plans to spend two days in Cuba.

Vatican officials explained that the decision not to visit Mexico City was based on the Pope’s fragile health and nothing else; the Catholic leader is 84 years old and has been advised to avoid Mexico City’s altitude.

In 2010, Pope Benedict’s visit to Spain was the object of mass protests in defense of secularism in Madrid, Barcelona, and other cities. By limiting his visit to the Guanajuato— the Pope’s itinerary even avoids Mexico City’s International Airport, as well as other major cities — the Vatican undoubtedly hopes to avoid similar protest demonstrations in a country with a strong and long history of anti-clericalism.

The Pope, who built his career as an arch enemy of modernity and liberalism, has a history of political and doctrinal intolerance that has earned him the enmity, not only of atheists and agnostics, but of liberal elements in the Catholic Church, particularly in Latin America, where there is still support for “Liberation Theology,” represented by a layer of priests who called for greater involvement with the poor and the oppressed.

The third bourgeois political force in México, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) has sided with the PAN and the church, turning its back on anti-clerical legacy and its support for a secular Mexico. Both PRI and PAN supporters of the constitutional reforms insist that any regulation of church activity is an attack on religious freedom. Following that logic, their changing the Constitution would restore what they now call “full religious freedom” in México for the first time since the Emperor Maxmilian was put before a firing squad in 1867.

This argument parrots the position of the Catholic Church, which more and more defines religious freedom, as the unfettered right of the church to do whatever it wants. This means: the freedom to impose religious doctrines in secular education (freedom of religious education), the freedom to operate and command mass media outlets (freedom to disseminate), and the freedom to openly intervene in politics (freedom of religious association).

Unable to stomach such a turnaround from positions historically associated with the PRI that substantially limited the power of the Catholic Church, some PRI legislators justify their party-line vote by declaring that they are simply codifying already existing practices.

In reality, the Catholic Church has often in the past intervened in Mexican politics. In 2006, the church led a whisper campaign against Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador, then as now, the candidate of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), who lost to Calderon’s PAN (National Action Party). In what suggests political payback, Calderón urged PAN members of the national legislature to approve changes in the Constitution to reverse what he called “enormous prejudices and injustices,” against the church, while preserving the secular nature of the state.

The lower house of the legislature, the Chamber of Deputies, approved the constitutional reform by a two-thirds majority on December 16. The 199 votes in favor included 20 PRD members, as well as all the PAN and PRI legislators.

Last week a Senate Committee approved the bill with no changes. Voting in favor were members of the PRI, the PAN and the Mexican Green Party (PVEM). Those representing the PRD, the Party of Labor (PT) and the Citizen’s Movement, along with one PAN senator, voted against. The full Senate is to vote on this issue this week, ahead of the Pope’s visit.

The PRI has openly abandoned its anti-clericalism and defense of the secular state; at the same time, the PRD is fast abandoning the pretense of a defense of secularism in Mexico. During the Senate debate, it presented a “soft” criticism of the constitutional amendment. Its presidential candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has avoided the subject of the reform and requested a meeting with Pope Benedict.

Once approved by the Senate, the constitutional amendment must still be ratified by the states.

The reform is provoking popular opposition. The Senate vote was received with protests. In Guadalajara, Mexico’s second largest city, hundreds representing human rights groups, secular organizations, as well as liberal Catholics and Protestant churches, carried signs that read “no to the inquisition,” “treason,” and “no to reform.”

At the Senate itself in Mexico City, protesters denounced the PRI-PAN alliance that moved the amendment forward as “traitors to the nation” and the legislation as a “political gift to the Pope.” Among the protesters, José Luis López of the Mexican Ecclesiastic Congress warned that the vote by the PRI, PAN and a group of PRD senators was “a step toward the dismantling of the secular state.”

The establishment of a secular state in Mexico is the result of more than 160 years of struggle, which at times took on the character of a civil war. Since formal ties were re-established with the Vatican 20 years ago, the church has sought to claw back its former power over Mexican society, often by supporting the most reactionary legislation, e.g., the criminalization of abortion and contraception, and opposition to same-sex marriage.

Article 24 was written into Mexico’s Reform Laws and Constitution in the 1860s, guaranteeing freedom of religion and limiting religious practices to the interior of temples and churches. The Constitution of 1917 that followed the Mexican Revolution retained the same language. In addition, the post-revolutionary Constitution prohibited the churches from owning property, prohibited them from participating in the political process and forbade religious education in primary schools. All churches and temples became government property.

In 1994, under the PRI government of President Carlos Salinas, the process of secularization was reversed. Rights were granted for churches to provide non-secular instruction in elementary schools, and the right of churches to own property was restored.

In his visit to México, Pope Benedict XVI has made it clear that there is one thing that he will not do: meet with the victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests.

Mexican Catholic Church Gives to Cuba Copy of the Marriage Certificate of Jose Marti

Painting of José Martí titled "Yugos y Estrellas"
by José Luis Fariñas
It was reported yesterday that Mexican Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera gave to Cuba copies of the marriage certificate of Cuban hero José Martí. The original document was found and rescued at Mexico's Metropolitan Cathedral. One copy was sent to Cuban president Raul Castro Ruz.

Pope will meet Mexican, Cuban presidents during visit in March

Pope Benedict XVI
Catholic News Service

Jan-3-2012

By Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI will meet with Cuban President Raul Castro, Mexican President Felipe Calderon and bishops and Catholics from the region when he visits Mexico and Cuba March 23-28.

He will also deliver a message to the bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean as well as pray at the shrine of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre in Cuba.

Vatican Radio released the pope's itinerary as detailed by the Mexican and Cuban bishops' conferences Jan. 2.

The pope will visit three cities in the state of Guanajuato in central Mexico; the Vatican spokesman had said Pope Benedict would not visit Mexico City because of the elevation -- 7,900 feet above sea level -- but the towns in Guanajuato are each about 5,900 feet above sea level.

In Cuba, he will make stops in Santiago de Cuba and the capital, Havana.

From Rome, the pope will arrive in Mexico March 23 at the airport in Leon, Guanajuato, where he will be received by President Calderon and Archbishop Jose Guadalupe Martin Rabago of Leon.

During his four-day stay in Mexico, the pope will be staying at the Miraflores College in Leon, an institute run by religious sisters.

The pope will meet government officials and President Calderon March 24 at the Guanajuato state government house of Conde Rul. Later he will greet and bless those gathered at Peace Square.

He will celebrate Mass March 25 in Silao's Bicentennial Park, which is at the foot of the Cerro del Cubilete hill and its 67-foot-tall monument of Cristo Rey. Representatives of the 91 dioceses of Mexico will be present at the Mass.

Later in the day, the pope will celebrate evening prayer in Leon's cathedral and deliver a message for all the bishops of Mexico and the representatives of bishops' conferences of Latin America and the Caribbean.

The pope will leave Mexico March 26 for Cuba, where he will be welcomed at the Santiago de Cuba airport by President Castro, Archbishop Dionisio Guillermo Garcia Ibanez of Santiago de Cuba and representatives of the Cuban bishops' conference.

The pope will celebrate Mass in Antonio Maceo Revolution Square later that day. He will stay at a priests' residence in El Cobre.

The pope will make a private visit to the shrine of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre March 27.

Afterward, he will head to the airport and fly to Havana where he will be welcomed by Cardinal Jaime Ortega Alamino of Havana, bishops and religious, government and civil leaders.

The pope will have an official meeting with President Castro and will meet with Cuban bishops at the apostolic nunciature, where the pope will be staying.

The pope will celebrate Mass March 28 in Jose Marti Revolution Square and leave later that day for Rome.

Piden Senadores Indagar Acciones Anticubanas en México de Grupos Subvencionados por Estados Unidos

Este país no puede convertirse en “instrumento de ataques” contra otra nación.

Periódico La Jornada, Mexico

Víctor Ballinas

Miércoles 28 de diciembre de 2011, p. 13

Senadores de PRI, PRD y PT manifestaron que es urgente que el Congreso de la Unión o, en su receso, la Comisión Permanente, soliciten una investigación sobre las acciones anticubanas que desarrollan en México fundaciones y organizaciones civiles extranjeras que son subvencionadas por la Agencia de Estados Unidos para el Desarrollo Internacional (USAID).

El perredista Carlos Sotelo, secretario de la comisión de Relaciones Exteriores América Latina y el Caribe, dijo que él asume el compromiso de llevar el tema a la comisión de la que forma parte para “evaluarlo y “si procede pedir una investigación. Es el Senado de la República, por sus facultades en materia de política exterior, el que debe evaluar la situación”.

Sin duda, abundó el senador del PRD, hay que fortalecer el régimen de libertades, de opinión y de difundir posiciones políticas y puntos de vista sobre lo que acontece en el país y en el mundo, pero de eso “a que nuestro país sea sede de ofensivas para debilitar y en un extremo derrocar a un gobierno legalmente constituido, con el cual México tiene relaciones diplomáticas, incluso de carácter histórico, es mucha la diferencia. Esto amerita que lo trate el Congreso y en particular el Senado”.

Por su parte, el senador priísta Carlos Jiménez Macías subrayó: “Esos hechos no son los primeros, sino que se suman a la larga lista de actividades anticuba, que se producen no sólo en el ámbito de los grupos radicales en contra de la Cuba actual desde Estados Unidos, Miami o Florida, sino también ahora en tierras de América Latina”.

“Buscan desprestigiar a la isla”

En entrevista por separado, Jiménez Macías coincidió con el senador Sotelo en que si bien que “hay libertad para que la gente se exprese, opine y difunda sus puntos de vista sobre el régimen cubano, no podemos cerrar los ojos frente a la forma en que organismos que sabemos muy bien están subvencionados por el gobierno estadunidense y están buscando precisamente desprestigiar, generan una opinión contra el gobierno de la isla y buscan desestabilizarlo”.

El priísta advirtió: “Debemos ser muy cuidadosos y estar muy alertas de que bajo el manto de la libertad de expresión y de la posibilidad que tienen las organizaciones no gubernamentales, las fundaciones, las asociaciones de reunirse y hacer juicios, que detrás de ello no haya la intención de generar una imagen contraria del pueblo cubano y sobre todo que emprendan acciones que busquen desestabilizar su gobierno; eso hay que rechazarlo”.

Jiménez Macías aseveró: “El gobierno de México debe estar muy atento y mantener su posición de respeto absoluto a la soberanía y al régimen cubanos. Es muy importante que se sepa de fondo qué hay atrás de las organizaciones que el pasado 5 de diciembre se reunieron en la ciudad de México, y en la que participaron organizaciones de Miami subsidiadas con fondos del gobierno de Estados Unidos, conocidas por su política anticastrista.

“El gobierno mexicano, en todo caso, debe dejar muy claro que no auspicia ni financia actividades de este tipo y en todo caso debe hacerlos responsables de los contenidos que ahí se difundieron, pues todos conocemos el papel de las ONG y fundaciones internacionales. Sabemos cuáles son sus tendencias: las hay progresistas, conservadoras, de derecha, de ultraderecha, de izquierda. Algunas son bien conocidas por su franca intervención contra los gobiernos. Lo hemos visto en América Latina. Hay que ser cuidadosos”.

Ricardo Monreal, coordina- dor de los senadores del PT, resaltó el artículo de Carlos Fazio, titulado “La USAID, México, y la subversión en Cuba” (La Jornada, 26/12/11), y señaló que es una llamada oportuna para que la Comisión Permanente se pronuncie sobre este tipo de reuniones con la participación de organizaciones radicales y anticastristas financiadas por Estados Unidos, y con la participación de organizaciones de derecha de México. El país no puede convertirse en un instrumento de ataque a ninguna nación”, dijo.

Desde hace tiempo, “ONG identificadas con la extrema derecha y con grupos anticastristas anticubanos trabajan para que México sea un instrumento de ataque a Cuba. Es muy lamentable que el gobierno lo permita o sea omiso. El Senado debe pedir una investigación y el gobierno mexicano debe deslindarse de auspiciar ese tipo de reuniones en las que se trabaja para desestabilizar a la isla”.

Google Remembers Diego Rivera

Diego Rivera 125th Birthday
Courtesy of Banco de México,
Diego Rivera Frida Khalo Museum Trrusts
Artist Rights Society (ARS)

Cuba consoles itself with a bronze medal as it defeats Mexico 6-0

Well, at least Cuba got a bronze medal at the 2011 Pan American Games.

This time the Cuban batters came alive with home runs by Alfredo Despaigne, Jose Dariel Abreu and Yulieski Gourriel which secured their victory.

Canada defeated USA for the Gold Medal by 2-1.

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